Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!pyramid!telam
From: telam@pyrps5 (Thomas Elam)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga UNIX
Message-ID: <123574@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 16 Aug 90 23:16:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@pyramid.pyramid.com
Reply-To: telam@pyrps5.pyramid.com (Thomas Elam)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 50

In article <77@maxx.UUCP> tyager@maxx.UUCP (Tom Yager) writes:
>
>AT&T expects that Commodore will be one of the first, if not THE first
>hardware manufacturer to produce a commercial release of V.4. That OS is
>already shipping (to developers only, at a price of over $2000), but is
>reportedly in a fragile state.
>
>Widespread commercial distribution of V.4 to "reg'lar folks" is expected in
>November from Intel, among others. If AT&T is right about Commodore's effort
>being so much further along, perhaps we'll see something from them before
>that?
>
>That having been said, I have one question which I hope won't piss anyone
>off unduly: Why would you want to run UNIX on an Amiga? I'm not being
>critical, mind you, and I haven't chosen sides. I'd just like to hear from 
>some of you what you feel the Amiga has to offer a UNIX user that you can't
>get from one of the $5000 boxes from Sun or Apollo/HP. If the initial release
>allows you to mix AmigaDOS and UNIX programs on the same box and screen,
>then that's something, and my question is pointless. Failing that, what are
>some of the other reasons for running UNIX on an Amiga?
>
>+--Tom Yager, Technical Editor, BYTE----Reviewer, UNIX World---------------+
>|  UUCP: decvax!maxx!tyager          NET: maxx!tyager@bytepb.byte.com      |
>| "I just bought...the Macintosh portable. And I took it back. Pain in the |
>+--butt." --Harry Connick, Jr.-------I speak only for myself.--------------+

I don't consider myself an expert, but I, for one, am interested in the
Amiga for its unique position, that I view as being due to at least 3
things, the last 2 of which are reasons for running UNIX on an Amiga:

1) its low cost of use as a basic and powerful mass-market personal
computer;

2) its video interfaces that come standard even in the low-end Amiga
family member;

3) its capabilities in and support for high-speed multimedia (bit
blitter, graphics coprocessor, sound coprocessor, sound waveform
generators (?), bunch of DMA channels; animation, 4-channel stereo
sound; serial port, parallel port, SCSI, etc.--someone please jump in
if I missed some important things!).

I would be accomplishing a lot more programming on my Amiga if things
like csh and make worked the way I'm used to.  That's not to say
programming on an Amiga generally goes slowly.  I just like to do my
learning gradually.  I like to get some quick results, based on the
UNIX experience I've spent so much time building up.

Tom Elam
- My opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of my company. -