Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!ohstpy!miavx1!jwwalden
From: jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Darc Tangent)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: GS (What you want _requires_ moving closer to the Amiga...)
Message-ID: <1160.2600f4c1@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 90 19:14:25 GMT
References: <90030820242943@masnet.uucp> <1990Mar9.205605.2836@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Lines: 50

> The Amiga is a serious threat to the market you (and I) desire for the GS,
> because if they ever get any decent productivity software for it then we
> will be in deep trouble. But Appleworks GS with a blitter-enhanced desktop
> would knock your socks off. So would your dot matrix output, because the GS
> Print Manager already uses quickdraw to draw each page in memory for dumping
> to the printer; if that quickdraw used a blitter then your printer would
> be slower than the computer again.
> 
> Other 'Amiga features' many of us want to see (DMA everywhere, programmable
> video, and a streamlined architecture) are the key to the Amiga's excellent
> price/performance ratio and are good additions to ANY computer, especially
> one for the home. These features can all be used for much more than just games
> and this is a largely ingnored fact which is what keeps the Amiga from being
> more than just a 'game' machine. It is also the ideal desktop video machine,
> and the current offerings on the GS can't compete with the video workstations
> that one can create around an Amiga. This may not be your market, but it fits
> Apple's grand scheme and the Mac is not the answer when it comes to NTSC video
> applications.
>
	Your remarks about the Amiga's hardware are very accurate, but you seem
to not know much about currently available Amiga software.  There is far much
more productivity software available for the Amiga than for the Apple IIGS.  
Where are the GS CAD programs?  TeX applications?  Math programs like Maple and
MatLab?  The GS doesn't have them because it doesn't have the processing or
graphics power for those types of applications.  The Amiga does.  The Amiga
certainly has as many word processors, dtp programs, spreadsheets, and data
bases as the GS (not counting all the ancient general Apple II software that
is hopelessly behind the times (I'm not talking about the newer Apple II
software like DB Master Pro, etc.)).  Of course, for graphics and sound
processing, there is much more available on the Amiga, as well as for system
level things like UNIX type shells and utilities, compilers, text editors,
and terminals.  Now admittedly if you count all of the old Apple II software,
the GS does have more software, but most of those 10000+ packages just cannot
compete with modern programs for any machine.

Before I get flamed, I would like to mention that I've owned an Apple II for
ten years.

 
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[] Darc Tangent    d(arctan(u)) = du/(1+u^2)   jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu []
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[] "I am made from the dust of the stars, the oceans flow in my veins."       []
[]                                    - RUSH, Presto                          []
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[] "Reading legal mush can turn your brain to guacamole!" - Amiga RKM         []
[] "Objective truth is a social disease." - Nietzsche                         []
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