Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:8177 comp.sys.amiga:15744
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!CORY.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: WARNING ! Atari ST owners look away now....
Message-ID: <8803100259.AA03230@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 10 Mar 88 02:59:17 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 65

:>1) The Atari ST's OS has been ported from an IBM PC and has several features
:>   removed (no fonts for example) and has had several (hundred ?) bugs
:>   introduced (40-folder bug, can't rename a folder, can't rename a disk...).
:>
:Wrong.  Porting is modifying existing code to work on a different computer.
:DRI wrote TOS/GEM/GEMDOS entirely from scratch.

	Yah, well they obviously didn't think about it much.  They borrowed
a lot (en concept, en theory) from the PC OS.  For instance, the disk format.

>Yet, in the same machine, we have a midi interface.  Those who are interested
>in good sounding music can add a synthesizer and persue a professional career.
>If this is cost cutting, how come no other machine comes with one built-in?

	Oh please, isn't this a bit old?  Any idiot knows that all you need
for midi is a serial port, a simple serial->midi adaptor (extremely cheap),
and good software.  If I really wanted to, I could hook one up to my 
low-speed digital logic probe (6502 @ 2.4Mhz, can transmit and receive on
two 76.8KBaud lines simultaniously at full speed without interruption. 
--slow-- MIDI is *simple*).

>>4) Virtually all the compilers I've seen (and I've seen plenty of them !) for
>>   the ST have been quite disgraceful. They either have numerous bugs, have
>>   a user-hostile interface (such as a cryptic command line) or are extremely
>>   slow. This just shows that ST software companies are in the market to make
>>   a quick buck off people foolish enough to buy an ST in the first place.
>>
>
>Yawn.  OSS Pascal, MWC Ver. 3.0, Laser C?  What goes for "good" these days?

	As he said ... disgraceful.  Still better than the compilers I
see on the IBM PC (in C at least...)

>
>>6) As mentioned in comp.sys.atari.st, Atari have been caught red-handed
>>   shipping STs with faulty disk drives that don't sense the write-protect
>>   notch on a disk correctly...typical of such a cost-cutting company
>>   (price without the power - or safe disk drives !)
>>
>
>Commodore is perfect by comparison, Hmmm?  One local mall store, Games 'N
>Gadgets, had over 50% of it's Amiga 500's come back after Christmas.  The 
>problem?  Dead unit, green screen with spots.  Sound familiar?  No electronics
>supplier is perfect.  Even IBM has problems.

	I would agree that the original message casts the wrong light on
Atari.  I was under the imprerssion that they attempted to correct it as
soon as they found out about it.

	But I'll tell you something Atari, in its infinite wisdom DID do.
Early on (in the first year), they attempted to discredit the Amiga with 
outright lies... on PURPOSE.  They used disgraceful methods and frankly, 
I think that blew it for them.  It also backfired in a big way.

>The preceding was written with nobody's consent.

	Ditto.

>>	sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk 

>                                                      S. Chilcote
>                                                      src@xanth.UUCP

				-Matt Dillon
				dillon@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
				..!ihnp4!ucbvax!dillon