Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt
From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: TOS 2.0
Message-ID: <3758@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 8 Nov 90 12:17:07 GMT
References: <1990Nov6.203608.28993@cs.ucla.edu>
Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lines: 31

From article <1990Nov6.203608.28993@cs.ucla.edu>, by stephen@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Steve Whitney):
> This isn't a flame.  I can only speak for myself, of course, but the reason
> _I_ keep clamoring for the TT desktop on STs and STEs is to stimulate new
> sales.  The new desktop just plain looks better than the old one.  Unless you
> bundle DC Desktop or NeoDesk with new STs, the computer people see in the
> stores will have the nasty old desktop while other computers have nice slick
> looking desktops (e.g. Macintosh, new Amigas, Windows 3.0).

While I'm personally very happy to use NeoDesk, I have to agree with the
above posting.  Most dealers can't be bothered even to put a disk in the
machine when they switch it on in their shop, so what potential buyers
see is an ST, often with an inferior TV monitor, showing the plain old
desktop, in the lowest resolution the machine's capable of, and with
that sickly green background.

Atari don't (in the UK at least) supply any demonstration disks to
dealers, while many PC/clone suppliers do - and for some reason Amigas
are more likely to be shown up & running than STs.  The result is a
visual comparison of an Amiga running some game or other, a PC clone
with an animated spreadsheet/graphics demo, and the sickly green low-res
static ST desktop.  Amstrad chairman Alan Sugar has been known to talk
of the 'mug's eyeful' which helps to sell products in shops.  While
Atari might feel smug about not pandering to mugs, the firm sure doesn't
do much to help sell the STs in dealers' shop windows. 

Graham
-- 
Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
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