Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!brunix!rjd
From: rjd@brunix (Rob Demillo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: What an Atarian is
Message-ID: <3022@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 89 15:06:59 GMT
References: <22152@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <10156@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <515@TSfR.UUCP>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: rjd@zaphod.UUCP (Rob Demillo)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 48

In article <515@TSfR.UUCP> orc@pell.UUCP (David L. Parsons) writes:
>In article <10156@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> mars@athena.mit.edu (Andy) writes:
>>Why would any of you buy the ST when the IBM has more
>>support, the Apple has more innovation, and the Amiga more power?
>
>  And there are no religions based on the Atari ST, unlike the little cults
> associated with the Mac, the Amiga, and the IBM.  Now that most of my
> initial enthusiasm for the ST is long dead, it's very nice to not have
> people praising misfeatures as the second coming of Christ.
>
>   -david parsons

An excellent quote from David...

Another point is simply choice. I have no qualms with any of the
other machines. (Except the Mac, more in a sec.) I own an IBM XT
as well as my ST. I am also going to be purchasing a 386 based
machine and a NeXT in the next 6 months, but I still have a warm
spot for the ST. It's *fun* to program on...

The Mac is the only machine in the list you gave that I have
real, deepseated biases against. (In fact, in the 15+ years I
have been programming, it is the only computer I have come across
that I refuse to think about.) I have real problems with the
design philosophy, the overburdening of the 68000 chip, the
way in which Apple 'appropriated' the Mac OS and then claim it
as their own, etc etc etc... In addition, as David pointed out, I
have a real hard time with the Mac-ideology that the users
cling to...

On the other hand...

There is a *serious* ideology problem among the Atari users, as
well...and I think I can trace it back to the old 8 bit, local
user group days. I have never, *ever*, *EVER* in 15 years of 
computing seen a more cavalier attitude toward software piracy
as I have in the Atari community. Not *ever.* Not in the days of
the commodore Pet, not in the Kaypro days, not even in the current
Mac community (which has to be the second highest rate of software
theft around, by the way). 

So, once again, computing preferences are a matter of personal choice..


 - Rob DeMillo			| UUCP:   ...ima!brunix!rjd
   Brown University 		| BITnet: DEMILLO%BRNPSG.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
   Planetary Science Group	| Reality: 401-863-3769
"I say you *are* the Messiah, Lord! And I ought to know, I've followed a few!"