NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/multimedia/600

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 8.9 KB

Path: alterdial.uu.net!not-for-mail
From: "Erik J. Russell" <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Subject: Re: Scala for PC... oh well...
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 20:31:21 -0400
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <Pine.SGI.3.91.960412060042.9133C-100000@brook> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.138.17.30
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01Gold (Win95; I)

I have been following the ongoing (and ongoing...and ongoing...) back-and-forth about
the Amiga/PC/Mac/advocacy issue in this newsgroup. And while Mr Bowie correctly stated
these types of discussions should be limited to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, my comments
directly and indirectly relate to these platforms and their uses in multimedia
applications.

First, let me identify myself. I have been an Amiga owner advocate for more than 10
years, have personally owned almost every model of the Amiga including the A1000,
instigated the sale of the Amiga and related items in this country (the Bahamas), was
the manager of the local Amiga dealership for five years, have placed Amigas in hundreds
of homes, many businesses and several schools in the Bahamas, and still provide
individual support to the several dozen Amiga owners who are still active in the
Bahamas. I have worked directly with Commodore personnel (from the Canadian, U.S. and
European offices), have attended Commodore annual general meetings held here in Nassau
(which was the location of their world head office --- mostly for tax expemption), spent
time with Kit Spencer, Jim Dionne, and several Commodore engineers at various company
functions and trade shows.

Currently, I own an Amiga 3000/25/100. I am no longer in the computer business but am
the Production Manager at a communications agency which produces print, radio and TV
advertising. At work, I use an A3000/25/100 for my day-to-day administrative work, an
A2000-based Toaster for video work, and an A4000T for SCALA InfoChannel production for
our cable company. I was directly responsible for placing and installing each of these
systems, including an ENLAN network and the various programs used, and handle all
in-house support for these systems.

(Here's where most of you start to hate me.) Also at work we have eight Macintosh
systems (Performas, Quadras) which are used for most of the print work (I use my Amiga
for some DTP, too). (Here's where most of you start to leave.) And, last December, after
much fear and trepidation, I purchased an IBM (brand) Aptiva M53.

Although I had used PCs (as little as possible) at my previous job (the company was also
the authorised IBM retailer --- imagine that: an Amiga dealer and IBM dealer in one
place!), I despised the PCs and daily reminded others in the office of the Amiga's
overwhelming superiority and that they would soon realise the need to graduate to a
"real computer". Anyway, I held no affection for MS-DOS machines and loathed the Mac
even more (a computer that looked so much like the Amiga but forgot that humans also
have brains).

So, why did I buy the Aptiva? Besides the practical reasons (my wife handles the
accounting for her father's business and needed specific features for their company
which we could only find in a PC program), I had been reading up on Win95 and had
recently become interested in the potential of the Internet. After trying for almost two
months to get my Amiga(s) up and running on the Internet, I was reaching frustraton with
having to use the Macs at work for Internet access. My father-in-law agreed to split the
cost of the Aptiva with my wife and I and the company I used to work for had an
attractive financing deal for Christmas. So I took the plunge. And I haven't regretted
it for a minute. (Relax. I'm not trying to convert you to become a PC user. Read on...)

Windows 95, despite all its lukewarm press coverage, is an advanced piece of work and
works amazingly like the Amiga. Not in specific ways but in the general way it operates.
(Of course, my PC system has 16MB RAM and a 1.6GB HD!) But after a couple of weeks of
really using Win95, I began to realise the shortcomings of the Amiga's OS and Workbench.
While I firmly believe that the Amiga's OS has the POTENTIAL to be the best OS
available, it has not been developed to the level of Win95 or even the forthcoming
incarnation of the Mac OS. And besides this, the industry support is unparalleled.

I have to emphasise how apprehensive I was about buying a PC. Ninety-eight per cent of
all of my computer experience was with Amiga computers. But, with NO training or outside
help of any kind, I soon found myself zipping around my PC like it was home. I
discovered that Microsoft had tossed many of the irritating things about previous
Windows versions and incorporated many of the features I had grown to love (and expect)
from my Amiga. It was most of the things I had envisioned the Amiga operating system to
become, had it been given the financing and (internal and external) support it needed.

I know what you're thinking. I've sold out. Given up. Don't care.

Wrong!

Don't forget all the ways that I use the Amiga at work and at home. Don't forget that I
still have thousands of dollars invested in hardware and software. Don't forget that I
still SELL Amigas! In fact, within the last four months I have sold over $30,000 worth
of Amiga hardware and third-party software and peripherals.

You see, it's time to grow up, folks. Statements like "I'm pretty sick of guys...who..."
and "quitters deserve what they get" and "multi-platformer(s) who claim to be Amiga
loyalists are just plain full of crap" is childish, irrelevant, and picayune. What do
YOU need a COMPUTER for? Video? Buy an Amiga. DTP? Buy a PC or Mac. Advanced accounting
for 200 users? Get a PC or a UNIX network. Now that's not to say that none of these
computers can be used for all of these things. But certain systems are just better
suited for certain applications.

The Amiga has great potential. It remains to be seen whether it will ever realise that
potential. Companies like SCALA are vital to the future of Amiga development. How many
companies can you even name that are still actively developing NEW applications for the
Amiga or still pushing the Amiga hardware to do things it was never intended to do
(like the "discovery" of HAM mode)? How many companies even respond to user
registration? How many Amiga developers are there now? There are few. But those that
ARE, are vital to every one of us.

I have not had much direct contact with SCALA, although John Chang has personally
responded to every inquiry I have sent to him/them. I don't know exactly what all of his
responsibilities at SCALA are, but no matter, he responds! Most of my SCALA support
comes from my area distributor, who is also actively supporting (and selling!) the
Amiga. They also have PC products, but that doesn't mean they are BAD people. Perhaps
they have matured to the point where they can objectively recognise the advantages of
various platforms.

(Finally, the multimedia part.) Here's a fact for you: the Amiga is the computer that is
best suited for video applications. That doesn't mean other computers CAN'T do it. But
if you want to buy a genlock for a PC, take out a loan for about $2000. For an Amiga? A
week's salary (about $300-$500). The Amiga hardware can get its video signal to talk to
standard video (non-computer) equipment easier and better for far less than any other
computer.

When talking about the upcoming SCALA PC software, my SCALA rep said that it could do
things the Amiga version cannot. But, as I understand it, these are features that are
simply not implemented in the Amiga version and would be difficult to do so with the
current structure of the Amiga SCALA program. Future versions based on the
cross-platform SCALA Backbone technology are sure to include these. But he also told me
that there are things the current Amiga SCALA programs can do that the PC
!platform/hardware! CANNOT do, like scrolls and crawls (not "marquees"). The Amiga's
graphic architecture is capable of doing these things with virtually no "effort",
whereas PC hardware is incapable of handling this.

So, what do these ramblings of a slightly deranged man mean? Buy the computer you need
that will do the things you want. And ENJOY it. Don't waste your energy flaming somebody
 who has other uses for computers and realises the strengths and weaknesses of each.

The Amiga is dead. Long live the Amiga!


--
~ejr~


Erik J. Russell
[e-mail]
---------------------------------
Production Manager
Media Enterprises Ltd
[e-mail]
---------------------------------
Advertising * Graphic Design
Radio & Television Production
Quick Printing * Publishing
Web Page Design & Implementation
---------------------------------
The Bahamas Journal of Science
http://www.wp.com/BJOS