Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Info on new low-end Mac
Message-ID: <13389@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 23 Jul 90 23:43:13 GMT
References: <1990Jul19.133752.5611@uunet!unhd> <27545@athertn.Atherton.COM> <26401@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1990Jul22.011427.1065@utstat.uucp>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 51

In article <1990Jul22.011427.1065@utstat.uucp> philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) writes:
>In article <26401@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@sim.UUCP (David C. Navas) writes:
>>For this extra $1500 I get -- AppleTalk, now ain't that special :)
>>I also get -- a slower bus interface, less room for internal memory,
>>multi-tasking-by-Apple, non-standard-Unix, etc, etc.

>The MacIIci does come with a 68882, as well as built in video giving
>you either 256 colours in 640x480 or 16 shades in a portrait display.
>A/UX 2.0 is quite a nice implementation of UNIX, and is available
>now. What do you call "standard Unix".

There are no standard UNIXs just yet, really.  Ultimately, there will be one
or two standard UNIXs, AT&T's System V Release 4 is the most likely winner
in the 680x0 market.  Open Software's OSF/1 may or may not become a second
true standard.  The idea of a standard UNIX is that you'll be able to buy
shrinkwrapped UNIX software, not for "Apple" or "Amiga", but for "680x0
machine".  A/UX 2.0 is probably a pretty nice UNIX, but it does not support
the standard 680x0 ABI, and it's non-standard windowing environment (eg,
the Mac toolbox, rather than X) is not going to have UNIX people flocking,
now that they're finally getting things straightened out in that market.

>Appletalk is a very nice networking system. Note that the protocals
>can run at Ethernet speed(EtherTalk). 

But those software layers only hook Macs to Macs, don't they.  And you'll
need a NuBus Ethernet card to run at Ethernet speeds.  And TCP/IP + NFS
to talk to anything useful that's non-Mac.  This stuff's all available for
the Amiga systems, from Commodore.  AppleTalk is nice for printer sharing,
but doesn't cut it for filesharing or other high bandwidth applications.

>The A3000 is technically a nice computer. 

Thank you.

>The software base is rather limited, so the extra $1500 is more than worth 
>it for 90% of the users. 

I don't think you know that much about the A3000's software base.  For those
without a specific program in mind, you can please about 90% of the users 
with an Amiga just as easily as with a PC.  There are certain niches that
the Mac serves better than the Amiga, just as there's at least one niche 
(video) that the Amiga servers better than the Mac.  If you have a certain
program in mind that you can't live without, you pick that package and then
find a machine that'll run it, be it Amiga, Mac, or PClone.

>Philip McDunnough

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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           The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club