From: rawyatt@phakt.usc.edu (Robert Alexander Wyatt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXTstep for PowerPC --- THE ONLY CHOICE
Date: 24 Jan 1993 18:28:34 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: phakt.usc.edu


Buying Macs/Taligent/PowerPC/Whatever because Apple is a stable company now
seems ridiculous...As I read (and contribute) posts, I see a reoccuring 
theme...just about everyone seems to agree that NeXT is better, but since they
don't have the market share, one shouldn't invest...would Apple be where it
is today if no one had invested in the Mac?  No, it would be a nice little
bit of computer history...

People believed in the Mac...it finally gained acceptance after years of
being scoffed at as a toy...NeXT is no different (except for the fact that
there is no Apple II profit for it to live on for the next five years while
the public gets up enough nerve to invest)...

Each company has something to offer -  Apple, IBM, NeXT, Amiga, etc...
The Amiga is wonderful for graphics and animation...puts QuickTime to shame...

IBM - great for business apps...large software library...by IBM, I mean
MS-DOS/Windows (oops...)

Mac - Somewhere between MS-DOS and Amiga as far as software library/graphics
apps go...

NeXT - Well, we have RenderMan (although it is still a bit buggy...) built 
into NS3.0...An object oriented OS shipping today...Great graphics on a 
NeXTDimension...pretty good on Color Stations...SoftPC for 386/VGA 
emulation...Executor for limited Mac emulation...a DSP chip standard...
NeXT does, however, lack greatly in the "shrink-wrapped" software category...
but the machine was never designed to be a shrink-wrapped software
machine...remember the old NeXT pitch...custom apps...interpersonal
computing...the tune changed when more shrink-wrapped people started
investing, but the fact remains that all the development tools that were
geared towards custom apps are still with NeXT user today...if they care to
use them...so, where is NeXT's strength...custom apps!  Write a word processor
in five minutes...get the idea?

Who buys NeXT?  Mobil Oil...Chrysler...William Morris Agency...LA Sherriff's
Dept...etc...etc...etc...why?  Because entire custom systems can be written
in a matter of weeks, not years, as is the case with the Mac, PC, etc...

So, if your needs revolve simply around what other people sell you, the Mac
or PC or whatever will do fine...If you need pre-emtive multitasking (I 
know...Amiga OS does a great job with multitasking)...want to create 
software quickly...want a superior developer's platform...NeXT...NeXT...NeXT

But then again, if you shop at Egghead for everything, you probably think
I'm full of hot air...

-Rob
rawyatt@scf.usc.edu


P.S.  One thing I thought I'd mention...not that it has that much to do with
what I wrote above...I owned a Mac for five years and loved it...In my mind,
things could get no better...I fought with my father's employees over which
was better - Mac or PC; even tried to convice my father to buy Macs for his
office when he was looking into buying a new computer system...We went to
several dealers, were given demo after demo, but he decided that the Mac 
wasn't powerful enough...I was distressed and pleaded with him (I used to 
love evangelizing the Mac!)...Then I started college and sat down in front
of a NeXT...just to see how terrible it was compared to my superior Mac II
series...Well, the Mac was sold within a week and I had a Color Station on
the way...By the way, my father's office now has four NeXT systems and
plans to add several more...I took him to a NeXT dealer over one of my breaks
and we were given a demo...two hours later we left with three systems...
So, before you flame NeXT...try it...you might like it!
   

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy