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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Path: sparky!uunet!ukma!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!qdpii!davidme
- From: davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn)
- Subject: Re: ......An AMIGA Owner Is My Friend
- Message-ID: <1992Nov9.114511.9165@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au>
- Organization: Qld Dept Primary Industries
- References: <BxF00F.651@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 11:45:11 GMT
- Lines: 84
-
- In article <BxF00F.651@ccu.umanitoba.ca> umnoor@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Nasir Ahmed Noor) writes:
- >
- >Well, it may seem silly to all of you but I need some material [os/2's strong
- >points] to tell to Amiga owners.
-
- If advocacy were silly, what does that say about all the rest of us here? No,
- don't answer! :-)
-
- First, my cards on the table - I'm an Amiga owner (I have two), who'd own a
- PC and run OS/2 on it if there were nothing better, but my next purchase will
- be an Amiga 4000. I like OS/2 itself, it's more the hardware it runs on I
- have trouble with.
-
- Anyway, to find anti-Amiga material (or, pro-OS/2, which would help your cause
- better), try reading comp.sys.amiga.advocacy. OS/2 vs Amiga is a regular
- topic, with some regular contributors. I think we've gone over most of the
- arguments you want several times now.
-
- >When I had MS-DOS, my $4000 machine was constantly put down but I knew there
- >was nothing to defend MS-DOS/WINdows with.
-
- Other than applications. There's ALWAYS the software base (or lack thereof)
- to use against Amigas. Then again, that doesn't really impress most of us,
- since it's not the Amiga's fault that there's less software in everything
- except niche areas (read: video and related areas). The typical Amigan is
- more interested in how good the OS and hardware are in their own terms, rather
- than worrying about what you actually USE the computer for. Half a :-)
-
- >Now I know that OS/2 is one of the
- >best and most rock solid system in the market but I cant list its high points
- >in comparison with "HIS MAJESTY" *THE* AMIGA ...
-
- Actually, Amiga's a she. Small point to keep in mind...
-
- >Just to give you an example, "they" say that Amiga does perfect multitasking
- >with an OS which comes only on 2 floppies [compare with OS/2's 30+Meg,
- >or 18 meg for base system]. Now I have no idea how to justify its enormous
- >size.
-
- The multitasking on the Amiga is about as perfect as they come. What it
- doesn't have is memory protection. In other words, all tasks on the Amiga
- share a common address space, and can freely clobber each other. OS/2 fanatics
- often appear in amiga.advocacy claiming that AmigaOS doesn't even have threads.
- This is untrue - what it lacks is processes. This lack of protection is part
- of what makes the Amiga multitask with so little overhead - the whole OS and
- user software runs as a large number of parallel "threads" which pass messages
- between each other by exchanging pointers to shared memory. The message
- passing system is therefore very fast, and there's not much context to save
- in a switch.
-
- The downside to this is that one rogue program can bring down the whole
- system. In practice, it's not that bad - my Amiga almost never crashes, and
- when it does, the OS almost always catches it, and gives the user the option
- to suspend the offending task. But, it's not bulletproof, and so you can list
- memory (or process) protection as an OS/2 advantage.
-
- Another advantage for OS/2 is virtual memory - AmigaOS doesn't have it. It's
- available for the Amiga from a third party, but there are apparently
- compatibility problems with it.
-
- A further reason for the enourmous size is a more comprehensive imaging model
- than is offered by the Amiga's graphics library.
-
- Not only that, but OS/2 provides for DOS and Windows compatibility, which
- AmigaOS doesn't have to worry about.
-
- As for size, AmigaOS is growing - try four floppies for 2.0, and I don't
- know how many 3.0 comes on (it's only just out).
-
- >You can email me responses.... NO FLAMES PLEASE!!!
-
- Why email when we have an advocacy group right here? As for flames, I think
- that OS/2 vs Amiga is worthy of serious discussion. It's one of the few PC
- OS's that Amiga users can't easily dismiss.
-
- >--nasir
- >umnoor@ccu.umanitoba.ca
-
-
- --
- David Meiklejohn (also known as davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au)
- - Regional support guy for PC's, Unix, and networks thereof.
- - But I'd rather be using an AMIGA! Wouldn't you?
- Find me in Mareeba, Australia (on the pointy bit in the northeast)
-