Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!hal!ncoast!davewt
From: davewt@NCoast.ORG (David Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga 1000 and 1.4
Summary: not betrayed, outdated
Keywords: yet another whine
Message-ID: <1989Nov13.204336.26531@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 13 Nov 89 20:43:36 GMT
References: <1275@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <5872@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Reply-To: davewt@ncoast.ORG (David Wright)
Distribution: na
Organization: North Coast Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 41


	During the life of a computer (if it is expected to survive for any
length of time) there must come a time where the new hardware has features
that the old machine did not. Every computer company recognizes this, or
their machines would become outdated. Apple did this with the //e and GS,
as well as their Macs, and IBM does it too.
	But for some reason, people who traditionally owned C= equipment
seem to think that their machine should be around and be supported forever.
As an ex-C= salesman, I got quite sick of people coming in and asking why
so few programs were not available on tape or cartridge for the 64 because
they did not want to buy a disk drive.
	Now that many of these people have bought Amiga's, it seems that
they want the same thing. The A500 and 2000 have a circuit that allows
them to turn off the audio filter. The A1000 didn't. (But someone published
a hack for the 1000 that gives it an identical one). The A500 and A2000
have "extra-half-bright" mode. Not all A1000's do. The A500 and A2000 also
have a completely different socket for the custom chips which do not fit
into the A1000. The A1000 still has it's KickStart on disk, while all the
machines produced after it have it on ROM.
	Now the point of all this diatribe is this. The machines have
different capabilities. Unless you expect C= to completely ignore the
improvements in the A500 and A2000 (which would sign the death warrant for
the Amiga immediately), there is nothing that they can do to make the A1000
up to date. A 3rd party has announced a board for the A1000 that will let
you use the new ECS. Why didn't C= come out with it? Simple. It is not
in their best interest. A 3rd party can manufacture such a device and
make money on it. For C= the whole development would be simply trying to
please people who bought a machine over 2 years ago, and have not put any
more money into their pockets. As one of the first people to buy an Amiga
1000, I didn't feel left out when the A2000 came along, I simply took it as a
good sign in C='s faith that the Amiga line was strong enough to risk the
tremendous expense of developing a new machine. And about 6 months
later (during their special offer) I upgraded to the new machine myself.
	You have to realize that the computer field is not static. If you stand
still (don't upgrade your machine), you WILL be left behind. This is the
same in the auto field, airplane field, electronics field, etc. You can't
expect a company to continue to support a product that is not going to generate
any more money for them. Any company that tries to do this won't stay in
business much longer. How do you think all those people with IBM AT's felt
the day that IBM flatly announced the new PS/2's?