jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Jules Cisek) (12/18/89)
Hello once more, There was a little talk at a month or so ago about Microsoft's plans for the Amiga. It was said that if Commodore sells 100,000 Amiga's before the end of the year, Microsoft will release much of its PC line for the Amy. I assume the Amiga ad campaign was designed to push toward this end. Anyone know how Commodore is doing with the sales so far? As I see it, if Commodore fails, it will be a nail on the coffin for the big market hopes. This is important to me, as I'm planning to upgrade to the A2000 with the GVP A3001 next summer ($$$)... -- Fight | // Julius A. Cisek jac423,jules |Don't Like a| \X/ ->crunch<- SUNYA, NY USA @leah.albany.edu | Be a Brave | IB...M I do think it's good... |Slave
kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) (12/19/89)
In article <2321@leah.Albany.Edu> jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Jules Cisek) writes: > There was a little talk at a month or so ago about Microsoft's plans >for the Amiga. > As I see it, if Commodore fails, it will be a nail on the coffin for >the big market hopes. Well, I keep hearing about hopes for Microsoft products for the Amiga, but as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft can stay on other machines. Witness AmigaBasic, QuickBasic, Microsoft 'C', & their utilities. Pretty poor software to me. Maybe I just do things differently :^), but any time I have to work with Microsoft products, I end up spending enormous amounts of time getting around incompatibilites and bugs that I just don't encounter anywhere else. It's simply like the incomparable frustration of trying to work with misdesigned or broken mechanical tools where one spends more time fixing the tool than working on the project. With the problems I encounter on a routine basis with their products, I am really amazed they have the audacity to go commercial with them. There, I feel better now. (Need examples? I have plenty of them) Disclaimer: My views. Too bad it's not those of my employer. ==================================================================== Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute - kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu Motto : "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing" ====================================================================
jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Jules Cisek) (12/19/89)
In article <24733@swrinde.nde.swri.edu>, kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: > Well, I keep hearing about hopes for Microsoft products for the Amiga, but > as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft can stay on other machines. > > Witness AmigaBasic, QuickBasic, Microsoft 'C', & their utilities. > Pretty poor software to me. Maybe I just do things differently :^), but > any time I have to work with Microsoft products, I end up spending > enormous amounts of time getting around incompatibilites and bugs that > I just don't encounter anywhere else. It doesn't matter whether Microsoft software is any good. It will make the Amiga look good if Microsoft ports its stuff over, tho... They are a prestigious company. It doesn't really matter to me directly. I'm happy with the Amiga specific software anyway... -- Fight | // Julius A. Cisek jac423,jules |Don't Like a| \X/ ->crunch<- SUNYA, NY USA @leah.albany.edu | Be a Brave | IB...M I do think it's good... |Slave
ejkst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) (12/31/89)
In article <24733@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> kent@swrinde.UUCP (Kent D. Polk) writes: >Well, I keep hearing about hopes for Microsoft products for the Amiga, but >as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft can stay on other machines. >Witness AmigaBasic, QuickBasic, Microsoft 'C', & their utilities. Hmmm. I see what you mean, but I'd still love to see Excel or Word for the Amiga. Not holding my breath, but I'd like to see it. They *are* capable of writing some good software. -- Eric Kennedy ejkst@cis.unix.pitt.edu
gerry@pencilbox.uucp (Gerry Lachac) (01/03/90)
In article <21331@unix.cis.pitt.edu> ejkst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) writes: > >Hmmm. I see what you mean, but I'd still love to see Excel or Word for >the Amiga. Not holding my breath, but I'd like to see it. They *are* >capable of writing some good software. > [ in regards to Microsoft ] Actually, Microsoft has only developed 3 major products, MS-BASIC, a mouse, and Excel. Everything else was bought from other companies (yes, even MS-DOS which was purchased from Seattle Computer Products.) Microsoft is one of the largest maintainence/bug-fix houses around. They are a huge marketing company, much like Electronic Arts is becoming for games. SIDE NOTE: (My soapbox) Obviously, I show no great love for Microsoft. I mean, Bill Gates recently announced that OS/2 is being re-written in 'C' to make it a portable operating system. He seemed to think this is such a novel idea and it would change the world. He obviously hasn't seen UNIX yet :-) uunet!dialogic!gerry | "Even a dead plant turns | Dialogic Corporation OR | over a new leaf | 300 Littleton Rd gerry@dialogic.UUCP | when the wind blows." | Parsippany, NJ 07054 | | (201)334-1268 X193
ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu (Edwin Hoogerbeets) (01/08/90)
In article <2321@leah.Albany.Edu> jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Jules Cisek) writes:
% There was a little talk at a month or so ago about Microsoft's plans
%for the Amiga. It was said that if Commodore sells 100,000 Amiga's
%before the end of the year, Microsoft will release much of its PC line
%for the Amy.
Don't count on it this for a long time. For every Amiga, there are 30 to
40 PC's out there, many of which are owned by businesses with money for
things like software. Which market would you write for if you wanted to
make lots of money?
Commodore would have to sell a heck of a lot more than 100000 Amigas for
Bill to even think about getting into the Amiga market.
Edwin
ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu or uunet!watmath!watrose!ehoogerbeets
edwin@watcsc.waterloo.edu or uunet!watmath!watcsc!edwinkudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) (01/08/90)
>Don't count on it this for a long time. For every Amiga, there are 30 >to 40 PC's out there, many of which are owned by businesses with Bzzzt. Try 12 to 15. There are something like 15 or 16 million PC's out there and a bit over a million Amigas. >Commodore would have to sell a heck of a lot more than 100000 Amigas >for Bill to even think about getting into the Amiga market. I believe the deal was if Commodore could sell 100,000 Amiga units in 4q89, Microsoft would start porting stuff. This is what the guy asking the original question wanted to know. -- Robert Jude Kudla <kudla@pawl.rpi.edu> "Famous? I'm not famous. People come up to me after a show and say 'Hey, Steve!'" -Jon Anderson
louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) (01/08/90)
>I believe the deal was if Commodore could sell 100,000 Amiga units in >4q89, Microsoft would start porting stuff. This is what the guy asking >the original question wanted to know. Gee, after using the wonder from Microsoft "AmigaBASIC", I count my blessings that Microsoft isn't in the Amiga software game. What a piece of garbage! Now, ABasiC, that came with AmigaDOS 1.0 back in the good ole days, there was some software with promise. At least it could scroll without tripping over its own feet! Me, I'm real happy with Lattice C 5.04. Here's one software product that has shown steady improvement since the Developer's version I got back with the Amiga 1000 introduction. I wish more software vendors supported their customers with very reasonably priced upgrades to fine product. Microsoft? Feh. It will be interesting to find out if they could be worse than that pox on Amiga users, Electronic Arts. Double Feh! louie