From: bloc1469@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: CBM mention on 12/11/92 Computer Chronicles
Date: 30 Dec 1992 03:41:25 GMT
Organization: Electrical Engineering Dept. University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.2.33

In article <1992Dec29.153931.3485@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> jerry@msi.com (Jerry Shekhel) writes:
>Yep, just like the Porsche and the Benz -- they play the part of automobile,
>yet you can't compare them.

Sure you can.  Don't be ridiculous, they're both cars.  I tend to
think of it differently, though.  They're really not so far apart in
features, they're just greatly distanced in implementation.

>Just take a look at the two.

Okay.  Mind if I split your sentences up and take each point one by
one?

> Windows was designed to work with mainstream
>(very large) applications, so it has virtual memory, unlike AmigaOS.

Firstly, let me tear this apart.  Firstly, one could say that AmigaOS
was designed for optimal real-time response.  Virtual Memory as a
concept opposes that, philosophically and realistically.  Therefore,
only real memory is supported.  And very large mainstream applications
exist for the Amiga, also.  They're just not word processors or
databases.  Rendering programs such as Caligari Professional, and the
entirety of the Video Toaster package are good examples.  So making
that claim isn't exactly correct.

>Windows was also designed to work on hundreds of different machines with
>vastly different hardware, so it has complete device independence, unlike
>AmigaOS.  On the other hand, AmigaOS was designed to work with video and

Then let me take this.  Windows was not designed to work on hundreds
of different machines--it's designed to work on the average PC clone.
Period.  It just happens that all of those different machines are
extremely compatible.  Making that claim is like saying that Ultima
Underworld was written to be played on hundreds of different machines.

Vastly different hardware?  Not really.  Windows just supports
graphics drivers, that's all.  (if that's what you mean by hardware)
The fact exists that if you WANT to support anything in the PC world
these days, it MUST support vastly different hardware, due to everyone
and their grandmother coming out with their own version of SVGA.

>other realtime applications, so it has very efficient multitasking and a
>tiny context switch time, unlike Windows.  Don't you see that it doesn't
>make sense to compare them?

And yet they are both multiprocessing operating environments, both
designed with GUI's, both with filesystems.  It just so happens that
one is architected so much better than the other that it shows what a
HACK the other is.

And you can't get around that.

Windows is a hack.  It doesn't replace EVERYTHING.

>Nope, it's an OS.  It does not "sit on top of DOS"; it replaces everything
>that DOS provides in terms of device management, memory management, etc.  It

Alright.  If it replaces everything, THEN WHY DO YOU NEED MS-DOS?
Simple:  it doesn't.  It doesn't wipe MS-DOS from memory after it's
loaded, does it?  It still USES MS-DOS.

And as such, it inherited it.

>provides every conceivable OS service, yet you refuse to call it an OS.  For

Please, it doesn't come close to providing every conceivable OS
service.  NO modern operating system does.  Isn't that the point of
getting the next version?  ;)

>some reason, you prefer to call it "a program that plays the part of system-
>wide moderator and allows user-written subprograms, blah, blah, blah".  Can't
>you see how ridiculous this is, and how stubborn you are being?

I'm being stubborn in what I call a modern OS.  Of course I can see
that.  But I don't believe that my stubbornness is making me wrong, in
this case.

Greg

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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc