Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!csg.uwaterloo.ca!giguere
From: giguere@csg.uwaterloo.ca (Eric Giguere)
Subject: Re: Windows for Amiga?? Maybe!!
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.170108.18455@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@maytag.waterloo.edu (Admin)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 90 17:01:08 GMT
Lines: 28

>In article <90324.194527JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu> JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) writes:
>>"We'd be very surprised if MicroSoft didn't port Windows to every
>>major platform in the near future.  That way, software for Mac,
>>PC, and UNIX could easily be ported from one system to another."

Somehow, I doubt this will ever happen.  Not just because there isn't enough
of an Amiga market for Microsoft to tackle, but because of other 
considerations.  I'm involved in a research project looking into software
portability across different presentation interfaces... it's a complex
topic with no easy solutions.  One major problem with porting Windows to
the Mac or the Amiga is that the computer wouldn't then look like a Mac or
an Amiga.  Maybe Microsoft wants this to happen, but I can bet that both
Macintosh and Amiga users would be in an uproar (more of the former, since
Apple has been very aggressive in keeping a standard "look-and-feel" on
the Mac).  Portability tools need to preserver native look-and-feel to be
successful in today's market.

Other problems:  Windows is more than just a presentation interface, it's
also pretty much an operating system in itself.  To guarantee portability,
all this extra stuff would need to ported as well.  On the Mac and the Amiga
the OS is mostly in ROM, and both OS's are quite different from what Windows
supports.

Nope, I just don't see it happening...

--
Eric Giguere                                       giguere@csg.UWaterloo.CA
           Quoth the raven: "Eat my shorts!" --- Poe & Groening