From: papresco@cantor.math.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Prescod)
Subject: Re: HELP--AMIGA OR IBM PC CLONE?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 12:54:39 GMT

>And hopefully most of them will have someone around to write the new drivers
>when Windows and OS/2 are updated.  Some drivers even break going from 3.0
>to 3.1 and require a rewrite.  

A company doesn't stay in business too long if it doesn't keep it's
drivers up to date.  It's like a workstation vendor that only sells
SystemV2.x Unix....you have to keep your unix up-to-date to compete.

>>And exceptionally useless for productivity work...unless you like head
>>aches.
>
>Why is it that video work is not considered productive?  If someone is 
>making a living off of video titling or other video work, are they not
>being productive?  

Sure they are being productive...but in the computer world, the term
"productivity software" has come to mean wordprocessor, spreadsheet,
database etc...I would by all means suggest that people working with
NTSC video buy an Amiga.

>>SVGA is anything that can do the "strictly dumb card mode."  Let me
>>assure you, these accelerated video cards can do that.  They are,
>>therefore, SVGA.  Tiga and S3 are SVGA...as you'll see if you see any
>>review of SVGA cards.
>
>Why do you act as if no one knows anything about Clones except for you?
>In case you don't know, David, I, and others on this group happen to 
>make our living, at least in part, by programming, supporting, and using
>Clones.  The difference is that we also use Amigas and other machines and
>don't feel that the Clones are the end-all-be-all platform.  Are you a
>programmer or just a user?  The reason I ask is that users typically have
>a much more narrow view of things than programmers...
>
I am a Dos/Windows/OS/2/Unix programmer, student, AND user.  Yes, I USE
my computer...I user wordprcoessors, and spreadsheets in addition to
compilers and linkers.

>Sounds rather boring to me.  We get new toys to play with on a weekly 
>basis and spend quite a bit of time with configurations.  While none of
>us at work have trouble with this, the same cannot be said for the average
>user.  It is no wonder that support lines are needed given the nightmares
>caused by the Clones.

The average user buys one new "toy" a year, and gets someone
knowledable to install it for them.  I remember installing a modem for
a lady who thought it was supposed to go in the monitor!  Forget IRQs,
this woman couldn't plug the damn board in without someone knowledable.

>>There is no "sameness" in the PC-world.  95% of all Amigas run
>>AmigaDOS, the rest run that rotten unix you have.  PC users can run 20
>>different versions of Unix, OS/2, Windows, NT, Dos, QNX, NeXTStep,
>>DR-DOS, CPM-86, you name it.  That's not stifling sameness, it's
>>resounding choice.
>
>Too bad you all have to drop back to sorry-ass MSDOS to run anything of the
>oh-so-wonderful software that Clone owners always exclaim about...

I haven't dropped back to DOS in the last year.  I run DOS programs in
a window, (or full screen for blinding speed) but I don't ever, ever,
ever, drop back to a dos command line, a dos compiler, a dos desktop
etc.


>Many of those differ from the others in name only...

All the better.  Same features means that price forces down
competition...and then eventually prices get so cheap that 
A>it gets put on the motherboard
B>someone HAS to innovate to stay in business.
(we were talking about sound boards here)


>Ooohh, don't excite me like that!  97 word processors?  Wow!  I need to
>get a Clone so I can use all of them!!!!!

That's what choice is all about!  Maybe you'll find that YOUR favourite
is one that could never exist on the Amiga because it is a niche
product.

>>All Amiga users use some form of Zorro bus.  PC users can choose one of
>>VESA,EISA, ISA, MCA, PCI and any combination of them!
>
>That's your most stupid argument yet.

It isn't a stupid argument at all.  Different busses for different
jobs.  VESA is cheap and fast for single users.  EISA is fast for
servers.  MCA is faster for faster servers.  PCI may be better then all
of them.  PCMIA is great for laptops.  CHOICE.  FLEXIBILITY.
COMPETITION.  No one will ever know if Zorro is the best bus the Amiga
can have, because nobody has ever tried to make a competitor.

>Please explain how this is an advantage.  A clone of a piece of junk
>is still a piece of junk...

(talking about microprocessor choice) It drives prices down and
performance up.  Intel MUST get out the pentium in the next six months
because it's 486 business is about to be ravaged by clones.  That's why
Intel will deliver the Pentium a FULL YEAR ahead of the 68060!  That's
why the 486 is so damn cheap... to kill off the 386.  That's why 386s
are so damn cheap, because of all the clones. 

Plus clones give you a choice of features.  Cyrix let's you have 486ish
speed  on a 386 motherboard.  AMD gives you a lighting fast 386.  Cyrix
gives you a 486 clone that runs a 40Mhz.  AMD gives you a 386 that is
faster then Intel at the same clock speed.  Competition forces
innovation.  Meanwhile, the 68000 line is hardly being advanced by
Motorola because it's future is in the PowerCPU line, and they KNOW it.
Nobody can come and steal their 680x0 business, because there are no
clones, so they can relax for a year or two and produce an inferior
68060 a year later then the Pentium


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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy