Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: ilaskey@cix.compulink.co.uk (Iain Laskey)
Subject: Re: Attempt at Objective View of Atari
Reply-To: ilaskey@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 16:52:42 +0000

>products.  Since I'm about to write a dissertation, I need a computer
>with that will support a *great* wordprocessor.  O.K.  If my needs ended
Calligrapher is the one for you. Fully WYSIWYG. import for various
graphics formats, line art, multi-font, all the usual stuff on a high
end WP including spell check, thesaurus and grammer checker.

>am also a musician and I heard that Atari's are the best machine for
>MIDI (Macs are supposed to be pretty darn good with MIDI).  I've also
Both true. On the ST, depending on cash, look at Steinberg's Cubase
or Notator from C-Lab at around 300-500 UK Pounds or if cash is at a 
premium, PRO 24 III from Steinberg at around 70 UKP. In addition
there are many sound editors, sample editors (Avalon from Steinberg
is good), mixdown automaters, direct to HD sampling systems etc.

>heard that Atari's are *great* when it comes to Desk Top Publishing
>(again Macs compete well in this arena).  My other major need is for a
Hmm, Calamus SL is fairly good comapared to most MAC stuff but to be 
honest, unless you were wanting only basic abilities, most ST stuff
is a bit underpowered. Pagestream is quite good though at around 
150UKP

>michine is very good with network communications via modem or ethernet
>or other network media.
There are Ethernet boards available for Mega STe/TT/Mega machines
but these are quite expensive - Mac ones are probably cheaper.
The serial port only goes to 19200 baud without hardware hacking, for
a lot of people, this is too slow. Most ST comms packages are a bit
average too. It depends what you want to do really. VT100/ANSI
emulation is about as good as it gets.


>course, I'm afraid that *practically noone owns an Atari/there is
>relatively little support/there is relavively little application
This is unfortunately a US problem. In Europe it's a lot better. I
know about 15 people with ST/MegaSTe/Megas, most with harddrives.
This is a bit wierd because ST hardware and software is *much* cheaper
in the States :-(

There is loads of software covering DTP/WP/MIDI/graphics/databases
art etc. 

Graphics - Retouche Pro for instance supports 24 bit colour at very high
resolutions via suitable hardware and was recently put against the
best Mac & PC equivelents and came out TOP!!

>After hearing all the hoopla about Atari and MIDI, there was not one
>booth at this "Atarifest" running anything MIDI related.  To me, this is
Much better in Europe. At a recent show in the UK, Roland had stacks of
STs running various packages.

>The on-screen "look" of the Atari was a disappointment.   I was
True. As a result, a very good replacement from a third party supplier
(Gribnif) called Neodesk is amust. I've used Macs & Windows 3.1
and this beats them all hands down as a desktop.
Within applications, your stuck with GEM in the main. It's still
not too bad once you get used to it. It may not be pretty but it does
pretty much everything you'de want.

>The software available at the "Atarifest" was limited and unimpressive.
US specific again I'm afraid.

>but the packaging, etc.  looked as though it the software was being
>written, marketed, and sold by a lot of amatuers and not professionals.
I've bought Lattice C5.51, Timeworks DTP 2, Devpac 2 and more. These
all come in good quality boxes with great manuals. Easily the equal of
PC packages that I've used.


>doesn't do that yet, but we're working on it."  Can we all afford to
>wait?  
Can Atari???
>
>Finally, about Atari Corp.:  Can you say FAILURE.
Atari are basically a joke. It's due only to some incredibly loyal users
that they're still going. They haven't really moved forward in hardware
terms since 1985. The TT was OK but 2 years late. The Mega STe would
have been good in 1987/8 but we've only got it in the UK THIS YEAR!

I suspect the Falcon may be too late to stop Atari from being
anything other than a cult machine. On the bright side, unlike a
lot of Atari stuff that gets rumoured, this one is real and working
and with developers right now.
 
>Mr. Bob Brodie. 
A man with the worst job in the world - he exists to appologise
for Atari Corp. If only the erst of them cared about the users as
much as he did, the situation would be a lot different.

>Atari had nothing to show, offer, sell, explain--nothing.  No
>Falcon--no anything.  Isn't this a failure?  O.K., so the Falcon isn't
Atari were at a UK show a few months back and had tons of leaflets
based around DTP, MIDI, Word Processing and more. They had tons of
good stuff on their stand including a TT running SVR4 Unix, 
Composcript (postscript emulator), laser printers, PC emulators,
The ST Book laptop, Calamus SL DTP and much more.

Atari used to get slagged for showing stuff they never released.
Now they've gone the other way and wont say a thing about new stuff
until it's virtually in the shops.

>O.K. After finally seeing some Atari machines and the community of
>support surrounding them I'm much less enthusiastic than before.  Please
Easy to feel that way.

>don't write me off as some guy who loves to piss people off and get
I'm not - I wish more people were as open minded about picking
something other than a PC.

>things w/ MIDI and emulate a Mac at a reasonable price would be a great
The ST can emulate a 386SX PC and a Mac via hardware. Both these
emulations are very good and generally fairly complete
including various graphics modes, extended/expanded memory etc.
I can run Windows 3.0 fine on my ST 

>thing for me.  My problems are:  What the hell is wrong w/ Atari Corp.
They are owned by the Tramiel Family who seem to view the whole
thing as a hobby rather than a business. Their only excuse is a
disasterous dabble in a retail chain (Federated) left them starved
of R&D cash and management resource for about 2 years. The Falcon is
the first thing to come out since this time.

>(why can't they set up a decent booth?) and Can I get good software for
Can't afford it?

>blown away and was disappointed.  Please explain to me why I should still
>have faith.  If I shouldn't, please tell me which PC or Mac to buy.
To be honest, if you lived in Europe, I'd say get an ST. In the States
I'd be inclined to buy a Mac unless you are willing to invest a lot
of time in becoming part of the ST scene because only they will
support you and your needs, Atari and most dealers wont.
Pay attention to the rest of the world, buy UK magazines like
ST Format, ST User or ST Review. There is a great UK mag
called ST Applications that's mail orderonly. You can buy a lot of
good stuff via mail order from the UK.

>Thank you, all
No problem.

   /********************************************************************
   ** Iain R Laskey  ** I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours **
   ******************** But I think that God's                        **
   **   Unix >= DOS  ** Got a sick sense of humour - M L Gore         **
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   ** ilaskey@cix.compulink.co.uk **    Atari user & proud of it      **
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