19 Jan
1998
19 Jan
'98
1:52 a.m.
Most of them were
grayscale but a few really flossy ones had 24-bit color.
Many critics complained about NeXT only offering greyscale initially.
In their time (like the Lisa) computers that too few
people
understood;
I think the general public never did understand the NeXT boxes. They
offered a bunch of stuff that PeeCees and Macs did not offer, or were not
common at the time, so much of what they saw was a big price tag.
Engineers and college types saw machines with a few too many flaws and
disadvantages. Sun-3xs (3/80 and 3/480, specifically) offered much the
same features, plus color and an established applications base. The
SPARCstations put the final nails in the NeXT coffin. The SGI 4D/s also
helped keep the NeXT down, as the Irises simply blew the Next away in the
graphics and speed departments.
It really was a nice try, but too late in the workstation world.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net