Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!well!farren
From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: CBM & AMIGA
Keywords: CBM AMIGA
Message-ID: <25779@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 29 Jun 91 22:31:55 GMT
References: <2326@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM>
Lines: 106

danielh@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Daniel Hartman) writes:

>Ok, I've been meaning to write a letter like this for a LONG time.

Maybe you should have waited longer :-)

>ULTRA BAD BUSINESS DECISIONS: (by CBM)
>1. Making the 500 look like a C128 (no comments necessary)

Oh, I don't know.  They made the C128 look like an Amiga 1000, after all :-)

>2. Not putting a 68020 in the 2000 when it was introduced. (Might have stopped
>   companies from making incompatible software (with the accelerated proc.)
>   from the beginning.

Well, there were damn few 68020 options of any kind when the A2000 came out.
Sure, it could have had one, but the price would have doubled.  Remember - 
at that time, a 68020 add-on (or, for that matter, the chip itself) cost
several kilobucks.

>3. Not including a hard drive with the 2000, or producing a cheap A500 or A1000
>   type computer with a hard drive.  What kind of computer does NOT have a hard
>   drive?

Macs, for one.  A lot of computers are sold sans hard drive, and since C/A
offers the A590 for the 500 and sells the 2000HD, your point is moot.  If
you're talking about the original A2000, way back when, there were no good
hard drive systems available for ANY Amiga at that time.

>4. (When they do it), putting 2.0 on ROMs for the 3000.  It takes about 1
>   second to load in the operating system from the harddrive, PLUS, its
>   automaticly put in faster RAM.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this."
"So don't do that."

You don't HAVE to run from ROM on an A3000.  It's been pointed out many
times in these groups that the ability to run out of RAM is always there,
as long as you have an MMU.

>5. Not developing at least 8 bit color options by now.  Yes, I know how hard it
>   is since they painted themselves into a corner with the custom chips, but
>   why didn't they just make faster versions of all the custom chips on the
>   3000 so they could handle higher resolutions & bitplanes from the start.

It isn't nearly that simple.  Developing custom chips of that complexity is
a major task, as you would have learned if you'd been paying attention here.
Note that even the third-party folks have only come out with viable display
options in the last year or so.  Commodore, with a LOT of other things to do,
and with compatibility a major requirement, should be cut some major slack
here, IMHO.

>6. Not advertising.  I don't mean televison commercials.  What about
>   nice advertisments in general computer magazines, or the mac strategy - put
>   ads in PC Magazine and other popular PC magazines.

Have you been hiding in Timbuktu or something?  I've seen plenty of Amiga 
ads.  Not as many as for IBM or Apple, to be sure, but there's considerably
more than none.


>7. CDTV.  I'd personally rather see better graphics capabilities, 68040 boards,

And Commodore would like to see money more than better graphics capability.
If CDTV takes off, it will be a major revenue source, and could possibly
produce the funds for all that other stuff - just like the A500 supports
the higher-end machines now.

>Also, if 500s did come with hard drives, and more were sold, then they wouldn't
>cost as much, would they?

No, they wouldn't.  They'd cost more, because of the hard drives.

>Of course, Commodore does do some things right.  For example, making the
>computer and WB/KS in the first place.  Personally, I feel WB is the best
>single user OS there is; why not have the best personal computer there is to
>go with it?

As far as I'm concerned, they already do.

>8 bit VGA quality graphics, with or without the custom chips support.

Already got it - A2410.

>Cheap Amiga with native hard drive - less than $1000 w/o monitor.

Already got it - A500 plus A590.

>Dump CDTV and put some R&D where it belongs - with the amiga.

Already got it.  You think all of those guys at West Chester work on CDTV?
(I will be, but that's the job I signed up for).

>Develope good relations with dealers and increase the number of dealers.

Maybe.  Certainly the best point you make here, as well as the most
defensible.

>Get Unix 2.0 out with a 68040 and have a cheap, fast unix box, that happens
>   to run AMIGADOS. (backdoor method of selling amigas)

Already got it, except with a 68030.  It's called the A3000UX.


-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us