Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!unido!pcsbst!jkh From: jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Better support for A500 owners, not less (was Re: Future of 500) Message-ID: Date: 25 Oct 90 16:13:56 GMT References: <1990Oct13.035003.3737@isis.cs.du.edu> <90286.132554DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> <62.2719a8e6@vger.nsu.edu> <1990Oct22.020502.7545@zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu> <1004@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl> Sender: news@pcsbst.pcs.com Organization: PCS Computer Systems, GmbH Lines: 57 In-reply-to: rooijen@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl's message of 22 Oct 90 09:33:02 GMT Whoa, whoa, whooooaa Nelly.. First off, there is a certain type of elitism among many 2000 owners that offends me, usually expressed in terms of "If you wanted a *real* Amiga, you should have purchased a 2000 and not that toy 500)." Now while this sort of thing was confined casual remarks in certain computer stores and on the net, it was nothing more than a petty irritation. Recent remarks by someone actually suggesting that the A500 folks should be screwed further into the ground, however, are going a bit too far and I feel compelled to toss in my two cents. While I may be far in the minority, I purchased an A500 as an already established Unix developer (with several Unix workstations at home) who was merely curious as to what all this "Amiga" hooplah was about. The A500 was cheap enough to qualify as an "experiment" for me, whereas the 2000 was not. I'm sure that many people (while not necessarily already computer professionals) also purchased 500's for the same reason: It was a cheap way of finding out whether or not the Amiga had anything significant to offer. Now, of course, I have become quite enamoured with the machine and wish that I *had* bought the 2000, but that's simply hindsight. What I have is about $1500 already invested in the A500 platform that I don't particularly care to throw away. Rather than buy a 2000 at this point, I'm more inclined to just wait and get a 3000 once all the bugs are worked out. There are also, I am fairly sure, a lot of other 500 owners out there who probably will eventually buy the latest hardware anyway: Why penalize them for testing the waters first? How many MacII owners started with an AppleII computer as well? Raise your hands. Despite the fact that I'll eventually have a 3000, I'd still like to make something usable out of my 500, and I feel that Commodore has more-or-less abandoned the A500 folks. They're certainly happy enough to market them as aggressively as ever, but have they offered any additional peripherals? Nooooo. If the A590 is the best that they can manage, we're in deep doo-doo. As it is, I'm left to scan the peripheral company adds anxiously hoping to see the words "A500 model" buried somewhere amidst the 1001 other offerings for the 2000. When it comes to memory, HD's or processor cards, the 2000 folks have it made. The A500 folks are considerably less lucky. We bought it, and Commodore was happy enough to take our money, but now we're out to sea. This sucks. DEC realized long ago that peripheral sales were where the real money was at. Commodore seems content to leave almost the entire area of such sales to third parties who are making big $$$ on it. Doesn't Commodore have any responsibility to its shareholders? If SUN or DEC offered up their underbelly on something like this, the stockholders would scream blue murder. I realize that these views may come across as a bit strong, but I really do get the distinct feeling that while Commodore will be perfectly happy to sell another half million A500's, they're going to be putting all the design effort into their 2000 and 3000 lines. This can't help but seem like robbing the masses to help the elite (not that the "masses" are all that poor either! All those pennies add up). Jordan