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- Path: news99.sunet.se!umdac!news
- From: kjell mesch <mnlkmh@cs.umu.se>
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.hardware,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.tech
- Subject: Re: Why Amiga sucks and why it does't
- Date: 22 Jan 1996 13:25:25 GMT
- Organization: University of Umea, Sweden
- Message-ID: <4e0385$fus@studium.student.umu.se>
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-
- Here is a list of some of the things the Amiga does and have done for a
- long time.
- This is why my Amiga does't suck
- Do you dare to count how many of these things is "New and revolutionary"
- on the PeCe??
- Do the PeCe even have it at all?
- Not forgetting the Mac-people you can do the same.
- Admit it YOU LOOSE!!!!
- Most of this material is from Escoms homepage
-
-
- AutoConfig:
- ***********
- Fully automatical recognition and OS mounting of hardware expansions
- during system start.
- Plug and play is old Amiga have had id for a long time!
-
- Preemptive Multitasking:
- ************************
- Reliable operation and blazingly fast switching between tasks also in
- low memory conditions, and all this since 1985...
- In other words been there done that (warp that IBM)
-
- Asynchronous Floppy Access:
- ***************************
- Read, write, copy, format, while you can work on.
- I can in other words format on one drive, install on the other and still
- continue to render in Real3D.
-
-
- Long Filename:
- **************
- In its current implementation, the AMIGA file system works with
- 32-character long filenames, for which on low-level even 127 characters
- are reserved. Filenames are allowed starting with '.' like under UNIX or
- include multiple extensions: Archive.v102.tar.Z.
-
- Two User Interfaces:
- ********************
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) Workbench and text- or
- commandline-oriented Shell (CLI), comparable with UNIX Shells.
- Shell is a good thing Mac-users, try it.
- This is not like DOS PeCe-people
-
-
- Localization:
- *************
- AmigaOS 3.1 or its graphical user interface Workbench can get switched
- among 10 different languages providing full localization through a
- preferences editor, and all this without re-installation of the
- operating system! Workbench offers this localization mechanism also for
- applications programs for these languages: Dansk, Deutsch, English,
- Espa±ol, Franτais, Italiano, Nederland, Norsk, PortuguΩs, and
- Svenska.
-
- Alternative Operating Systems:
- ******************************
- Aside from AmigaOS, Amigas also can be run under different UNIX
- derivatives like LINUX, NetBSD, Minix. Further operating systems
- through Emulation of following computers:
- VIC-20
- C-64
- Apple-II
- MSX 8-Bit Computer
- Sinclair Spectrum
- Sinclair QL
- Oric-1
- Nintendo Gameboy
- Atari ST
- Apple Macintosh
-
- These all work as pure software solutions, of course also multitasking
- among each other.
-
- MS-DOS and also MS-Windows can also get emulated by software on
- comparably powerful Amiga models, but it makes more sense to
- use a PC Bridgeboard - as available since 1987 as hardware expansion
- cards.
-
- I can run two or more DOSversions, windozzze, and system 7.5 at the same
- time, ok it's slow but it's possible.
- If it were possibler on the PeCe too run tree OS at the same time would
- that not be slow?
-
-
-
- ARexx:
- ******
- ARexx is available in AmigaOS as a system-wide macro language and a
- means for communication of programs among each other. That is why are
- there no integrated software packages for the Amiga?
- Because you don't need them. With integrated packages, you too often
- find that the components are not as powerful as single programs
- normally are for the given task. On the Amiga, thanks to its
- multitasking and to ARexx, you can use specialized, separate programs
- that are
- optmized for their application and still can cooperate to bundle their
- potentials.
-
-
- Datatypes Concept
- *****************
- Programs under AmigaOS can use these Datatypes system-wide to work with
- most different kinds of data like audio, text, graphics,
- animation or data formats like GIF, PCX, AVI.
- Datatypes are a new mechanism that was introduced with AmigaOS 3.0. It
- enables application programs to directly recognize what sort of
- data a certain file contains, be it graphics, music, text, or other
- types. Accordingly there is now only one program needed to display (or
- play)
- all these types of files. Other programs then call on the Datatypes to
- automatically recognize and interpret these files. Datatypes are another
- element that shows the object oriented character of AmigaOS, as it's
- considered state of the art for current operating systems.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- Video Compatibility
- ********************
- The Amiga is video compatible from start for simple use with TVs, for
- professional video presentations, or for video editing and/or video
- titling in home or professional quality.
-
- Programmable Videologics Chips
- ******************************
- Practically freely programmable from video compatible to ergonomic
- displays; in normal, overscanned, or (through 'draggable' screens)
- mixed form.
-
- Software Situation:
- *******************
- Unique through a comfortable price niveau and an unbelievably big offer
- in the Shareware or Free Software area.
-
- Stereo Sound:
- *************
- 4-channel stereo sound standard, expandable through expansion cards, but
- they are not needed to provide sound at all.
-
- Working Storage
- ****************
- AmigaOS shows special qualities in economic use of resources and
- non-existance of 640 KB barriers etc., thus a linearly useable address
- space. An Amiga can already work comfortably with 2 MB RAM, on the other
- hand an Amiga 4000 can get equipped nowadays with RAM
- of more than 1 GB!
-
-
- HAM Graphics Mode
- *****************
- In last consequence, you can imagine it as memory saving, hardware
- supported data decompression.
-
- Screen Concept
- **************
- Every program can open an own 'screen' when necessary with custom
- resolution and/or color choice, or put differently: with optimization
- for
- speed, memory use, or color display, respectively. You can drag screens
- down like rollos to expose those in the background.
-
- Amiga Operating System 32-bit:
- *******************************
- The AmigaOS is since its first days (1985) a 32-bit OS, thanks to the
- internal 32-bit architecture of the Motorola microprocessors. Also
- every application software is thus 32-bit. So you do not need a
- completely new set of operating system and application software to
- exploit the
- 32-bit features of the current processor generation, it happens
- automatically.
-
- Is AmigaOS "Object Oriented"?
- *****************************
- The Amiga Operating System was created in a time when "OO" was not yet a
- hype term. But it is state of the art and incorporates many
- ideas from object oriented design philosophies. This is one of the
- reasons why the OS is so compact, efficient, and simultaneously
- flexible.
-
-
-
-
- Why does the Amiga suck, beats me! It costs a bit too much?
-
- All in all Amiga has been there for a long time, now 10 years later the
- poor PeCe and Mac user are closing in on us.
- Get a grip and buy the real leaders, not the copycats.
-
-
- ************************************************************************
- AMIGA =//= A 3000 Kjell Mesch
- Back // mnlkmh@cs.umu.se
- For // http://www.cs.umu.se/~mnlkmh
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