Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request From: berlin%bu-albert.BU.EDU@bu-it.bu.edu (David Fickes) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: NeXT vs. Sun Message-ID: <8811170347.AA03088@bu-albert.bu.edu> Date: 29 Nov 88 13:35:53 GMT Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas Lines: 63 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: Wed, 16 Nov 88 22:47:32 EST X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 28, message 13 of 13 Here is the summary that I promised. After looking over the responses (about 15) and eliminating duplications and items that were simply "and NeXT has" without a comparison, I felt that the comments by Charles Ditzel with some additions would be the best service. If anyone really wants all 15 responses, e-mail me and I'll pack them up for you. - david > buita!dartvax!rutgers!beaver.cs.washington.edu!ssc-vax!benoni (Charles L Ditzel) I guess a couple of things come to mind when comparing NeXT to Sun : 1. NeXT lacks a networking window system that is a standard - Sun will soon have X11/NeWS. X and NeWS are now available separately. 2. NeXT has display postscript...but - Sun has a much more powerful display postscript paradigm in that they have NeWS which is a complete Postscript-based networkable window and graphics system. 3. Objective C is available for Sun workstations. 4. Mach (as mentioned) is also available for Sun machines. 5. Open Look will provide a user interface that is both friendly and versatile. 6. Sun currently has color. NeXT does not. 7. Sun is shipping in volume. NeXT is not. 8. NeXT still is not done with the system software. NeXT's advantage (which may be temporary or not) is in it's user interface builder. The NeXT price is not the breakthrough the press is making it out to be. Another advantage is that NeXT is shipping a fair amount of application software with their boxes. I think, however, they might have considered packaging the software. I think that rather than a broad spectrum of packages...they should have targeted university areas (such as Computer Science, Biz Admin, Math, Engineering, Humanities, etc) with specific packages. ---- additional comments ---- The NeXT price is better if you "need/can use" the packaged software such as the Sybase database engine. Of course, this limits choices but the overall cost of any Sun system at university pricing which includes a database/Mathematica/ and such will be higher. Of course, I can't think of using Mathematica for much more than a toy around here. The DSP chip as a standard feature has LOTS of potential. The NeXT tool-builder is beyond current Sun offerings. The packaging of "standard" software has quite a bit of potential for development towards a new set of standards. If there are enough NeXT machines sold on campuses, most academics will have access to certain "standard" items which will allow the creation of even more sophisticated programs. (A parallel might be considered in the Lotus 1-2-3 software world. 1-2-3 became a standard and many hundreds of add-in packages were created to run with 123.) David K. Fickes dfickes@bu-albert.bu.edu The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein ...harvard!bu-it!bu-albert!dfickes Boston University berlin@buita.bu.edu 745 Commonwealth Avenue - room 541 617/ 353-9249 Boston, MA 02215 617/ 783-4301