Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!jimmy
From: jimmy@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jimmy Chan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: it would be nice
Message-ID: <9458@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 19 Sep 90 19:24:19 GMT
References: <101.26ef7641@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au> <2285@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> <6419@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: jimmy@uhccux.UUCP (Jimmy Chan)
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 41

In article <6419@castle.ed.ac.uk> aimd@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Davidson) writes:
>Yuk, just because it's got a copper and super-flickery modes doesn't
>mean its better.
>
>In order to have a decent Amiga system you need loads of memory ( to run
>more than one program at a time), need more than one disk drive or a
>hard drive and a monitor to access the migrane-modes.

Don't remember needing loads of memory to run more than one program.  Stock
Amigas w/ 1 meg memory seem to multitask fine.  A500 comes with only 1
built-in drive so that must mean it works fine for those people that
have the A500 and no external drives.  Who doesn't need a hard drive 
these days????  There is a flicker fixer available for the "migrane-modes" and
I would like to see you try working w/o a monitor..8-)...  Of course, you need
an expensive multiscan monitor to work in high resolution unless you want to
stay in low resolution for the rest of your computing days...each to his own
I guess.

>
>Personally, I've never needed one of AmigaDos' biggest selling points -
>the multi-tasking, although I realise that all Amiga owners play
>Populous while they run massive ray-tracing sessions. (Well, actually
>you can't do both those things on the Amiga at one time but we'll keep
>quiet about that so that people think you can).
>
>-Mark.

Actually Populous will not multitask or allow any other programs to run
with it but that is because it is a game that wasn't designed to multitask.
Actually some people do ray-tracing on Amigas, though I am not one, and they
seem to enjoy multitasking.  Don't know about you but I wouldn't want to 
sit there watching a screen computing the ray-trace but with multitasking
you can let the ray-trace work in the background and do something else
with the computer.  Everyone that I know that are used to multitasking
are very unhappy to go back to a single tasking system.  Of course those
that haven't used multitasking just can't understand why it's important for
computers to have multitasking available.  Just look at IBMs, Macs, even
STs and how much they are trying to get a functional OS that multitasks.
I still remember years ago, when the A1000 came out and everyone was saying
what do we need multitasking for, now it seems quite a few naysayers are
now pushing for it.