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From: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell)
Subject: Re: Amiga OS *IS* state of the art, but the NeXT is better
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.083845.13479@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
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Organization: The Internet
References: <.$2G0ysf1@cs.psu.edu> <1991Apr3.045757.24803@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <zs6G8pxf1@cs.psu.edu>
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Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 08:38:45 GMT
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In article <zs6G8pxf1@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes:
>
>In article <1991Apr3.045757.24803@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:
>   >Then again, you need a flicker fixer.  People might
>   >go for VGA machines instead.
>   >
>	   The A3000 has one built in and the cost of one is under $250.
>
>I know the A3000 has one built in, but that isn't Commodore's $1000
>machine.  People don't want to screw around with a flicker fixer, they
>want to pull the computer out of the box and start typing.  Besides,
>when they are shopping for a computer, the flicker fixer isn't going
>to be installed.  Commodore already has a two marks against them:
>Apple and IBM.  People are going to look at the screens, and they are
>either going to like what they see or they're not.  The people in my
>office were definitely turned off by the flicker.  I suppose the
>salesman at the store could always explain it to the consumer(think
>about why this isn't good -- extra points).

  The same flicker fixer in the A3000 is availible on a card called the
A2320. It is very cheap($250 and below). Also, Commodore's new
custom chip chip has flickerfree modes. You can also purchase a $499
A2024 monitor that gives you 1024x800 NTSC or 1024x1024 PAL.

>	   That's just a cheap shot that lowers your credibility
>   even more (didn't think it could go negative, did you 8) The
>   Amiga is the BEST in video work in the micro/workstation
>   industry. All the major video magazines are moving over towards
>   HEAVY Amiga coverage. The quality of Amiga software in most
>   business areas is acceptable although not miraculous. And, BTW,
>   the Amiga DTP software is also quite good in its own right,
>   capable of publishing magazines.
>
>Isn't a Toaster being made for the Mac?  And don't forget to watch out
>for the NeXTDimension board from NeXT.
      No the Toaster is not being made for the Mac, you have to buy an
Amiga+Toaster+Parallel/Serial connection to use it. NeXTDimension is
way to expensive considering the other boards availible now adays.
It won't give you the same NTSC Video ability that the toaster does either.

>People aren't going to buy an Amiga(or NeXT) just because it has
>acceptable software, if they can get a Mac that does the same thing
>better.  Very competitive software is needed!

  People buy Amigas. For Video, Audio and Games. What Niche does the
NeXT occuply?

>   >Should we throw in ethernet?  That costs an extra $500 on a Mac.  And
>   >why the hell is Commodore still using 800K drives in the Amiga?
>   >
>	   I guess that's why Commodore just developed/announced a
>   HD Amiga disk drive!
>
>Good to hear?  I hope it reads/write DOS diskettes.  What's their
>capacity?  Why didn't they just use the 2.88MB floppies like NeXT did,
>or the 1.44MB drives that have been around for a couple of years?

  It's 1.76mb. (880k * 2). It's getting to the point that incremental increases
in floppy drives are giving diminishing returns. Screw 2.88mb, give me
a 20/40mb floptical drive.

>	   Not if they've only sold 20,000 new machines! If, after
>   the initial burst of sales from the new machine launches, they've
>   only made that many sales, then they can never make a profit (nor
>   will Lotus or Word Perfect) and they will simply survive until
>   Steve Jobs runs out of money with which to fund the company.
>
>Of course!
>
>	   And, BTW, they've already made a mark. That doesn't mean
>   they'll be around in the long term. Commodore, however, will be,
>   as they are making a clear profit and their sales are growing.
>
>And that doesn't mean that Commodore will be around either.  They did
>go through some bad years a while back.
 
  Commodore has been around since the early 80's/late 70's. I even remember
an old Commodore 'brick' calculator they sold. They had bad years, but
they pulled through to produce the most sucessfl home computer ever created.
(C64). Now they produce one of the best multitasking PC's money can buy.
NeXT's are ok, but the RISC workstations are just so much better
in terms of performance.

>-Mike


--
/~\_______________________________________________________________________/~\
|n|   rjc@albert.ai.mit.edu   Amiga, the computer for the creative mind.  |n|
|~|                                .-. .-.                                |~|
|_|________________________________| |_| |________________________________|_|
