Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!xanth!lll-winken!snll-arpagw!paolucci
From: paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Sam Paolucci)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AM(iga un)IX
Message-ID: <79@snll-arpagw.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 89 15:57:13 GMT
References: <72@snll-arpagw.UUCP> <6330@cbmvax.UUCP> <74@snll-arpagw.UUCP> <2421@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Reply-To: paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Sam Paolucci)
Organization: Sandia National Labs, Livermore, CA
Lines: 65

In article <2421@sbcs.sunysb.edu> root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root) writes:
	Sam, the other side to your argument is this: what if, god forbid,
	Commodore continues to undercut and screw their developers by
	bringing any profitable product in house because it is
	"strategic"?  This happened to all the third party disk people,
	memory people, soon the genlock people, etc.  If this trend
	continues you will have ZERO hardware developers in the Amiga
	marketplace and then what?  When the next "gotta have" hardware
	widget comes down the pike, you will be left to wait for Commodore
	to provide it.  Do you like to wait for two years for such things?

Hi Rick.  First let me say that my response to Michael Ditto was not meant in
any way to slight the Ameristar product.  I think you guys have been
doing a great job considering the number of people involved.  With
that out of the way, it is inconceivable for me to see how ANYBODY can
put out a UNIX box in this day and age without an Ethernet card.  The
only reason I would like to see Commodore have their own card is to
show that they are committed to a real UNIX machine, like the 2500UX,
and to protect the 2500UX customers.  I did not say that Commodore
should price their card below that of third party, and thus undercut
them.  But think about it for a moment.  If you guys in a year or two
from now, for the sake of argument, decide that the Mac II market is
much more lucrative and abandon the Amiga market, where are all the
2500UX owners going to be regarding networking.  They are going to be
screwed, unless Commodore has enough foresight.

	I would like to see some justification of your statement.  Are
	you actually suggesting that Ethernet cards would enjoy as wide
	of an installed base as a floppy drive?  Come on.  Practically
	speaking I would doubt that Commodore will ever ship more than
	30-40K Amiga 2500UX given the nature of the workstation market
	and the fact that they are up against incredibly strong competition.
	Of those 30-40K, how many will be Ethernetted?  Maybe 20%?
                                                        ^^^^^^^^^^

I would say that nearly every 2500UX will have an Ethernet card (that should
make you happy).  I repeat, a UNIX box without Ethernet is like a PC
without a Disk drive.  Even Sun's slogan says something to the effect
"The network is the computer".  An Ethernet card is a "strategic product"
for the 2500UX.

	Perhaps the answer is to have Commodore produce "strategic products", 
	but to price them such as to give third parties some room to stay
	in business.  

That is exactly what I would like to see.  I know that third party
developers are the lifeblood of the Amiga.  Indeed third party
developers have so far supported the Amiga better than Commodore (with
the exception of the wonderful people at CATS, of course).  But I
believe that customers should be protected when it comes to strategic
products.

	We have had an A500 booting up over NFS, and BOOTPARAMS.  

About one for the 2000?

->					Rick Spanbauer
->					Ameristar Technology


-- 
					-+= SAM =+-
"the best things in life are free"

				ARPA: paolucci@snll-arpagw.llnl.gov