From: royce@splunge.uucp (Royce Howland)
Subject: Re: New rumor about Atari Falcon and NeXT
Organization: Ashley, Howland & Wood
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 06:05:20 GMT

kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard) writes:

>In article <n#xtd+-@rpi.edu> borres@aix.rpi.edu (Steven D. Borrelli) writes:
>>[stuff about ports deleted]
>>As I have said before, there really is no reason for NeXT to make it's
>>OS available for the Atari.  It's be interesting, but I don't think
>>we'll see it. 

>Atari can lic. the OS.  NeXT will lic. their OS.
>It would not be a real difficult adaptation.
>It would be slow on '030 hardware.

Not only would it be slow, but you'd have to ramp up the basic hardware
just to make it run, even at the slow pace.  Can anybody see people
shopping in the Atari market shelling out for machines with 8 - 32MB
of RAM, 300MB+ of hard disk, 17"+ color monitors, etc. (and don't forget
the $1000 - $2500 for NeXTstep, if Atari were to follow NeXT's NS486
pricing), just to sit around waiting on the OS?  (Okay, it's not that bad;
I never had to use an original '030 Cube, but I can't imagine not having
the '040, and people I know who've used both claim the difference is
like night & day.)

NeXTstep is incredibly lean compared to the punch it packs (I have to
live with SVR3 and X11R4 at work), but lower end machines need an OS
that's even leaner.  For the '030 or less, Atari should stick to
MultiTOS or something along those lines.  NeXTstep is not just anything
that Atari needs for its market, anyway.  Also, Atari is not something
NeXT needs for its market.

The other thing is that I'm not sure Atari's pricing could be all that
superior to NeXT's.  The basic NeXTstation mono (now a 33MHz '040) lists
at under $6000 CDN right now, with 8MB of RAM and 200MB of disk, incl.
NeXTstep and all the other hardware and software goodies that round the
system out.

At the time I bought my mono station (just a 25MHz '040 with 8MB of RAM
and 100MB of disk, at the same price the new mono station is now), the
TT had been available here for a short time.  The price was $4000+ CDN
for a slow '030 TT with 4MB of RAM, 80MB of slow disk, a basic SM124 mono
monitor, and no software except TOS (nor was any TT-aware software, e.g.
the rumored Unix port, available to be bought, except Calamus and
DynaCADD, that I knew of).  I made the obvious choice.  :~)

That was early 1991, and I haven't kept track of what Atari has been doing
until recently in this newsgroup.  But they'll have to do a heck of a lot
better than that TT offer to make people consider them.  Even then they
have a tough time, since people looking for machines of this caliber are
not necessarily primarily motivated by price, which has always been
Atari's main advantage.

(PS for the curious or flame-prone: I sold STs for over 3 years at two
then-leading Atari dealers in town, so I'm favorably disposed toward the
company.  I think it would be neat for them to come back [or arrive for
the first time, in some respects].  I also use my NeXT to cross-develop
software for my ST.  The ST and things Atari just matter less to me now;
I have another black sheep computer to play with and evangelize. :~)

>--
>/*  -The opinions expressed are my own, not my employers.    */
>/*      For I can only express my own opinions.              */
>/*                                                           */
>/*   Kent L. Shephard  : email - kls30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com   */
-- 
Royce Howland   --   Everything is IMHO   |  "I can eat enormous quantities
royce@splunge.uucp        (NeXTMail OK)   |   of ice-cream without being sick,
or royce%splunge@atlantis.uucp            |   Mrs. S-C-U-M."  --Mr. Neutron
or alberta!atlantis!splunge!royce or ...  |   C86Net: Mr._Neutron@RT.Alta
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st