Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!kali.enet.dec.com!plouff From: plouff@kali.enet.dec.com (Wes Plouff) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Amiga coverage in Byte Message-ID: <20655@shlump.nac.dec.com> Date: 1 Mar 91 15:24:19 GMT Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 45 In article <1991Mar1.022501.18594@ncsu.edu>, kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes... >CXW148@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >I mean, just what exactly is new for the Amiga? They've already covered >the A3000 and Exec and the Toaster. Perhaps an article on all the new >add-on gfx boards would be accepted, for instance. Go for it! > best - kev I took the time to research the period from which Byte's editor Fred Langa got his figure of 57 mentions of the Amiga. I was able to find something over 37 of them. From January through October 1990, Amiga received 12 one-line mentions in various articles, 3 listings in resource guides, 4 "What's New" product announcements and 4 letters asking for more Amiga coverage. 10 articles or "sidebar" boxes contained decent coverage of the Amiga or software products that run on Amiga, including the A3000 "First Impression." The A3000UX preview ran after this period. But consider this: Byte has never run a full review of any Amiga machine, complete with benchmarks. All they've had is "First Impression" previews of preproduction models. Other machines in this category include the Apple IIGS and Sun's 386-based Unix workstation. There have been good articles lately, such as the breakthrough Video Toaster review - I can't remember a product review this long that wasn't either a new computer model or an operating system release - and "The Object-Oriented Amiga Executive." But the facts put the lie to Langa's claims. Byte's coverage is very shallow without reviews of products that are stronger than their MS-DOS or Macintosh counterparts, especially in graphics and multimedia. I still wince every month when I read raves about some product, PC or Mac, when anyone even passingly familiar with Amiga knows that that our favorite machine has stronger solutions. BTW, rather than just gripe on Usenet, I sent a letter to Langa politely spelling out the weakness in his 57 references, and politely suggesting specific article topics which "match the quality and newsworthiness of [Byte's] current reviews." -- Wes Plouff, Digital Equipment Corp, Maynard, Mass. plouff@kali.enet.dec.com Networking bibliography: _Islands in the Net_, by Bruce Sterling _The Matrix_, by John S. Quarterman