From: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca (John Henders)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Distribution: na
Organization:  One of these days.
Subject: Re: ACE'92 show: Report
	<1992Apr6.144016.1226@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
	<H.PKB38Z99yf2@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca>
Reply-To: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.00 Rev. Jan 16 1992
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 10:40:04 -0600

In <12558@umd5.umd.edu>, Alok Dhir writes:

>This is exactly like the owner of an inferior system.  Trash the thing that
>is supposed to be the best...  You are comparing a TT030 to a NeXT 040?  Are
>you sick?  "you're friend" was probably running on a machine with too little
>memory and was waiting for swapfiles to come in and out.  The only way to
>get 32bit color on the NeXT is with the NeXTDimension color board which has
>an Intel i860 coprocessor on it...and it displays 32 bit color at about the
>same speed that the non-NeXTDimension NeXTs display mono.  I am writing this
>from NeXT right now.  We have tons of em here on campus (at the University 
>of MD, College Park), and I use them every day.  The original Mac was a 7.x
>megahertz 68000...I cannot even believe that you are trying to tell me that
>that thing feels faster than a 25mhz 68040.  Amazing.

    Try not to read to much of your own prejudices into what I write. 
No where in my post did I compare a NeXT to a TT. 
    My "friend" is used to Pagemaker and Quark express on '030' Macs, 
and his comments were strictly made from the point of view of someone 
who uses this software professionally on a day to day basis in a production 
situation. 
    In regards to how the machine was set up and running, it was at the 
laergest computer show held annually here on the Canadian West Coast. If a 
company wants to showcase a machine to potential buyers under-equiped to
run the software they are demoing on it then they are only shooting 
themselves in foot, wouldn't you say? 
    In marketing, first impressions are everything, and this is a case 
where one customer would now be difficult to sell on such a system, where,
if what you say is true, he could have come away from the test unsatisfied 
with his current system and wanting a NeXT at any cost, this did not happen.
    I have also heard reports that the TT mouse response is sluggish under
Unix compared to an 8mhz ST. Maybe this is a characteristic of 'X's mouse
handling routines, I don't know, as I haven't had the opportunity to use 
one, but like most people, if someone who's judgement I respect comments on
something, I tend to listen and remember their comments.
    On the other hand, I tend to discount statements made by people who
flame anything at the drop of a hat. ( Hi Greg ) 
    When you read a post from some college student saying that the ST has
no professional level dtp software, then you read a reply from someone who's 
been in the publishing/newspaper business for >10 years saying they don't
know what they're talking about, who would you beleive.
    Having been in the pro audio business for >10 years, when I read 
statements from Atari saying performing musicians don't need backlit 
screens on stage, I have the same reaction.
    If I had the money and the need for an '040' machine running some kind
of Unix-like OS, I'd definately look at the NeXT before say the Mac Quadra
running AUX. This again is based on comments I've read, and who they've come
from. However, as I don't qualify for educational discounts, I'd also look
at the risc machines from SUN, HP, and even at a '486 EISA machine running
one of the well known Unix os's. 



-- 
There are a lot of intelligent people on the net that will go
ballistic when they are subjected to something stupid.
-- Larry Smith on the rec.arts.manga debate