esg@hou4b.UUCP (E.S.Gokhman) (02/25/85)
Hi: I was just about to get Macintosh, when ... well, you know the story... Are there any materials available about those new GEM machines that would help me to get out of this dilemma: what to buy if I have a good offer on Mac but not as good as what atari claims to offer ? Would you suggest any reviews, "not a review" disclaimed articles, and your personal observations on this subject ? The obvious initial lack of software for the new machines is not a problem, to a degree, of course, since it could also be a opportunity. Please, H-E-L-P !!! One of the concerns was atari's financial complications, so the financial and support reliability observations will be greatly appreciated. If the net expresses interest in this subject I will post a summary of the responses. I also will not include in this summary any mail on this subject that will state "not for distribution", etc. Thanx in advance. Ed Gokhman AT&T ISL,
upen@watarts.UUCP (Ue-Li Pen) (02/27/85)
Commodore recently brought out 2 more machines, the C-16 and the 128k
version of the 64. This is probably an omen of Commodore's impending
doom. When Atari brings out their ST, they can sell it at $400
and not worry about any of it's other products (which they are
trying to "phase" out) decline in profit/productions. Commodore however,
when they release this "wonderous Amiga" machine will HAVE to
raise the price so it does not damage the profits coming from the
C-64 and their newly released machines.
On the other hand, this might be an advantage. If Amiga turns out to
be a nice UNIX machine which is loaded with software for business people
even at an "inflated" price. MIGHT. That sector of the market is flooded with
"IBM" stickers, and people will STILL buy IBM machines over anything..
("It says IBM on it, it's gotta be good" syndrome)
I remember reading a COMPUTE! article about the new ATARI machines
and it seems that they are trying to sell them as "business/home"
computers - like Apples. I think that they could do this
successfully if they convince the general public that "ATARI IS NOT
PLAYING GAMES ANYMORE".
What it comes down to is if the ST is really good and cheap, Commodore
will have a fight on it's hand. I don't think the ST will hamper the Mac's
sales much. This however depends on whether Atari can successfully sell
the machine to the business community. I doubt it. But maybe.. If they
do, then Apple and even IBM might be in for a bit of a shock.
Buying a computer is always a waiting game, but this might be one
to wait for..
--------------------------
Of course, if the ST can't run UNIX then what use is it! (except
for playing games..)ravi@eneevax.UUCP (Ravi Kulkarni) (03/02/85)
They had a full page article on atari and their chances for making a comeback in the February 10 business section of the N.Y. Times. Near the end of the article they said that one of the advantages of the amiga over the ST line would be multitasking capability. I somehow doubt though that they have put in a mmu chip to do this. More likely is that the bundled turbo pascal generates relocatable code and thus is limited to 32kbyte segments. I am not sure that this would be an advancement as it brings back one of the worst features of the IBM pc namely segmentation, except that it is even worse since at least you can have 64k segments in the pc. If you want a true multitasking environment I can bet that you probably won't find it in these machines. Of course neither can the IBM pc(excluding AT) or the macintosh. (Hey,I like the new name of the Commodore 68k machine, eh amigo!) -- ARPA: eneevax!ravi@maryland UUCP: [seismo,allegra]!umcp-cs!eneevax!ravi
tim@callan.UUCP (Tim Smith) (03/14/85)
In article <250@eneevax.UUCP> ravi@eneevax.UUCP (Ravi Kulkarni) writes: >the advantages of the amiga over the ST line would be >multitasking capability. I somehow doubt though that they have >put in a mmu chip to do this. More likely is that the bundled Why wouldn't they put an mmu in? You don't need a fancy and expensive mmu chip to do memory management. You can build a quite decent mmu out of a small number of standard, cheap chips. -- Duty Now for the Future Tim Smith ihnp4!wlbr!callan!tim or ihnp4!cithep!tim