Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!matllic!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: STE's in Europe..lack of SIMMS Message-ID: <3974@syma.sussex.ac.uk> Date: 6 Dec 90 12:36:02 GMT References: Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK Lines: 60 From article , by dh@tardis.cs.ed.ac.uk: > > Here in Europe, Atari are now shipping some STE's with soldered in RAM. > Forgive me if i'm wrong, but was one of the plus points of the STE not the > easy memory upgrades using SIMM's? > > I reckon Atari are peeved that people are buying 520STE's and pluggin in > extra SIMM modules. Atari would rather people buy the 1040STE. > However, there is no difference between the 520STE and 1040STE apart from > the larger memory...so why splash out extra dosh for a 1040STE? > Can Atari really be so stupid? Can they really? Is it possible that they want to disable one of the best features of the STE, just to 'differentiate the market'? Well, I guess most people who've been following this newsgroup for some time will know that it's possible for Atari to do all sorts of foolish things. Still, some are more foolish than others. Over the past few years I've recommended STs to quite a lot of people in the University I work at. I'm certainly not going to recommend any machine which cannot have its memory upgraded quickly and simply. In the 1990s anything other than plug-in memory simply isn't good enough. In the UK, Atari have certainly not covered themselves with glory with respect to the STE's release: * They failed to get the specifications to developers early enough, with the result that there was a great outcry about incompatibility when the STE was released without any fanfare in Autumn 1989 * They have consistently refused to acknowledge that the STE's DMA interface was, until quite recently, wrongly designed and manufactured. * Now they're selling STEs without SIMMs. To be fair, some of this is probably not the fault of the UK people. Don't get me wrong. I still think my STs (especially my STE) are very useful machines. I'll still be using them in future. But I think the best that can be said about Atari the company is that it would make an excellent case study for management schools, as an example of how not to innovate and market IT products. This is despite the excellent work being done by some Atari employees who are doing their best to make up for the utter crassness of the top management. I know this is not constructive. I know I'm griping. I know I'm providing what is technically known as 'Chris Mauritz fodder' (Hi, Chris. :-) ) But some things are just too exasperating to let go without comment. Graham -- Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma BITNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@UKACRL INTERNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk UUCP: grahamt%syma.sussex@ukc.uucp PHONE: +44 273 686758 FAX: [..] 685865