declan@remus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ) (10/26/90)
In an earlier message, Grey Mull (blaine@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu) writes:
I am a college student studying engineering at NC State U. I am
seriously considering purchasing a NeXTstation for my next
computer. Is this a wise thing to do? I believe that unix is
the ONLY was to go for the 90's - to me DOS is dead. I desire to
have a system that lets me entirely multitask and has built-in
ethernet capabilities since my residence hall on campus has E-net
connections in the rooms.
Where does one find software to run on the NeXT?
Does ANY unix software run on the NeXT?
I am considering purchasing the NeXTstation with the 105Mb
drive - the price for students is a very resonable $3500. Is this
workstation sufficient to stand alone? Possibly a friend and I will
both purchase the stations and net them together.
Thanks in advance for the replies.
I'm a bit biased, but I'd consider the NeXTstation to be an excellent
choice, especially since you already have Ethernet in your room.
To answer your questions:
1) Contact your campus consultant, computer store, campus support
center, local sales office, or NeXT directly (800.848.NeXT) for a
copy of the Fall 1990 Software and Peripherals catalog. It's a
comprehensive list of software that's available, complete with
phone numbers for the companies. Additionally, NeXTconnection (the
new mail order house) should be sending out their catalog soon.
2) I've had few problems compiling GNU software (and BSD programs in
general on my cube). Unfortunately, you'll have to get your
development tools from someone who has the Extended version of
NeXTstep v2.0 (by purchasing any software release of the same major
version, you have a license to copy any other software in the same
release). This can be done a variety of ways, including directly
from NeXT on 2.88 MB floppies or the 340 MB HD, or connecting to
someone else's system via Ethernet and transferring files.
3) The 105 MB NeXTstation is quite usable as a standalone system.
Eventually, you may want to get an external hard drive.
Perhaps this is the appropriate place to put some other rumors to
rest, as well. You can connect any SCSI-I device to a NeXT with
the SCSI-II port with the purchase of the SCSI-I to SCSI-II cable
from NeXT. (That's how '030 cube owners can upgrade to the '040
board and keep their existing drives.) It's listed in the Fall 90
List Prices catalog.
4) You can have a lot of fun with two NeXTs connected to each other.
Nice things like NetInfo hacking, network launching of programs,
sound playing on remote machines, sharing of files and resources,
etc. By all means, get your friend to buy one...
-Declan
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Declan McCullagh / NeXT Campus Consultant \ declan@remus.rutgers.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------