From: Paula_Lieberman@amicol.UUCP (Paula Lieberman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Amigas and Markets and Users, continued
Distribution: world
Date: 24 Dec 92 22:03:30 EDT
Organization: Amiga Colony BBS

>As someone pointed out earlier, there are 
>basically two types of people in the Amiga world - those who were weaned
on 
>mainframes (UNIX systems, usually) and PCs, and those who 'came up' from
8-
>bit systems like the C-64 and Apple IIx.  I (as if you couldn't have 
>guessed) happen to be one of the latter.

I wouldn't touch an Apple II even when one was available for me to use as 
a word processor where I worked at the time -- I borrowed the 
secretaries' DECmates instead or hand wrote! I bought an Amiga 500 back in 
1987 because it had sound, graphics, multitasking, windowing, I had no 
need for a card cage for which there were no cards available, the 500 was 
easily hauled around, AND there was no performance difference between the 
under $1000 500 and the 2000 which had a nearly $1000 price premium!

>> PCs currently _have_ the best application software, and, as I've
>>said, I think they always will.  But - if you had the same application
>>developed for both platforms, the Amiga would run it better.   For
example,
>>WordPerfect 4.1 was heaps better on the Amiga than the PC version.  It
had
>>real menus and windows and so on because they were able to take advantage
of
>>the facilities offered by AmigaOS.  Even without the OS, apps can work
better
>>in an environment where fast disk transfers can take place while the cpu
>>keeps working at full speed, data can be written to the screen quickly,
etc.

>Actually, I agree.  I worded my above reply poorly.  I hereby 
>retract it, and say 'I think the best app software will always be on PCs'.

WHAT?! Just what do people mean by "the best applications software"?  If 
you want to run something like Scala, then Amigas have "the best" 
applications software.  If you like Microsoft Excel (I don't!!) 
then it's a Mac.  If you want to crunch Navies-Stokes equations doing 
wind tunnel simulations, then you're likely to have in-house roll-you-own 
software, and what you've written in-house is usually considered, by best 
NIH (Not Invented Here) tradition, to be "the best applications software."

>>>Let's keep the Amiga in the areas where it 
>>is successful and sells!
>
>Let's try to expand it into any area it can do well in.

>This sounds nice in principle, and I don't mean to say anything 
>like 'no one should even try to write a word
processor/spreadsheet/database 
>for the Amiga'.  However, I don't think commodore should be designing 
>machines around those kind of apps if they want to keep their bottom line 
>healthy.  
>....

>Every once in a while, I see someone (who is usually fairly ignorant 
>of the Amiga) make some comment calling the Amiga a 'games machine'.  Said

>person is subsequently set upon by everyone in csaa, who hound him or her 
>out to the tune of 'The Amiga is the greatest computer ever invented, it
can 
>do anything, my Amiga 4000+68040+1gig drive+16 megs RAM can kill your PC 
>with an equivalent configuration'.  Well, I happen to LIKE games, and I 
>happen to LIKE demos/megademos, and I DO run hardware-bashing programs,
and 
>I do all of this because THEY ARE FUN.  I use an Amiga because it is a fun

>computer, and I will not apologize for that.

You don't -have- to apologize -- but, there are those of us who are at 
the other end of the universe.  There isn't ONE game or demo on my hard 
drive, and the only game software I own was either given to me free or 
came on a disk that had something else on it.  You represent one piece of 
the market, the video world is a piece of the market, people who use 
Amigas in cancer radiation therapy are another piece of the market, the 
schmuck (extreme personal prejudice which I feel is deserved) doing cold 
fusion research at MIT is another, the person in BCS who's used Amigas 
for on-stage live band performances is another, the person in BCS who is 
a sales professional who uses his Amiga as his business machine including 
letter writing and mailing lists and data base information and generating 
images from Xapshot shots cleaned up in DPaint of products to fax to his  
business associates is another, the folks who develop applications 
software on Amigas for sales to end users are another part of the market.
..   In other words, Amigas are NOT niche machines.  They're -used- in 
for the games market segment, the DTP market segment, productivity 
applications, graphics, video, science and engineeering, medicine, etc. 
etc., but they are NOT a niche machine, no matter how parochial people in 
a particular niche with a particular use may be!


-- Via DLG Pro v0.992

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc