From: barham@qut.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga or Messy-DOS
Date: 21 Nov 92 11:27:02 EST
Organization: Queensland University of Technology

news@ericsson.se writes:
> barham@qut.edu.au writes:
> >Commodore are finally telling people that Amiga's exist.
>
> Well if comodore is telling people about the amiga they have missed me.
> I haven`t seen a ad for an amiga in a non Amiga paper for a very long
> time.

You don't read Byte and PC Magazine, I take it?

> I feel that comodore by dropping the 500 and 500+ and introducing
> the toyy computer 600 is effectivly killing the Amiga.

How is the A600 a toy (any more than the A500)?

> Why pay for a 600 when you can get a 386 for the same price.

Since when?

> And no i do not think that the 1200 will help either. It will be to
> expensive and people will buy SEGA and Nintendo to their childrens,
> and those that want to work and not only play games with their computer
> will by a 386 or 486 or Mac.

From what I have seen (in Brisbane, Oz - maybe we're not very
typical, but we're very nice %^), most home buyers these days are
getting your 20MHz 386sx type machine.  I think you will find the
A1200 competes VERY favourably in cost and performance with these
machines (even with many 386dx machines).  The 600 is NO WAY replacing
the A500 and A500+ IMHO - it is a low, low bottom of the range type
machine for people who really want SEGA MEGADUMBS and NINBIMBO machines,
but also would like a bit of computing capability.

> >Well, you can probably find some of the BEST (in many peoples
> >debatable opinions) word processors and database packages for the PC,
> >but you can certainly easily find many GOOD (in fact, EXCELLENT) word
> >processors and database packages for the Amiga.  These days you can
> >even read your friends word perfect file (if you REALLY want to).
>
> Yes SuperbaseIII is a very good program for the amiga. But it requires
> a 3000 or 4000 to run at a reasonable speed. And the same thing applies
> to many of the DTP programs for the Amiga. The one that i uses is
> Prowrite, and sometimes Kindwords (old i know) and they are not very
> fast on a 500. I would say that they are very slow.

Compare them with running a word processor/database on a 386sx under
Windows and I think you will have to agree they perform pretty well
- I know, I was stuck with a 386sx at work (and HAD to run Windows
for some of my software - don't mind it now on my 486, but how did I
survive then?).

> >Of course, the only PC you can get for less than an equivelent
> >Amiga is a clone... Weren't we talking about reliability as a
> >requirement somewhere?
>
> Do you think comodore makes PC:s that are more unreliable than their
> amiga?

Yes.  I KNOW Commodore makes PCs that are more unreliable than the
Amiga.  We have Commodore PCs at work and all I can say is - BLAH!  I
gather they are made/quality controlled etc at quite different
plants.  I may well be.  Oh, and that line was meant to contain a smiley
- sorry if I forgot %^)

> >The Amiga is just a damn nice, well integrated, powerful,
> >userfriendly machine.  A PC is just a heap of junk (even if it has a
> >V8)
>
> PC is no more junk than an Amiga. Your personal tase to what OS and
> what graphical interface you want to use may decide you for one
> or the other.

True.  I still PERSONALLY think that PCs are junk.  Unfortunately,
they are junk that came out at the right time to catch on, and so
they became a VERY POPULAR piece of junk, so a lot of money has been
spent by a lot of companies on spiffing them up.  The Amiga was built
as a cohesive whole from the ground up from the very beginning like
the PC never was.  The Mac is also far better than the PC in this
regard, though not up to the Amiga IMHO.  The trouble with the
Amiga has been lack of on-going development (heh heh - till now %^),
but because of the brilliant initial design, it has still held on.
Can you imagine if the only PC you could buy today was basically
unchanged from what was available in 1985? I'll admit that you can
now do a lot of nice stuff on a PC, but you gotta throw a lot of power
at it.

> >Oh, you wanted some serious, comparison, fact and figure type
> >reasons?  They have been bandied about here often enough, and when it
> >all comes done, pretty well everything the Amiga can do a PC can do
> >also (if you add enough hardware), but just not as nicely %^)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
         This was my point, here.

> If a PC can du anything that a Amiga can du then all it boils down to is
> the price, and then the choice is pretty clear. In that case a PC is the
> only viable option. Why pay $1000-$1500 more for the same functionality?

Your figures don't compute to me.  Show me in figures how you will be
paying $1000-1500 hundred more for the SAME functionality - that
includes coprocessed graphics and 4 voice sound (so don't just throw
in a sound blaster card).  Actually, don't worry - this price thread
has been done to death.  Amigas have been dropping radically in price
recently - $1500 hundred will get you an A3000 in the States I hear -
take $1500 off that and you wont get much of a computer %^)

> Thomas Grennefors         ! What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
> Ericsson Telecom,Karlstad ! What do you mean, an African or a European swallow?
> etxtsg@solsta.ericsson.se ! Well...I don't know...AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

I really don't mind, Thomas, if you think a PC is better value for
money. I just personally think the Amiga is a much more satisfactory
option, and I have used both machines for a few years.

Tim.
-- 

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| t.barham@qut.edu.au (Tim Barham) - "Dances with Mice"              |
| Applications Programmer for the Computer Based Education Section,  |
| Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia      |
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| "You're so open-minded that your brain leaked out..."              |
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy