Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!cae780!leadsv!laic!nova!darin From: darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Amiga or PC-AT ? Message-ID: <317@laic.UUCP> Date: 5 Aug 88 19:18:46 GMT References: <1820006@hpuamsa.UUCP> <554@gort.cme-durer.ARPA> <356@uwslh.UUCP> <17611@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> Sender: news@laic.UUCP Lines: 108 In article <17611@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John Nagle) > > The Amiga is the world's greatest toy computer. > > Fundamental problems: > > 1. The screen is TV resolution. This is not good enough for text. > You can see the dots all too well. It's like using a 1975-vintage > glass TTY, but with color. Hmmn, never noticed the problem. Perhaps you are used to expensive 1Kx1K displays? I notice the dots on IBM graphics displays (but not on the text-only displays). > 2. Commodore doesn't really believe in hard disks. It's like the > early days of the Mac; everything is diskette-oriented and most > disks seem to be bootable. With a certain amount of pain and anguish, > disk vendors have been able to bolt on hard disks. This works > about as well as it did on the Mac before Apple offered a hard disk. > I hear that Commodore is now supporting hard disks in the new > (real soon now) release of AmigaDos. I've used hard-disks with my 1000 and then later with my 2000 with no problems. Granted, there are a few programs out there that won't run on hard disks because of copy-protection, etc. but the same problem exists on IBM's. Perhaps this problem you see is the lack of auto-booting from a hard-disk, but this is indeed due in the next version (which a lot of people have, and it does work). Personally, I don't find this a drawback. Again, I don't see what the problem is. Perhaps you bought your Amiga when it first came out and then never checked back up on it? > 3. The mechanical and electrical interfaces for the Amiga 1000 and > 500 are terrible. In theory, one can add on peripherals. The > general comment is "one add-on will work, two may work, three > won't work". In other words, add-on memory and a hard disk > will probably be flakey. Some add-ons only work right with > the covers removed. This does not apply to the Amiga 2000, > which has slots. The 500 is really intended as a lower-end machine, and isn't as readily-expandable as the 2000. It is surprising to see how much you can expand it though... I never found any problems with the 1000 add-ons, other than having to stack them together. Of course, the reasons the 2000 and 500 came out were to improve on the 1000, with the 2000 being expandable, and the 500 being less-expensive and smaller. (I do admit that the 500 power-supply is a screw up..) Of course, you can only get used 1000's now. > 4. The product is positioned as a high-end toy. Most of the > available Amiga software is games. Ditto for IBM's. Also, software vendors don't have to write multiple versions of programs to support the numerous "standards" in graphics, memory expansion, etc. > On the other hand, there > are no serious spreadsheet programs for the Amiga. There are excellent spreadsheets out there. Some are even closely compatible with Lotus (does Lotus have mouse support yet?). Better yet, you can run these spreadsheets at the same time as you do something else. Of course, the Amiga wasn't designed to be a business computer (it would have to be less powerful for that). > The major > networking vendors do not support the Amiga (although schemes > involving the MS-DOS compatibility box have been made to work.) (what does MS-DOS compatability have to do with networking?) There is an ethernet card for the 1000 and 2000 that comes with TCP and NFS. Appletalk won't work, but then you don't see many IBM's talking appletalk either. > The one vendor in Palo Alto that still handles the Amiga > now relegates them to the back of the shop, and has removed all > Amiga material from the store window. I have a sneeky suspicion that this vendor (who I shall leave unnamed) did this because they weren't pushing enough Apple IIgs's. Probably too many people saw the Amiga in the front of the store and never made it to the back where the Mac II's were :-) I never recall seeing any Amiga materials in the store window - although I did see the IIgs running a souped-down version of Deluxe-PaintII. They always seemed to be doing good Amiga business (hardware and software) though. > 5. The file system is on the fragile side. It is all too easy to > destroy a disk. This applies to both fixed and removable > media. (Known bug: invoke the system call DELAY with a 0 > argument and track 40 of a disk will be trashed!) This is being fixed (real soon now, I hear). This is not unique to the Amiga at all. The Norton utilities weren't written because the MS-Dos file systems were reliable... I had many disk problems with IBM's when I had to use them. > It's a fascinating machine. I have an Amiga 1000 myself. But if you have > only one machine, it probably shouldn't be an Amiga. > > John Nagle It's the only one I have. Kinda makes me glad that I didn't buy a Clone, Mac, ST, etc. Since I am a CS person, I notice the extra things. Of course, if I ever have a breakdown and need to have PC compatability, I can get a PC card for my 2000 and still have spent less than a real IBM. Darin Johnson (...pyramid.arpa!leadsv!laic!darin) (...ucbvax!sun!sunncal!leadsv!laic!darin) "All aboard the DOOMED express!"