*BSD News Article 29547


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From: ccastco@prism.gatech.edu (Costas Malamas)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.unix.misc,comp.windows.x.misc
Subject: Re: OpenStep for $100
Date: 20 Apr 1994 13:22:04 -0400
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 61
Message-ID: <2p3obs$f8k@acme.gatech.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gatech.edu

In article <cairnss.766797259@ucsu.colorado.edu>,
Queenie <cairnss@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> wrote:
 >dmuir@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Douglas Muir) writes:
 >
 >>Hi, I'm part of a group that's thinking about implementing a $100
 >>OpenStep implementation.  We think Next's NextStep OS is great, but its
 >>high price is a major reason why not many people have it.  Now that Next
 >>is releasing the system independent features of NextStep (the spec.  is
 >>called OpenStep), some friends and I have started to think about
 >>starting a software company to write an inexpensive implementation.
 >>However, it would be stupid to go through all the work to write such a
 >>thing if nobody would want it, so I'd like to get some feedback from the
 >>net community.
 >
 >I do not think that high price is the only limiting factor.
 >Last I saw, NextStep 486 was going for $199 and the add was
 >begging for anyone to break down and buy a copy.
 >
 >These kinds of applications are limited in scope.  They are
 >a great idea, but ...
 >
 >>We think that there are three types of people who might want this, 1)
 >>people who want nextstep but can't afford it, 2) people who use unix at
 >>work and want it at home but want a nicer interface so their family can
 >>use it too, 3) hacker/techie/student types like ourselves.
 >
 >1.  MS Windows.
 >2.  MS Windows.
 >3.  Linux.
 >
 >The world is getting supersaturated with OS's.  
 >I could see an inexpensive clone of NextStep 
 >doing very well, if NextStep was doing very well.
 >NextStep is not doing well. 
 >
 >People don't want to use it for whatever reason.
 >This is often how it goes in the computer industry,
 >and there is little that can be done to save a dead
 >product.

	Having used almost very major OS (yep VMS too...) and beeing developing
apps for X-Win and MS Win to a lesser extent, I got to say this: NeXTStep
is by far the best OS/Environment out there... NS/486 runs MS-Win apps faster
than WIn NT (dont knwo about NT w/ Daytona), its much mor stable than u*x +X+
motif, or OS/2 and looks much prettier than X or OS/2... never mind ease of
use... I thing that the major drawback of theplatform its the fact that it needs
a monster PC... I dont really appreciate black and white, especially when I
(and many others) have paid the extra $$$ to buy a nice 16bit+ card.. Nor
I can afford 24+ MB stadard fro color installation and 250MB of HD for OS alone
(granted, with lots of very nice stuff, but still.. Win 3.1 takes 20-30 full
blown, with an external shell like Norton's... 8 times that is pretty bad...)
I would have no problem paying the $300, but another 1000 for hardware is
pretty expensive...
Just my $2E-10


-- 
costas malamas ____________________________________________________________
georgia institute of technology        	    
OIT UA -- my opinions do not reflect those of OIT
internet: ccastco@prism.gatech.edu