Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!apollo!ulowell!hawk!rsilvers
From: rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Comments on NeXT.
Message-ID: <9291@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 88 20:45:00 GMT
Sender: news@swan.ulowell.edu
Reply-To: rsilvers@hawk.ulowell.edu (Robert Silvers)
Organization: University of Lowell, CS Dept
Lines: 30


     I assume that by "erasable" they mean that the optical disk can be
erased, but can it be re-written?  I dont believe anyone has done this
before, except for the Tandy thor drive, but that could only be written to
30 or so times, and is 1-2 years away from release.  Would Jobs really
sell this computer with a write-once disk as the main means of storage?
I also heard that optical disks were much slower than hard disks.  I
would rather see this ship with a 120 Meg hard disk, and later add an
optical disk when the technology is more reliable.  

     I would also prefer a seperate monitor.  What happens when I want
to add a color display?  I have to either have it external, or have a 
dealer swap them (with an official NeXT display, not my choice of after-
market ones.)  He is able to control the price and profits by making it
hard for others to market monitors for it.  What about when I want to 
upgrade X-Windows?  I cant simply get a copy of the new version, I have
to buy the official NeXT ROMS.  15 Megs of ROMS + dealer markup= $$$.

     He learned from the mistakes of the Mac by adding expansion slots,
but also learned that if you make things like the display and ROMs
proprietary, you can control the prices.

		Any comments on this?  I may be wrong.
					--Rob.


Robert Silvers.                                                 
Box #1003 University of Lowell.                                   
Lowell Ma, 01854                                                    
(617) 452-8823 Rm. 322     "Live free or live in Massachusetts."