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From: johnf@apollo.uucp (John Francis)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Keeping developers happy
Message-ID: <2b5128ea.917@apollo.uucp>
Date: Mon, 13-Jan-86 18:33:04 EST
Article-I.D.: apollo.2b5128ea.917
Posted: Mon Jan 13 18:33:04 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jan-86 00:42:31 EST
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 35

gaspar@ALMSA-1.ARPA writes (in part)

>    Of course there are a number of people, many of them developers, that have
> already bought 520ST's for $799 or $999.  If this change in marketing policy by
> Atari is going to work, these people will have to be appeased also.  If the
> dealers are going to get a 1 meg ST for the same cost as the 520ST the current
> owners should be provided the upgrade at no, or minimal, cost.  And, if a DSDD
> drive is put in the dealers package, current owners should be able to trade up
> to the DSDD drive or in some way be compensated.

A nice idea, but don't hold your breath!  As I write I can see the 520ST system
that I bought (for $1400 - I've got both monitors, and a second (DSDD) disk drive).
I would really like to be able to upgrade this to a 1-meg system *without* blowing
my Atari warranty away. I can (just) see Atari offering me this at a reasonable
price (as I have also purchased their development package), but I do not believe
they will do anything about the disk drive.

I have not really got into playing with the ST yet, as I'm still waiting for my
C compiler and all the documentation, but I do have a couple of first impressions
to share with the world.

    o   The first thing you are told to do is make a backup copy of your system
        disk. SO WHY DON'T THEY GIVE YOU A BLANK DISK TO DO IT ON ? (The same
        goes for the language disk, if you *really* want to use Atari-LOGO).

    o   The actual internals of the machine are plenty powerful enough to make
        this thing a real computer, not a 'toy'. (This message is being written
        on an Apollo workstation. The main CPU is . . . . . a Motorola 68000).
        WHY DO I HAVE TO FIND ROOM FOR ALL THOSE STUPID EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLIES ?
        I have to find FIVE places to plug everything in, and somewhere to put
        the power supplies as well as all the system components.  Package the
        system like a video game, and people will think it is a video game.
        (After all, the converse is true - a well-known company packaged a 8086
        like a computer system,  and thousands of people believed it really was
        a computer system :-)