HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ricardo@pencom.com (Ricardo Parada)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXT may not be doomed yet -- ***PowerPC NeXTstation***
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:29:12 GMT
Organization: Pencom Software

In article <1993Jan6.155930.460@wam.umd.edu> rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)  
writes:
> Edward Jung writes:
> >People need to cut NeXT a bit of a break. They are not a huge
> >company. It takes alot of resources to support previous products
> >AND do a new version AND fix bugs AND port to multiple platforms.
> >
> >Their software group is small, has undergone a number of changes
> >of management and direction, and has lost a number of senior
> >people.
> 
> 
> 	If NeXT pulled out of hardware, their software group could be a lot
> 	bigger.
> 
> 

I think they should keep their hardware division.  Don't get me wrong, I still  
think that they should port to other platforms.  That would be nice BUT they  
should come up with a fast cheap NRW soon (i.e. late '93) so that people  
demanding speed can enjoy NeXTSTEP on a faster box without having to wait for  
a port to a faster machine that may take two years at the least.

A NRW based on the PowerPC chip would do it.  And it could signal the start of  
a port to the RS/6000.  Isn't the RS/6000 POWERstation 220 upgradable to the  
PowerPC 601 chip?  Aren't systems based on the PowerPC 601 suppose to appear  
by the end of 1993 (Q4). 

I hope I'm not dreaming!

--
Ricardo J. Parada
Pencom Software
From: pkron@corona.wa.com (Peter Kron)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: NeXT health
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 07:50:59 PDT
Organization: Corona Design, Inc.
Reply-To: Peter_Kron@corona.wa.com

From Wall Street Journal, Monday Jan. 11
"Another Executive Quits at Next, Inc,
 Raising Speculation About Firm's Health"

...lately it has been struggling to strke the right balance between
its hardware business and a relatively new emphasis on software publishing.
High-tech executives familiar with Next said the situation has spawned
management infighting and frustration that prompted some of the
departures.

"...Mr. van Cuylenburg...said some of the departures were the natural
outgrowth of his arrival at the company."

"...Recently, news reports have suggested that Canon is displeased with
Next's performance, but Mr. van Cuylenburg said that is 'totally 
unfounded and completely untrue.' ... he said Next is within 5% of
meeting the revenue target contained in the business plan, and has 
'met or exceeded every other key financial parameter' such as gross
margins, inventory, and expenses. 'Canon has every reason to be
delighted with our performance,' Mr. van Cuylenburg said.
From: isbell@cats.ucsc.edu (Art Isbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: Gosip in 1993
Date: 12 Jan 93 20:18:25 GMT
Organization: Cubic Solutions - NeXT software development and consulting
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


In article <1iv53uINNlb6@au-ns.american.edu> jkight@american.edu writes:
>Mark Thomsen (thomsen@spf.trw.com) wrote:
>: Heard that one of the NeXT software product developers is about to hit the  
>: financial skids --- anyone know who?

>Well, I heard a rumour that some senior appsoft employees are actively
>looking for new work and that appsoft headquarters has moved into the ceo's
>garage.  Should you believe this or not? Well, NeXTconnection seems to think
>that products are still going to be shipping, but I would check with other
>next developers in the bay area to see how many former appsoft employees they
>have been interviewing. Also the next issue of Lt.Sullivan may prove
>enlightening.

>*note - this *is* a rumour, but I consider my source reliable, or I wouldn't
>post it.

As a NeXTSTEP developer in the Bay Area, I can say that I haven't been
interviewing any former Appsoft employees or contractors.  I think it's
accurate to say that Appsoft may have adjusted its explosive growth and
development pace to be more in line with the growth of the NeXTSTEP market
which, along with most of the computer industry, has suffered from the same
lame economy that most economic sectors have faced.  I would be more concerned
about a company that didn't adjust to the realities of the marketplace.

I understand that Appsoft has cash reserves, remains profitable, and has staff
under employ and contract, all the ingredients for an operating business, so I
doubt that anything dire is about to occur.  I work under contract to a client
who has no conventional office which is perfectly reasonable, even preferable,
I might add, to the conventional alternative.  We're approaching the 21st
century in which we all hopefully won't have to commute to central locations to
get our work done.  Long live distributed development and telecommuting!!

