From: ian@ug.cs.dal.ca (Ian Littlewood)
Subject: Re: 4000: Is it so great?
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Distribution: dal
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 18:05:21 GMT

In <1992Sep13.021205.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu> cl129502@ulkyvx.louisville.edu writes:

>Do you ever wonder why the Amiga has always offered hardware options to allow
>it to emulate a PC, while the IBM has never had this option for their machines? 
>The answer is because the IBM is a better machine than the Amiga.  Commodore
>is now releasing their new 4000, claiming its so great.  Well, right now you
>can buy a 486 DX 50 MHz PC for under $3000 with 24 bit color.  Or a 66 MHz for
>about the same price.  All this plus incredible third party support and a user
>base that makes the Amiga's look like Downhome, USA compared to New York City. 
>Another big thing in the Amiga community is its multitasking.  Well, OS/2 has
>been out for the IBM for a while now, and Desqview even longer.  It seems to me
>that CBM is trying to just catch up to the high echelon that the IBM is
>currently residing at.  I used to own an Amiga, so I know what I'm talking
>about, and when I say the Amiga crashes a lot, I'm not kidding.  I remember
>being on that computer many times and seeing that infamous "Guru Meditation
>Error" and now being on my IBM compatible and thinking "Whats all the fuss
>about?"  Seriously folks, face the facts:  The Amiga is still a couple of steps
>back on the evolution scale, and just losing ground.


You don't know what you're talking about... you conveniently neglected (or simply
don';t know about) the compatability problems associated with running any 
operating system for IBM & compatible machines other than MS-DOS... Windows is
a hog of system resources, is designed around custom-built applications; if you
want a Windows-style program then you have to write it FOR windows - with the 
Amiga everything runs under the windowing system (Intuition), multitasking and
programming construct for multitasking on the IBM are a joke... IBM owners STILL
have no true concept of what real multitasking is all about. OS/2 is better than
Windows but not much... it still has so many problems with non OS/2 applications
that it's just not worth the trouble. Besides, who wants to devote 40+ megs of
hard drive space and require 4+ megs of RAM in their machine to have access to
even a small selection of programs written under these "operating systems"

As for the hardware add-ons for the Amiga to emulate other machines... the answer
is simple... BECAUSE IT CAN. Having a Mac and an IBM in the same machine is VERY
convenient... the IBM has a vast software range; granted, most of it (i.e. PD
& shareware) couldn't be given away compared to Amiga software (IBM PD software
is of a VERY low quality compared to the Amiga) but because many businesses use
the big programs (Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Pagemaker), it's convenient
to be able to downgrade our machines to get things done with other machines;
while the IBM is tripping all over itself in a quagmire of operating systems and
non-intercompatible hardware, the Amiga can easily negotiate around inside the
world of MS-DOS; it's ironic that the Amiga has such an easy time with MS-DOS
when the MS-DOS machines themselves have such a difficult time. As for the Mac;
well, there's very little that's BAD about the Mac - it has a few things I
personally don't like, but what the hell; no system is PERFECT. Having the Mac
in the same box as the Amiga and the IBM is very nice indeed -- so now you
answer the question: why doesn't the IBM have the hardware add-ons to emulate
other machines like the Amiga and the Mac? The answer is simple: because it CAN'T
do the job well enough to produce a marketable product... Intel CPU's were 
designed around CALCULATOR chips... Motorola CPU's around MAINFRAME chips...

Say what you want, but I've owned all three systems for over 3 years now and use
AND PROGRAM all three; the vast majority of people I've spoken to who use MS-DOS
machines (and I say MS-DOS to denote the MACHINE not the operating system -- 
most use a variety of operating systems; UNIX, Windows, OS/2, and yes, some even
use MS-DOS) say they would use anything else if they could; IBM machines are
widely-used... but don't make the mistake of assuming they are widely-LIKED...
they are NOT; people use them because they have no choice.