[comp.sys.mac.misc] NuTek Mac Clones

piper@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM (Piper Keairnes) (02/12/91)

Anyone read the article in MacWeek about a company called NuTek, who
has supposedly created a Macintosh-compatible machine from the ground
up including all hardware and software. To avoid Apple copyright
infringements they've worked in a "clean-room" and slapped on a Motif
interface. By the picture shown, it looks like the menu bars for the
applications will reside within the application's window as opposed to
being resident at the top of the screen.

Prices will be comparable to Apple's for a short while (due to low quantity
and startup costs I'm sure), but the competition is welcome as far as I'm
concerned. They say that they are prepared for a long drawn-out court
battle if that is what Apple want's to do. Question is, can they really make
it? I sure hope so...

[from MacWeek and probably mentioned somewhere on the net already]

Comments, questions, difficulties, confusions? Oh, release should be sometime
near the end of this year, and the interface software pictured may be on sale
by the end of first quarter (for about $100).

-- 
Piper Keairnes         * piper@s5000.rsvl.unisys.com        *
Unisys Corporation     * uunet!s5000.rsvl.unisys.com!piper  *
Open Software Products * 1410 Carling Dr, St Paul, MN 55108 *

ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) (02/13/91)

In article <97@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM> piper@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM (Piper Keairnes) writes:
>Anyone read the article in MacWeek about a company called NuTek, who
>has supposedly created a Macintosh-compatible machine from the ground
>up including all hardware and software. To avoid Apple copyright
>infringements they've worked in a "clean-room" and slapped on a Motif
>interface. By the picture shown, it looks like the menu bars for the
>applications will reside within the application's window as opposed to
>being resident at the top of the screen.

>Comments, questions, difficulties, confusions? 

I wonder how compatible this is going to be with actual Mac applications.
Will the average Mac window have room for all those menus?  What about
all the programs that use custom window definitions (WDEFs)?  

francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) (02/13/91)

In article <1991Feb12.174418.21185@convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:

   In article <97@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM> piper@s5000.RSVL.UNISYS.COM (Piper Keairnes) writes:
   [NuTek has created a Mac clone]  To avoid Apple copyright
   >infringements they've worked in a "clean-room" and slapped on a Motif
   >interface. By the picture shown, it looks like the menu bars for the
   >applications will reside within the application's window as opposed to
   >being resident at the top of the screen.

   >Comments, questions, difficulties, confusions? 

   I wonder how compatible this is going to be with actual Mac applications.
   Will the average Mac window have room for all those menus?  What about
   all the programs that use custom window definitions (WDEFs)?  

Ugh! Motif is pretty ugly, as far as I'm concerned.

Main question is still compatibility, of course.  How do they deal
with apps that want (gasp!) TWO windows? Or apps that currently have
no windows open? Bleah.

--
/=============================================================================\
| Francis Stracke		| My opinions are my own.  I don't steal them.|
| Department of Mathematics	|=============================================|
| University of Chicago		| Until you stalk and overrun,	     	      |
| francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu	|  you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes 	      |
\=============================================================================/

gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) (02/14/91)

There is a similar article about the NuTek clone in the bi-weekly
newsletter "The Microprocessor Report".  It claims that a far-east
company has developed a 3-chip set that implements all the features of
a basic macintosh (I assume they mean I/O, floppy drive, DRAM refresh,
etc). 

Don Gillies	     |  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
gillies@cs.uiuc.edu  |  Digital Computer Lab, 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana IL
---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
"UGH!  WAR! ... What is it GOOD FOR?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!"  
	- the song "WAR" by Edwin Starr, circa 1965

-- 

sandy@snoopy.cs.umass.edu (& Wise) (02/14/91)

In article <FRANCIS.91Feb12205701@arthur.uchicago.edu> francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) writes:
 > Ugh! Motif is pretty ugly, as far as I'm concerned.

A matter of opinion of course...

 > Main question is still compatibility, of course.  How do they deal
 > with apps that want (gasp!) TWO windows? Or apps that currently have
 > no windows open? Bleah.

The description in InfoWorld said the menu moves to the currently
active window, so Apps with multiple windows are not a problem...
As to how they deal with closing all windows on an App...  I don't
know... If I were doing it I would conform to the Motif style guide
and say closing the last window of an app closes the app as well...
Since motif has a notion of "iconify" the ability to have no open
windows is less important than with the standard Mac interface...
        /s
--
Alexander Erskine Wise /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Software Development Laboratory
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ WISE@CS.UMASS.EDU /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
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