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From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Atari portfolio
Message-ID: <18302@cup.portal.com>
Date: 13 May 89 05:42:43 GMT
References: <3751@nunki.usc.edu> <24089@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1916@blake.acs.washington.edu> <18054@cup.portal.com> <13399@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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Responding to comments on my posting about the Atari Portfolio...
 
I'd expected that they would stir up a bit of controversy, but remember,
I was replying to a specific question about the applicability of the
Portfolio that was posed by a woman who is handicapped, and whose hopes
had been raised by the press coverage of the machine.
 
Effectively, my reply is substantiated by the points in Roy Good's reply..
 
For Lisa Raine, the Portfolio would not be a good choice.
 
There is no provision for using  *standard, currently available*  RS-232
or parallel port devices.  Atari has these "under development" for release
some time in the future.
 
There is no (or little) software *currently available* on RAM-cards. Perhaps
companies will release software on this non-standare format some time in
the future.
 
Software might also be downloaded to the Portfolio using a direct connect
cable from a PC, or by modem, using cables to be released some time in the
future.
 
Work done on the Portfolio could be transferred to a PC by using the
"RAM-card" drive to be released some time in the future.
 
In all cases, the operative phrase is "some time in the future"...
when the Portfolio is released, it will be a computer... NOT a computer
SYSTEM...
 
This may be fine for some needs, and if large companies are interested in
buying Portfolios in quantities, that's great... but for people like Lisa,
who need a complete, working computer system, the Portfolio is not the
answer.
 
It may indeed be that it was never intended to fill the need for a portable
system, and that used properly in its own niche, it may be a great success..
my objection is that all the press hype of recent months has been trumpeting
the Portfolio's "MS-DOS compatibility" without going on to tell the rest
of the story about how limited the basic machine will be.
 
Generating lots of "potential buyers" is only good if those buyers find that
they can do something useful with the computer when they get it home.
An awfully large number of people were soured on personal computers when they
bought the Timex 1000, then discovered there was little they could really
do with it.  I hope the Portfolio doesn't repeat the same history.
 
I'd love to see Atari have a big hit on its hands... I just don't think
the Portfolio is it...   maybe I'm wrong, and I'll log in next year at this
time on mine to admit it..
 
BobR