Scott,
I'm an intel user (never liked macs) and I totally agree
this plan. The Yellow box was the announcement I was waiting for
and I may even invest in Apple now. I'll buy Rhapsody for intel
when it comes out and would for the first time consider mac hardware
when I next buy in 1999 or so if most software is written for both.
I'd like to add some warnings as a former NeXTStep (mach on intel)
user; hurdles I'll be looking to Apple to overcome.
I used NeXTStep for 2 years and bought ver 4.0 as recently as sept
96. Its a dream to use, infinitely better even than what I've seen
of Mac GUI and of course win95. I could list all the ways its more
intuituve and elegantly thought-out. The devil is in the detail and
the NeXT GUI designers really ironed out the `ergonomics' so that
it all functions smoothly; the NeXT dock where you drag any applications you like into the dock where they stay until you unplug
them; the way program icons are ALSO folders containing all the
junk associated with the program; You can open as folder of you
want but otherwise the icon is the executable launching the applicn.
etc etc. You have to use it for a week or so to begin to appreciate
the subtlety of the GUI.
SO why did I give it up? Two problems.
1) Nextstep engineers were always several months behind in writing
all the drivers for new hardware. Intel has a plethora of devices;
printers, graphics cards etc and thy just couldnt keep up. When I
first bought the NeXT OS I had to use my screen in bw low res mode
for 6 months before they wrote the driver for the number 9 graphics
card that came with my off the shelf Dell pc. In the final days
I couldnt use my connectix camera or infrared port to my notebook.
These were the last straws. Note that linux, also unix systems
with similar problems were doing a better job than Nextstep.
I hope Apple dont underestimate the resources needed -- banks
of engineers -- to fix this problem. They need to add many engineers
to the existing NexT team. My guess is that they WIll underestimate,
that Rhapsody for MAC will run fine -- hardware much more limited --
but Rhapsody for intel will not keep up. The big name of apple might
save them: hardware manufacturers might one day write the rhapsody
drivers themselves like they do windows (and which they never did
for NeXTStep as too small a company).
2) Its a unix system which is great as a workstation replacement
but has problems for use on the mass scale. I think Apple will in
the first instance easily hit Sun, SGI etc market in the low-end
non-speciality corporate sector. Nextstep/Rhapsody outclasses other
unix boxes because of its user interface, but otherwise represents
no learning curve for the computer technician. For $120 you can get
perfect X11R6 compatibility from other companies like X-Next to
interface to your other boxes. Until now NeXT was too expensive for
most corporations -- elitist and pricey -- Apple can change all that
and include all the personal consumer stuff that unix workstations
dont run at the moment. A winner.
But unix workstations are not suitable for the general consumer:
-- takes several minutes booting up; theyre not designed to be turned
on and off all the time. By contrast the consumer wants (and will get
in windows) `instant on'
-- takes a lot of unix hacking one way or another. Setting up
Nextstep on my intel machine took 2 weeks, a lot of phone calles
about naive questions and a lot of perseverance. I cant imagine
a general consumer manging his system
-- for example, configuring the network connections; has extremly
powerful and robust abilities but you'd have to be a computer
consutlant to figure out the setup -- another week and many phone
calls. And I'm computer literate though not with unix.
-- but if youre connecting by modem from home; no support. You have
undocumented basic text access through unix `tip' and `ftp' but
no slip or ppp -- you have to get third party help for that
-- everything is postscript oriented. So if you have a laser printer
no problem. But if youre a consumer with HP Deskjet or whatever, they
dont supply drivers! Too far below them. There are free fixes provided
by individuals on the internet but you have to unix-hack
-- everything is SCSI oriented. The EIDE hard disks, which almost
all intel machines use, is not really suported. Actually you can
install on some EIDE disks but, for example to keep the win 95 that
came for free on your intel machine on one hard disk and alternatively
boot to NeXTStep on another hard disk is not allowed officially. There
is a technical hacking document available on the Nextstep website
which worked for older ver 3.2 of nextstep but doesnt work anymore.
I called them. They dont care. Your suppposed to delete your windows95
or use their `official' scsi configuration.
-- Oh and the Iomega Jaz drivers didnt work and destroyed a Jaz
disk cartridge. They partially work in their native DOS format but
not Nextstep format.
-- And yes, Nexstep can recognise windows disks and files. But guess
what? Even in the Sept 96 release they only allow the old win 3.11
file names (<8 characters etc) as if we dont all use win95 or NT by
now. Result: useless.
-- and the SoftPC to run windows in NExtStep was always a joke; could
only emulate windows3.11 in real mode and not windows95. Its a con
to look good to Wall Street brokers but doesnt work in practice.
* * *
Now NeXTStep didnt address these kind of flaws in 2 years that
I used them 1995--1996. They're going to need a cmplete culture
change and wakeup call from Apple if they are going to be ready for
consumer market, and a lot of resources to turn a unix product
into something useable for the consumer. I think Apple can pull
it off but dont be fooled by cool demos of existing NeXTStep
technology disguised as Rhapsody; needs a lot of work even before
the question of Mac OS compatibility.
Hope this helps to give some perspective from the 'other side'.
I'm watching Appl to see if these things are being addressed
and when convinced and when the price is right, will buy some.
Best Wishes
Shahn |
