Re: Big Text Machine press release

[philip@utstat.toronto.edu (Philip McDunnough)]

In article <m0o3LJu-0000VQC@crash.cts.com> beta@gnh-cathouse.cts.com (Scott Sidley) writes:

[ ]
>
>The 486 as a unix chip will not go over as well as you might think.

Well the options are Unix of sorts, DOS/Windows, Windows 4.0 when it appears,
OS/2, Windows NT, NEXTSTEP, Solaris, etc...
 
Most of these have high memory and disk requirements. It would be a shame to
see 486's relegated to running DOS, and I doubt that will happen. That leaves
Unix, OS/2 and Windows NT/4.0 neither of which is out.    
>
>and og the 80 million or so pc's only about 15% could possibly run NEXTSTEP.

But the sales of PC's are now mainly 486 with the requirements to run NS. The
user version requires little more than OS/2! The developers' version does
have this 16meg and 300 meg drive requirement, but a 340 meg drive costs
under $400. For students who get a full development package for $250, which
includes TeX ( which itself costs more on the PC than the full academic NS
OS!) I can't see why anyone in an educational environment would not run NS.
I do agree that an interesting alternative is OS/2, but IBM seems to be 
having its problems with it. It's very nice though.
>
>and I think you'll find that Next's gonna have problems selling Next STEP into
>the existing market.

They don't have to sell a lot. It's not so much the existing market as the
future market. Every day the cost of running NS goes down. I see that as a
positive sign. After using NS for a few years now I just could not imagine
using the Finder, Windows, etc...I can imagine using the GS because I like it,
but I would not rely on it as a main system (and I wouldn't rely on a Mac
either). I see the NeXT,Amiga and OS/2 as reasonable enviroments now. 
Multitasking is essential, and the Finder/MultiFinder/System 7.1/ etc...is 
simply not suitable for me in that area.

>
>RAM is king in the unix vein and 95% of all PC's made will never have a enough
>ram to run any of the new OS's.

Nonsense. Most inexpensive clones can be had with 8 megs. It's not a big leap
to 8 more. In fact it's about another $250. 

>Scott Sidley --  root@gnh-tap, beta@gnh-starport, beta@gnh-cathouse
-- 
Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
philip@utstat.toronto.edu
[Where sheep may safely graze...]