From: jfr@RedBrick.COM ()
Subject: Re: Make it Cheap
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 05:54:36 GMT

In article <80731@ut-emx.uucp> alex@fiskville.mc.utexas.edu writes:
>There seem to be a lot of people here who think that NeXT and NeXTstep  
>would be great to have if they could only get them cheap. Some would have  
>NeXT offer reduced performance systems, diskless systems, smaller  
>monitors, no frills and "consumer grade" systems in order to grab more  
>market share. People want the power of NeXTstep but they don't want to  
>spend the money to get it. Should NeXT cripple their machines with small  
>displays and cheaper components and release NeXTstep for Mac, DOS, and  
>TI-99?
>
>No.
 
  Who said anything about crippling machines?  NeXTSTEP (it is NOW spelled
  with all caps except the first "e" :-) is already announced for PC
  machines (a step down, IMHO).  I NEVER said anything about "dickless"
  workstations (which I consider to be offensive).  I talked about 
  terminals for application delivery of NeXTSTEP GUIs.  People have
  been using terminals to reduce the cost of application delivery for
  several generations of data processing and they are not going to 
  stop now.  As for screen size, I fail to see why 1M pixels is
  sacrosanct for doing certain kinds of apps.  I have yet to see a 
  business application that took over the whole screen with its windows.
  Supporting VGA 1024x768 would be a good compromise and would address
  a far larger share of the PC market that exists today (without 
  raising the barrier to entry too high).  And who said anything about
  the TI-99? :-)
>
>NeXT has already "sold their birthright" by doing away with the Optical  
>Disk (something which would be great on any system) and expansion slots  
>(no multiprocessor boards I guess)... two things which originally put NeXT  
>way ahead of the field have been undone to increase "market penetration".  
>Next we'll see the DSP removed, smaller monitors and (gak) VGA support,  
>and the demise of Display Postscript as the lowest common denominator gets  
>lower and lower. 

  The Optical Disk was a problem because it was exclusive in the Cube.
  The winner optical, IMHO, will be the 128M 3-1/2"ers that are starting
  to take off right now.  They are convenient, very fast and the media
  is reasonably priced.  I expect we'll see them in a future NeXT.
  Display Postscript will not disappear ever since it is one of the
  cornerstones of NeXTSTEP (whereas the Optical Drive was JASSM - just
  another silly storage medium, hardly their "birthright").  I agree
  with you on expansion slots - I wish slabs were expandable, sigh.

>NeXT could have been (and may still be) the Rolls Royce of desktop  
>computers but this sort of "feature removal" may soon make it akin to the  
>Volkswagon. My point? If you want the top of the line you have to pay for  
>it. Rolls Royce doesn't have a lot of Market Penetration but they make a  
>damn fine car and they make them right. This, I think, is the way NeXT  
>should go. It is better in my opinion to serve 10 people well than to  
>serve 10,000 poorly.

  Rolls Royce went out of business many years ago and Volkswagen is
  still the most successful European car company.  Serve 10 people and
  go broke (and in computers, even more so, because you depend on
  the aftermarket in hardware and software to support what you can't
  provide, and no one wants to provide hardware and software for
  10 people).  The best thing to do is server 10,000 people well, 
  not poorly.  This is not done by effete-snobbism, something that
  I fear the NeXT community has a bit too much of.  I just bought my
  color slab and I have put my money where my mouth is.  I WANT - 
  NO, I NEED - NEXT TO SUCCEED.  But that doesn't mean I won't say
  when the Emperor has no clothes.  
>
>Humbly (if a bit fervently)
>Alex Currier
>Texas Union MicroCenter HotLine
>University of Texas at Austin
 
  Ferventcy is good, humbleness is good.   

Jon Rosen
jfr@redbrick.com
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