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From: mykes@3comvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: 1.2 Updates:  Lattice libraries
Message-ID: <524@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-May-86 15:05:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.524
Posted: Wed May 28 15:05:36 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 30-May-86 20:13:04 EDT
References: <8605201910.AA23292@pavepaws> <269@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> <1158@well.UUCP> <1162@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz)
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 62

I am not an official developer, but only because I did not want to spend $450
for a compiler and assembler that I would not want to use, and for manuals that
I could buy for $85 in the store.  I do not feel that I should pay to get
support from CBM, because in return for their support, I am supporting them
(i.e. maybe my products will sell an Amiga or two).  

However, Randy Weiner's announcement that those who did pay the $450 to get
support will not be getting it in the future is totally contrary to what's
been going on at CBM and Amiga these days.  First of all, since day one, the
Amiga has been billed as a third party supported machine.  Second, CBM just
fired the people who were capable of providing Amiga applications for the CBM
label.  And third, CBM (probably unaware of the fracus is would cause) 
announces diminished support for their third part developers.

Listen folks, I have never felt so confident that the Amiga is going to be
a big big success.  The layoffs are coming at the most opportune time, as
far as the computer is concerned.  InfoWorld revued the Amiga very early in
its history, and gave it bad reviews because the software crashed a lot.  They
revued version 1.0 of the software, which those of us who used it know was
very buggy.  I got my copy of 1.1 a week before the InfoWorld revue hit the
stands, and 1.1 has been a 1000% improvement.  1.1 has been in 3rd party
developers' hands for a long time now, and more than a few applications have
had a decent operating system to be developed under.  

Now 1.2 is about to come out, and future machines will have 1.2 Kickstart
(Rom Kernel) in real ROM.  Despite the power and flexability of having
this stuff in the write-once store on present Amigas, future machines can
be made cheaper due to the layoffs and the fact that Rom is cheaper than
Ram.  1.2 figures to be much improved over 1.1, with much more power and
speed and with many more bugs fixed.  1.2 and ROM may spell DOOM for a few
people we became close to (we'll miss Bob Parisseau and all the others who
have contributed to our understanding of the technology of this great machine),
but it also means that for the first time, the Amiga is actually a finished
product.

As soon as they are available, I'm buying a 1MB ram card from Cardco
(Witchita Kansas, sorry no other info at my fingertips).  I can't wait to get
genlock, a frame grabber/digitizer, an audio digitizer, a hard disk, a 68020,
more Ram, and especially the Sidecar (me and 50,000 other Amiga owners :).
The sidecar is actually the most interesting product I have heard about -
it provides me with IBM compatible slots so I can buy cheapo IBM peripherals
anywhere for my amiga.  Hard cards (30MB of hard disk on an IBM card) and
Ram will be most useful.  Oh yeah, as a side benefit, you also can run IBM
PC software (right now, it would be nice, but Amiga applications figure to be
presented so much better).

CBM has a far superior product to anything in the Micro market, and it is
really a shame that they are being run by the banks.  It's also a shame that
CBM has never known what they got when they got the Amiga.  CBM has probably
sold more computers than ANYONE, including IBM (count all those Vic 20s, Pets,
C64s, 128s, and Amigas).  With the Amiga, they will continue to sell more 
for years to come.  Atari is not necessarily blowing the Amiga out of the
water, but they do have a nice machine for less money.  A lot of people who
already have Ataris probably already have them on the shelf.  A lot of people
who will be buying computers will be buying the Amiga.  By September, I expect
a flood of completed Amiga software and hardware products, and hopefully
CBM will at least give the machine a chance with a little support - like
good relations with the 3rd parties it is relying on (are we ready to take
the blame if the machine fails? :) and good advertising (no wonder the banks
took over after CBM piddled $40 Million down the drain on weak ads).

my $.02