From: tony@ais.org (Tony Poole)
Subject: Re: Amiga Future?!?y
Organization: UMCC
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 22:19:56 GMT

mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:

>CBM has wonderful engineers and plenty of wasted R&D efforts of their own
>(i.e. CDTV).  However, CBM lacks the ability to instill confidence in their
>products in the marketplace without showing the kind of support that an

I don't know about this.  You have to realize that readers of c.s.a.advocacy
are a cynical bunch when it comes to Commodore.  You (I) may not have
started out that way, but reading the BS here day in and day out tend to
involuntarily make you that way. 

I have been reading articles in this particular newsgroup *in earnest* now
for about, oh, say 6-8 months (before that I'd pick one or two articles that
hadn't been followed up to yet).  Prior to that 6 or 8 months, I didn't have
a feeling of desperation for Amiga upgrades.  Frankly, I can't afford as
much as some of you.  But that aside, I was seeing new Amiga products come
out - be it third party or C= peripherals.  I saw the 3000.  I used a 3000.
It was wonderful.  The OS was (is) great.  Improvements!  There were always
things I *could* buy *if* I had the money (bills, kids, and all that).  I
could get something better - I was never stagnate.  Of course there were
certain things I could never afford.  Luckily, my employer could, so I got
to try them out.  

The average Amiga user (which I am - I'm no superuser, though
my level of expertise is somewhat above most common computer users) has no
*great* sense of urgency for a 68040 Amiga.  The same thing holds true for
any platform.  Most 386 IBM users had no great sense of urgency to go out
and upgrade to a 486 when the opportunity arose.  They run their word
processors, played their games, and life kicks happily along.  What's this?
A new Amiga model is out, the 3000.  They read Doug Barney's commentary on
it, and a couple of reviews.  Boy!  That sounds great!  Someday maybe I'll
be able to afford it (realizing it would have to drop below $200 for them to
be able to afford it in the immediate future).  I'll save starting right now
....where is that cookie jar?  

The point is, you guys (and I) are assuming *everyone* wants *everything*
*now* like you do.  I'm happy with my computer.  It runs my UUCP feed, my
comm program, a few image proccessing programs, a word processor, etc...
Would I like a 68040 Amiga?  You bet!  Would I get one immediately when it
came out?  Nope, not me.  There are many other things to worry about first.
Hell, at the moment, I want a 14.4K modem before anything else, 256 colors
or not.

Most people are happy with their Amiga.  A great deal are ecstatic about it.
There are lots of 500's out there for a reason - they are low end, and low
end means low price, and that sells, especially in a recession.

I kinda got off track.  My main point is that the average Amiga user (ie
without net access) who doesn't read c.s.a.advocacy doesn't think things are
so bad.  I know, I talk to a lot of them day in and day out.  They're my
family, friends, and relatives.  Do I jade them by recanting Marc Barrett
posts all the time?  Hell no, what would it accomplish?  Do I express my
wishes for a 256 color solid palette?  Yeah, to which I hear a great deal
"What's the big deal, we have HAM and Dynamic Hires?".  Seriously.  It's not
viewed as that big a deal.

When the CDTV was frist reviewed, a lot of Amiga users I know said "Wow!
That's neat!"  I thought it was neat.  Neat sells.  The R&D on CDTV wasn't a
waste.  CDTV is a great product to get average people to use a computer for
real things in their living room.  The R&D on CDTV was well spent, but
unfortunately hasn't been followed up with a sufficient effort to push the
product to the consumer (IMO CD-I doesn't escape this either).

Now that I read this group a great deal, I do kinda have the "Commodore
Attitude", but I realize that if I didn't read this group, I wouldn't.
So why do I read it?  I wish I had a great answer, but I mainly do for
information.  If you can glean through all the BS in this group, and
construct an appropriate kill file for the likes of John Anderson, you can
learn a lot about other platforms as well as the Amiga.  Learning about
other platforms can help you understand computers in general, what's
possible, what's not, etc...

People like Mike Schwartz might think they need a 68040 Amiga.  Most
*people* don't.  There are far more users than programmers.

Most users are still satisfied, or at least content with what they have.


-- 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Poole                       tony@umcc.ais.org * tony@irie.ais.org 
Traverse City, MI USA          tony@cherry1.trv.mi.us * tony@cherry1.UUCP