Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!ritcv!cci632!ccicpg!harald
From: harald@ccicpg.UUCP ( Harald Milne)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...
Message-ID: <9234@ccicpg.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jan 88 12:16:07 GMT
References: <2168@crash.cts.com> <3256@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <892@uop.edu>
Organization: CCI CPD, Irvine CA
Lines: 63

In article <892@uop.edu>, exodus@uop.edu (G. Onufer) writes:
> What are we trying to prove here?  Two similar machines (processor, memory,
> NO FLAMES ABOUT CUSTOM CHIPS!) that run many similar programs, right?  

	Wrong. Unless you cripple the Amiga, to make it compatable it with the
Atari ST. The simularities don't exist in hardware, much less in software.

> And since does the ST not multi-task?  Are you Amiga owners so brain-dead
> that you do not realize that OS-9, Idris, Minix, and a couple of custom
> ports paid for by European firms (and not for commercial use) are _all_
> multi-tasking Operating Systems (And _STANDARDS_ at that, unlike the Amiga
> kernal [or whatever you would like to call it]).

	An ST can multi-task. The Amiga can run any of the above mentioned OS
you feel like.  What you are missing here, is the BIG picture. Which is as
follows:

	1) The Amiga comes box stock with a multi-tasking OS. The Atari does
	   not.

	2) IDRIS announced by Atari, and eventually System V, will NOT run a
	   single program that currently exists for the Atari.

	   No backward compatability.

	   The same would go for the Amiga, if it supported deviant strains of
	   multi-tasking OS's that aren't backward compatable.

	3) Since the Amiga comes with multi-tasking, and it's obviously
	   supported, no need to change to a new OS to achieve this. 

	   The result is, in this environment, all Amiga multi-tasking works
	   on ALL Amiga's. 

	   It's simply compatable.

> I'd prefer to write truly portable (System V) applications than to compile,
> edit, and listen to a glorified music box at the same time.

	That's nice if you like a yucky OS like System V.

	Just how portable is a UNIX binary.

> Summary:  Both systems can multi-task, Commodore does not have a monopoly
> 	  on this feature.

	Agreed.

> 	  As soon as an Amiga can make the Sun-4 obsolete,
> 	  call me and I may find it worth buying.

	How much do you want to spend? Do you have a personal Sun at home?

>	  Until then, I  am sick 
> 	  of reading Amiga owners' comments about what their computer can do
> 	  and my computer supposedly cannot.

	Well you are in the wrong newsgroup to discuss that topic.

-- 
Work: Computer Consoles Inc. (CCI), Advanced Development Group (ADG)
      Irvine, CA (RISCy business! Home of the CCI POWER 6/32)
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