From: chris@tessi.com (Chris Lamb)
Subject: NeXT vs. Sun marketing strategy (was Re: Stability of NeXT...)
Summary: An idea for a new strategy
Organization: Test Systems Strategies, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 22:01:34 GMT


[This was intended originally as a followup to another article which I
misplaced...but I think it's still relevant, so I throw it out there for
your consideration.  It's rather lengthy, though...]

Because the NeXT fits in so well with business types and non-Unix-weenies,
I think they need to adjust their attack on Sun.  Hear me out...

I think NeXT should be positioning their systems in the niche that Sun is
drooling all over - business support systems (i.e., the front office, the
accounting department, the sales force, management, publications,
marketing, etc. :-) - as a friendly, drop-in member of existing Sun
networks.  By working to make it even easier to integrate NeXTs and
Suns, they could expand their market while keeping Sun relegated to the
engineering departments.  But by taking the adversarial role they may be
shooting themselves in the foot.  Their "mission critical apps" message
doesn't have to preclude the "interpersonal computing" approach, because
the two fit so well together.

In short, NeXT should be telling Sun customers:  WE have the machine that
you can drop on all the desks where a Sun falls short.  OpenWindows
isn't fast enough or friendly enough, and doesn't feature the kind of
apps that are available for NeXTSTEP.  And we'll slide onto those
desktops without giving your sysadmins and support staff any headaches.

[Long discussion of supporting statements about why BrokenWindows is too
slow, too unfriendly, and basically unusable in a non-technical
environment deleted.  I'll be happy to chat off-line if anybody doesn't
agree...:-) But I use a 16MB diskless ELC all day long, served by a
beefed up 670MP server, and the performance leaves much to be desired.]

The NeXT won't be a Sun-killer in engineering.  But it *can* be a Mac-,
PC- and Sun-killer in every other department!  They can only enhance
this by pushing the fact that the NeXT can truly integrate with Sun
servers with NFS, NIS, TCP/IP, *e-mail!*, etc.  Think of how much
cleaner and easier it is to put any two Unix systems together than to
try to deal with PC-NFS or Gatorboxes or MacTCP or any of that other
*add-on* stuff that you need to buy, install, and maintain for your PCs
and Macs.  With the NeXT it comes with the box.  And unless you're
buying noname clones and doing a whole lot of configuration BS yourself,
you're going to spend LESS money on NeXT.

So maybe this means creating a special installer script that'll configure
NetInfo automatically based on NIS info from the Sun server, or maybe it
means NeXT providing a very low-cost NetInfo server for the Suns.  And
probably they should bundle or offer very attractive deals on an X
server so that the NeXTs can fit in more easily with OpenWindows.  These
are minor concessions to the purity of the NeXT ideal, but believe me,
if you piss off sysadmins with hardware and software that can't easily
be installed, configured, and maintained, you'll never make major
inroads.  I think this *perception* that NeXTs don't drop into Sun nets
easily still persists, though I personally believe that in truth it's
really not that difficult now.

Believe it or not, I'm not a Sun basher.  They certainly do have a
reasonable environment for doing engineering-like things, and like all
Unix weenies, I love being able to tinker.  But like most companies, we
have a bunch of very frustrated PC and Mac users who get basic disk
sharing, some printer service, and flaky but tolerable email.  Giving
them Sparcs would be an improvement; giving them NeXTs would be
astounding!  Alas, management would probably find the engineers too
distracted by those sleek, sexy black machines instead of their beige
boxes, so that's probably the real reason they won't switch... :-)

When the Insanely Great NRW ships, *then* NeXT can start beating up Sun's
high-end!

Desperately pushing, hoping, and dreaming for NeXT's success,

-- Chris Lamb, Perq Fanatic, NeXT Zealot, Sun User.       chris@tessi.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy