From: putzolu@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (David Putzolu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: specifically comparing NeXT with Mac...
Date: 10 Nov 92 21:00:37 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

In article <199211081843.AA03209@hobbes.cuc.ab.ca> rob@hobbes.cuc.ab.CA (Rob Parkhill) writes:
>ibhan@husc10.harvard.edu (Ishir Bhan) writes:
>>rob@hobbes.cuc.ab.CA (Rob Parkhill) writes:

** Unfair pricing alert! Unfair pricing alert! **

>Nononononono! The ONLY Mac equivilant to the NeXTstation Turbo Color
>would be a Quadra 950.
>These are the latest (Canadian) edu prices for both systems:
 * With prices available at UCD to me to the left *
 * Mail order (MO) prices used when appropriate   *
>Quadra 950, 8MB RAM, No HD, 1 floppy drive      $6 514 -UCD-> $5 153
>Keyboard                                        $  233 -UCD-> $  159
>Monitor and VRAM (your prices -> Canadian)      $1 300 -UCD-> $1 300
>(Also: Isn't it necessary to add a display
>card to get 24bit colour for a Quadra?        No. VRAM is all you need.
>200MB Hard Drive                                $  500 -MO--> $  500
>Total                                           $8 547 -TOT-> $7 112


>NeXTstation Turbo Color                         $5 870 -UCD-> $5 266
>w/ 16MB RAM, 250 MB Hard Drive
>(Comes with keyboard and mouse) (Not at UCD)           -UCD-> $  179
>17" NeXT Colour Monitor                         $1 930 -UCD-> $1 825
>Total with 17" Monitor                          $6 670 -UCD-> $7 260

Note that now the prices are closer - but here is what may be a
more fair Mac to compare with:
Quadra 700, 4MB Ram, No HD                       $3 327
Add 4MB Ram, 1.5MB VRAM                          $  400
Keyboard                                         $  159
Add 120MB Hard Drive                             $  399
Apple 16" Color Monitor                          $1 144
Total:                                           $5 429

Why only a 700, which runs at 25Mhz not 33? And why only the
120 MB hard drive?
Simple. The NeXT requires more resources to do all it does.
Compare a 700 and a NSTC. The 700 appears & responds just as fast.
NeXT advocates will respond that the NeXT is doing what it does
via Display Postscript. True. Can't be argued. What can be
argued is the usefulness: Unless you do DTP, display postscript
is nice, but not much more than that.
Why the smaller hard drive? The same answer: resources. I can
happily fit a good development system (Think C v5 + Think Pascal v4
+ ResEdit + Apple Technical Notes + Hypercard), and a good
word-processor (Word 5) and LOTS of other stuff on my 105 easily.
I'm told by NeXT afficionados that to hold the development system
alone requires 400+ MB.

The result of the above:
NeXT stands out as an excellent DTP machine. With a very nice
development system, and very nice hardware. At a price. You pay
for these niceties.
The Mac stands out as a good machine. Maybe not quite as good
as the NeXT in some areas, but pretty close. At a lot less $.
Furthermore, the Mac still has the advantages it started with:
Bigger software base, more expandability (2 Nubus, 1 PDS, 1 ROM
slot that can be used to upgrade to 33Mhz at <$500), more
hardware at lower prices, etc.

As someone else posted, the NeXT is no longer the clear winner
in price competition. In fact, it may be a loser with Apple's most
recent round of cuts when we take into accound the resource
requirements of a NeXt. NeXT now has to stand on its other
(not insignificant) merits: Excellent development system, nice OS,
display postscript, good hardware design, etc.

As I have emailed to some friendly NeXT people, the NeXT machine
is an excellent box (ok, slab). Good hardware design. Good software.
Good OS. But you have to pay for it, and you pay alot more than you
would for a Mac that is nearly as good. If I had the money, I
might be a NeXTie. I don't, and until NeXT _drastically_ (in
light of Apple's soon to be released next round of machines)
cuts its prices, its advantages will not be enough to justify
the costs of switching over.

>Rob Parkhill
>rob@hobbes.cuc.ab.ca
>(NeXTmail preferred!) `
"Anti-Viral Software? Nah, I'm careful enough"     ______-==-______
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Ex-Capt David Putzolu          \__________-
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Senior, CS & Psych, U.C.Davis - putzolu@cs.ucdavis.edu - my opinion
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