Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Path: utzoo!utstat!philip
From: philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough)
Subject: Re: Amiga Bashers
Message-ID: <1990Sep23.033402.5339@utstat.uucp>
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 90 03:34:02 GMT
References: <9009200536.AA27514@apple.com> <15362@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <1990Sep21.225236.26561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Statistics, U. of Toronto

In article <1990Sep21.225236.26561@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Desdinova) writes:

[lot's of stuff re the Amiga and my reference to it]

I just have to respond to this, as too many implications have been left
floating re my comments on the Amiga.

There are basically 2 Amigas. The Amiga500 and the Amiga3000. They aren't for
me but they are interesting computers( particularly the 3000).

The Amiga received of lot a attention when the 1000 came out. Since then, it
has largely been focused on games and pre-video work( let's get one thing
straight here. The Amiga does not have the processing capabilities of an
Iris graphics' workstation, and can't really do interactive 3-D work). So
you have a computer with very little educational software( check out one of
the recent AmigaWorld issues re that), productivity software of questionable
quality( except in the video area) but a interesting platform for arcade
games( this is not a bad thing- it says something good about the computer).
For academics there is AmigaTeX, XLISP( a pd stat program), Maple,...and
not much else. The multitasking, while preemptive, does not have hardware
protection between tasks so I discount that aspect other than one of
convenience. I wouldn't dare assign an important job to a task.

The GS is not competing with the 030 Amiga 3000, or even the Amiga 500 in
my view. It's competition may be found in the PS/1, the Tandy,etc...

As for the Amiga running Unix, I assume you are talking about UnixV rel 4.0
in BETA. Given the choice between a MacIIci and an A3000, I doubt many
would have a hard time deciding.

In any case, the Amiga is nice, has its place,etc...So are many micros. I
wouldn't be losing sleep if I were Apple with what happens in the Amiga
world. I would, however, be very concerned about losing the target base
of the GS which is education to IBM. That is the issue. 

Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto
philip@utstat.toronto.edu
[my opinions]