werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (10/14/88)
Subject: "NeXT opinions"
Sometimes its interesting to compare the notions others have
about new technology / products. Here are a few quotes from
today's _Wall Street Journal_ (Oct. 13, 1988), reproduced without
permission:
"...[the Next computer offers so much more for the money that it
will] redefine what people expect from a personal computer. THe
big question is whether Steve can master some of the destructive
side of his personality that has emerged in the past. If he can
do that - and there are signs he has - I think he can succeed."
- Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation
"Steve [Jobs] always tries to make his computers exceed what
people expect them to be, and the guy has done it again." In
response to a question regarding Jobs chances of creating another
computer standard: "He's done it twice before, hasn't he?"
- Stewart Alsop, publisher of _PC Newsletter_
"Frankly, I'm disappointed. Back in 1981, we were truly excited
by the Macintosh when Steve showed it to us because when you put
it side-by-side with another computer, it was unlike anything
anybody had ever seen before [because of its distinctive
graphics]. In the grand scope of things, most of [NeXT's]
features are truly trivial. [There is] *no way* [I will have my
programmers write software for NeXT any time soon]." (Emphasis
added by poster).
-Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
"Steve is going to talk revolution in the computer business, but
unfortunately you'll find more similarities than differences
between his machine and other workstations. And some of the
differences that glitter now may well tarnish in a while."
-Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
"[Regarding the initial market thrust into universities:] The
idea appears to be to seed the nerds and enthusiasts and let them
make the computer look good, much like hobbyists transformed the
original Apple II into a broadly popular machine. Once it's
established in the universities, they can take it into the
mainstream."
- David Grady, publisher of the _Grady Report_
"He has to win a niche market somewhere to get started. But I
think it's going to be fairly tough to win in education, because
all the biggies - IBM, Apple, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard,
Sun and Appolo - already are fairly well established. They also
give away a lot of free equipment."
- Regis McKenna, founder of Regis McKenna, Inc.
"[Regarding the announced price of $6,500 and snappy features in
the NeXT computer:] I think it's an incredible value. They
listened to what we asked for and gave it to us."
- Peter Lyman, director of the Center for Scholarly
Technology, UCLA
"[Regarding her experience of being on the NeXT advisory board (a
group of university officials who made suggestions regarding the
computers functionality):] You wouldn't believe the pressure
we've been under to give people hints about the machine. I'm not
sure i'd want to do this again."
- Barbara Morgan, director of advanced technology planning,
UCB
"[Regarding Steve Jobs inability (or unwillingness) to keep
developments secret while at Apple:] At Apple, we used to joke
that it was the only ship we knew of that leaked from the top."
- John Couch, former director of the Apple Lisa team
--
--------------------> PREFERED-RETURN-ADDRESS-FOLLOWS <---------------------
(ARPA) werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Internet: 128.83.144.1)
(INTERNET) werner%rascal.ics.utexas.edu@cs.utexas.edu
(UUCP) ..!utastro!werner or ..!uunet!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!wernerwetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter) (10/14/88)
->
-> [There is] *no way* [I will have my
->programmers write software for NeXT any time soon]." (Emphasis
->added by poster).
-> -Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
->
->
YAY! The NeXt Machine is safe from Microsoft! That in itself makes it
worth buying. YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!
Only an idiot like Bill Gates would be disappointed by the NeXt Machine.
Pierce wetter (slumming from comp.sys.mac)
--------Flames to wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu (beware sometimes they bounce
back ---------------
--------Lauds to wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu (Cheerfully accepted)dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson) (10/14/88)
in article <8300@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, wetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter) says: > Xref: umbio comp.sys.misc:299 comp.os.misc:111 comp.misc:1293 comp.arch:1418 > > -> [There is] *no way* [I will have my > ->programmers write software for NeXT any time soon]." (Emphasis > ->added by poster). > -> -Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft > YAY! The NeXt Machine is safe from Microsoft! That in itself makes it > worth buying. YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! > > Only an idiot like Bill Gates would be disappointed by the NeXt Machine. > Pierce wetter (slumming from comp.sys.mac) > --------Lauds to wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu (Cheerfully accepted) I agree with you 100%. Lets look at the next machine. It comes with development software that's object oriented(for the most part). It comes with a SQL database. It comes with Display Postscript, a Unix mail program, music software, a good word processor, and the MACH OS! Not one of these items is made by Microsoft. TOne of the best machines to come out in a long time and at a great price and Microsoft doesn't have one claim to fame on it!!! That is a slap in the face to Microsoft (from Microsoft's point of view) Yay! Alright! No more monopoly. No more expensive development systems! Look at what Mr. Joy said... Oh it isn't too different from whats out right now. Bullcra*! Price is an important feature too! He better recognize the great features of the NeXT or start losing sales. Go ahead Jobs! :-) -- Dru Nelson UUCP: ....!uunet!gould!umbio!dnelson Miami, Florida MCI: dnelson Internet: dnelson%umbio@umigw.miami.edu
mac@tolerant.UUCP (Joe McGuckin) (10/16/88)
As I see it, Bill Gates (Yep, the same guy who once upon a time lambasted computer hobbyists as pirates and software thieves) is pissed because up 'till now, he controlled the only commercial (mabye 'commercial' is not the right word, but you get my meaning) windowing system. Now he's got some competition. Gee, I wonder if IBM's licensing of NeXTStep indicates any dissatisfaction with the Gates/Microsoft organization...
bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) (10/18/88)
>> [There is] *no way* [I will have my programmers write software for NeXT any >>time soon]." (Emphasis added by poster).-Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft > YAY! The NeXt Machine is safe from Microsoft! That in itself makes it >worth buying. YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! Notice "any time soon." He left himself a loophole (damn). >Only an idiot like Bill Gates would be disappointed by the NeXt Machine. Then count me among the inane. Let's face it: except for some development software and he optical drive, everything else is available on other machines! esp. SUNs.
bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) (10/18/88)
(Note that I've directed followups to comp.sys.next, please!) In article <3246@utastro.UUCP> werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) writes: >"[Regarding her experience of being on the NeXT advisory board (a >group of university officials who made suggestions regarding the >computers functionality):] You wouldn't believe the pressure we've >been under to give people hints about the machine. I'm not sure i'd >want to do this again." > - Barbara Morgan, director of advanced technology planning, UCB I saw it in early July, and others in our Department saw it well before that. It's been almost fun, keeping the questioners wondering (Hi, Mark! :-) with evasive answers - a lot like just before the MacII came out. I'm not a good one to keep a secret, either, but Jobs made me raise my right hand and stare him in the eye and tell him I wouldn't tell anyone else. Seriously. I'm glad it's out now and I can marvel at it in public. It's a lovely box. >"[Regarding Steve Jobs inability (or unwillingness) to keep >developments secret while at Apple:] At Apple, we used to joke that >it was the only ship we knew of that leaked from the top." > - John Couch, former director of the Apple Lisa team While most of the features could be guessed by an astute person simply watching the industry trends (what can you do that's *really* different and still call it an academic UNIX workstation?), there were a few that nobody guessed. They were some of the most interesting and innovative: the optical disk, the Application Builder, the Archiver (is that what they're calling it now?), the sound, and a few others. This indicates to me that the leak control was fairly effective this time around, or possibly that the probers were fairly ineffective. -=- Zippy sez, --Bob - if it GLISTENS, gobble it!!
dan@maccs.McMaster.CA (Dan Trottier) (10/22/88)
In article <757@umbio.MIAMI.EDU> dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson) writes: > >Look at what Mr. Joy said... Oh it isn't too different from whats out >right now. Bullcra*! Price is an important feature too! He better >recognize the great features of the NeXT or start losing sales. Actually Bill Joy refered to the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that Sun has something to compete with or surpass the NeXT workstation. I think we are seeing the beginnings of a great buyers market. I personally would have been more impressed if Jobs' used the 88000 instead of the 68030. For those who claim that a floppy drive on the NeXT machine is not necessary you are wrong. The optical disk in your only drive has the whole operating system on it. You won't want to remove it all that often. It also doesn't make for an efficient medium for software distribution. Consider most software packages sold consume about 1 MB of space you will have tons of excess capacity on the medium. Plus it will add $50 dollars to the price of buying software. -- Dan Trottier dan@maccs.McMaster.CA Dept of Computer Science ...!uunet!utai!utgpu!maccs!dan McMaster University (416) 525-9140 x3444
mdr@reed.UUCP (Mike Rutenberg) (10/24/88)
In article <8300@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> wetter@cit-vax.UUCP (Pierce T. Wetter) writes: >-> [There is] *no way* [I will have my programmers write software >-> for NeXT any time soon]." (Emphasis added by poster). >-> -Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft [...] > Only an idiot like Bill Gates would be disappointed by the NeXt Machine. You give Mr. Gates *far* too little credit. He is a very smart, very aware gentleman. Is he disappointed? I suspect not. Remember that Microsoft is currently investing millions of dollars in technologies that are in many ways competing with what NeXT has announced. Among them: Microsoft NeXT PM/Windows <--> NeXTStep (or whatever) OS/2 <--> Mach CD/ROM <--> NeXT optical drive Microsoft would like OS/2 to be *the* exciting OS, the *obvious* choice for personal computer software development. Whatever you think of the price (yicko!), the NeXT machine is quite a bit more sexy than OS/2 on a 386. NeXT will gather developer attention & general "mindshare" that would have otherwise been focused on Microsoft (and Apple). You will note that of late there have been a number of print articles under Bill Gates name lauding Object Oriented programming, yet the NeXT machine, which is the first major machine to be delivered with such tools, does not get even a note of his praise. What ever you think of Mr. Gate's comments, I really doubt that they stem from him being disappointed. Mike