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From: stevew@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Steven L Wootton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga coverage in Byte
Message-ID: <1991Mar1.024207.29305@en.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 91 02:42:07 GMT
References: <91059.184958CXW148@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 49

In article <91059.184958CXW148@psuvm.psu.edu> CXW148@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>
>                   Byte hypes itself as an industry-wide magazine, but is
>                  99.99834% IBM magazine.

Let's take this from the top.  There are some 75 million DOS boxes out
there.  There are 4.5 million macintoshes.  Lord knows how many unix
systems are currently running.  How many Amigas have been sold?

Compare the percentage sold to the amount of editorial space each machine
gets.  Think of economics.  Think of trying to sell magazines to the widest
possible audience.

> Actually there was only one article on the Mac in the magazine, and none on
> any other systems besides IBM (None on the NeXT, Atari STs, Sun Workstations,
> etc.).  There was a nice big ad from Sun though.  But not one Commodore ad.

>          There are plenty of products for other systems that are better than
>          the ones reviewed in Byte, but for some reason Byte reserves coverage
>          for IBM products alone. Unless it is a completely new computer system
>          or something as important as the Video Toaster, Byte doesn't cover
>          other systems at all.

Funny you should mention the Video Toaster.  There is a very nice review on
pages 245 through 254 in the March 1991 issue of Byte.  The "action summary:"

- Newtek Video Toaster

- What you'll like
    The Video Toaster is the most complete desktop video production product
    available, an incredible value at $1595.

- What you'll dislike
    It's not the Toaster's fault, but it'll cost you to really put it to
    full use.  Around $25,000 for a starter setup (including the Amiga) is
    reasonable.

- Who should buy
    Businesses, schools, and other institutions or individuals wishing to
    produce high-quality videos and presentations.

- System requirements
    Amiga 2000 or 2500 with 7 MB of memory, an Amiga 1080-series or
    compatible monitor, and an empty video slot

Steve Wootton
stevew@ecn.purdue.edu
stevew@pur-ee.uucp
stevew%ecn.purdue.edu@purccvm.bitnet