From: danaf@bray1a.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.)
Subject: Re: Random tidbits regarding WOC & A4000
Reply-To: danaf@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 05:22:34 GMT

My (highly flammable...) feelings on the A4000:

In a word, **SIGH**.

Once again, we have been treated to a mediocre, substandard, disappointingly
premature release of the machine that was supposed to be C= "great hope", and
instead made Dionne look like the "great dope".

Okay, maybe that's a little harsh, but this release reminds me all too much of
the A3000's "great" debut. Here's the machine that's supposed to take the world
by storm, and what does Commodore release? A 32-bit bus (oooo...) with no new
graphics modes to speak of, a buggy beta release of the new operating system,
no new sound, and nothing revolutionary in the way of hardware, except for the
motherboard SCSI.

Oh, sure, Commodore dazzled the press with a flashy premiere at the Palladium,
and even managed to make the cover of Byte, but all in all the A3000 was a 
relative flop.

What did we get this time? A 32-bit bus (oooo...) with <<FEW>> new graphic modes
to speak of (we were supposed to TOP IBM and Apple, not play catchup...), what
is most likely a buggy beta release of the new OS, no new sound <<AGAIN>>,
and nothing revolutionary in the way of hardware. (All this sound familiar 
yet?) Hell, we even LOST the motherboard SCSI!

Is it just me, or does everyone feel like going... "Ho-Hum. Well, wait 'til the
A5000 comes out!". That's what I said (about the A4000...) after the 3000 came
into being. I long ago lost my faith in Commodore's present... pretty soon I'm
going to lose my faith in the future as well. 

OK, as a side note, I **AM** impressed with the new 3.0 operating system. I saw
a Beta release about 2-3 months ago, and it blew me away. Now that they've 
finished it, it should be REALLY spectacular. Tomorrow, I'm going to send up
my pre-release impressions of 3.0. It's really impressive. Once again, if 
Commodore plays their cards right, this new system could be a great advance in
modular interface design. We'll see... I'm giving C= one last chance.

<<
ok, it's not their last chance... I'll probably never give up. But it would be
nice if they'd live up to my expectations for once. Am I a mad dreamer? Or just
too much of a realist for them?
>>

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Legal Note: No, once again, I am not a beta tester, and I had no right to be 
looking at the 3.0 O/S. However, it was shown to me by someone who got a pirated
copy of it from an unscrupulous tester, so the damage is done. I'm not even
sure of the legal implications of that particular situation (after all, am I
breaking the law by LOOKING at someone ELSE'S copy???), so I'm just going to
throw caution to the wind and send up the text. Please don't sue me.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

-- 
/////////////////////////[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
(718)             (212)                        (516)             (518)
=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     
--------My opinions rarely reflect those of any sane person,----------
	   living, dead, or undead... that's gonna CHANGE.
From: prf@otter.hpl.hp.com (Paul Freeman)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 07:20:00 GMT
Subject: Re: aga chipset for amiga
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.