If anyone has failed to receive Appsoft support, hasn't had phone calls
answered, has been unable to order product from Appsoft, or has experienced
anything else firsthand that would indicate that Appsoft is not living up to
its obligations, then that would be valid news.  But a number of NeXT-related
companies, including NeXT Computer, have adjusted their operations to reflect
their market and continue to remain viable as a result.

So rather than spread rumors, lets relay valid info.  Has anyone experienced a
change in Appsoft's operation that affects customers directly?
-- 

Art Isbell                                                      Cubic Solutions
NeXT Registered Developer #745         NeXT software development and consulting
NeXTmail: isbell@cats.UCSC.EDU                             Voice: (408)335-1154
USmail: 95018-9442                                           Fax: (408)335-2515
Xref: sparky comp.sys.next.advocacy:3645 comp.sys.next.hardware:3232
From: szatrows@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Kheit)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy,comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: NUCA
Date: 11 Jan 93 20:36:59 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


N U C A
NeXT Users' Choice Awards---Thanks to Conrad Geiger for the name!

     I will take submissions from the net until Jan 23, 1993.

     All you need to do is send back the form attached below with
your favorite software or hardware products for 1992.
     The subject of the post should be Re: NUCA (or just replying
to this post).  Send votes to szatrows@gandalf.rutgers.edu

     I will post the results and maybe see about getting little
trophies or ribbons made up for the winners.
     This is your chance to reward the great NeXT Developer
community by shining some well deserved praise their way.

The rules are:
- You can only vote once (i.e. one vote per e-mail address).
- You can vote for any product you wish; be it from NeXT, a 3rd
party developer, shareware/freeware (or those tasty frosted donuts
from Hostess under the 'other' category ;-)

     Finally I made up a logo for the winners to use (if they want
to) to let everyone know that they won the NUCA.  I'll put it up on
both orst and nova.  People can let me know if they think it stinks
and if so please feel free to make your own (after all it is the
U S E R S ' choice award so the users should get involved!).  BTW
you will need Helvetica-Black and Avant Garde (Book Oblique & Demi
Oblique) to see the logo in all of its glory :-)

NUCA Form below:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1.)  Software
a.) Audio              :
b.) Communications     :
c.) DataBase           :
d.) Developer          :
e.) DTP                :
f.) Game               :
g.) MultiMedia         :
h.) Spreadsheet        :
i.) Wordprocessing     :
j.) Utility            :
k.) Video              :
l.) Other              :

2.)  Overall Software Product of the Year   :


3.)  Hardware
a.) Audio             :
b.) Communications    :
c.) Display           :
d.) Graphic Input     :
e.) Mass Storage      :
f.) Printing/Output   :
g.) Video             :
h.) Other             :

4.)  Overall Hardware Product of the Year   :


5.)  Overall Product of the Year            :
-- 
NeXT Campus Consultant---Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey |my    %^)
John Kheit/monoChrome  | Opinions expressed represent me only!       |fried %-)
173 Westgate Drive     | Audix Voice Mail# (415) 366-0900 X5512      |brain %>)
Edison, NJ 08820-1163  | kheit@hangout.rutgers.edu,szatrows@gandalf.rutgers.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy,comp.sys.next.hardware,comp.sys.next.misc
From: andrew@cubetech.com
Subject: Re: Richard Page resigns ...
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 21:21:34 GMT

In article <1io0au$oi5@agate.berkeley.edu> izumi@mindseye.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) writes:
>From San Francisco Chronicle Business Section B2, Jan 9, 93.
>
>Co-Founder Resignes Post At Next Inc.
>
>Richard  Page, a co-founder with Steven Jobs of the computer maker
>Next Inc., resigned as general manager of hardware yesterday,
>increasing speculation that the company was moving to become
>a software publisher.
>
>Page, who was one  of the principal hardware engineers at
>Apple Computer Inc. involved in the design of the original
>Macintosh computer, joined Jobs and four others in leaving
>Apple seven years ago to found Next.  Since then, three
>of the original founders have left the company, leaving
>only Jobs and George Crowe.
>
>A company spokeswoman said that Page had left for "personal
>reasons" and that she did not know his plans.
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Posted without comment.  If anyone has statements or
>press releases about this, please post.

