From: andrew@cubetech.com
Subject: Re: un-amazing NeXT (was: Will the real Taligent please stand up?)
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 07:08:20 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.144748.22143@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Jim.Matthews@dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) writes:
>andrew@cubetech.com writes
>>  It is possible to do everything via NeXTSTEP.  You never
>> need to use emacs, command line shells, syntax-laden "batch files", or
>> utilities written a decade or more ago.
>
>What if my disk crashes and I need to recover it -- there is no Norton  
>Disk Doctor for the NeXT, just fsck.

fsck runs automagically at startup while the pretty picture of a
spinning disk is on the screen.  If fsck can't fix it, then the
file-system is usually toast and it's far, far easier and faster to
format the disk and restore from backup (you do backup your disks,
right?).  If that doesn't work, than the drive is fried and Norton's
wouldn't help anyway.

>If I want to run Usenet News on my NeXT I have to ftp, compile, and  
>configure C-News or INN; there is no uAccess for the NeXT (uAccess is a  
>Mac point-and-click news implementation).

All you have to do is get cnews off an FTP site or any one of the
several (5 or 6) CD-ROMs available, login as root, and double click
on it.  Oh, you have to click the install button.

>If I want to configure the way my NeXT acts as an FTP server I have to  
>muck with various configuration files; there is no FTPd for the Mac (FTPd  
>is a Mac FTP server).

FTP works in the default configuration.

>If I want to automatically mount a file server every time I boot my NeXT I  
>have to edit some configuration files, not just check a box.

NFSManager does this by simply selecting the server and whatever
directories it exports from a browser.  Creating a server is just as
easy.

>If I want to tell my NeXT about a new network printer I have to edit a  
>configuration file, not just open the Chooser and click on it.

Nope, new printers appear in everyone's printer-panel's automagically
with no action needed by the user.  That is if the person who
installed the printer (with PrinterManager, a point and click
operation) chose to make the printer publicly available.

>Unix provides a lot of power, and access to lots of software; but it
>also provides an excuse not to write NeXTSTEP programs where
>command-line Unix tools already exist.  The result is that there are
>many things that can only be done from the Unix command line, or by
>editing configuration files, and that makes the NeXT less useful for a
>large class of users.

Every configuration file that is not needed explicitly in single user
mode (swaptab, fstab, disktab, and a couple others) has been replaced
by NetInfo.  The NetInfo database can be modified with NetInfoManager
along with a bunch of other special purpose utilities.

In any event, naive users dont need to and shouldn't change these
types of things, even with easy to use utilities, with the exception
of printer stuff, as they comprehend neither the concepts nor the
effects of their actions.  That is the sysadmin's job, and these
utilites make it easy for the sysadmin to do his job.  That's why
PrinterManager is in /NextApps and the rest of the utilities are in
/NextAdmin.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com      | "I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, but THIS
Andrew Loewenstern       |  kind of smoke I can handle!"
Cube Technologies, Inc.  |  John Draper, aka Captain Crunch Dec 18, 1992
0000000701B61D1ADF0DFC9C16185CEA055200000007EB4A9FEB1922065D471A89E905B5
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy