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1996-08-11
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_________________________________________________________________
COLUMN: read.me
_________________________________________________________________
July 31, 1996
AMIGA PASSES THE TEST AS A WEB BROWSER
By SANDY McMURRAY
Toronto Sun
Sandy McMurray
Months ago, I got e-mail from a guy named Dan Robinson. He asked when
I was going to write something about the Amiga computer. My answer was
simple: "Probably never."
I didn't have an Amiga, and I didn't know anyone with an Amiga.
Besides, what does the Amiga have to do with the Internet?
I remembered the Amiga as a game machine with fantastic sounds and
graphics. And somewhere in the fuzzy back of my head, I seemed to
remember that Commodore had gone out of business. Dan gave me a quick
history lesson. Yes, Commodore went out of business in 1994, but it
was not the end of the Amiga. A German company called Escom bought the
Amiga and announced plans for an affordable new Amiga called the
Walker that was to debut this year. (Amiga has been sold again since.
See below.)
HONEST REVIEW
I was interested. Dan arranged for me to have the use of a new Amiga
1200, supplied by Amiga retailers Comspec and National Amiga. Dan
asked me to use the machine, then write a simple, honest review of it.
"If you think it's terrible, I want you to say that it's terrible," he
said. "If you think it's great, I want you to say that."
So here I am.
The Amiga has always been an engineer's dream machine. Like the
Macintosh, the Amiga was years ahead of PC technology.
When the Amiga 1000 debuted in 1985, the industry was impressed by
its custom chip set, and its excellent sound and graphics
capabilities. The 1000 shipped with four-channel stereo sound and a
4096 colour output (better than the 16 colours most computers used at
the time). Years after the Amiga did it, PC manufacturers are finally
figuring out that consumers might want stereo output (RCA plugs) from
their computer.
The Amiga was also the first computer with a true "preemptive
multitasking" operating system, which allowed it to do several things
at once -- something a Pentium running Windows 95 still can't do as
well as an Amiga. And the Amiga 1000 cost about US$2,000 when its
competition -- a "singletasking" 286 PC -- cost about $4,000.
These days, many Amiga users are into complicated image processing,
3D modeling, etc. This is possible on the Amiga using inexpensive
software and very little memory or hard disk space.
But my interest is the Internet connection. The Amiga 1200 is a
relatively inexpensive way to browse the World Wide Web in all its
graphical glory. The latest "IBrowse" and "AWeb" software supports
HTML 3.2 commands, so you won't feel like a second-class Web citizen.
And e-mail software like YAM (short for "Yet Another Mailer") works as
well as anything I've used for the PC or Mac.
As PC manufacturers slowly catch up with the Amiga's multimedia
power, Amiga owners bitterly lament the marketing and business
mistakes that have made the Amiga an artifact rather than Everybody's
Computer. I know this is an overused analogy, but the Amiga is like
the Betamax video machine: Technically superior, but a loser in the
marketplace.
Amiga evangelists will be pleased to know that Chicago-based Visual
Information Service Corporation (VIScorp) hopes to bring Amiga
technology into every home. VIScorp has just purchased the Amiga from
Escom, and they plan to build and market a sort of Internet appliance
using Amiga technology. See (www.vistv.com) for more information.
NOT EASY TO USE
My quick review would be that the Amiga 1200 is powerful, but not
especially easy to use. My parents, who are just getting used to their
Macintosh, would not be comfortable at all with the Amiga, but I think
anyone with a mind for programming or engineering would learn to love
it.
If you're interested, the Amiga is an inexpensive and powerful
computer that can get you on the Web. See (www.amigasupport.com) or
call me at (416) 947-2416 for more information. I'll write more about
the Amiga as I continue to use it.
How's that, Dan?
___________________________________________________
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