Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu!rjc From: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: The Amiga's Future Message-ID: <1991Jun4.025024.823@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Date: 4 Jun 91 02:50:24 GMT References: <6678@vela.acs.oakland.edu> <1991Jun03.053144.3208@ariel.unm.edu> <1991Jun4.003619.3661@news.iastate.edu> Sender: news@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu Organization: The Internet Lines: 100 In article <1991Jun4.003619.3661@news.iastate.edu> taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu writes: [Where does he get these statistics?] > Time for a reality check. For 95% of the people in the Amiga community, >the Toaster is totally useless. The Toaster is not going to save the >Amiga, because it is a product intended for a very limited purpose. Few >Amiga owners have any need whatsoever for a special-effects box, and the >flickering display makes the Toaster unsuitable for other applications. Marc, are you epileptic? The reason I ask is because everytime you make an arguement against the Amiga you always bring up the flicker. NON-Flicker displays are expensive, NTSC incompatible, and only useful for TEXT processing. In short, if a machine doesn't have an interlaced display mode, it sucks. Removing flicker from the Toaster would be idiotic. For drawing/rendering for broadcast video, flicker is acceptable. It's besides the point anyway, since the A3000/ECS provide non-flickering SHARP displays. > The ECS isn't going to do much for the Amiga, either, because it was >obsolete before it even went into production. The ECS is also 98% >identical to the very oldest Amiga chipset. How do you know this? Have you compared the schematics? Just because it only has slightly improved display modes doesn't mean that it's virtually identical. It may have taken considerable design effort and optimizations to fit those extra features on the already packed chips. I get the feeling you think the engineers merely threw in some new modes over a lunch break and had it ready in a few days. I admit, I'm not an expert on the chip design process, but I'll bet that the ECS is NOT 98% identical to the old chip set. The denise has had many new programmble features added. On the subject of the Amiga's future, it seems multimedia and CD-I are not being taken into account. The Mac has built up considerable fame for Desktop publishing, so what about video publishing/mastering? If CD-I hits America BIG TIME, and as mastering CD's becomes cheaper, people may want to program/design CDs like they do with home video cams now. The Amiga could be the ideal platform for multimedia/designing CD-I applications. I don't even want to hear about the Mac being used for this(cheaply). Read rec.games.programmer some time, Mac programmers are having an incredible time getting even primitive animation working fast. Amiga video software is lightyears(or waves) ahead of the Mac. BTW, I think System 7.0 is a big failure/joke. It is incredibly slow on anything less than an 030 with lots of ram. I've been reading many accounts of users running even a simple application with a clock program in the background and having the system become incredibly jerky and slow. One user in comp.sys.mac.system accounts of running tetris and "superclock" resulting in the game becoming really sluggish (on an LC). This is pathetic, I can run multiple copies of tetris on my A500 with a term program, and a clock and all of them run at near full speed. I've noticed Apple has defined a new interprocessing scripting language which some magazines have hailed "revolutionary". This disgusts me since it sounds suspicously like a rip-off of REXX/(Perl|Awk|etc). IMHO Apple made a bad move not adopting Rexx since ANSI is "standardizing" and IBM is reembracing it. A few months you were complaining about no video cards being availible for the Amiga, now the situation has changed (Toaster, HAM-E, DCTV, Colorburst, DMI's Card, Firecracker/24, A2410, A2024(well sorta), VideoMaster/32(not out yet),Video Blender(not out yet),Harlequin, etc. BTW, DMI and Firecracker both have higher resolution than Apple's 8/24 card. They require very expensive monitors(DMI) for the high resolution modes (megapixel 24bit color).) After all this, you are now back to picking on the custom chip set and flicker again? Remember, it took the Mac 6 _years_ to finally overcome the PC market, the Amiga is not going become a success overnight however it is gaining ground. Technical specs don't define success either, since the Amiga has had better specs than both the Mac and the IBM when the Amiga was released. Advertising and software availibility are the key. Marc, do you actually own an Amiga? Everytime someone posts an "Amiga's future/success in business/new display availible" you respond with a "Doom and Gloom" post. If you're this down on the Amiga, why don't you just buy a Mac and be over with it? Myself, I won't settle for anything less than an Amiga or a Unix box. [Why did I bring up the Mac? Well Marc would have brung it up anyway, and I happen to despise the Mac environment (too confining) and it's condescending interface. ] >> >> >> NCW > ------------------------------------------------------------- > / Marc Barrett -MB- | BITNET: XGR39@ISUVAX.BITNET / >/ ISU COM S Student | Internet: XGR39@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU / >------------------------------------------------------------ >\ ISU : The Home of the Goon / > \ Who wants to Blow Up the Moon / > ------------------------------------------------------- -- / INET:rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu * // The opinions expressed here do not \ | INET:r_cromwe@upr2.clu.net | \X/ in any way reflect the views of my self.| \ UUCP:uunet!tnc!m0023 * /