From: gordos@ucunix.san.uc.edu (John Gordos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Help an Amigan in a PC-based world!
Summary: Amiga/PC software compatability
Date: 22 Nov 92 23:40:09 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Organization: University of Cincinnati


   Hi All,
   
   Yesterday, I went down to my local Amiga dealer's;  Expert Services in
   Florence, Kentucky, to check out an A4000.  They are a very knowledge-able
   group of guys, and I've always gotten great service from them.
   
   My general feeling of the machine was not quite as glowing as I expected
   from the general tone of the reviews on the net.  It's nice, but it's
   a subtle improvement from the A3000.  Seemed a little faster, but that's
   subjective.
   
   To be totally fair, though, I wasn't running any software that had been
   developed with the A4000 in mind, other than Workbench 3.0.
   
   I own an aging A2000 and a Comtrade '486/33 with local bus video.  I have
   used Amigas for every computer related task that I had around the house.
   I bought the '486 this summer to help with work-related materials.
   
   The problem I see with the Amiga Market is not one of hardware, or lack
   of machines.  It's a general lack of smarts with the companies that 
   write the software the machine runs.  For instance, can anyone name a 
   WYSIWYG word processor for the Amiga that can read and write files
   in Word for Windows 2.0 format?  How about that can read/write files
   in WordPerfect format?   How about any other format that the one it
   uses natively?
   
   I used Excellence! 2.0 for most of my home word-processing needs and
   it really didn't live up to my needs the way the Microsoft Word for 
   Windows does.  I go to graduate school nights and most of my CS classes
   have been math related, so I have the need to edit mathematical formulas
   and included them in my document.  Microsoft Word has the *best* 
   support for math of any word processor I've ever used.  Bar none.
   I'm sure there are others out there, but it remains that Excellence!
   wasn't that excellent at what I needed.
   
   Same goes for spreadsheets.  My wife was using Lattice Calc to keep
   our checkbook on (for those who don't know, Lattice Calc was a 
   spreadsheet that Lattice sold about ?4? years ago.  It's minimal,
   but it's nice).   A buddy of mine bought me Quicken for Windows for my
   birthday ( For $20.00 YOW!!) and I can't believe how nice a product
   it is.  Surely someone can write such a program for the Amiga family.
   
   Anyway, my point is, why don't software companies try to sell products
   to the home market?  Is there a Quicken equivalent for the Amiga?  Is
   it a quality product? ( Not compared to other products for the Amiga,
   but in general? )
   
   I find myself using the '486 more and more daily.  It's much more
   convenient to use Word for Windows at home to do my homework and then
   simply walk into work and print on the laser printer, than to do all
   of my homework in Excellence! and put it on a DOS floppy, go to work,
   import it into Word for Windows and reformat the document so that it
   looks nice again, and print it on the laser printer.
   
   Man, this has gotten long.  Does anybody know of any way that an
   Amiga user can survive and maintain PC compatibility?  For some of us,
   that's a requirement.
   
   John
-- 
John A. Gordos, III                             gordos@ucunix.san.uc.edu
Access Corporation				Univ. of Cincinnati
Standard Disclaimers apply.