According to the Times article, he was burned out and had tried to
resign several times in the past, but Jobs urged him to stay.  People
working closely with Steve Jobs getting burned out is not at all
unusual or uncommon.  The original Macintosh group at Apple had
t-shirts that said "Working 100 hours a week and loving it."....


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com      | "We cannot dwell in the time that is to come,
Andrew Loewenstern       |  lest we lose our now for a phantom of our
Cube Technologies, Inc.  |  own design." - Erendis
0000000701B61D1ADF0DFC9C16185CEA055200000007EB4A9FEB1922065D471A89E905B5
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Subject: Re: NeXT should improve, not eliminate, its hardware line
Reply-To: nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 02:22:03 GMT

In article <1993Jan7.193139.897@ccsi.com> jcorallo@ccsi.com (P. John Corallo)  
writes:
> I believe the hardware line could become a viable machine with only a few  
> changes:
> 	- Use a Serial Chip Set that can do 64K or 128K synchronous 
> 	- Put in a real SCSI-2 chip set, not just a connector
> 	- Switch to a 32-Bit Ethernet Chip Set
> These changes would help alleviate some of the bottlenecks we run into on  
> the NeXT.  List Price the machine for $3,500 and $4,000 for Mono and Color  
> respectively.

I've long been a loud voice calling for NeXT to move it's prices downward over
shorter time periods, say six months, and to narrow the gap of the pricing
between mono/2-bit machines and color machines. However, it's important to
have realistic pricing, and the difference between the cost of 17" mono and
color displays is more than the $500 spread suggested by P. John Corallo. If a
15" Sony color display (no more cheap displays!) was offered the price could
indeed drop to that $500 spread - or less.

Let's also not forget that even now the NeXT 68040 box is competitive with the
price of Apple 68040 boxes with the same CPU/RAM/HD. 

--
Nathan Janette	# "As I walk I hear my longing thoughts subsiding.
Dept MB&B	# Upon your cross I bleed the thoughts that I've been hiding.
Yale Univ/HHMI	# I'm all used up; there's not much more for me to give.
New Haven, CT	# Echoes of the life that we all want to live."

nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu		
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: lmccullo@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael McCulloch)
Subject: Re: What is with the advertising in NeXTworld?
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 93 03:38:02 GMT

jeffo@uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens) wrote:

> If it's that good, show screen shots, show panels
> associated with the program, show the program in action...

and

> Someone that both these companies can learn from is Stone
> Design.  No b.s. with Stone Design.  They talk about their
> product, and only their product.

I wholeheartedly argee. The PasteUp ad did _not_ arouse me 
one bit. If they had used those two pages to show some extra nice
page layout with free-flowing text around graphics, a couple of
the more functional panels from the program, and maybe a feature
list with the future plans outlined -- then I might have been 
interested. But 'cute' ads regarding a major software investment
don't do the 'trick' on me. I'm looking for a replacement for 
FrameMaker with most of the same features (I'll use EqBuilder for
eq editing), and such fluffy ads give me no useful info.

Furthermore, I have become a very cautious NeXT-related purchaser.
It seems more often than not that when I call an advertiser, the
product isn't shipping. You couldn't tell it from the ad though.
I have made it a rule to never again plunk down dollars for a
product that isn't shipping. The advertisers can spend all the 
bucks they want, but if it ain't shipping I don't want it. I'm
not investing venture capital -- I'm purchasing a product.

I think we can all relate to those 'estimated ship dates' for 
products, from both NeXT-related software publishers and NeXT 
itself. Perhaps the most offensive is NeXT's unconcern with 
charging my credit card _the day_ I fax a purchase order to them,
when shipment will not occur for 4-6 weeks (if you're lucky). I
can't get around that one and they know it.

Some companies do a good job and I could list several. But several
seem to be trying to capitalize on my enthusiasm for the platform. 
A few succeeded. Not many (if any) more will.

Michael McCulloch
Huntsville, AL
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: edwardj@microsoft.com (Edward Jung)
Subject: What s/w developers want, WAS: NeXT should improve...
Date: 11 Jan 93 08:22:08 GMT
Organization: Strategy Division, Microsoft Corp.

