NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/misc-part1/5743

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 8.0 KB

Path: sable.ox.ac.uk!worc0223
From: [e-mail] (Benjamin Hutchings)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Conspiracy???? Something stinks folks.
Date: 23 Feb 1996 05:51:14 GMT
Organization: Oxford University, England
Message-ID: <4gjkki$[e-mail]>
References: <4ghk3g$[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sable.ox.ac.uk

In article <4ghk3g$[e-mail]>,
LawnMowerMan <[e-mail]> wrote:
>   Well world, I have pondered a certain issue for quite some time and I
>think it is time that I addressed it openly.
>   I have reflected back over the past 5 years or so and considered the
>big picture of the Amiga's history. I would like to make a few points and
>see if anyone else draws the same possible conclusions as I have.
>   I remember quite well the market transition of the C=64 to the C=128.
>From that point the Amiga was marketed as the next generation of home PC.
>Unfortunately, the Amiga was not taken seriously for much besides a game
>machine for the primary reason that big businesses had already invested
>tremendous amounts of money into IBM machines for business applications.

And were there any serious competitors on the Amiga before about 1991? There
was of course one version of WordPerfect, but that was way back and since it
didn't offer anything over the PC version it wouldn't attract anyone to the
machine. Amigas were good for multimedia, and that is something which few
businesses have much need for.

>There seemed to be no crevice that the Amiga could leverage itself into in
>order for it's potential to be displayed to the world. Although the
>machine was capable of tremendous graphics and animations, it was very
>difficult to utilize that potential. Along comes Newtek and their Video
>Toaster. Finally the tools were available to enable the Amiga to operate
>at it's real potential at an extremely affordable price.

Video Toasters aren't for the average user. The Video Toaster simply expanded
the Amiga's niche market in video production.

>   This was the one of the most important developments that brought about
>the advent of the multimedia and desktop publishing furor. Many very
>important and influential people and corporations began using the Amiga
>platform for these types of applications. At last the Ami had found a
>niche that allowed her the respect that she deserves. (She because I'm
>male and I love my machine and I'm not gay :)
>   What we then saw in the big corporate computer picture was Big Blue's
>sales dropped through the floor for 2 years running and there was some
>major downsizing of it's corporate work force. We saw the advent of the
>infamous Windows that attempted to enable IBM's and clones to work in an
>Amiga like atmosphere. However, these machines could not keep up in a real
>work environment primarily because of multitasking problems as well as
>others.

This is total rubbish. _Anything_ with timed interrupts (i.e. any popular
micro-computer) can preemptively multitask; it is simply a software problem.
It isn't even very difficult to write a multitasking operating system.
OS/2 was a joint attempt by Microsoft and IBM to draw users away from the
backwardness of MS-DOS/PC-DOS while remaining a degree of compatibility. This
wasn't initially successful, so Microsoft rethought their plans and came up
with Windows instead, which fits on top of MS-DOS rather than replacing it.
IBM did badly because clones offered strong competition while IBM's new
standards - PS/2, OS/2 and MCA - were not adopted by most other PC makers and
hence meant IBM no longer defined the de facto PC standard.

>   Commodore's stock soared in value, sales rose steadily, business
>boomed. The year after Big Blue laid off some 40,000 workers, suddenly C=
>corporate began making marketing blunder after marketing blunder. We can
>say that it was because of the replacing of top people but perhaps the
>real reason is not stupidity. Perhaps it was calculated moves.

Never attribute to conspiracy what can adequately be explained by stupidity.
Who in C= management would see it in his interest to destroy the company?

>   Within 2 years C= is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and then goes
>over. For a year + there is bantering and hem hawing around about who is
>going to purchase the remnants of C= with technology rights. From out of
>nowhere, here comes Escom and bids a measly 12 million and gets it all. A
>company that builds and markets IBM clones and the Windows software

Escom bought C= for the brand name; I though that was well understood. I
believe they wanted to buy just the C= trademark to badge their machines with,
but they couldn't make a deal without buying the rest as well.

>platform. From this point we hear alot of promising things. Everyone's
>hopes rise, everyone's hopes are dashed to the ground. AT is introduced
>into the picture and we hear many promising things. Repeat previous
>process. :( Here in America, where the Amiga was beginning to forcefully
>take the areas of business that we find the largest amounts of cashflow.
>ADVERTISING!!!!! Because of all of these coincidental business blunders we
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^ and nothing more!
>have the Amiga effectively cut off from the market because of no
>availability. Meanwhile, people like Intel are furiously trying to produce
>the next generation of chips that are fast enough to do a somewhat decent
>job of emulating that all important multitasking feature. After all, for
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ get a brain!
>video production and such you need to be able to read, play, move data and
>such VERY quickly. These things the lowly Amiga excelled at. The IBM and
>clones were slow and ponderous. Even a 120mhz Pentium has to work hard to
>do what an 060 can do because of that feature.

Don't be so ridiculous. A 120 MHz Pentium has to work harder to run Windows
because Windows is an up-to-date operating system whereas AmigaOS is stuck in
the past. Of course, Windows also has a lot of unpleasant kluges for DOS-
compatibility and so on, but it also offers many features which AmigaOS lacks
and it is no wonder that there is a speed penalty to pay for this. As I said
above, multi-tasking is nothing magic and indeed Windows 95 and NT _do_ have
preemptive multitasking at least as good as the Amiga (except when '95 is
running old apps).

>   I guess what I'm trying to say folks is that I am suspicious of some
>sort of corporate espionage. I do not believe that people that built a
>successful business gets stupid when it comes to marketing the Amiga.
>Escom is very succesfull, so why the screwed up marketing of the Amiga. C=
>was doing very well and then oops.... it dropped the ball.

C= was doing well thanks to the power of the Amiga chipset and the marketing
of the games publishers; Commodore did little to help itself. Back in 1985
no-one really knew what the Amiga was for, Commodore least of all. And
Commodore management never really figured it out.

>   Is there someone out there that has enough influence that can dig and
>investigate things like sudden and large cash movement in certain people's
>lives?
>   I'm of the opinion that the powers that be are sitting on the Amiga
>technology until it is finally too archaic to be any competition. I could
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the case today, in case you hadn't noticed.

>be wrong of course and perhaps I'm just consipiracy minded but things are
>just not adding up in all of this. Does anyone else draw the same
>conclusions and see them as real possibilities? Something isn't right
>folks!!!! I accuse no specific people. But I'm telling you, I smell some
>shit somewhere and it wasn't me that did it. Please don't flame me for the
>length of this. :)

I won't flame you for the length, but simply for the absurdity of the posting.



--
--
Ben Hutchings, student. Finger me on [e-mail] for various info.
email: [e-mail]  WWW: http://sable.ox.ac.uk/~worc0223/
Users of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your Micro$oft software