From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Subject: Re: Top 10 reasons why ...
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 19:38:04 GMT

In article <1dec6qINNl2n@falcon.natinst.com> glens@natinst.com (Glen Sescila) writes:
>In article <1992Nov6.163714.2271@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>
>>The fact is, none of these can be found on the Falcon either because the
>>Falcon cannot be found.  It is still vaporware, while the A4000 and A1200
>>are both shipping.  Atari continues to practice its policy of announcing
>>machines long before anything actually ships.
>
>	Funny, I can't find a 1200 OR 4000, and I HAVE been looking.  Besides,
>even if I could find a 1200 I am not so impatient that I couldn't wait another
>2 months to be able to compare it to the Falcon before making my decision.

An A4000 will be shoving my A3000 over in a couple of days.  I was impatient
and in fact was going to sell my Amiga and go over to the Clones had C= not
delivered an A4000 by the end of the year.  Luckily, the A4000 shipped and
I'll only have to live with the inadequacies of a Clone at work.  :-)

If Atari really intends to pull itself out of the hole, it needs to concentrate
on shipping machines instead of announcing vapor.  The Falcon may indeed be 
nicer for someone interested in music, but they won't sell many until they
make them available.

>>Wasted on the average user.
>
>	This does not hold up when the 2 systems being compared are similarly
>priced.  (Why not get more features if it is free?)

One could say the same about the 24bit palette, higher resolutions, more
mature OS, better third party support, and true 32bit expansion bus which
the A1200 has but the Falcon lacks.

>>Oh boy, LocalTalk!  Hold me back, I need a Falcon now!  Get a clue, have
>>you ever used a bunch of Macs on a LocalTalk network?  Slow as molasses.
>
>	I use Macs and LocalTalk every mon-fri and let me tell you, it is
>a much better solution than sneaker-net!

Well, I'm sorry that you have to use Macs, but sometimes we all have to
do things that we would rather not.  I'll take an A1200 with a PCMCIA
Ethernet adapter any day over any LocalTalk equipped machine.

>>I've heard of Codecs, but I don't have any idea what a "CD Codec" is.
>
>	That would be one of the CODECs that is used in CD players. duuhhh...

I should have guessed that, but it sounded like you were talking about
something hooked to a CD-ROM or something.  Last I checked, adding a 
CD-ROM to a Falcon will result in a system at least as ungainly as a
similar Amiga system, with the possible exception of CDTV, the A2000,
or the A4000.

>>Don't worry, the SCSI-II from C= will blow away whatever the Falcon has
>>to offer.  I'd be surprised if the Falcon could even keep up with the
>>SCSI-I in my A3000.
>
>	Where can I plug my CD-ROM drive into the 1200?

Well, given its size, I don't think you could plug a drive in.  For that
matter, unless the Falcon's case is distorting space-time, a CD-ROM won't
plug into it either.

>>Ugly ST case again, sheesh!  Guess they had two many screwed-up function
>>key caps to change the design.
>
>	Oh yeah, the A500 case is a real work of art.

Did I say that it was?  No.  In fact, I've seen very few computer cases
that I'd consider a work of art.  The MindSet computer had a really nice 
case and the original A1000 was pretty nice.  The A3000 looks OK, but it
is really not very well thought out.  The A2000 is just about the ugliest
computer I've ever seen and the A4000 runs a close second.  But at least
they are functional and allow for lots of expansion.

>>Oh yeah, all the serious audiophiles are going to love the silly little
>>mini-stereo plugs for both input and output.  What a joke.
>
>	Again, how am I to do samples on a 1200?

GVP's DSS is inexpensive, works great, and is available for any Amiga 
owner who might want or need that capability.

>>Ever heard of a hard drive?  I've got an 880k floppy on my A3000, but I only
>>have to use it if I'm installing new software.  Of course, having an Ethernet
>>board in my A3000 helps, something you may have trouble adding to the Falcon.
>
>	This makes an 880K drive better than a 1.4M drive?  Please explain.

No, the point is that I rarely if ever use a floppy drive.

>>Crippled by a single bus and 24 bit expansion port.  Given those limitations,
>>Atari would have been better off using a 68EC020 and saving themselves a bit
>>of money.  Given the sum of its parts, the Falcon is not going to have the
>>greatest profit margins.  
>
>	As I understand it, the 1200 is shipped with chip-RAM only.  The
>duel bus architecture doesn't do any good if this is the case.

And the Falcon is rumored to ship with 1M only.  In both cases, most users
will be adding memory, but the Falcon will benefit much less than the A1200
does.

Here is some food for thought: the A1200 with Chip-RAM only runs faster 
than the A3000 does with Chip-RAM only.  Why?  I don't know, but my guess
is that the old ECS which the A3000 is saddled with is sucking up more CPU
than the new AGA in the A1200 and a4000.

Skip Sauls
skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu