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From: horsch@grads.cs.ubc.ca (Michael Horsch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Why Atari?
Summary: Potential unrealized...
Message-ID: <5380@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 89 18:23:49 GMT
References: <1109@cc.helsinki.fi>
Sender: news@cs.ubc.ca
Reply-To: horsch@grads.cs.ubc.ca (Michael Horsch)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 51

With all the talk around here about how people feel about their
decision to buy/support or not to buy/support the Atari line
of computers, I thought I'd put in my CDN$0.02.

Way back when I was one of the first to buy a 520ST, I bought it
because of the price. It wasn't cheap for me, but it was cheaper
than comparably able MACs or Amigas or PCs. I knew I was bringing it
into a household which, aside from me (and I was still learning),
had no computer experience at all. GEM's intuitive user interface
was important!

I suspect that quite a few people bought STs for these reasons.

But I remember an article in STart #2 (I think) by Tim Oren. He
waxed speculative about the potential of the ST line: there were
many interesting things one could do with a machine which had a 
lot of memory standard (recall that in '85, having 512k standard
was a big deal for most personal computers), graphics abilities,
a reasonably fast microprocessor which was not going to hamstring
future processors in the 68k line with compatibility problems, etc...

I believe Oren was right. The ST had a lot of potential.
Somehow, we, the ST users community forgot about that
potential (no blame, just observation). If I may venture 
a guess, I think we expected too much from Atari in terms
of improved hardware (re: ROM TOS, blitter, 1040, SLM,
MegaST, ATW, STacy, TT, TOS 1.4 ((I know TOS is software,
but when it comes in chips from a factory, and one can only get
it through Atari, it looks the same as hardware))).
The sentiment seemed to be: "If only I got the X, then
I could do amazing things with this machine!" (X being
a member of the previous list). Of course, as X became
known as Vapourware, so did the 'amazing things.'

It is clear that the ST line lost its edge in potential. I am
not sure that the TT will provide any more potential for
those willing enough to try it (again: not opinion, just lack
of data).

Right now, I know someone who needs to upgrade his computer
system from an old (hardly) portable 64k CP/M Kaypro (I think).
Based on my experience with my Atari, he seems ready to get
a 1040 for himself. He will undoubtably get a good price,
but I wonder what else he will be inheriting...or not inheriting.
I am not sure, but maybe I'll tell him to look around
a bit more at the competition.

Mike (All this for CDN$0.02. Opinion without the Price!)
--
Michael C. Horsch		Dept. of Computer Science, 
horsch@cs.ubc.ca		University of British Columbia