brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) (03/20/91)
In <1991Mar19.003209.6819@kessner.denver.co.us> david@kessner.denver.co.us (David Kessner) writes: >I am at the point where I'd find the extra money to buy a >SPARC/NEXT/486 rather than getting a A3000UX-- but I think I'm just >used to the higher performance of these machines (ie, I'm spoiled)... EXTRA money? Educational prices: NeXTstation with 105meg disk, 8meg ram, floppy: $3,221 (Through U of MN bookstore.) Amiga 3000/UXB - 100meg disk, 4meg ram, (floppy?): $4,003 Other differences? The NeXTstation comes with a MegaPixel grayscale display. (Color is a mere (HA!) $1,200 more.) The Amiga? I must admit I'm not sure of the monitor in the package, but you KNOW it's got the color hardware onboard. So it's a matter of choice - it's easier to get a honking B&W monitor for the NeXT, and easier to get color for the Amiga. (Personally, I live for screen area, and grayscale stays sharper over time...) NeXT, of course, runs NeXTstep. Which isn't X. (This being the major reason I don't own one, and probably won't get one.) Amiga runs S5R4, which is supposed to have 4.3BSD compatibility. NeXT runs 4.3BSD on a Mach kernel. NeXT is probably more stable - having been out longer. (And 4.3 > 5, IMHO...) Ok - maybe it's an apples and oranges comparison. But, being somewhat poor, those are THE low-end Unix workstations available to me. (No, I don't consider {3,4}86 based ex-DOS machines worth the bother.) I can't help but WISH that either NeXT would get off their horse and use X, or that Commodore would up the default memory to 8meg and offer a humongous grayscale monitor without the extra $$$.... -- Brian (Yet another lost soul looking to dump an Apple IIgs.)
david@kessner.denver.co.us (David Kessner) (03/20/91)
In article <1991Mar19.184812.4218@cs.umn.edu> brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: >>I am at the point where I'd find the extra money to buy a >>SPARC/NEXT/486 rather than getting a A3000UX-- but I think I'm just >>used to the higher performance of these machines (ie, I'm spoiled)... > >EXTRA money? Educational prices: > NeXTstation with 105meg disk, 8meg ram, floppy: $3,221 > (Through U of MN bookstore.) > Amiga 3000/UXB - 100meg disk, 4meg ram, (floppy?): $4,003 Sorry. I was thinking more along the lines of a A3000UX compared to a SPARC Clone. Using non-educational pricing: approx $7000 for 8meg, 200meg HD A3000UX vs approx $8000-9000 for a SPARC (8 meg, 200 meg HD, ethernet, and 16" 1280x1024x256 display). I do not consider the A3000UXB an option. It's 4 meg RAM and 100 meg HD is not large enough for any real work. Keep in ming that it takes 15-20 meg just to build EMACS (which has 10 meg of source code)! Unix and X itself takes about 60meg of the hard drive, and then there are the manuals... Also, the A3000 and the next use the 030-- which is too slow. (I think that was the 030 NeXT you mentioned above.) >Ok - maybe it's an apples and oranges comparison. But, being somewhat >poor, those are THE low-end Unix workstations available to me. (No, I >don't consider {3,4}86 based ex-DOS machines worth the bother.) I >can't help but WISH that either NeXT would get off their horse and use >X, or that Commodore would up the default memory to 8meg and offer a >humongous grayscale monitor without the extra $$$.... Hmmm. UNIX on a 386 is vrey nice-- except X on a VGA display is slow. But 34010 boards are in the less than $1000 range, and there are some at $600! This makes then much more attractive... >Brian (Yet another lost soul looking to dump an Apple IIgs.) Hey, I have a VIC-20 here! Anyone looking for a VIC-20? - David K -- David Kessner - david@kessner.denver.co.us | do { 1135 Fairfax, Denver CO 80220 (303) 377-1801 (p.m.) | . . . If you cant flame MS-DOS, who can you flame? | } while( jones);
geff@iastate.edu (Underwood Geoffrey Dale) (03/21/91)
In article <1991Mar19.222210.11393@kessner.denver.co.us> david@kessner.denver.co.us (David D. Kessner) writes: >In article <1991Mar19.184812.4218@cs.umn.edu> brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: >>>I am at the point where I'd find the extra money to buy a >>>SPARC/NEXT/486 rather than getting a A3000UX-- but I think I'm just >>>used to the higher performance of these machines (ie, I'm spoiled)... >> >>EXTRA money? Educational prices: >> NeXTstation with 105meg disk, 8meg ram, floppy: $3,221 >> (Through U of MN bookstore.) >> Amiga 3000/UXB - 100meg disk, 4meg ram, (floppy?): $4,003 > >Also, the A3000 and the next use the 030-- which is too slow. (I think that >was the 030 NeXT you mentioned above.) No. The 030 NeXTs haven't been made for months, and there never was a 030 NeXTstation (well, there might be some prototype I never heard of, but there was never any 030 NeXT computer sold besides the original cube, which has been discontinued). The NeXT listed above uses a 68040, as does every other NeXT computer still being built. BTW, did I mention that NeXT aren't using the 030 anymore? :) >>Brian (Yet another lost soul looking to dump an Apple IIgs.) > >Hey, I have a VIC-20 here! Anyone looking for a VIC-20? > > - David K >-- >David Kessner - david@kessner.denver.co.us | do { >1135 Fairfax, Denver CO 80220 (303) 377-1801 (p.m.) | . . . >If you cant flame MS-DOS, who can you flame? | } while( jones); Geff Underwood geff@iastate.edu
jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Darc Tangent) (03/21/91)
In article <1991Mar19.184812.4218@cs.umn.edu>, brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: > In <1991Mar19.003209.6819@kessner.denver.co.us> david@kessner.denver.co.us (David Kessner) writes: > > EXTRA money? Educational prices: > NeXTstation with 105meg disk, 8meg ram, floppy: $3,221 > (Through U of MN bookstore.) > Amiga 3000/UXB - 100meg disk, 4meg ram, (floppy?): $4,003 Well, I would list the hard drives as the same size since both machines use the same Quantum drive and I would list the UXB at 5 megs RAM since you can use chip RAM. Of course, RAM prices are such that the difference in RAM sizes is ignorable. While the NeXTStation's 68040 is very nice, I wouldn't buy one because of the lack of expandability (zero slots compared to the Amiga's four) and because I do not like the NeXT as a development system from my two year's experience with them; however, I have no experience with the A3000UXB so I don't know that it would be better, but I do like my AmigaOS development system much better than the NeXT's. > Brian (Yet another lost soul looking to dump an Apple IIgs.) Ah, I remember having that problem :-). Good luck. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darc Tangent "Rewind - replay - warm memory chip jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu Random-sample Hold the one you need" - RUSH