Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!genat!maccs!gordan From: gordan@maccs.UUCP (Gordan Palameta) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Upgrading a 1040 to 4 Megs Message-ID: <448@maccs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Feb-87 00:37:12 EST Article-I.D.: maccs.448 Posted: Thu Feb 26 00:37:12 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 26-Feb-87 03:36:23 EST References: <8702051433.AA26615@inria.UUCP> <555@atari.UUCP> <2086@ptsfa.UUCP> <2425@sunybcs.UUCP> Reply-To: gordan@maccs.UUCP (Gordan Palameta) Organization: DCSS, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Lines: 60 In article <2425@sunybcs.UUCP> leo@gort.UUCP (Leo Wilson) writes: > >I am about to tell my boss that a) I was foolish to trust Atari and the >reputation of Jack Tramiel b) that the money we have invested in ST's has >been thrown uselessly away and c) that if we are going to be able to do the >job at hand we'll need to switch to IBM compatables. > >I will not buy another Atari product for anywhere but home. Screw 'em, they >allowed me to screw myself. I will no longer put such faith into any general >manager's past performance, either... It's obvious that some people have a >first responsibility to other than their customers... > Come on folks, let's not get carried away. Please make an effort to keep comments addressed to Atari civil and constructive; the latest round of nasty attacks certainly won't accomplish anything, except make the folks at Atari turn a deaf ear (notice we haven't heard much from Allan Pratt, Landon Dyer, or Neil Harris lately, and I don't think Alex Leavens has posted at all). A recent post (sorry I forget the author) tried to put things in perspective, please go back and reread it. I too consider myself a satisfied customer. The ST is still an excellent value for the money. Probably some of the recent dissatisfaction is caused by the perception that Atari is standing still while other computer manufacturers are not (Amiga has dropped in price and has a new version of the OS, PC clones keep getting cheaper). But let's wait a while yet before passing judgement. Since Atari hasn't been saying much lately on Usenet, I'll mention some information I have heard that I believe to be true: the new ROMs required by the blitter chip will contain both existing (software) blit code (for compatibility) and new hardware blit code. In order to achieve this, the AES code in ROM is being hand-optimized to reduce its size and make room (presumably the file selector underscore bug will get fixed along the way). Therefore blitter upgrades with the new ROMs ought to be possible for existing STs. Also, there is an ongoing effort to rewrite GEMDOS, with some parts in assembler, to fix a number of problems. When and in what form such efforts might come to fruition is anyone's guess (hopefully at least some of it in the new ROMs that will come with the blitter chip). Disclaimer: don't stake your life on the above, I probably don't know what I'm talking about... It's up to us to encourage Atari, to point out that in the long term (and maybe not so long term) they cannot afford to stand still or be perceived as standing still. Although the complaints voiced here may not represent the concerns of Joe Average potential computer buyer, a growing discontent among the type of user that the posters in this newsgroup represent could have a disproportionate negative influence. However, shouting won't accomplish anything... -- ------------------------------------ UUCP: ... !seismo!mnetor!lsuc!maccs!gordan (note ..dAn or mail may bounce) BITNET: GP@TANDEM ^ <---' Gordan Palameta