Yamanari writes:

>	I wish NeXT would start romancing developers and/or focusing
>	on an attainable goal.  Their idea to capture the minds of 
>	edu students who would then buy NeXTs when they went into the
>	business world was good, but they have pretty much abandoned it and
>	headed into the custom-app market.  Since NS is very good in
>	the in-house app market, it's a good place for NeXT to sell--
>	but it is a *lousy* market to focus on.  

The shift in the market has really hurt NeXT's strategies. The
changes are:

  1. Purchasers are not as often the users any more
  2. MIS groups have started understanding PCs, so
     bottom-up sales are less-frequent
  3. Developers do not drive s/w sales, s/w sales drive
     developers, esp. for platform choices
  4. S/W hiring out of academia and industrial technology
     transfer has not been strong

This basically blew away NeXT's first two strategies: 1) be the
machine for higher-education; 2) be the machine that developers
salivate over. This also is what has led NeXT to its current
strategy: 3) be the custom application platform.

I believe this to be very wise strategy, since if you look at
the upshot of the changes listed above, it is that custom MIS-
driven applications will be a driving factor in platform
selection. The obstacles to overcome?

  1. Installed base of hardware platforms
  2. Platform interoperability
  3. Cross-platform development
  4. Integrated sell with top-down products (i.e. management
     products like directory, messaging, workflow, db, etc.)

NeXT is addressing some of these, but in a half-hearted manner
IMHO. To do it strongly, they must really become a software
company and act like a PC software vendor (i.e. realistic
licensing terms). They certainly should separate P&L between
hardware and software. They also need partners to help out
because they are small to make a platform statement.

My two cents.

--
Edward Jung, Software Architect     edwardj@microsoft.com
Advanced Systems, Microsoft Corp.
From: jkight@au-ns.american.edu (Jeff Kight)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: Gosip in 1993
Date: 12 Jan 1993 14:10:54 -0500
Organization: The American University Computing Center
Reply-To: jkight@american.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: au-ns.american.edu
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Mark Thomsen (thomsen@spf.trw.com) wrote:
: Heard that one of the NeXT software product developers is about to hit the  
: financial skids --- anyone know who?

Well, I heard a rumour that some senior appsoft employees are actively
looking for new work and that appsoft headquarters has moved into the ceo's
garage.  Should you believe this or not? Well, NeXTconnection seems to think
that products are still going to be shipping, but I would check with other
next developers in the bay area to see how many former appsoft employees they
have been interviewing. Also the next issue of Lt.Sullivan may prove
enlightening.

Jeff

*note - this *is* a rumour, but I consider my source reliable, or I wouldn't
post it.
-- 
Jeff Kight                                           jkight@american.edu
The American University Computing Center                  (202) 885-2281
Washington DC  20016-8019 USA                         Fax (202) 885-2224
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: antigone!mross (Michael Ross)
Subject: Re: Gosip in 1993
Reply-To: mross@antigone.com
Organization: Antigone Press, San Francisco, CA, USA
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 11:26:22 GMT

In article <2B4DB9C1.2464@deneva.sdd.trw.com> thomsen@spf.trw.com (Mark  
Thomsen) writes:
> Heard that one of the NeXT software product developers is about to hit  
the  
> financial skids --- anyone know who?
> 
Yes. I do.

:)

-- 
Michael Ross
Antigone Press, San Francisco, California
e-mail: mross@antigone.com
FAX: 1-415-431-3650
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Subject: Re: NeXT should improve, not eliminate, its hardware line
Reply-To: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 03:36:24 GMT

In article <1993Jan9.195946.11031@wam.umd.edu> rsrodger@wam.umd.edu  
(Yamanari) writes:

> I wish NeXT would start romancing developers and/or focusing
> on an attainable goal.  Their idea to capture the minds of 
> edu students who would then buy NeXTs when they went into the
> business world was good, but they have pretty much abandoned it and
> headed into the custom-app market.  Since NS is very good in
> the in-house app market, it's a good place for NeXT to sell--
> but it is a *lousy* market to focus on.  

NeXT may change it's marketing slogan every year, but
they have consistently offered educational discounts
on hardware and software (like free Mathematica) over
the years.  NeXT may not have spent much effort improving
it's relationship with the educational community, but I
don't see it having abandoned us either.

One big gripe I have with NeXT's educational marketing is
their twisted (IMHO) idea that the schools that sell
fewer machines get the least price discounts.  So much for
offering an incentive to improve those sales figures! 

