From: papo@cs.cornell.edu (Luis R. Anaya)
Subject: The Amiga, Just my opinion...
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 19:36:51 GMT

Hi *

This is the opinion of a CS student, application programmer like anybody
else.  I'm not an expert in terms of a particular architecture or
hardware.  So this opinion comes from my own experience by working
with the Pee Cee's, Mac's and Amigas.

I own the three of them.  I have an old XT compatible, an old Mac 
(a 512) and an Amiga 1000.  As we can see, they are pretty much the
essence of each of the architectures.  Granted, you can soup up a Pee Cee
with 486, SuperBlasto VGA and Super Blasto Duper Sound.  However, that's
not what I want to talk.

1.  The Pee Cee's are good machines.  They are good workhorses.
The XT did his job on a 97F and 67%relative humidity climate.
I solved a NAND Gate with 7 S transistor and did MathCad pretty well.
Yes,... slow.. and single tasked.  I was able to create a document
with Professional Write and with Windows 1.4 (at the time.)  I did
quite decent documents with that soapbox.  Right now, my youngest
sister have it in her room, no air conditioned unit in it, in a tropical
Climate and the machine helped her out in College.  

They are not "pieces of shit" because, they do not multitask, or have
memory constraints.  They were designed to do work and
they do it pretty well.

They are not that "plug and play" however they are relatively simple to
upgrade and with a lot of add-ons you can finish with a relatively decent
system, or better said, with a system that is the best for your needs.

Windows in not the ideal multitask environment.  OS/2 can be too big for
some users and GEOS is starting now, so is a matter of wait and
see.  However everybody is turning (for worst or best) to windows.

Windows needs improvement, however.. that's what we got.

2.  Macintosh'es are also very good in what they do.  They are an excellent
integrated environment.  All the program looks the same, however, that's
not boredom.  I think that is a very logical and smart thing to do, other
wise why you need those "style guidelines"?  Granted, they are not
multitasking, at least without system 7, but you are able to have a 
"free flow" of your work.  Something that Windows Wants, and the Amiga
does not have (as far as I know.  If I'm wrong, please correct me do not
flame me).  When you run all the programs at the same time, you have
the feeling that you are running "a big program" that does a lot of 
things.  I find that feeling a very pleasant one because, that's the way
the humand mind thinks.  You have a mind with a lot of things that you
can do.  That's something that I liked of the Mac.  

However they are Ferrari's.  Expensives, Close Mouted, They are not
as easy to program as the Pee Cee (IMO) or UNIX.  But they are
excellent for documents and for "bussiness" applications (unlike
the Pee Cee that is more for Engineers and Scientists).

3.  My Amiga 1000 is my latest adquicision.  I wanted to have a multitasking
computer.  The Amiga is good in that, and Its operating system is
a very impresive one in terms of efficiency and how clean is it.
It's graphics are outstanding, even they look prettier than the 
PS/2 I have at work.  It speed is decent.  However I do not have a lot
of elbow room, I just have 512K's.  The tasks definitions is more clearly
displayed than the Macintosh (you are not confused in where you are at
what moment in your job.)  But the lack of some kind of software
(Engineering, Sciences, Math, a Good Decent Bussiness Software) have 
done a lot of harm than good.  Multitasking is fantastic, Multimedia
is also great.  Only that without a good Math program.. or a Good 
Circuit Simulator makes the Amiga unmarketable to those groups (as
an example).  The only thing that have been going out to the market
are games.... and games.... and more games.. I someone just put the same
effor as they have done for just one of these flashy games in a
big profesionally driven application, that would be one of the best
thing that the Amiga would ever have.  Appealling to the Nitendo Generation
by flashy games or to an elite that actually does not understand
computers and the Mac have gain all the terrain, I mean, Artists (Musicians,
Graphic Artists.. etc..) is not simply going to work for the Amiga.

Worst.. The Amiga has a lot of potential in the Workstation Arena.
It has been one of the best idea by porting UNIX to the Amiga.
Has it been really exploted??? .... (rethoric question)
I like the machine.. a lot.. too bad that is not the Bussiness Standard
as the Mac and the Pee Cee Clowns.  At least there are some good development
tools in Netland and someday I'll be able to port Linux in my 1000 and run
X in it. or do my own version of a Math Program or port SPICE.

These are just my though.  Any intelligent comment is wellcome, otherwise
keep it to yourself....  BTW, escuse my english, as many people in Netland
is it my second language.


Regards,



-- 
Luis Roberto Anaya-Rivera papo@cs.cornell.edu
-- disclaimer
This message comes from an OVERWORKED, OVERLOOKED, OVERDRAWN, but
still basically fun person.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy