This is A-good-personal-computer? in view mode; [Up]
Date: Sun 22-Aug-1989 14:14:06 From: Unknown Subject: A good 'personal' computer? Info on the NeXT seems a little scarce, maybe someone can help me out. I've read "The NeXT Book" and feel like I now know something about the machine. First question - is the book accurate? The computer really has potential but its success seems to hinge on 3'rd party development. Yes, it's bundled with some good software but are there any more 3'rd party software/hardware announcements that weren't mentioned in the book? The NeXT seems like a good 'personal' UNIX computer and the price is just fine. But, how is software going to be delivered - on those expensive optical disks? Has anyone announced a floppy drive? Why is there no comp.sources.next or comp.binaries.next ( the Amiga crowd seems to do quite nicely for sources and binaries.) Any word on a 3'rd party PC-compatible emulator? Jeff Scott jscott@cup.portal.com ... !sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jscott >From: mdixon@thelonius.PARC.xerox.com (Mike Dixon)
Date: Sun 23-Aug-1989 04:31:30 From: Unknown Subject: Re: A good 'personal' computer? In article <21516@cup.portal.com> Jeff_A_Scott@cup.portal.com writes: >is just fine. But, how is software going to be delivered - on those >expensive optical disks? Has anyone announced a floppy drive? The floppy drive issue seems to come up pretty often here. I don't have a cube, so I don't know for sure, but isn't there supposedly a SCSI port on the beast? I know this doesn't solve the software distribution problem, since publishers can't assume a SCSI drive on the system, but I don't understand why people say "you can't get a floppy drive on the system".
Date: Sun 23-Aug-1989 16:29:00 From: Unknown Subject: Re: A good 'personal' computer? In article <3507@asylum.SF.CA.US> langz@asylum.UUCP (Lang Zerner) writes: >In article <21516@cup.portal.com> Jeff_A_Scott@cup.portal.com writes: > >The floppy drive issue seems to come up pretty often here. I don't have a >cube, so I don't know for sure, but isn't there supposedly a SCSI port on the >beast? This is a common mistake to make. Having a scsi port does not mean that any scsi device will work. Each different device requires a driver, and I would imagine (though I have never tried or even thought about it more than superficially) that porting a driver for some scsi device would be non-trivial to the Next, since it uses a unique io system (unique among systems that scsi is typically found on). I still feel very strongly that there needs to be a lower-cost, smaller-sized removable media for the next (for the purposes of distribution, mainly) but I am not advocating a step backwards by putting a floppy drive on it. I was sort of hoping that something along the lines of those mini-cds could be utilized, but that may be a naive desire based on my complete lack of knowledge as to how the `magneto-optical' disk works. Christopher Welty --- Asst. Director, RPI CS Labs | "Porsche: Fahren in weltyc@cs.rpi.edu ...!njin!nyser!weltyc | seiner schoensten Form" >From: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott)
Date: Sun 24-Aug-1989 19:58:13 From: Unknown Subject: Re: A good 'personal' computer? In article <6895@rpi.edu> weltyc@cs.rpi.edu (Chris Welty) writes: >This is a common mistake to make. Having a scsi port does not mean >that any scsi device will work. Each different device requires a >driver, and I would imagine (though I have never tried or even thought >about it more than superficially) that porting a driver for some scsi >device would be non-trivial to the Next, since it uses a unique io >system (unique among systems that scsi is typically found on). I'm not so sure about that. In any case, even 0.9 has a "generic SCSI" driver, so you don't have to be a kernel-hacker to play with it. Has anyone successfully used an Apple Scanner through the NeXT SCSI port? -=EPS=- >From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Date: Sun 24-Aug-1989 19:41:02 From: Unknown Subject: Re: A good 'personal' computer? In article <21516@cup.portal.com> Jeff_A_Scott@cup.portal.com writes: }... Has anyone announced a floppy drive? The NeXT rep I talked to said someone had one in the works. I forget who. Given the relatively open architecture (four slots is better than none) I'd expect a lot of 3rd party multi-function cards once the ball gets rolling. Even IBM had to buck that reality. PS/2 cards are just beginning to be available in significant quantity. }Why is }there no comp.sources.next or comp.binaries.next ( the Amiga crowd seems }to do quite nicely for sources and binaries.) Give it time. For now, comp.sources.unix should be sufficient. }Any word on a 3'rd party PC-compatible emulator? None yet, but the rep said she'd certainly expect one if there was enough demand.
Date: Sun 26-Aug-1989 15:41:37 From: Unknown Subject: Re: A good 'personal' computer? Dayna was working of a floppy drive which would accept Mac & IBM floppies. I don't know what the status of it is, but in March, they were at the NeXT announcement in San Fran showing the concept. >From: wab@sumex-aim.stanford.edu (William A. Brown)
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.