Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Autoconfig for expansions
Message-ID: <3513@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 88 20:27:58 GMT
References: <322@wsccs.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 62

in article <322@wsccs.UUCP>, terry@wsccs.UUCP (terry) says:
> Keywords: autoconfig hobby
> Summary: Nope.

> } We don't ask for a business plan before we sign you up to a
> } developer program either :-)

> 	Better to post a business plan (you had better have one anyway, if you
> intend to stay in business) than to not get hardware or software support.

Developers do get software and hardware support.  They don't get free hardware
and all the source code to our software just for signing up as a Developer, but
they get hardware discounts, first crack at using and developing for new
hardware, first crack at new system software before it's released, and all us
similing folk in Engineering and CATS to ask questions of.

> } >	   why a programmer-type at Micro-soft told me they hadn't ported
> } >	   Xenix... no built-in market/advertising channels.
> } 
> } This sounds unlikely as a reason, somehow.  Perhaps there were other
> } factors ?
> 
> 	You have truncated me slightly out of context, here, but I will
> answer anyway:  No, there were not other reasons.  

I can think of one very simple reason.  There's no MMU in the Amiga.  Any
reasonable UNIX clone on a 68000 system would require one.  So either you
end up with a very bad Xenix port or a Xenix port that will only run on the
few machines that currently have the Amiga A2620 card in them (most of these
are in Germany at the CeBit show right now).  There may be a need for a bad
multitasking operating system in the PC, Mac, or Atari markets.  There isn't
in the Amiga market, we already have a good one that comes free with each
computer.  But I'm sure the reason is the MMU, otherwise Xenix would already
be on the Macintosh.

> Would Commodore be willing to sell/support Xenix for the Amiga?  Would
> people trust it [the Xenix] if they did?

I don't trust Xenix now.  Commodore has no reason to sell Xenix on an Amiga.
We are, however, planning to sell AT&T UNIX V.3 (eg, the real thing) for use
the the A2620 board.

> 	So he was full of it.  There IS a new Kickstart.  Is it only ROM, or
> will 1000 owners be able to use it too?  Is it going to cost the users of the
> older stuff more than distribution costs, just like the last one (1.1 to 1.2)
> did?

Ask MicroSoft how much they charge for Xenix or MS-DOS upgrades.  Or Lotus for
1-2-3 upgrades.  $14.95 wasn't an outrageous price to pay for the 1.1 to 1.2
upgrade, and the 1.2 to 1.3 upgrade will certainly be in the same price range.
Heck, I paid $75.00 for my Lattice V3.03 to V4.00 upgrade; certainly worth the
price, but probably not as generally useful to me as my 1.2 upgrade.  If you're
going to argue that Commodore's not presenting a professional image, and at the
same time complain about an upgrade that costs mere pocket change, folks are
going to start wondering what you're smoking there.

> | Terry Lambert           UUCP: ...{ decvax, ihnp4 }

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The B2000 Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"