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From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Subject: Re: Amiga OS *IS* state of the art, but the NeXT is better
In-Reply-To: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu's message of Wed, 3 Apr 91 09:36:14 GMT
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	<*68Gc&.f1@cs.psu.edu> <1991Apr3.093614.15967@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
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Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 10:05:56 GMT
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In article <1991Apr3.093614.15967@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:

Damn is it late.  I can't believe I stayed up all night.

    Data Point: It is harder to add an 040 to a Mac than it is to an A3000. And
   and damn near impossible to upgrade the NeXTStation since it has NO SLOTS.
   Another point: Mac harder/softwaree is historically more expensive than
   Amiga hardware.

I'm not sure if you can upgrade the NeXT slabs either.  You might just
buy a new one.  The slab itself only costs $2300 after the educational
discount.  The monitor is a major expense, but you can keep it.

    The Amiga has virtual memory/mmu protection if you purchase Unix for it
   which IS availible. AT&T Sys V R4 with X windows and openlook.
   S5R4 Unix incorperates everything BSD has and adds much more. There is
   lots more software availible for X than there is for NeXTSTEP.

You can't run Unix and your games(or video) at the same time. And X
Windows, along with Motif, is available for the NeXT.  Runs in a
window, so you can have NeXTStep, SoftPC, and X Windows all running at
the same time.

    The Mac doesn't have VM unless you count unreleased System 7. There is
   another product called virtual that doesn't use an MMU but the only reason
   this hack works is because Macs reference memory by double
   dereferencing pointers. (They call it 'handles')

You can buy inits that give you virtual memory for the Mac.  They(it)
have been available for at least a year.  Actually, I think we are
thinking of the same product.  If so, it requires the 68030 because it
does need the MMU.  Anyway, System 7.0 is out next month so virtual is
available.  Will Amiga DOS 2.0 be available for the A500 soon?

-Mike


