Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!eecae!conklin
From: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga public impressions
Keywords: new machine old user
Message-ID: <12722@eecae.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 88 06:10:30 GMT
References: <12626@eecae.UUCP> <1377@neoucom.UUCP>
Reply-To: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin)
Distribution: na
Organization: Michigan State University, ERDL
Lines: 39


 
Several people have, accurately and unfortunately, missed the major point
of my "first impressions" of the machine.
 
There are all sorts of wonderful products out there, Browers, DMouse, ConMan,
etc. which can fix many of the usabilty faults in the system. However, I 
PURPOSELY have NOT gotten them, and DELIBERATELY avoided the net as much as
I could force myself to (no comp.sys.amiga) such that I would NOT be aware
of these products.
 
Why? Because I was specifically attempting to identify the first reactions 
as a new user. New users, the real people, walking into stores and looking at
the 2000 in the local shopping mall, dont GET those things. The store owners
dont know about the stuff in depth, and it's just not part of the machine.
 
CBM has demonstrated considerable post-Tramiel versatility. Is it conceivable
that they could put together a special Public Domain disk to ship with the
machine? Micro-EMACS came with it, so it's not that big of a leap.
 
Speaking of leap, the Byte review of the NeXT machine sez it's shipping with 
GNU C++ compiler & GNU emacs. What's stopping anyone from including a C 
compiler with the 2000? Its a proposition with some drawbacks, (compiler
market pressure for one,) but I think NeXT does come into the realm of
"competition." 
 
An interesting note: A major theme of my original message was that the _base_
configuration of a machine defines (to a large extent) what people think and
expect of it. I was quite suprised to see how wholeheartedly the NeXT crew 
took it to heart!
 
Steve Jobs and I think alike? Is that good? For either of us?
 
 
Terry Conklin                   "Eyes dripping blood, realization of death. 
conklin@egr.msu.edu                       Transforming of five toes to two."
{msudoc|frith}!conklin                         -Slayer, Altar Of Sacrifice
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