Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!oliveb!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Mac OS / Amiga OS (was How 'Bout HyperCard!)
Message-ID: <54709@sun.uucp>
Date: 26 May 88 23:41:08 GMT
References: <8805170742.AA28361@cory.Berkeley.EDU> <4710@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <467@amanpt1.zone1.com> <4732@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <5086@dcatla.UUCP>
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Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
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In article <5086@dcatla.UUCP> mclek@sunb.UUCP (Larry E. Kollar) writes:
> The Amiga is about 2 years behind the Mac in hardware & software
> development, but is catching up rapidly.  The upcoming versions of
> AmigaDos should help a lot.  
>       Larry Kollar				 ...!gatech!dcatla!mclek

I am probably not the only one who caught this, but just for Larry's 
benefit and those reading we need to clarify something. The Amiga's 
system software, and hardware are a couple of years *AHEAD* of the
Mac, but the Mac is catching up rapidly. You see the Amiga has always
been a multitasking OS and has always had automatically configuring
dipswitch-free expansion architecture. The Mac finally got the latter
when they introduced the Mac II and is working on the former. The
PC clones now have the MicroChannel, and are getting OS/2 so they are
closer than the Mac is. In either event the Amiga is the one out in 
front. 

With that said, let me add that in terms of *Application* software, 
the Amiga is a couple of years behind. The existing Mac OS, three
to five years behind MS-DOS. It is ahead of OS/2 (although since
there are literally billions of dollars going into OS/2 Development
and mere millions going into Amiga SW development that won't last)
and it is way ahead of the Mac multitasking product. 

There are better word processors coming out for the Amiga and there
are a lot of things 'in the works' that will be arriving about Xmas
time. More and more the Amiga is seen by businesses as acceptable
solution, and that is because Commodore is doing better at selling
themselves as a business computer maker. As the software gets better
and Commodore becomes more profitable, investment goes up, and the
machine gets better. I don't doubt the Amiga will own the small 
computer market by 1993. Some companies you would never expect to 
hear from consider it competition.


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.