I think SJ's targeting of Sun as the "mother of all
competitors" was a poor decision that lacked the breath
of vision I expected from NeXT.  As many csna posters point
out, NeXT has many other markets of potentially equal or
greater importance.  Although it would be an amusing to
have a TIFF file depicting Sun's CEO sticking needles in
his eyes for the background on the first SPARC machine
demoed with NeXTstep.   

--
Nathan Janette
PPP link from hilbert.csb.yale.edu

Please reply to: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (NeXT)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: jcorallo@ccsi.com (P. John Corallo)
Subject: Re: NeXTSTEP development opportunities
Reply-To: John@ccsi.com
Organization: Crystal Computer Systems, Inc.
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 15:08:45 GMT

In article <C0IoJ6.8rA@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David  
Lemson) writes:
> jcorallo@ccsi.com (P. John Corallo) writes:
> 
> >platform.  For NeXT to be successful we are going to need to have  
> >full-time NeXT programmers and NeXT teams inside of corporations.  
> 
> You write as though this is in the future tense.  This has been
> going on for a while now.  Companies like Swiss Bank, First Chicago,
> (I think Phibro has a team also), etc. etc.  Yes, it is just in the
> beginning stages, but it is happening.  Companies are investing real
> money and human resources in NeXTs.
> -- 
You are right, it is in the early stages, what I am saying is it could and  
should be further along at this point.  You can replace Phibro with ERGO,  
we have just decided to go strictly with NeXT and Phibro just dropped  
their NeXT development team.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: rainer@winx06.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de (Rainer Frohnhoefer)
Subject: 88110 --- ????
Organization: University of Wuerzburg, Germany
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 12:41:52 GMT


 Long time ago there were rumours about a Motorola 88110-based NextStation.
 What happened to it???

____________________________________________ 
"Kleinweich-Fenster" 				Rainer Frohnhoefer
(German translation of "Microsoft-Windows")	rainer@winx06.informatik.
						uni-wuerzburg.de

 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
From: thomsen@spf.trw.com (Mark Thomsen)
Subject: Gosip in 1993
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 17:28:32 GMT

Heard that HP is licensing NeXTSTEP to run on HP hardware --- that one looks to  
be a closing deal --- hope the deal includes the PA-RISC platforms.

Heard that NeXT is continuing on an NRW --- still wondering what the chip will  
be --- saw in SCaN demo the Project Builder on the 486 NS demo had code  
generation for 88K! --- but I begin to suspect that "NRW" and "88110" have been  
discussed long enough now that NeXT has decided to do something else ---  
assuming the HP rumor is true then I would expect NeXT is *not* licensing  
PA-RISC --- probably another architecture that is not SPARC or MIPS but  
something direct from Motorola or Intel.

Heard that one of the NeXT software product developers is about to hit the  
financial skids --- anyone know who?

Have been able to compare the 17" and 21" color monitors --- the 17" is very  
good (Sony Trinitron) and should be the quality choice unless the 21" (Hitachi)  
size is needed.

Heard that Nitro is out there in test and there are still bugs.

Heard NeXT is considering another processor chip for low-priced machines --- if  
it is another beyond the 68K then I would have to assume it is Intel.

Heard NeXT just missed profitability 4Q92 but is projecting profit 1Q93 ---  
anyone heard better?

Mark R. Thomsen
From: dayne@byron.u.washington.edu (Dayne Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: 100% unfounded NRW rumor/speculation!!!
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:47:41 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: byron.u.washington.edu

What does anyone know about the secret chip project by HP known only by the 
code-name Hummingbird? Is this a big deal? Could it have *anything* to do
with NeXT?!?!

     (I came across the Hummingbird reference in some obscure article 
about the future of HP's PA-RISC technology a couple of months ago; I
have no idea where I saw it. NeXT was never mentioned. The HP spokesperson
would not elaborate on exactly *what* Hummingbird is/will be, but the 
implication was that it represents an important step in PA-RISC technology.)

     Can anyone elaborate? Am I *WAY* off base?! And when are we supposed to
see a demo of a NRW (even an early prototype/vaporware announcement would
be nice)? At the NeXTWORLD Expo? (And when is that, BTW?)

    -Dayne Miller