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From: BARRETT%FOREST.ECIL.IASTATE.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Amiga Fading? : Revisited
Message-ID: <15047@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Date: 26 Mar 90 22:19:15 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 45



   Several months ago, I posted a message to this and another list
entitled "Amiga Fading?"  This was a comment about an article in
TIME which compared Commodore's big bashes in New York and Las Angeles
to a party for an aging star.  I basically agreed with the article,
and commented that the Amiga, as a serious influence on the computer
industry, is fading fast.

   In the last few months since I wrote that message, I have had my
opppinions confirmed over and over and over again.  Nobody in the
computer industry pays attention to the Amiga anymore, even in
areas such as multimedia where the Amiga really shines.  The Amiga
is rapidly becoming a home computer and game machine, going the
way of the Commodore 64 and Atari ST.

   Commodore is developing some Amiga-based UNIX systems, but they
won't really be Amiga systems.  The systems will, most likely, be
based on the Lowell video card.  From such systems, the Amiga custom
chips could be totally removed from the systems without affecting
the system's marketability as a UNIX system.

   I don't really see any hope for the Amiga as it currently is.
The Amiga's custom chips are years out-of-date, and, in the higher-
end machines, will be replaced by the TI 32010 used in the Lowell
card.  The operating system is also years out-of-date -- lacking
critical capabilities such as full virtual memory and support for
memory-management units -- and will be replaced by UNIX in the
higher-end machines.  Thus, the new higher-end machines can hardly
be called Amigas at all.

   I look forward to the new machines, since I am a UNIX fanatic
and am also looking forward to the possibility of finally being
able to use scientific software -- such as Mathematica -- which is
totally lacking for the Amiga.  But other people won't be so happy,
because it will mean that the only good software that will be
available for "Amiga" machines in the future will be expensive and
only available for Amiga UNIX.

   Is there any real hope for the real, true Amiga?  I doubt it.
Commodore has their attentions on UNIX, and the computer industry
doesn't pay attention to the Amiga at all.


                                     Marc Barrett