From: jaker@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Jake Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: What makes OS on ROM _WORSE_ than one on disk???
Date: 28 Aug 92 15:32:40 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

talan@tension.UUCP (Dave Bicking) writes:

>>daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>>>>Please tell me when the Amiga gets an OS, i bought mine in 1986
>>>>and am still waiting for an OS.
>>>You should have read the manuals.  The OS is on those funny looking 3.5"
>>>roughly squarish things that fit in the front slot of the A1000.
>>should only need to open the case of a computer when the hardware changes -
>>no company would put a complete OS on rom inside the machine - except
>>maybe in the case of machines which can almost be used without disks
>>[on power up] such as the Acorn Archimedes range.  Any company that put
>>a complete OS on a rom would be foolish - especially if you still needed
>>much floppy disk access to get anywhere!  Also it is not good for the company
>>when they release new machines - if OS development stumbles in certain areas
>>..." - at this stage she started babbling way out of my league!  She was
>>talking about strange things like digging a hole, and paying memory protection
> 
>For someone who seems to have some advanced knowledge of how an OS works,
>you seem to need to learn a bit more.  First of all, the "Amighty Macintosh"
>has their OS on ROM.  Second, the "Almighty Windows 3.1" is coming out with
>a ROM OS.  Gee, looks like you'll be reduced to using that godlike ST
>(Falcon?) OS, since it is almost the only one left on disk!

As a friend of mine pointed out, you can have another *megabyte* (or two) for
the cost of the ROMs, and in RAM the software runs faster.  It's also easily
user-upgradeable, and doing so yourself won't void any warranty agreements.
Loading the OS entirely from disk, in my opinion, is vastly superior to slow,
user-hostile firmware.  The target of CBM should be to make the Amiga easy to
use, upgrade, and code on.  Accomplishing that would make the Amiga much easier
to *sell*.

>You next infer that the Amiga ROM upgrade is vastly more expensive than a disk
>upgrade.  Well, compare a $45 Amiga ROM to the $150 Windows package and the
>equally expensive OS/2.  I can get DOS 5.0 from a computer store for "as
>little as" $70.  Gee, ROMS are terrible, aren't they?  Too bad we don't NEED
>at least 4 MEGS of ram just to run ONE process.  I wish I had my OS on disk!

The Amiga ROMs for 2.04 take up, I believe, 512K.  The rest is on disk.  I
haven't seen this $45 price tag on the ROMs, either.  More like $90.  Windows
and OS/2 are both $50 as upgrades, by the way.  Just because MS and IBM have
outrageous pricing schemes (sort of like CBM's WRT new hardware) on their
software doesn't mean that it must be more expensive for them to produce the
software on disk.  Most of the cost of any software package in terms of
distribution materials is in the *documentation*.  Publishing is expensive.

>Dude, the A1000 came out about the time the MAC 512 was in rumor stage.  Do
>you even HEAR about the Mac 512?  ANYWHERE?  Be DAMN glad you can even RUN the
>new Amiga Dos!  Try and run Windows or OS/2 on a standard AT - Any luck?  When
>was the last time Apple or IBM offered a massive discount on their new models
>to people with an Apple IIgs or IBM AT?  *Yeesh*  Give a little service, and
>people bitch because they don't have the WORLD delivered at their feet!

IBM controls very little of the PC market - their competition offers machines
at prices that make CBM's "discounts" look silly.  CBM thinks that they have
a captive audience in the Amiga world, and that they can do what they like
with us.  They're wrong.  I already have another platform lined up if they
keep screwing with us and refuse to pour funds into R&D as they *need* to.
That platform is NeXT.  Not popular in any sense of the word, but cutting edge.
I'm sick of being left in the dark as all the software advances go elsewhere.
 
>>+++
>>NO CARRIER
> 
> 
>Dave

Very friendly attitude.

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Dave Bicking
>Programmed Solutions, Inc.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jake Rose               | I like work - it fascinates me.
NeuSoft/Amiga           | I can sit and look at it for hours!
jaker@csugrad.cs.vt.edu | 
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