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From: rjc@geech.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Why Amiga Gurus????
Message-ID: <1991Feb4.204749.12882@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 91 20:47:49 GMT
References: <1991Jan31.035105.14277@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <156@dogmelb.dog.oz.au> <3680.27ad65e7@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>
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In article <3680.27ad65e7@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> rlcollins@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) writes:
>Are Programs so hard to write for the Amiga that every PD prg is bug 
>ridden? Or is a bad experience with a minute few. I've used many other 
>computer system, with tons of PD/Shareware sw, and I've only had problems 
>on very RARE occasions. Case in point, on my ST, I really only use one or 
>two pieces of commercial software, the rest is PD/Shareware, and have never 
>really had many problems. (I know the chance of crashing is greater in a 
>multi-tasking Environment, especially without hardware protection, but 
>wouldn't the programmers know how to deal with this?)
>
>How hard is it really to prg for the Amiga? (Just in case I get a new 
>computer someday!)

  All I can say is, I have over 200 floppies filled with PD stuff from 
various sources (fred fish for one) and 90% of that software works
flawlessly. I think PD software is the Amiga's strong point. 
Mostra:Best IFF viewer around, better than any commercial viewer
DME/Qed/UEdit: Some of the best editors around
VLT/Handshake/Jrcomm:All fine term prgs which IMHO beat commercial crap like
                     Online, Access, Diga, etc.

There's alot of nonsense going around concerning FreeWare!=Good software.
(you don't get something for nothing!) This is just untrue.
Alot of Commercial software starts out as FreeWare. Sometimes I get the 
impression that commercial software is buggier than my freeware.
Reason? Some companies have deadlines, so products are rushed.

 I don't think the aMiga is hard to program, again, thats me. As for
bugs, I think bad-software gets publicized more than 'good' software, hence
it gives people the impression that a large portion of Amiga software is bad.
I've had IBMs, Macs, and C64's lock up on me plenty of times, the reason
the Amiga is infamous for crashing, is that the GURU stands out, its actually
kinda funny. The Amiga crashes more specular then the IBM(Lockup), Mac/ST
(bombs), so people take notice.

 Often I see IBM users quoting the Amiga's GURU when they don't even realize
what it means. The GURU is informative to a certain extent, and helps
debug software.