xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) (10/03/90)
In re: lack of a NeXT software base If the NeXT's MACH is reasonably Unix-clonish at the applications programming level, software could show up in a deluge of ports from Suns, 3B1's, Apollo's, 386 Xenix boxes, etc. I wouldn't get too comfortable assuming lack of software will hold the NeXT back for long. Steven Job's past track record makes software development venture capital predicated upon the likely success of the NeXT look like a pretty safe way to earn a big return on investment, too, so new development could be sparked in a hurry. Remember, most of software development targeting is a gamble on the likely success of the target hardware, and the NeXT probably looks pretty good to the Wall Street money for the same kinds of reasons that the Amiga doesn't: a past history of bringing in substantial profits to investors. Kent, the man from xanth. <xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>
cring@hpihoah.HP.COM (Craig Ring) (10/06/90)
The new NeXTstation comes in either a gray-scale model or a color model. The grayscale model can not be upgraded to the color version. The gray-scale version includes a monitor, 2.44 Mb floppy, 8 Mb RAM, and 105 Mb HD for an educational price of around $3000.00. The color verison has a Sony Trinitron color monitor and 12 Mb RAM for an educational price of about $5,000.00. The NeXTstation color has 4096 colors displayable at the same time without restrictions of a HAM mode, as well as at a high (832 x 1120) resolution. The NeXTstations do not have expansion slots. They're meant as low cost alternatives for people who don't need the added expense of slots, and the power supply necessary to power them. The cube is still available for those who need expansion. It's educational price for the monochrome version is also about $5,000.00. It has slots for more memory, more disk space (up to 2 Gig!) and of course the NeXTdimension board which can give you real-time full motion video in a window, with clipping, etc, as well as accelerated 32 bit color. Windowing is as fast as the gray-scale. Multiple monitors can be used at the same time, as part of the same desk-top. This would allow the desktop with text applications or commands on one monitor, while a color drawing window is displayed full screen on the other monitor. There is a lot more information available in comp.sys.next. Craig Ring cring@cup.hp.com