From: aeg03@rrz.uni-koeln.de (Jan T. Kim)
Subject: Re: Buying a Falcon (was: Falcon Graphics)
Reply-To: kim@vax.mpiz-koeln.mpg.dbp.de
Organization: Regional Computing Center, University of Cologne, F. R. Germany
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 92 00:51:19 GMT

In <1992Sep7.153742.21904@zooid.guild.org> Mark Kovarski <kovarski@zooid.guild.org> writes:

>kim@vax.mpiz-koeln.mpg.dbp.de writes:

>>If the Falcon with 4 MB and 60MB HD becomes available  at  around
>>DM  1,800.--,  I  will probably buy one as soon as they appear in
>>the stores. If it is more expensive, I'll wait until  next  year,
>>hoping  the prices will lower after christmas. And, I will surely
>>check out the price for the 14MB RAM model, since  with  MultiTOS
>>you  can't have too much memory, but I'm afraid I'll be unable to
>>afford it.

>How much is a 486/50 MHz (or 33MHz DX) with 120 Meg HD, OS/2 2.0, 8 MB RAM,
>SVGA Monitor, Case, Keyboard etc.? I have some promotion flyers from
>Austria but they are a bit out of date. I would really like to know the
>prices they charge in germany or any other european country.

I think 486/33MHz systems can be had for less than  DM  4,000.--,
including  a  monitor.  OS/2  or  any  other  OS  probably is not
included. But  when  it  comes  to  OS/2,  I  agree  that  it  is
comparable to MultiTOS, however, the software base of TOS is much
more powerful at the moment than the software base of OS/2

>Did anyone buy the Falcon030 at the Duesseldorf show?

No. It was not sold at the Atari Messe.

>I think people are more
>cautious this time around and they will REALLY think hard before purchasing
>any Atari equipment. I agree, it offers some unique features but you can say
>this with every computer on the market.

I didn't see  too  many  cautious  people  in  Duesseldorf.  Much
rather,  I  know  quite  a few people who are determined to buy a
Falcon. And, of course people think more or less hard before they
buy  a  Falcon,  but then, that's true for all computers too. The
price of a computer is still a considerable  bunch  of  money  to
most  buyers,  even  though  they  become  lower  at  a sometimes
breathtaking speed.

>In North America Atari Corporation is as good as dead. They don't have
>anything to offer what corporate customers want and what the average user
>want. Will I buy one, NO. Definetely not. Why? I will be in the same
>position as with the STE, MSTE, TT etc. Does it offer anything that I would
>want? NO.

Sorry, this makes me getting silly  and  remembering  a  limerick
posted  by  Thomas  Darling  well  more than a year ago, where he
wonders whether someone who kept complaining about the ST may  be
unable to find the power switch. Anyway, when I turn on the power
switch of my ST, it offers me a desktop which is  not  fancy  but
allows me to run a lot of programs comfortably from my hard disk.
It has been working for me for more than three years now, and the
fact  that I don't find it entirely satisfactory anymore makes me
go for a Falcon, not for another system.

>Will Atari Corporation ever smarten-up? No, they never did and
>will never do. The company is run by a bunch of clowns, that's the only
>expression I would use (I guess slang should not be used).

You can call the Atari managers whatever you want. What counts to
me  is  the computer, not the people running the corporation that
produce it. If it's good, why not buy from "clowns"?  If  someone
outrageously  exploits  people  or  the environment, that makes a
good reason not to buy from him at  all,  but  if  I  don't  like
someone I can still buy from him.
The only problem I have with the Tramiels is that it seems  their
main goal is making money, not making good computers. But this is
the nineties and just about every company seems to act like that.

>I have just purchased a system which costs the same as 5-6 Falcon computers.
>It offers all I would ever want and much more. I know it will be supported
>and supported well. Software is available everywhere and I can go and buy
>anything for it everywhere. 

Of course, if you can afford to spend about DM  15,000.--  for  a
computer,  it  makes no sense even to think of a Falcon. However,
for people who don't want to spend more than DM 3,000.-- a Falcon
makes  much  more  sense than the other choices they have in many
cases.

Greetinx, Jan

 +- Jan Kim -- X.400:    S=kim;OU=vax;O=mpiz-koeln;P=mpg;A=dbp;C=de -+
 |             Internet: kim@vax.mpiz-koeln.mpg.dbp.de               |
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