From: kennys@terapin.com (Kenny Sequeira)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: The future of the Amiga.
Date: 21 Dec 92 13:37:32 PST
Organization: BBS

I read your message with some interest Jay, and I would like to respond 
to some of your comments.  I won't quote your entire message but highlight 
certain areas.


>I love the Amiga.  Everyone I know who spends time with one 
>walks away with respect for it.  They always say the same thing 
>though, "Great machine it's too bad there are no applications out 
>there for it."  Now, we can argue saying things like "What about 
>Final Copy II, or Wordwordth, or Maxiplan..."  these arguments mean 
>nothing, because none of those packages have any where near the 
>capability of AmiPro or Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel.

While I do agree that those are some fine programs, I don't think their 
capabilities really exceed Amiga programs by that much.  I use excellence! 
3.0 for all my word processing needs and it's a very capable program. 
I have had the opportunity to use AmiPro, and again it's a good program 
but, the only thing it does that excellence! can't do is outlining and 
Tables.  excellence! also has a built in grammar checker which AmiPro 
or Word do not have.

I also look at price, AmiPro and Word are at least 3 times the cost of 
excellence! or any other Amiga word processor.  I don't see 3 times the 
performance increase to justify the cost of the program.

I also look at system requirements, I don't want to spend allot of money 
on hardware improvements just to run a few programs.  

For example, excellence! takes a little over 2 megs of HD space and 
can run a 1 meg Amiga and still multitask.  AmiPro or Word take 5 times 
the HD space and require a minimum of 4 megs of RAM (8 megs in reality) 
for acceptable performance.

I really cannot comment much on Excel, I do read the reviews of Excel 
in PC rags, and there mostly glowing but, to me again, it suffers from 
being bloated and it hogs the computers HD space and RAM.  I do use a 
Spread sheet now and then to calculate loans and other minor things 
and Analyze does just fine.  I admit Analyze is no Excel but how many 
home PC users need Excel.  

For all the people who need these programs for work, buy a bridgeboard 
or a cheap clone just for these type of tasks and keep your Amiga.  


>The main reason is because the mainstream applications aren't out 
>there for the Amiga, and because Commodore isn't releasing machines 
>that have the same memory or drive space as clones or Macs.

Wrong answer, the reason, PC clones and MAC's come with big HD's and 
lots of RAM is because they have to.  Their operating systems and 
applications cobble up so much HD space and RAM that they are 
forced into it.  I sure clone manufactures would love to lower system 
requirements as it would reduce their manufacturing costs.  


>At one point in time the Amiga had the best games, now they aren't 
>even as good as console games.  I want to play things like Ultima 
>VII or Falcon 3.0.

The reason for this is money, they make more money on clones and 
consoles, so that's where development goes.  This is hardly CBM's fault, 
maybe developers should do a better job of porting if they want 
to increase Amiga sales. 


>I'd like to write a paper with equations.  I can't.

I know about as much math as Iowa State knows about football but, 
maybe this will help, excellence! can handle these types of equations.

(((1*9)*9)^2)/7  

The operators are addition, subtract, multiply, divide, and exponents.  


>One of the reasons that CBM has not been making 80 meg hard drives 
>standard is because they perceive no need among current users.

All Amiga's geared for the higher markets have always come with HD's, 
what makes 80 megs a standard.  I know the old 500's and now 600's 
and the new 1200 don't come with a HD but the low end market demands 
this.  In Europe there is not as much disposable income as here in the US.  
If you want a HD order one, its very easy.  


>We should not have to do advertising for Commodore.

Why not, I don't see what's wrong with it, word of mouth is a big part 
of every business in the world.  

>Get them to work with major software houses to get mainstream applications.

Why should CBM lick the boots of these developers, and what about the 
Amiga developers that produce software now, like Micro-Sytems, Softwood, 
New Horizons, Soft-Logik, do we just toss them aside because of 
Microsoft and Lotus.  If you want to help the Amiga, start buying as 
much Amiga software as possible instead of waiting for some knight in 
shinning armor do come save the day.


IMHO, the Amiga will never be, a quote "mainstream computer" the battle 
is over the clones have one the war with numbers.  How can CBM compete 
equally with thousands of clone manufactures.  Even Apple with all their 
aggressive marking will never dominate the PC industry.  The Amiga has 
been here for 6 + years now and that's mainstream enough for me.

Kenny


kennys@terapin.com