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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!rsg1.er.usgs.gov!news.cs.indiana.edu!nstn.ns.ca!cs.dal.ca!ug.cs.dal.ca!ian
- From: ian@ug.cs.dal.ca (Ian Littlewood)
- Subject: Re: 4000: Is it so great?
- Message-ID: <BuJ3Ky.GBL@cs.dal.ca>
- Sender: usenet@cs.dal.ca (USENET News)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: ug.cs.dal.ca
- Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
- References: <1992Sep13.021205.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu>
- Distribution: dal
- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 18:05:21 GMT
- Lines: 59
-
- In <1992Sep13.021205.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu> cl129502@ulkyvx.louisville.edu writes:
-
- >Do you ever wonder why the Amiga has always offered hardware options to allow
- >it to emulate a PC, while the IBM has never had this option for their machines?
- >The answer is because the IBM is a better machine than the Amiga. Commodore
- >is now releasing their new 4000, claiming its so great. Well, right now you
- >can buy a 486 DX 50 MHz PC for under $3000 with 24 bit color. Or a 66 MHz for
- >about the same price. All this plus incredible third party support and a user
- >base that makes the Amiga's look like Downhome, USA compared to New York City.
- >Another big thing in the Amiga community is its multitasking. Well, OS/2 has
- >been out for the IBM for a while now, and Desqview even longer. It seems to me
- >that CBM is trying to just catch up to the high echelon that the IBM is
- >currently residing at. I used to own an Amiga, so I know what I'm talking
- >about, and when I say the Amiga crashes a lot, I'm not kidding. I remember
- >being on that computer many times and seeing that infamous "Guru Meditation
- >Error" and now being on my IBM compatible and thinking "Whats all the fuss
- >about?" Seriously folks, face the facts: The Amiga is still a couple of steps
- >back on the evolution scale, and just losing ground.
-
-
- You don't know what you're talking about... you conveniently neglected (or simply
- don';t know about) the compatability problems associated with running any
- operating system for IBM & compatible machines other than MS-DOS... Windows is
- a hog of system resources, is designed around custom-built applications; if you
- want a Windows-style program then you have to write it FOR windows - with the
- Amiga everything runs under the windowing system (Intuition), multitasking and
- programming construct for multitasking on the IBM are a joke... IBM owners STILL
- have no true concept of what real multitasking is all about. OS/2 is better than
- Windows but not much... it still has so many problems with non OS/2 applications
- that it's just not worth the trouble. Besides, who wants to devote 40+ megs of
- hard drive space and require 4+ megs of RAM in their machine to have access to
- even a small selection of programs written under these "operating systems"
-
- As for the hardware add-ons for the Amiga to emulate other machines... the answer
- is simple... BECAUSE IT CAN. Having a Mac and an IBM in the same machine is VERY
- convenient... the IBM has a vast software range; granted, most of it (i.e. PD
- & shareware) couldn't be given away compared to Amiga software (IBM PD software
- is of a VERY low quality compared to the Amiga) but because many businesses use
- the big programs (Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Pagemaker), it's convenient
- to be able to downgrade our machines to get things done with other machines;
- while the IBM is tripping all over itself in a quagmire of operating systems and
- non-intercompatible hardware, the Amiga can easily negotiate around inside the
- world of MS-DOS; it's ironic that the Amiga has such an easy time with MS-DOS
- when the MS-DOS machines themselves have such a difficult time. As for the Mac;
- well, there's very little that's BAD about the Mac - it has a few things I
- personally don't like, but what the hell; no system is PERFECT. Having the Mac
- in the same box as the Amiga and the IBM is very nice indeed -- so now you
- answer the question: why doesn't the IBM have the hardware add-ons to emulate
- other machines like the Amiga and the Mac? The answer is simple: because it CAN'T
- do the job well enough to produce a marketable product... Intel CPU's were
- designed around CALCULATOR chips... Motorola CPU's around MAINFRAME chips...
-
- Say what you want, but I've owned all three systems for over 3 years now and use
- AND PROGRAM all three; the vast majority of people I've spoken to who use MS-DOS
- machines (and I say MS-DOS to denote the MACHINE not the operating system --
- most use a variety of operating systems; UNIX, Windows, OS/2, and yes, some even
- use MS-DOS) say they would use anything else if they could; IBM machines are
- widely-used... but don't make the mistake of assuming they are widely-LIKED...
- they are NOT; people use them because they have no choice.
-