NeXT vs. Sun

[David Fickes]

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 at bu-albert.bu.edu
The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein    ...harvard!bu-it!bu-albert!dfickes
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