FELIX@KL.SRI.COM (Felix Ingrand) (02/17/88)
Last year, when I took the decision of buying a Mac, I wanted to buy a Mac II, but my bank does not allow overdraft, and I bought a Mac SE 20HD (nice machine, exept the noisy fan, and the moving screen). Even at this time, I was thinking, how much are they going to sell Unix (my favorite OS)... Considering that you also need this expensive MMU, and a big disk. No need to say that I have been a little bit surprise when I have seen the price of an honest Unix configuration... For sure, this think is not for us. Who is us? you and me, who are using our computer at home, for fun and for the rest. For sure, company and some University can afford the price (especially if they get discount and site licence). It looks like Apple is entering a new era. The Macintosh is now a recognized machine, and is giving some headakes to Big Blue. The Mac is no more a fancy machine with funny windows and mouse, it is a respectable computer, bought by respectable people and company (to be respectable, you need a good credit line), and I guess that it is more interesting for Apple to sell 1000 Mac II to a big american company than selling 1 Mac II to 1000 Unix programmers/hackers/etc... and to enter big company market, you have to offer some "standard" like Unix, Ethernet access, etc... and big company pay for what they get. My reproach to Apple, is that they seem to be a "short memory" company, they are forgetting the people who made their machine famous (what about the Lisa (mac XL) owner). But this is the "Jungle Law", take the money where it is, and where it is more easy to take. So forget it, you will not run A/UX unless you are working for a company or an university which have been convinced by you that it is a good machine to use... Anyway, just forget it, and let consider the alternative. What about a SUN? I do not know, I have used these machines but there is a dimension missing (the 4th perhaps), I appreciate them at my work, but I would not put one on my desk at home (it is a kind of personnal feeling). Now, what is remaining? What is next? NeXT perhaps. What do I/we know about it? Almost nothing (these people work hard, but tell few), the machine is going to run Unix, it is going to be GREAT... or deceiving.... The only thing that I know, is that a friend of mine is working there (do not worry people from NeXT, he does not say anything, I try everything... No way), and as we were talking of computers, he told me that I should wait until their presentation to make my own idea on their machine which is according to him very impressive... and perhaps not as expensive as we can think. What can I loose waiting, I cannot afford the A/UX Mac II, and I want to be impress by a brand new machine. The Mac II was no more that what everybody was expecting when they released it, an open mac with color... Not bad, but I was in a way expecting some new ideas from the company who released the Lisa. But perhaps I should said from the company where Steve Jobbs was working. Where is this guy now?...;-) I do not have any connections with Apple, NeXT, SUN, exept that I have been deceived by some of them, and I am expecting a lot from some others. -- Felix "Pourquoi tant de haine..." EDIKA ARPA: felix@ai.sri.com (415) 859-5584