isbell@pyr.gatech.EDU ( Charles L. Isbell) (03/01/89)
Okay, my problem is this simple: One day soon, I will be buying a new computer.Perhaps a NeXT, perhaps a Mac II, perhaps something else. However, I will begin my PhD work in some area of AI and I think I'm going to want something with a lot of power. The NeXT appears to fit the bill rather nicely. Still, I will also want my new SuperAwesomeMachine to easily and friendly-ily handle those mundane word processing and databasing and spreadsheeting tasks that I'll still want to do. (What I mean is, I'm posting from a VAX-11 now, which is okay for the little bit of programming I'm doing this quarter, but I wouldn't word crunch on it if my life or grade depended on it.) Now, I have played with a NeXT a little, and I know that appropriate software will handle all my needs, esoteric or mundane, but what I want to know is: WILL THE NeXT BE BETTER THAN SAY A COMPARABLY PRICED SUN OR MAC II OR XYZ-9.2 FOR AN UP AND COMING POWER USER WHO WANTS THE POWER OF A WORKSTATION, BUT SOMETIMES JUST WANTS A USER FRIENDLY LITTLE WORD PROCESSOR? I ask you because it seems that you know more about it than I. Thank you for your thoughts in advance.
bayes@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Scott Bayes) (03/04/89)
Asking about will NeXT provide "friendly" occasional word-processing: Well, WriteNow is the friendliest simple word processor I know of for the Mac. It's the one on NeXT. I prefer it to any other word processor I've ever used (all 3 of them :-) Maybe someone else can answer the "power user" half of your question. (Note that the Mac has a lot of power programs for DTP. I got a demo of Quark Xpress last night that knocked at least one sock off.) Scott "point&click" Bayes