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From: swklassen@tiger.waterloo.edu (Steven W. Klassen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: One world, One CPU, One OS
Message-ID: <1990Apr14.155106.2692@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 14 Apr 90 15:51:06 GMT
References: <93.26244db9@desire.wright.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 48

In article <93.26244db9@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu writes:
>
>	Reading the articles that say how alike Amiga, Atari, and Mac users
>are:
>
>	It would be nice if these users could all have one unified operating
>system.  (Yes, there is UNIX but not everyone has 4-8 meg of ram and 80+meg
>hard disks.)  What does Apple have to lose by liscensing the Mac OS to
>Commodore and Atari?

What makes you think the rest of the world wants the Mac OS?  If you
want a unified operating system it would be much better to stick
with UNIX.  Contrary to popular belief UNIX does NOT require 4-8 meg of
ram and 80+meg hard disks.  (Especially if you leave out the on-line
help.)  I have seen very useable UNIX look-alikes (namely Minix) operate
quite well on 1 meg machines (Atari 1040ST) with only 20 meg of the
hard drive dedicated for it.

Even if you must reject UNIX, why should the unified OS be the Mac one?
There are a number of reasons why people buy Amigas and Ataris instead
of Macs.  Here of some of them:

1.  The Amiga or the Atari suits their given purpose better.  Changing
    operating systems likely wouldn't affect this, so long as the
    hardware didn't change.

2.  The Mac is expensive.  If Mac liscenced their OS to Commodore and
    Atari, the Amigas and the STs would also become more expensive.

3.  They don't like the Mac, hence they certainly don't want their
    Amiga or ST becoming more like it.

4.  They don't like Apple Corp., hence they certainly won't want
    their purchase of an Amiga or ST to put money in the pockets
    of Apple.

(I won't tell you which one(s) of these were my reason(s)).

Of course some people would like the change - namely those who use
their Atari or Amiga to emulate a Mac, but my opinion is that most
people who want Macs purchase Macs, while those who want a computer
to fill a given purpose(s) look more carefully and choose the 
computer which best fulfills their purpose(s).


Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+