Serious Software


This is one area where the PC is ahead of the Amiga.  It is not the quality
of the software on the PC that is better, but the choice.

For example, Wordworth 3.1 on the Amiga is a good match for Word for
Windows 6 on the PC.  In fact, it has more functions than Word for Windows 6;
and it is certainly better than all the other PC wordprocessors available.
However, on the Amiga you really do not have much choice. If you
want a good WP then you can really choose between Final Writer and
Wordworth, which although both very good, does not leave you with much
choice.

The PC on the other hand has far more choice. However, some of this is
created by the fact that people who do not run Windows cannot run most of
the good WP's, and so a whole new market is opened up in the way of DOS
based WP's.

At desktop publishing, the two are about equal.  The Amiga has got
Pagestream 3.1, for example, at the high end of the market, whilst the
PC has its own titles.  Microsoft Publisher® is a very good low end
desktop publisher for the PC, but it does not come close to Quark
Express® on the Mac® (used for most magazine and newspaper design) or
its main rival, the aforementioned Pagestream 3.1 on the Amiga.

It cannot be denied that the PC has got better spreadsheet programs than
the Amiga. However, Softwood are producing their "Final Calc" spreadsheet
which is said to be able to carry out functions that a spreadsheet has
never previously been able to be do.  What exactly these functions are,
and how useful they will be to the average user, remains to be seen.

So all in all the only thing that the PC has over the Amiga here is choice.
The quality of the software is in most cases no different, and the Amiga's
software is usually around half the price.  Word for Windows can be picked
up for aroud £250, whilst Wordworth 3.1 is available for £80 {Digita's
price as of May 1995)!

Converted on 22 Aug 1996 with RexxDoesAmigaGuide2HTML by Michael Ranner.