barry@leconte.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) (04/13/91)
The latest IEEE Spectrum has a special section devoted
to workstations. In one article, they list a what they
call "representative sample of available workstations",
but they snubbed NeXT in their listing.
(I suppose it is called a sample to avoid offending those left off.)
The list has entries from about 60 different workstation vendors
(seems pretty comprehensive to me) but they left off NeXT!
This wouldn't be so bad, except that
(a) they had entries for the MacIIfx, the Amiga 3000UA and
many 80486 MS-DOS boxes---these are ``workstations''?
(b) many of the 60 companies are so small I'd never even heard of
them; I'm sure NeXT does more business than most.
(c) Had they included the NeXTStation, it would have been #3
in best price (at $4995, beat by only two 486 MS-DOS boxes,
and even the cheapest of these was $4500), and in the upper half in
terms of performance (MIPS, MFLOPS etc). Most of the similar
performing machines were priced at $8--10,000.
One thing I can say: after seeing this list, its clear what an
incredible deal the NeXTStation is, just judged on raw
performance and price criteria (which are not even my reasons
for getting one!). The Slab, is nearly half the price of
comparable platforms, and even the Color Slab is 20% cheaper.
Once you add in the environment, forget it! Too bad NeXT
wasn't in the list to highlight this discrepancy. I guess
we can hope that the article was prepared prior to the release of the
station, but even the Cube deserved mention.
--
Barry Merriman
UCLA Dept. of Math
UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research
barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU (Art Isbell) (04/14/91)
In article <1991Apr12.205235.9415@math.ucla.edu> barry@leconte.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes:
[about inexcusable omission of NeXT from extensive workstation list.]
Unix Review published a comparison of "under $5,000" Unix workstations.
Workstation Laboratories did the comparison, but it's not clear who chose the
workstations to compare: Sun SLC, DECstation 2100, HP DN2500, and No Name 486
Clone (!). The article mentioned that the Data General AViiON was unavailable
and that the HP DN2500 is no longer being sold by HP, but no mention was made
of the NeXTStation! Is NeXT doing a really poor marketing/PR job? Why aren't
NeXT Computers being recognized in such articles?
The Unix Review article recognized that the 4 selected workstations really
couldn't do much in the base $5,000 configuration, so they added a 200 MB HD,
operating system (!) and documentation, and C (!) and FORTRAN compilers. The
prices for this very basic configuration ranged from $6,900 for the 486 Clone
to $11,800 for the HP. A 400 MB NeXTStation with Absoft Fortran compiler lists
for less than $8,000. By cludging much less than they did to build a 486
Clone, they could have added the NeXT C/ObjC/C++ compiler and Absoft Fortran to
a 200 MB NeXTStation for around the same price as the 486 Clone.
The comparison categories included how to purchase, installation, support,
documentation, operation and ease of use, performance, and price/performance.
The NeXTStation would have finished at or near the top in most of these
categories (well, how to purchase and documentation might have been considered
weak areas) and would have offered a lot more for their money than any of the
rest. I wrote a letter to Workstation Laboratories complaining about their
omission, but have heard nothing.
Until the word about NeXT gets out to a more general audience, sales will
continue to be below where they should be, but then until NeXT can deliver new
systems in reasonable amount of time, maybe it's just as well. Unfortunately,
the big boys (IBM, DEC, HP, Apple, etc.) know about NeXT and have the personnel
to catch up in the categories where NeXT excels, so NeXT may lose its window of
opportunity before the buying public finds out about our "secret". Very
frustrating....
--
_____ ____
Art Isbell |\ | | | | \ 315 Moon Meadow Lane
NeXT Registered Developer | \ | ___ |____| | | Felton, CA
isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU | \ | |___| | \ | | 95018-9442
(408)438-4736(B) | \| |___ | \ |___/ (408)335-1154(H)bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett) (04/14/91)
In article <14470@darkstar.ucsc.edu> isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU (Art Isbell) writes: > >In article <1991Apr12.205235.9415@math.ucla.edu> barry@leconte.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: > [about inexcusable omission of NeXT from extensive workstation list.] > >Unix Review published a comparison of "under $5,000" Unix workstations. > [text deleted --SJB] >systems in reasonable amount of time, maybe it's just as well. Unfortunately, >the big boys (IBM, DEC, HP, Apple, etc.) know about NeXT and have the personnel >to catch up in the categories where NeXT excels, so NeXT may lose its window of >opportunity before the buying public finds out about our "secret". Very >frustrating.... Well, I thought that what we wanted was the general uplift in the level of the minimum useful system. That's the sort of thing Steve Jobs has said from the inception of NeXT, Inc. The only thing that would be frustrating would be if NeXT were unable to move another step ahead of them in order to stay in business and keep raising that minimum level. >-- > _____ ____ >Art Isbell |\ | | | | \ 315 Moon Meadow Lane >NeXT Registered Developer | \ | ___ |____| | | Felton, CA >isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU | \ | |___| | \ | | 95018-9442 >(408)438-4736(B) | \| |___ | \ |___/ (408)335-1154(H) Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG Systems Programming Northern Illinois University DeKalb, Illinois 60115 ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett@cs.niu.edu * * BITNET: A01SJB1@NIU * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "Well, I don't know, but I've been told, in the heat of the sun * * a man died of cold..." Oakland, 19 Feb. 1991, first time since * * 25 Sept. 1970!!! Yippee!!!! Wondering what's NeXT... :-) * **********************************************************************
mrush@ecst.csuchico.edu (Matt "C P." Rush) (04/15/91)
In article <1991Apr12.205235.9415@math.ucla.edu> barry@leconte.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: >The latest IEEE Spectrum has a special section devoted >to workstations. In one article, they list a what they >call "representative sample of available workstations", >but they snubbed NeXT in their listing. >(I suppose it is called a sample to avoid offending those left off.) > >The list has entries from about 60 different workstation vendors >(seems pretty comprehensive to me) but they left off NeXT! > >This wouldn't be so bad, except that > >(a) they had entries for the MacIIfx, the Amiga 3000UA and ^ That SHOULD be Amiga 3000UX. > many 80486 MS-DOS boxes---these are ``workstations''? One could argue the MacIIfx a bit, but the Amiga 3000UX certainly is and a good '486 box can be if configured well. "Workstation" is really kind of vague term. It is possible that the NeXT may have been 'snubbed' simply because until recently NeXT wasn't shipping COLOUR. Colour makes a big difference depending on your applications, and comparing monochrome stations to colour ones would seem rather pointless to me. -- C P. Normal Unix Mail: mrush@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu NeXT Voice-Mail: cpolyp@stevie.ecst.csuchico.edu This is a SCHOOL, they don't CARE about my opinions. flames: /dev/null