rweissmn@weissman (Ronald Weissman) (06/29/91)
|>In article <SMITHW.91Jun28092811@hamblin.hamblin.math.byu.edu>, |>smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) writes: |> Anyone see the Weissman interview in NUJ13? Aside from some of |> the strange philosophy, I thought this statement was interesting: |> |> "On the other hand, you have UNIX workstations where the great |> virtue is the UNIX operating system - great platform technology, |> and the biggest weakness of UNIX workstations is also the fact |> they are UNIX workstations which I call tools for propeller heads. |> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |> I would put Sun, HP/Apollo, DEC in that category. They're not |> tools for people. They're for niche markets, for a few scientist |> and engineers who are very deeply embedded in computing." Having never seen the NUJ article referenced by Dr. Smith, nor having had no role in reviewing or editing it, allow me to comment. My reference to the strengths and weanesses of workstations versus PC's referred to the marketplace's negative perceptions of workstations as nich products for the technically sophisticated-not my own view of the value of Unix workstations or their current users. Indeed, having championed the bundling of Mathematica, I believe that NeXT technology ought to be as great for the sophtisticated scientific researcher as for the non-technical scholar or business professional. And anyone who examines our higher education journal, NeXT on Campus, will see how deeply we care both about the Unix-expert engineer, scientist or technical user. In stating that Unix community has a challenge in penetrating the mainstream, I never meant to imply that the current community of Unix users was in any way neglected or undervalued by NeXT. But any fair evaluation of where most Unix platforms are today would conclude that the majority of these technologies far from ready for mere mortals. Do we want to build great workstations for the brod educational and professsional community? Of course. Do we want as much to build great workstations for scientists and engineers? ABSOLUTELY! I regret of any paraphrased comments taken out of context (and never reviewed by me) have caused anyone to doubt my commitment or that of NeXT to providing great UNIX technology for scientific education and research. And I regret any offense given by mentioning how the rest of the world views all of US Unix users (me, too). Ron Weissman NeXT Computer, Inc.