From: davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn)
Subject: Re: ......An AMIGA Owner Is My Friend
Organization: Qld Dept Primary Industries
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 11:45:11 GMT

In article <BxF00F.651@ccu.umanitoba.ca> umnoor@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Nasir Ahmed Noor) writes:
>
>Well, it may seem silly to all of you but I need some material [os/2's strong
>points] to tell to Amiga owners.

If advocacy were silly, what does that say about all the rest of us here?  No,
don't answer!  :-)

First, my cards on the table - I'm an Amiga owner (I have two), who'd own a
PC and run OS/2 on it if there were nothing better, but my next purchase will
be an Amiga 4000.  I like OS/2 itself, it's more the hardware it runs on I
have trouble with.

Anyway, to find anti-Amiga material (or, pro-OS/2, which would help your cause
better), try reading comp.sys.amiga.advocacy.  OS/2 vs Amiga is a regular
topic, with some regular contributors.  I think we've gone over most of the
arguments you want several times now.

>When I had MS-DOS, my $4000 machine was constantly put down but I knew there
>was nothing to defend MS-DOS/WINdows with.

Other than applications.  There's ALWAYS the software base (or lack thereof)
to use against Amigas.  Then again, that doesn't really impress most of us,
since it's not the Amiga's fault that there's less software in everything
except niche areas (read: video and related areas).  The typical Amigan is
more interested in how good the OS and hardware are in their own terms, rather
than worrying about what you actually USE the computer for.  Half a :-)

>Now I know that OS/2 is one of the
>best and most rock solid system in the market but I cant list its high points
>in comparison with "HIS MAJESTY" *THE* AMIGA ...

Actually, Amiga's a she.  Small point to keep in mind...

>Just to give you an example, "they" say that Amiga does perfect multitasking
>with an OS which comes only on 2 floppies [compare with OS/2's 30+Meg,
>or 18 meg for base system]. Now I have no idea how to justify its enormous
>size.

The multitasking on the Amiga is about as perfect as they come.  What it
doesn't have is memory protection.  In other words, all tasks on the Amiga
share a common address space, and can freely clobber each other.  OS/2 fanatics
often appear in amiga.advocacy claiming that AmigaOS doesn't even have threads.
This is untrue - what it lacks is processes.  This lack of protection is part
of what makes the Amiga multitask with so little overhead - the whole OS and
user software runs as a large number of parallel "threads" which pass messages
between each other by exchanging pointers to shared memory.  The message
passing system is therefore very fast, and there's not much context to save
in a switch.

The downside to this is that one rogue program can bring down the whole
system.  In practice, it's not that bad - my Amiga almost never crashes, and
when it does, the OS almost always catches it, and gives the user the option
to suspend the offending task.  But, it's not bulletproof, and so you can list
memory (or process) protection as an OS/2 advantage.

Another advantage for OS/2 is virtual memory - AmigaOS doesn't have it.  It's
available for the Amiga from a third party, but there are apparently
compatibility problems with it.

A further reason for the enourmous size is a more comprehensive imaging model
than is offered by the Amiga's graphics library.

Not only that, but OS/2 provides for DOS and Windows compatibility, which
AmigaOS doesn't have to worry about.

As for size, AmigaOS is growing - try four floppies for 2.0, and I don't
know how many 3.0 comes on (it's only just out).

>You can email me responses.... NO FLAMES PLEASE!!!

Why email when we have an advocacy group right here?  As for flames, I think
that OS/2 vs Amiga is worthy of serious discussion.  It's one of the few PC
OS's that Amiga users can't easily dismiss.

>--nasir
>umnoor@ccu.umanitoba.ca


-- 
David Meiklejohn (also known as davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au)
 - Regional support guy for PC's, Unix, and networks thereof.
 - But I'd rather be using an AMIGA!  Wouldn't you?
Find me in Mareeba, Australia (on the pointy bit in the northeast)