Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Amiga OS *IS* state of the art, but the NeXT is better Message-ID: <20326@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 3 Apr 91 17:47:13 GMT References: <7827@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <86aJZ2w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP> <20267@cbmvax.commodore.com> Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Distribution: usa Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 62 In article melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > The basic performance of the 68040 generation NeXT, to the average GUI user > at least, is on the order of what 2nd generation Amiga users have been > enjoying for a long time. While it won't number crunch faster, an A3000 does > nearly everything else faster than a 68040 based NeXT. And you haven't seen > a 68040 based Amiga yet. >Commodore just got the 030 Amiga 3000 out the door. I think it will >be a while before we see an 040 machine from you guys, knowing >Commodore's track record. C= first shipped an '030 machine, the A2500/30, in 1989. The A3000 shipped in June of '90, almost 10 months ago. >Who has NeXT paid to develop software? I've heard this before, but no >one is naming names. Is it just a rumor? Of course it's just a rumor; as a privately held company, NeXT doesn't have to tell. But if you look at any other new computer launch, and which companies get paid for ports, you can't imagine those same folks are jumping on the NeXT bandwagon for free. IBM, for example, has reportedly paid 100's of companies to do RS/6000 ports. And these things DO scare away the competition. Aston-Tate, for example, was working on one NeXT product, a port of their spreadsheet, apparently without funding from NeXT. Now they say it's been indefinitely tabled. Anyone care to guess why? >Anyway, NeXT (or Commodore) doesn't need everyone to develop software for >their machine, just a few good companies(or ones that people recognize :-)) >in the necessary areas like DTP, CAD, accounting, etc. Of course they don't need everyone. And in fact, from what I've seen of the PC market "leaders", I would rather see the #2 or #3 version of each application ported to the Amiga. Those guys in the #1 place, in general, seem to rest on their laurels far too much. >You would think with over 2 million machines more developers would >support the Amiga. As of last year, that was half as many as Apple. >That should be enough to make developers look your way. And there's half the installed base of computers. Like ya said, you don't need everyone writing for the system. NeXT, with about 30 shipping applications (as written up in the Personal Workstation "applications watch") must, by the same logic, really scare away the developers. >Word Perfect 5.0 and a Lotus 123 for the Amiga would sell a lot more >machines. Lotus 123G, maybe. There isn't a high end spreadsheet for the Amiga. I doubt Word Perfect 5.0 would compete all that much better against native Amiga wordprocessors than the original Word Perfect, unless they really got their act together and did things "the Amiga way". >-Mike -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.