NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/misc-part2/12151

Text File | 1996-08-05 | 5.7 KB | 120 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Path: new-news.sprintlink.net!eskimo!drizzit
From: [e-mail] (G. Baldwin)
Subject: Re: Amiga Technology is insulting!!
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References: <4kd111$[e-mail]> <4kdfn8$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 18:51:39 GMT

[e-mail] wrote:
: Amiga's have Virtural Memory, however i don't see who would want to use it.
: VM sucks, worthless using unless you HAD TO!  And even then it is near worthless.

First off, most Amiga's CAN'T use Virtual memory for one of many reasons:

    They don't have an MMU
    They don't have a hard disk for the swap file
    Their software dies under VM since AmigaOS was never designed to use VM

Most Amiga owners have pitiful amounts of RAM.  The average Amiga out has
4MB of memory or less.  Sometimes you have to use VM in order to do a
task, if not, the task just doesn't get done.  Yes it slow, yes you
shouldn't you it, but in a jam, it can we the difference between life and
death.

: Amiga's don't need VM like ibm's/mac's need it.. We don't eat 16 megs of memory
: loading one program with OS. :)

First off, the Amiga Operating System is not magic - it does not mean that
your programs will instantly run in 1MB of memory.  Your statement holds
little truth.

I know many people who have 18MB Amigas and go right through it all
running 1 app and a few startup utils.  I happen to be one of them.

If you REALLY want to know why there aren't many programs out for the
Amiga that take 8MB of mem (other than video/grfx software), its because
most people don't have enough memory to run them, so they just never get
ported.  If they do get ported and can fit in 2MB of mem, it will most
likely turn off the OS, and will also be cut-down from the original.

I own an A3000, an A4000, and a PC.  I also run NetBSD and SS on my
Amigas.  The Amigas run fine using everydays apps with 4MB of free FAST.
I can run SS using only 8MB of memory and still be able to load Word or
Freehand up after bootup.  Same goes for Windows3.11, with memory to
spare.

I don't know where in the world you get this 16MB stuff.  The only OS's
that I know of that dislike being run in under 16MB of memory is NeXTSTEP
or Unix/X.

: Amiga's crash less than ibm's with memory protection.. It is suppose to keep
: your machines from crashing, but ibm's still crash with it.  More than an
: Amiga would ever.

That is the most untrue statement I have heard on this newsgroup yet.  I
have used Amigas for over 8 years, and on average, I get about 2 Gurus a
day using commercial software.  I get at least 10 as a MINIMUM if I am
using PD software.  I am not alone.  I hear many stories of people who are
disgusted with constant system reboots.

You say that an Amiga crashes less than a PC?  May I ask you a few
questions?

   Did you ever have to do the AmigaOS 1.x to 2.x upgrade?  Every program
   out that used non-standard OS calls crashed when they weren't there in
   2.04.  What about software that banged the hardware looking for registers
   that weren't there with AGA?  Crash.  What happened when we started using
   programs made for the 68000 that were written in supervsor mode and/or
   used self-modifying code that bombed with a 68020 or higher CPU?  Crash
   crash crash!  I take it you never used AMosaic, the king of crashers?
   DaFTP?  Need I go on?  Face it, AmigaOS has no protection from bad
   programs.  IF you are lucky, you can save your other work and reboot,
   but that is never a guarentee.  So before you start to throw around
   a few "this sucks" and "that's crap", think about it.


: VM, Memory Protection, etc are not required options to multitask well, Amiga
: is proof of that.

Nobody said otherwise.  We all know that the Amiga can multitask well, but
there is more to an Operating System than just switching tasks.  Memory
Protection is there to keep the user's working environment on their
computer stable.  Virtual memory is there to allow people to do tasks on
their machines that they normally couldn't do.

: In fact ibm's and mac's suck! at multitasking and crash more often.  So
: who do you think has the more serious machine?  That's right, AMIGA!

Perhaps the Amiga can multitask better than a Mac.  Perhaps it can
multitask better than Windows3.11.  Why is that?  Because they are
Cooperative based OS's.  You are comparing Oranges to Grapefruit.  Even
Windows95 may be slow because most of the apps you are using are old
16-bit Win3.11 apps that were never meant to be run under a 32-bit
PreEmptive Operating System.

And BTW, the last time I used a WindowsNT or OS/2 system, found that they
multitasked just as well as AmigaOS (when running native applications for
each OS).  True, they did crash, but it was much harder to bring the whole
system down.  Now go back to your system and download some software off
the Aminet and come back and tell me how many 'Error 8000 0004's you get.

Who do I think is a more serious platform?  Sure as hell not the Amiga in
its current state, thats for sure!  There is much more to an OS than how
well it multitasks on a 6 year old CPU in only 2MB of memory.

: If you don't have a clue in hell about what an Amiga is like, don't try
: to comment on it.

Well, I guess I can comment on it.  I have used the Amiga for over 8
years.  I have poked and prodded into just about every aspect of the
system.  Lastly, I even write software for the Amiga that follows OS
rules and Commodore style guidelines...  I hope thats enough in your book
to count as having "a clue".