xrtnt@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Nigel Tzeng) (03/28/90)
In article <15134@snow-white.udel.EDU>, BARRETT%FOREST.ECIL.IASTATE.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Marc Barrett) writes... ^ ^ I have been pointing out, for some time, the fact that the Amiga is ^no longer a serious force in the computer industry. So far, I have ^gotten precisely the the responses I expected. The responses were to ^the effect that the Amiga is still the best low-end computer money ^can buy. ^ ^ But this is exacly my point. Everything Commodore produces ends ^up a home computer. The Amiga will forever remain a home computer, ^and Commodore will forever remain a home computer company. Commodore ^may be satisfied with this, but I am not. There are no longer any ^serious uses for the Amiga in the business, scientific, or ^workstation markets. Therefore, there is no business, scientific, ^or workstation software for the Amiga. ^ ^ The Amiga's ability to display a puny 4096 colors is no longer ^state-of-the-art. Companies that previously used Amigas (with its ^ability to display 4096 colors at once) will now use Macs (with ^their ability to display any of 16 Million colors at once). ^ ^ Since 1985, Apple has improved the MAC by leaps and bounds, ^but Commodore has hardly improved the Amiga at all. None of the ^current Amiga models is more than slightly different than the ^original Amiga 1000. ^ ^ 'But', you may say, 'Commodore does not have the R&D budget ^that Apple has.' True, but do you realize just how many times ^bigger Commodore is compared to NeXT, Inc.? And yet, NeXT has ^managed to muster a R&D budget larger than Commodore's, and ^produce more truly innovative products than Commodore. ^ [stuff deleted] ^ ^ BTW, I would like everyone here to know that I have pure ^motived in stirring up trouble here. I love the Amiga, and ^I do not want it to become a simple home computer. ^ ^ ^ Marc Barrett ^ ^ AMIGA : Yesterday's Technology, FOREVER!!!!! Hmmm...When I was at the NeXT display at FOSE 90 it seemed to me that they were pretty hungry...I was somewhat surprised. It does not feel as if they are doing as well as they hoped. Just my quick and dirty observation...I haven't been following their performance. The C= booth at FOSE 90 was a pleasant suprise...not quite as nice as the Apple one but overall better than I expected. They did have a very interesting demo of a map display program (in 3-d) of terrain data from USGS. It was running off the hard disk on a A2500 (The C= rep told me it was real time but the company guru told me it was displaying off the hard drive). The software that does this is to be released RSN and should be priced around $199. Not bad...I might even pick it up although I can't think of a reason why I might ever use one...but then again I bought a VoRecOne... They also had Falcon running and a laser disc media presentation. I felt that they could have done a better job of designing the booth...it did not visually grab a person until you were inside the thing. Apple on the other hand had a wall of IIfx (or maybe IIcx) doing various showy things. It was a "happening booth" as I overheard someone say. Ooopps...the machine is going down...I'll say more later... NT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A| Nigel Tzeng xrtnt@csdr.gsfc.nasa.gov // m| STX Inc. xrtnt@csdr.span.nasa.gov // i| \\ // g| Standard Disclaimer Applies: The opinions expressed are my own. \X/ a| | "Hmmmm." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------