From: neubert@cuphub.cup.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: Seven NeXT  Engineers go to Sun?
Date: 12 Nov 92 13:42:58 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Organization: California University of Pennsylvania, California, PA

In article <hhh1r3f@rpi.edu>, gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn) writes:
> 
> bain0002@bullnext.mc.duke.edu (Landen Bain) writes:
> 
> | matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) writes:
> | > Actually, what's interesting is that something from 
> | > a non-disclosure meeting made it to the public eyes.
> 
> | The non-disclosure was about new Sun products.  The
> | salesperson took a shot at NeXT by passing along a
> | side-bar rumor about the engineers.  The implication was
> | that the move was major, an earthquake, and that Sun had
> | made a major coup.
> 
> All the more reason, in my opinion, to not care about the comment.  If Sun  
> had made a really tremendous coup (say, by signing Steve Jobs), you know  
> damn well they'd be putting out public announcements about it.  Some "shot  
> at NeXT" that Sun takes during a non-disclosure meeting about new Sun  
> products seems to indicate that it's just Sun spreading FUD*.  IBM used to  
> love to do that kinda thing, and my own person opinion is that Sun (the  
> company) is more like IBM than anyone would care to admit.
> 
> The fact that it was said in a non-disclosure meeting, which would imply  
> that no one outside of that room would hear it (to cross-check the comment  
> or the significance of it), means that it may not be anywhere near as  
> significant (or as real) as you were led to believe.
> 
> Even what he said wasn't all that stunning.  If Sun really thinks that all  
> they need are "new icons" to compete with NeXT, then we should feel pretty  
> confident that they don't really have a clue as to what is most important  
> about the NeXT platform.  I mean, I do very much like the icons with NeXT  
> applications, but all the pretty icons in the world are not as important to  
> me as the Interface Builder.
> 
> Followups to csn.advocacy
> 
> (*FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Dread)
> 
As far as I know, FUD always ='ed Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.  Was
originally, I believe, used for IBM marketing, but *any* major company
will try to use it.  Also, even in nondisclosures, the vendor (unless
dealing *only* with a *very* few top management people) is rather
sure that what is said will leak.  Not that techies, students, faculty
are intentionally dishonest...rather than some do not see value (or
legal ramifications) in adhering to *any* agreement.  I'm not placing
a value judgement on that...merely an observation -- when I attended
shows such as CONDEX, Unix Expo, NCC, etc, etc, I liked to corner the
techies in booths while the marketing/sales force was away or busy
somewhere else.  Speaking the same language of bits/bytes, we were
able to converse freely.  When the suits saw this, they would corral
their wayward colleague.  And so it goes...

Anyway...it's too bad (in *some* ways), but NeXT (even with all the
VERY dedicated and energetic people working there...plus Stevo's
name recognition) seems to be going the way of Commodore and Atari...
a niche player with diehard fanatics.  

John Neubert

> ---
> Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
> ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy