Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
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From: rjc@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell)
Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life.
Message-ID: <1991Apr23.010819.1970@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
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References: <6hdG18ik1@cs.psu.edu> <1748@sjfc.UUCP> <11034@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 91 01:08:19 GMT
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In article <11034@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> blissmer@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Corey) writes:
>>Oh my God, I couldn't resist. Amiga users doing their HW before screaming
>>standard lines of propaganda? (This is going to be like stepping on ants)
>>Propaganda? You've got to be kidding. On this side of the fence (Amiga)
>>we face more propaganda from other computer users 
>>(assuming themselves literate and 'informed') about how the Amiga is dying,
>>only a game machine, never compete, unsupported, lousy software....and
>>on and on. Try out this sometime, mention the Amiga in one of your 
>>computer related discussions with someone else and watch the propaganda 
>>flow. Like: "Yeah, I've heard about that machines, so-and-so says
>>[insert propaganda here]"
>
>Amiga owners must face the same things Mac owners faced before 1987. Like:
>It doesn't run 1-2-3, it isn't made by IBM, it's too small, it looks like a toy.
>
>Now you face:  It doesn't run Pagemaker, Excel, or Word, it's a game machine,
>it's not made by Apple OR IBM, no 32-bit color, etc.

  Hmm, so Apple beat IBM by having Microsoft develop software for it?

>Apple beat their arguements down in 1987-88 with Word 3.0, Pagemaker, the
>Laserwriter, and the Mac II/SE.  They now enjoy the number one position in
>unit sales according to Friday's WSJ.  
>
>Commodore needs to pull the same thing Apple did.  The playing field is a 
>little different today.  In 1986 there was Apple vs. IBM and the clones.
>1991 brings Apple, IBM, a lot more clones, NeXT, Atari;-), Sparclones.  The mac
>was significantly different that anything else on the market.  Although there
>are definate differences between platforms, you can accomplish basically
>the same things on most machines.  If Commodore's goal is to become a force
>in the US computer industry, they need to pull a hell of a rabbit out of their
>hat.

  If rabbits are classified as "big-name flashy packages" I guess the
Toaster is a rabbit. Word is a rabbit. And Excel is a rabbit. I feel
that there are better word processors and spreadsheets than Word and Excel
but I guess the name "Microsoft" is a household word in businessland.
It's ironic. Microsoft is part of Apple's success and Apple is suing them.
Since "Joe Average" is going to buy whatever he hears by word of mouth, or
advertisements, the Amiga and Word Processors onit aren't going to get a 
fair look. If it takes "Word" to make Joe Average consider the Amiga,
I say, port it. Obviously Microsoft developed Word in a portable
manner, since they can quickly port back and forth between Mac and
Windows (they probably developed an in house GUI independent set of
routines to open windows, render, etc), so the port should be easy
however Microsoft needs incentive for the port, and that costs $$$.
I'd say, C= offering some money to MS, and perhaps a letter writing campaign
from Amiga users might convince them to port it.

  One problem, is that "Word" ported to the Amiga probably won't take
advantage of the Amiga's niceties like Arexx and Multitasking, not to
mention IFF.

 As for Sparc and NeXT, I don't think the Amiga has to worry about them.
They are in a different market, namely the >$3k Unix market. I suspect
the majority of Mac systems are Pluses, Classics, etc  just like the
A500 is the number 1 Amiga model by volume. I don't know how much 
Word costs on the Mac, but it will have to be sold cheap on the
Amiga as we are not used to paying rediculous prices for software.

--
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