> B&W 9" 512x384 vs Color Commodore 1080S 13" @ 640x256 or 640x512 interlaced and doubled as a great TV. Let's say you didn't want to use interlaced mode

Having used both machines, as well as an interlaced 1024x768 SVGA, I assure you, I do not want to use interlaced mode.

> It was years before MacOS even added cooperative multitasking (System7).

Historical note: multitasking was introduced by MultiFinder in System 5. The ability to load and switch between multiple apps at the same time was available with an add on (Switcher) in early 1985. Where the Amiga was particularly strong was the fact it had preemptive multitasking and (IIRC) much more dynamic memory management than Apple's fixed memory blocks allocated at application start time. Even Windows didn't catch up with some of that until Windows 95 (which was somewhat hobbled by the 16-bit mutex.)

> The Mac IIcx for example, was introduced in 1991 for $10,000 in 2018 inflation adjusted dollars ($5000 in 1991). You really think the IIcx was 3-4 times better than a PC in 1991 or an Amiga 3000/4000?

The IIcx was really an early 1989 machine, which made it a contemporary of machines like this $7,500 Compaq Deskpro 386/20. (IBM PS/2's were similarly priced.)

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/10/business/the-executive-co...

> you're talking about a market size of a few hundred thousand machines.

That's a rather influential few hundred thousand.

> Most business was stilling being conducted on timeshare machines at this time.

(A lot still is, to the extent cloud instances are time shared. :-))

> a Laserwriter

Well the Laserwriter really opened up an entirely new product category. It was expensive, but, for a time, it was the only game in town at anything close to consumer level pricing. As much as you've correctly pointed out that education was one of Apple's strong points, the LaserWriter made DTP another strength.

As you point out, this is analogous to specific hardware making the Amiga particularly strong in Video production. (The Amiga chipset itself, as well as the Video Toaster.)

> with a setup costing 3 times as much, you could print some flyers.

Flyers may sound trivial now, but back then it was a big deal and a huge source of demand, and even now, the need for document preparation far outstrips the need for video production.

> I was typesetting documents with TeX in 1991 producing output far superior than what I saw coming out of professional Mac apps, and with far less intervention,

Anybody that's read the line from Knuth on the joy of going back over an almost completed document to insert the proper italic corrections, etc. should recognize that TeX is... well... not for everybody.

TeX is an amazing intellectual achievement, it produces great results (particularly when math is involved), and I personally use it to this day.... but it's vastly overkill for most documents and far beyond what the vast majority want to use or have learned to use. (A good friend of mine in college, while studying Computer Science and writing a compiler, once remarked: "I don't want to have to compile my term papers!", when I tried to advocate he use TeX. I honestly don't blame him... 'overfull hbox, badness 10000'?!?!?!)

On the other end of the spectrum, there's a lot to be said for the original Mac's ability to highlight text on the screen, select 18 point Geneva (or whavever) and then have the ImageWriter produce a low quality but accurate rendition of what appeared on the screen. As backward as the Mac's video model might have been in contrast to the Amiga, it offered a useful capability in that it was consistent with the model its printers used too.

> you'd be better served by something 80% as good, but 1/2 the price.

Not if you needed (or even just wanted) that last 20%.