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From: plummer@hercules (Dave Plummer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Operating Systems
Message-ID: <478@regina.uregina.ca>
Date: 28 May 91 21:33:04 GMT
References: <1991May14.130905.9577@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991May14.145528.23369@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991May14.165718.19646@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <1991May14.180148.23635@athena.mit.edu>
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Reply-To: plummer@hercules.uregina.ca (Dave Plummer)
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Organization: University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan
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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. 

I think you're confusing DOS and OS.  The DOS launches your program, but
the OS has a major influence on how the program operates as it runs, esp.
in terms of user interface etc.



 
>More generally all that is really important is what you can do with
>your computer. If one computer has a beautiful operating system but
>no software and another has a crappy OS and tons of professional, and
>elegant software guess who sells 80 million computers and who sells 3 million.
>Just look at the macintosh for god's sake. I ask people why in the world
>would the buy a $4500, MacIIsi, over a $3000 amiga3000, guess what they say.
>They say it has cool software which the amiga cant match. Sure the amiga
>does great animation, and is elegant but who really cares except video
>people and hackers. Hell my A500 blow away a 386 machine with a dedicated
>sound card--Boy my girlfriend was really upset about this. But when 
>you get down to it who cares if all you want to do is have a safe 
>computer that will run any application in the world. 

I have an A500 and a 386, and while I love my A500, "blow away" is a strong
term, in my esitmation.  

>To summarize, all you techies have to understand that a computer
>needs to appeal to the common man. There a whole lot more of us
>regular users than there are programmers. That is why the ibm and
>apple will always dominate the amiga. 

This may or may not be the case, but I think the real problem is the attitudes
of consumers who expect everything to be PD or shareware (to many people,
unfortunately, the same thing).  And yes, there are 10s of 1000s of PC
applications, but the "common man" will need only 10-20 of them.  As long
as those are available, and most are, the "common man" should be more than
happy.

I've done my best to redirect followups, but this is a new mailer, so be nice!