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From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Operating Systems
Message-ID: <1991May28.050020.4471@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 28 May 91 05:00:20 GMT
References: <1991May14.145528.23369@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991May14.165718.19646@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <1991May14.180148.23635@athena.mit.edu>
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In article <1991May14.180148.23635@athena.mit.edu> reynaldo@athena.mit.edu (Rey Villarreal) writes:
>I am sort of confused about all the importance being put on 
>operating systems. Sure a nice OS is nice, I love my Amiga's ability to
>do multitasking. But when you get down to it, all an operating system
>really has to do is getting your programs to run. 
>
	From the way you phrase things, you make it sound like
you forget that an OS should be much more than a DOS, but then I
see you are posting from MIT and I don't accept it. The Operating
System is ONE factor. It is also one of the Amiga's strong
points. Why not play it up?
	AmigaDOS, Intuition, Exec, etc., are a large part of the
reason many of us here actually USE Amigas. Whereas the IBM is a
machine people have to use, but don't want to use, the Amiga is a
system people WANT to use.
	If the quality of the OS is so unimportant, why is even
IBM, one of the major benefactors of brain-dead OS sales, trying
to so hard to get out a more sophisticated OS? namely OS/2.
Things change. Yes, MS-DOS currently "rules" the business world.
Nothing is forever. (God! Can you only imagine in 10 years when
Intel has released the 350MHz 81486 that we'll still have those
machines running MS-DOS with its 640K memory stupidities?
	Scary. You have an important point. The quality of the
software will make or break a machine. But you can't just say,
"well for video and games its OK," because everyone has a
different reason for buying their computer. What if you want to
DO video and games? Should we not mention the fact that the Amiga
can get a Video Toaster because we all know that it is software
that makes the system?

	If I thought the way you did about computers, I'd own
nothing but clones. However, I like my computers smart, not
brain-dead. For me, the OS is one of the number one reasons I own
the machine.


	P.S. This overlooks the whole issue of OS support for
things like windowing, printing, fonts and multitasking. MS-DOS
has none of that. They can be VERY important to software
development. Ask Apple.

	-- Ethan


Now the world has gone to bed,		Now I lay me down to sleep,
Darkness won't engulf my head,		Try to count electric sheep,
I can see by infrared,			Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.			How I hate the night.   -- Marvin