Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!jonabbey From: jonabbey@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Jonathan Abbey) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Fading? : Revisited Message-ID: <26994@ut-emx.UUCP> Date: 27 Mar 90 17:45:53 GMT References: <15047@snow-white.udel.EDU> <5464@sugar.hackercorp.com> Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP Reply-To: jonabbey@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Jonathan Abbey) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Lines: 103 Karl Lehenbauer writes: | Marc Barrett writes: | Several months ago, I posted a message to this and another list | entitled "Amiga Fading?" This was a comment about an article in | TIME ... 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. ... |----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |...and 50-odd more lines of Amiga-bashing. | |Fine, detonate your machine and unsuscribe from the group. Don't let the |door hit your ass on the way out. | |Seriously, a lot of messages lately, particularly this one, do not contribute |one bit to this group. If your only comment is that the Amiga is worthless, |dead and buried, please keep it to yourself, share it with your smirking |buddies in a newsgroup for whatever machine you think is really righteous, |or forward it to /dev/null. I'm afraid I don't agree with you here at all, Karl - I think Marc is quite correct in what he is saying. I have had my Amiga since mid nov. 85, and have been a voracious reader of everything I could get my hands on about the Amiga and other machines since, have done a good deal of programming on the Amiga, and in general have devoted a large deal of time to it (albeit unprofessionally - I'm a bit busy with my education these days). The point is, I love the Amiga as much as anyone. But I also fancy myself a realist. Take a look at a MacWorld, or a PC Week, or any other mainstream computer publication. With the exception of the increasing coverage in BYTE recently (in anticipation of the introduction of the A3000, I suspect), the Amiga is pretty much not to be seen. And, given the state of the Amiga software (both system and application) and the general ratio of Amigas to PC's and Macintoshi, I feel this is pretty much justified. The only problem I have with the media attention is how often the Amiga is left out of articles on Multi-media in deference to what Microsoft is cooking up. But honestly, with Commodore as they have been, and the state of the Amiga system resulting from that, you can't expect much else. The Amiga is as alive as it is today (quite, that is) because it provides to the average person far more than can be got from a PC or Macintosh, particularly in terms of home usage. i.e., non-professional. The software just isn't there to address the needs of the general business / professional computing population. In video, music and multimedia, the software is there (especially with AmigaVision.. look for that one program to make a *big* difference in the Amiga's future! Good job, guys!), and attention is being given to the Amiga accordingly. Acknowledging this publicly is quite objective, and certainly belongs in this forum. I tend to disagree with Marc on a few points though. I believe Unix can give Commodore a good deal of sales if the A3000 is done well and they can put it out at an attractive price point. Going against Sun, Apollo, IBM and now Apple in the workstation market will be murderous, though. It will have to be a Unix workstation for the rest of us 8-) to have a real impact. And it may very well succeed in doing so. Commodore's education thrust is a mildly brilliant move, with AmigaVision and other products addressing the personal authoring market (Electronic Arts, The Right Answers Group, etc.) providing the impetous for educational purchasing, in the K-12 levels especially. Unix complements this nicely in the college market. The challenge will be establishing the software base that will give the college market a reason to buy an Amiga over a heavily marketed Macintosh with a solid existing base of college users and a large collection of software applicable to the college user. (Mathematica and all those really nifty word processing and desktop publishing products leap to mind) Desktop Video/Multi-media is probably not as large a market as is the set of College students who would like to use a Macintosh to do their papers on. Commodore has, to put it mildly, an uphill struggle. But Harry Copperman impresses me mightily. The Amiga may actually have a chance to come around with he and his crew at the helm. It all depends on he (and us in the Amiga community) developing the products necessary to make the Amiga something that is not only technically superior but, damn it, a product that folks simply can't do without because you just can't do the things an Amiga can do on other machines. That is how the Macintosh has achieved its success, and that is what the Amiga needs, if it is to distinguish itself from the computer commodity market. The Amiga needs to produce a demand. And I think Mr. Copperman has chosen just about the best possible path to do so, realistically. But we who care about the Amiga are going to have to work with him and help get the Amiga to the point where the economy of the Amiga market will support large companies like Aldus, and so on. I think Marc's pointing this out is *highly* appropriate to this newsgroup, and I commend him. Flames are not only un-called for, but are counterproductive to the Amiga's well-being and unrealistic. Personally, I'm hoping to gain employment at Commodore after I graduate.. or at Lotus. 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) |-- uunet!sugar!karl "As long as there is a legion of superheros, all else |>-- can surely be made right." -- Sensor Girl |>-- Usenet access: (713) 438-5018 Incidentally, while typing this message in, I got my first look at a Lynx. WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW !!! It reminds me of my first look at an Amiga.. wonder why? 8-) Jonathan Abbey (512) 926-5934 | Amiga Programmer Wanna-be jonabbey@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu bix: jonabbey +----------------------------- The University of Texas at Austin - CS Undergrad | Speaking for myself, at best