*** Subject: U1. What comes with the 68040-25 MHz upgrade?
A disposable anti-static bracelet, installation
guide, new OD cable, OD filter (*very* important),
68040-25 MHz board, a SIMM extractor tool, Fed-Ex return
slip, and registration card.
*** Subject: U2. What comes with the 1.0 -> 2.n software upgrade?
The 2.0 upgrade comes with an optical disk with 2.0
extended, a bunch of manuals, and keyboard tilt feet.
There is are registration cards to get Mathematica 2.0
and Sybase for educational users.
The 68040-25MHz upgrade requires the NeXTstep 2.0
upgrade.
NeXT is now shipping "direct" 1.0->2.1 upgrades on OD as
#N5507.
*** Subject: U3. What has happened in release 2.0 with the versions of Franz Allegro Common Lisp, the Sybase SQL Server, and Mathematica that were distributed with NeXTstep 1.0?
These products are no longer bundled with the NeXTstep.
Owners of old NeXT Computers are, however, entitled to
continue using them.
Allegro Common Lisp: When upgrading from NeXTstep 1.0 to
NeXTstep 2.0, the upgrade program offers the
opportunity to save your copy of Common Lisp. You can do
this, and it will still run on the 68030 NeXt Computer
except that the Foreign Function Interface no longer
works. The hardware upgrade from the 68030 to the
68040-25 MHz, however, breaks this version of Common
Lisp completely and it will no longer run. With the
NeXTstep 2.0 upgrade, there is a postcard to return to
NeXT requesting an updated version of Common Lisp which
(when released) will run on the 68040 under 2.0. Future
enhancements to Allegro Common Lisp (including the
soon-to-be-released version with CLOS support) will
only be available directly from Franz Inc. Owners of old
NeXT Computers can obtain upgrade service as
"maintenance/support" at a lower cost than buying a new
Allegro Common Lisp license (which is what owners of new
cubes and slabs must get). Contact Franz Inc. for details
and prices.
Sybase: The release 1.0 Sybase SQL Server is completely
broken by release 2.0, and the upgrade program will
delete this from your disk (without asking permission)
in the course of upgrading. Release 2.0 contains an SQL
client, which can be used to connect to SQL servers on your
network (perhaps older NeXT Computers still running
NeXTstep 1.0, for example). A new SQL server (with some
modified features) will be sent to owners of old cubes who
request it by means of the same postcard that gets you a new
version of Common Lisp.
Mathematica: The upgrade program offers you the
opportunity to save your old version of this, and the old
version still runs under 2.0 (on both 68030 and 68040
hardware). Sending in the postcard referred to above
from the NeXTstep 2.0 upgrade kit will get you a new
version of Mathematica, too. This version will be
available free to academic users with new cubes and slabs
as well.
All of the upgraded programs referred to above will be
provided on NeXT floppies, not OD's. You will need either
to buy an external floppy drive or to have someone else
transfer them from floppy to OD in order to make use of
them. These upgrades are shipping.
*** Subject: U4. How do I get NeXTstep 2.1?
People running NeXTstep 2.0 can order an upgrade
distribution from NeXT. The 2.1 distribution does not
include a 2.0->2.1 upgrade application.
NeXTstep 2.1 Upgrade kit is part #n7022 on floppies costs
$50 call the NeXT 800 number for it.
*** Subject: U5. What does NeXTstep 2.2 offer?
Hardware support for the Turbo machines. There are no
software upgrades, and no reason to upgrade a non-Turbo
machine to this release. In fact, there are reasons not
to upgrade a non-Turbo machine to 2.2.
*** Subject: U6. Will a 68030 NeXT Computer run NeXTstep 3.0?
Yes, but note that NeXTstep 3.0 will be optimized for the
68040 CPUs. NeXTstep 1.0 and 2.x were optimized for the
68030 CPU, 68882 FPU machines.
*** Subject: U7. What happens to the OD drive in NeXTcubes under NeXTstep 3.0?
Release 3.0 will work fine with the OD that you have. You
cannot buy release 3.0 on optical disk (you can only get it
on CD-ROM. Release 3.0 will not require that you drop the
optical, but if you want to upgrade to the latest 68040
board (the 33-MHz Turbo), then you lose hardware support
for the optical. There is a company which plans to offer
