eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (10/16/90)
Just about everyone who's anyone in computer networking attended last week's InterOp 90 Conference and Exhibition. Attendance more than doubled from last year--23,000 this time around. Every major workstation vendor was represented, including all of NeXT's real and imagined competitors. NeXT Computer Inc. was conspicuously absent, although two 3rd Party vendors (Cayman and Novell) had NeXTs in their booths. Cayman used a N1000 as an NFS server for their GatorShare NFS<->AFP software. Novell had a NeXTstation, but I didn't take a close look at what they were using it for. I ran into a couple of NeXT employees on the Exhibition floor. One said, "this is the kind of show that makes Steve's flesh crawl." InterOp certainly makes a lot of vendors nervous--it's one time each year when nominally competing vendors have to prove they can work together. No canned demos here--it's all live on the real Internet. Attendees get to test what's being shown hands-on against other vendors at the show, and against their own systems at home. Certain "hot topics" warranted special demonstrations: For example, vendors with 10BaseT-compatible products set up a special "torture test" complete with "Network Hell." IMHO, a formal appearance by NeXT would have had a significant effect on NeXT's credibility, acceptance, and sales. InterOp, Inc. staff said this Exhibition generated 2 1/2 times the number of sales leads expected for a show this size. For all NeXT's talk about how they're going to revolutionize "interpersonal computing," why are they spending all their effort pushing PERSONAL COMPUTING applications? Apple and IBM wised up. It's time NeXT did too. -=EPS=- I don't think I need a disclaimer.
dsrekrg@prism.gatech.EDU (Rob Gibson) (10/21/90)
In article <893@toaster.SFSU.EDU> eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) writes: >NeXT Computer Inc. was >conspicuously absent, although two 3rd Party vendors (Cayman and >IMHO, a formal appearance by NeXT would have had a significant >effect on NeXT's credibility, acceptance, and sales. InterOp, >Inc. staff said this Exhibition generated 2 1/2 times the >number of sales leads expected for a show this size. NeXT was at EDUCOM '90 in Atlanta, GA from October 14-17. They had about 25 people there including Steve Jobs who delivered the keynote address. NeXT, Apple, & IBM were primary corporate contributors/sponsors of the show. The following is taken from the publication, "EDUCOM review": "EDUCOM, founded in 1964, is a nonprofit consortium of higher education institutions which facilitates the introduction, use, access to and management of information resources in teaching, learning, scholarship and research. EDUCOM's work id done in cooperation and partnership with the broader education and library communities, professional societies, government at all levels, and information industries." I don't represent any of these folks. I just enjoyed/was stimulated by the show. Rob Gibson, WREK 91.1 MHz, 40000 watts Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 404/894-2468 uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!dsrekrg ARPA: dsrekrg@prism.gatech.edu