Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig5!wayneck
From: wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne C Knapp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Go ahead, make my day (was Re: A new Amiga from Japan)
Message-ID: <5438@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Date: 23 Jan 90 18:31:54 GMT
References: <8904@nigel.udel.EDU>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 49

In article <8904@nigel.udel.EDU>, C503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu (Baird McIntosh) writes:
> >I feel that future of small computers is really bright.  If the Amiga goes
> >down the tubes (Which I think is happening) it is no big deal since multi-
> >media is here to stay and other computer will quicky take the Amiga's place.
> 
> And for those of us who can't afford to buy a new computer every 3-5 years,
> I guess we'll just be oughta luck, right?  But we should have thought of that
> when we bought Commodore stuff, right?  Sheesh!
> 
There are a lot of examples of this, two are CP/M machines and the Atari 800 
machines.  I don't know of one computer that looks great after it is 3 to
5 years old.  The Amiga has done a lot better than most.  Even if Commodore
were to stop making Amigas there would still be a lot of Amiga activity in
the following years, so you wouldn't have to just throw away your Amiga!
However I feel that the basic Amiga has gone about as far as it can without
some real enhancements.  I waiting to see what is going to happen.  Maybe
the Amiga 500 could really take off if it gets cheaper and go like wild
like the C64 did - but I'm not sure I want to stay on an Amiga 500 type
of machine.  I been working with Sun Sparcs at work and also have a 386
machine at home and I really enjoy the power of these machines.  Yes the
B2000 with a A2630 is very powerful, but a complete system costs something
like $5000, that isn't cheap.  A equally powerful pc clone runs only around
$3000, at least for the things that I'm interested in --- which is rendering.  

> Do you really believe what you said?  Surely anything is possible, and the
> Amiga *could* fade away in the next year, but I don't think it is *probable*
> considering all the upcoming and current developments (Amix, 2500/30, 3000,
> XWindows/networking/multi-serial boards, frame buffers and video cards, etc)
> related specifically to enhancing the Amiga's usefulness and increasing the
> size of the audience to which it can be successfully marketted.
> 
I'm waiting to see what the Amiga 3000 will be.  If it is fast enough, cheap
enough ( < $3500) and has much better graphics cabilities then I'll change
my mind about the Amiga's future!  So I may have to eat my words, after all
Commodore sometimes hits that magic winning combination.   

> Progress in small computers is good, but I hope that doesn't mean the Amiga
> development must die in the next year or two. (Someday it *will* die, I agree,
> but the above statement makes it sound like tomorrow is D-Day.)
> 
I didn't say it must die!  I didn't say I want it to die.  I said it looks
like it is not doing well and I don't see how things can improve.  I said 
that if the Amiga does fade away it's impact won't and there will be plenty
of choices in the future.  I was trying to point out that the computers I
saw in Japan, while based on PC clones were very exciting!  I saying that
if Commodore doesn't get its act together I'll go with the flow and not
worry about the past.    

                                           Wayne Knapp