Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!ariel!ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au!u3364521 From: u3364521@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lou Cavallo) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Amiga 1000 Abandonment...(LONG) Message-ID: <1991Apr25.211254.1952@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au> Date: 25 Apr 91 11:12:53 GMT References: <1991Apr25.042851.8912@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> Followup-To: don't e-mail Organization: I.A.E.S.R., Melbourne University Lines: 105 G'day, I'm not replying via e-mail as my news s/w popped up with a note suggesting not to (neat trick Paul, if you were responsible). Paul William Vicory (pwvicory@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu) writes: > This may be very late and old news, but I would like to express the > concerns of both myself and of many (5-6 Amiga 1000 users) , O.K., several > of my friends. All of us spent over $1300 in 1986 to invest in what we felt > was the wave of the future in computers: the Commodore Amiga 1000. My dis- As a personal aside here, I felt back in '87 when I bought my Amiga that I was going to be part of a big gamble. I did not feel that I wanted a gua- rantee that my own purchasing decision would turn out to be a sound one. I guess I bought my Amiga because I wanted a personal computer that had... some excitement to it (sorry that I can't define it better). I didn't feel that the standard offerings *then* had that quality. > pute isn't with whether our choice was right or not, but it is a concern > to us that our Amiga's appear to be worthless in the computer marketplace. Yes, I do feel a litle down about this. A friend of mine owns an IBM clone PC (XT) and feels similarly to myself wrt the technical obsolescence. {Note that when I say this wrt my friend, neither of us is dismissing the expans- ion possibilites that he (nor myself as an A1000 owner) has. It is simply a fact that the newer more powerful models of our favourite machines are much cheaper to expand than our older technology boxes.} This is a fact of a pc (generic, not IBM style) owners life IMHO. It isn't peculiar to the Amiga 1000 in any way. > Right now, I can't give my Amiga 1000 away. I would like to upgrade, but I > will never be able to justify or allow it if I can't sell the computer I have. I too am struggling to save the money for an upgrade and I have had to opt to upgrade my A1000 gradually (I haven't begun to yet, money problems). > Will Commodore, if they are really interested in selling the new Amiga's, > offer some kind of discount to those who invested heavily in the Amiga at This probably won't be an international policy of CBM. Perhaps they may do so again for A1000 owners in the US(I don't think so) but they may not down here in Australia. > the outset. None of us could take advantage of the Commodore buyback offer > of last year: we were all still paying off or recovering from the loans we > took out to get these Amiga's. My own observations are that here in Australia that the effective market prices for A2000's, expansion products for A500's etc is starting to drop. The A3000's are still too new to expect price breaks/discounts for them. The market appears to be getting better for an upgrade to a sub A3000 type of machine. (A 2nd hand A2000 with 9Megs RAM, 40 Meg HD with OS 1.3 & 2.0 was offered for sale for $3000 recently here. Boy did I *want* to buy that Amiga :-) but I can hardly afford an A500 without a loan). > If I read Doug Barney's most recent editorial correctly, perhaps the I haven't seen this. Please can someone point me to the issue etc. > Amiga is finished and a deadend path as far as computers go. If the Amiga I would really have to ask why you think this is so. I've read some of his thoughts regarding Amigas and I'd say I think he likes them. > goes the way of the C=64, my previous computer expenditure and waste of > dollars that could have gone into a system (like an IBM) that I could have > upgraded and still be using today, I will certainly not recommend or purchase > Commodore products in the future. I'm still finding it hard to recommend an Amiga to anyone that asks me for my opinion regarding a pc purchase *if* they need a computer "appliance".. ie. switch it on and use the s/w and get great results. I find that those people I know that have bought Amigas after learning from me about them do want to use a computer for other reasons than just writing easy essays etc. I do recommend Amiga purchases (but always cautiously as you should for any type of pc purchase). As a postscript my XT owning friend will probably buy an Amiga. Why? He's also a musical kind of guy and after a lot of research decided that an A500 with DMCS was the cheapest and best entry level computer MIDI platform that he could afford. {He looked at IBM sound cards, Atari pc's etc}. I haven't addressed any of the current expenditure issues that confront the Amiga (or potential Amiga) purchaser (as indeed you chose not to do either). I don't feel however that your feeling of wasted expenditure on (our) older A1000 technology can be a guide for the purchase of current day Amiga prod- ucts. The discussion of those purchases (merits/demerits) I feel belongs in another news thread. {I feel that the experience of A1000 owners purchases relate very little to the new Amiga environment i.e better CBM products and engineering (and *I* think management, perhaps not marketing :-)), better & more choices for 3rd party products etc.} This thread should probably be about what current A1000 owners should know in order to make there own decision to expand/upgrade to new Amiga technology or to go to other technology. I'm sticking with Amiga. I still feel the "excitement". :-) yours truly, Lou Cavallo.