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From: bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: OS spec(k)s
Message-ID: <1825@mwca.UUCP>
Date: 13 Mar 91 22:47:56 GMT
References: <11921@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 31

In article <11921@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> kiki@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jack W. Wine) writes:
>From the two articles which described Geoworks, it is not only a GUI, but
>a new operating system. It was initially called OS/90 (OS/9000's prede-
>cessor, OS/9's successor?!?).  Some of the specs are...

There is _no_ connection between Geoworks and OS-9 or OS-9000; not sure where
this rumor may have started, but there is definitely no link.  OS-9 is our
68xxx-specific operating system, OS-9000 is more portable and currently runs
on both 680x0 and 80386/486 systems.  There has never been (from Microware,
anyway) any OS-90...

>It's nice that the Atari ST is able to run other operating systems, but it
>still needs to hit the "home run" by providing an OS that is quick, capable,
>portable and inexpensive.  Geos shows that a good assembly language program
>makes the most of a processor.  OS/9 demonstrated this on a Tandy CoCo 3 too. 
>OS/68K is available for the ST, but it is a little expensive for most people.

For single copies OS-9/ST is $600; compared to the price of some of the
low-end Atari hardware this isn't especially cheap, though considering that
it includes a C Compiler and many other utilities and that we sell
essentially similar software for some industrial CPU's for ~$2000, it's not
especially expensive, either.  The net cost can be _substantially_ reduced
if someone (Atari, or Dave Small, for example) were to license OS-9 from us.
For example, IMS is selling the MM/1, a 15 MHz 68070-based system (quite
capable, including HD floppy, 1 Meg, decent graphics and sound, and many
other goodies) _including_ Professional OS-9, for less than $900.
-- 
 ##############################################################################
 # Bill Sheppard  --  bills@microware.com  --  {uunet,sun}!mcrware!mwca!bill  #
 # Microware Systems Corporation  ---  OS-9: Seven generations beyond OS/2!!  #
 ######Opinions expressed are my own, though you'd be wise to adopt them!######