From: billc@popsicle.UUCP (William J. Coldwell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
Subject: Networking. (was: LET'S RESCUE THE AMIGA!!...(in misc))
Date: 30 Jul 92 03:53:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: popsicle.billc.08pd
Reply-To: billc@cryo.rain.com
Distribution: world
Organization: Cryogenic Software - Portland, OR
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>From: jamiller@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
>Date: 28 Jul 92 23:15:57 CDT
>Message-ID: <1992Jul28.231558.41972@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>

[...]
> Maybe COMMODORE'S BIGWHIGS ARE NOT INTERESTED IN NETWORKING.  IT SEEMS
>OBVIOUS AS ACCOURDING TO A POST BY ONE OF THEIR NETWORKING GURUS THEY
>_ONLY_ EMPLOY _THREE_ PEOPLE IN THIS CAPACITY. It seems to me that the
>Amiga has and if it continues to be a machine literally kept breathing
>by ITS CUSTOMER FANCATIC SUPPORT AND LOYAL _GENIUS_ THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS.
>Increasingly customers are disgruntled and developers are broke.

Ask yourself these questions:

A) In a peer-to-peer environment, how many people do you know who own
   more than one Amiga?

B) In a work environment, how many Amigas are on desktops that want to
   get hooked into a ArcNet, EtherNet or AppleTalk network?

C) In the real world, how many company purchasers would choose an Amiga
   over a Mac or PC to network it?

Once you answer those questions, then you'll understand why Commodore only
employs three people in that capacity.  If Commodore ever comes out with a
machine that has built-in networking capabilities, then it would make more
sense to expand that section.

[Futile stock and hostile-takeover comments deleted.]

>Oh, BTW, if you're looking to network, the only reasonable soloution
>is with the amiga implementation of SLIP called AmigaNOS.  AGAIN NOT A
>C= PRODUCT BUT THE PRODUCT OF ANOTHER BRILLANT MEMBER OF THE AMIGA
>COMMUNITY.

Umm, he's Phil Karn KA9Q... he's _very_ PC.  It was ported to the Amiga
by a couple of brilliant members of the Amiga community.

>jamiller@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu

Then, Don writes:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From: don@chopin.udel.edu (Donald R Lloyd)
>Date: 29 Jul 92 12:45:11 GMT
>Message-ID: <Bs5I3B.AJD@news.udel.edu>

>jamiller@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
[...]
>>Maybe COMMODORE'S BIGWHIGS ARE NOT INTERESTED IN NETWORKING.  IT SEEMS
>>OBVIOUS AS ACCOURDING TO A POST BY ONE OF THEIR NETWORKING GURUS THEY
>>_ONLY_ EMPLOY _THREE_ PEOPLE IN THIS CAPACITY. It seems to me that the

>     Well, maybe those three people are busy developing products and
>don't have time to sit around reading news all the time?  Ever hear of
>SANA-II?  It's not at all unusual to ask a question and only get one
>or two responses; even a few years ago when the net was crawling with
>Amigans and the machine was still way ahead of its competition.  Blaming
>Commodore for a lack of responses isn't very reasonable.

Agreed.  Try to remember that they don't have to reply at all, much less
read any of the drivel that we generate....

[comments about Todd and Arthur deleted]
>     Todd R. is a Mac fanatic who only likes the Amiga for the Toaster.

>>C= PRODUCT BUT THE PRODUCT OF ANOTHER BRILLANT MEMBER OF THE AMIGA
>>COMMUNITY.

>     No, Commodore makes ethernet and arcnet boards as well as TCP/IP
>software, and if I'm not mistaken they also funded some of Oxxi's
>development of its Amiga Novell Client Software.  And again, the SANA-II
>specification was just recently finished (Standard Amiga Networking
>Architecture); it will likely provide the basis for quite a few
>networking products.

SANAII opens the door for hardware transparent protocol stacks.  That means
that you could run AppleTalk over an EtherNet card and TCP/IP over AppleTalk.
Since applications make standard calls to SANA device drivers, it means that
they don't have to CARE what they are running over (or for that matter, how
many hardware mediums their packets run over before reaching their
destination).

>don@chopin.udel.edu      \ don't be surprised." - Styx, 'Mr. Roboto'           /
--
  William 'llib' Coldwell  IRC: #amiga, Cryo               PORTAL: Cryogenic
  Amiga Attitude Adjuster  BBS: CryoCafe (503)257-4823     BMS: cryo.RAIN.COM
  Cryogenic Software       UUCP:uunet!cryo!popsicle!billc  ROCK: ON
My comments are freely distributable: Feel free to agree with 'em and pass on.