fetrow@bones.stat.washington.edu (Dave Fetrow) (05/27/88)
In article <707@applix.UUCP> scott@applix.UUCP (Scott Evernden) writes: > >Don't bother. I have absolutely no respect for Jerry Pournelle's opinion. >Do you really expect JP to sing Amiga praises in PC/Mac-only rags like Byte, >InfoWorld, and wherever else he send his drivel? I see no reason to send >him stuff just to stroke his ego. If he calls the Amiga junk because he >doesn't get enough free stuff, then screw him. Commodore should send the >goodies to Matt, or Leo, or Fred. > >-scott At the risk of opening a flame: I've been reading Pournelle's column a long time: since CP/M-80 was a hot O.S. I've often found his column helpful. He doesn't see his primary purpose in life as evaluating computer stuff; he's a Science Fiction writer that uses computers in his work. He's interested in new stuff but he's not going to deal with stuff that's a big hassle. He says this almost every column. Going out and buying a hard drive and more memory IS a hassle. If you are living in a sea of fast drives and mondo-memory machines with good software hiding their bad features it is insane. A lot of people look to him as Guru (no pun intended); which may be unfortuneate but that's the situation. From his perspective he seems pretty fair (the perspective of a writer). He has some ignorant things but is tremendously broad minded compared to some of the Big-Blue and Apple legionarres. He's not calling the Amiga junk BECAUSE he doesn't get enough free stuff; he may be saying it isn't-so-wonderful-as-your-work-computer as a CONSEQUENCE of not having a well equipped machine. Maybe even with a well equipped 2000 he wouldn't be too keen: there are time limits, as a writers machine the Amiga software lags, and frankly it isn't quite as stable due to multitasking (a price us Amigans are willing to pay). -Dave Fetrow- {ihnp4,tektronix}!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow :UUCP fetrow@entropy.ms.washington.edu :INTERNET 7833117@UWAVM :BITNET
vkr@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu (Vidhyanath K. Rao) (05/29/88)
In article <893@entropy.ms.washington.edu>, fetrow@bones.stat.washington.edu (Dave Fetrow) writes: > limits, as a writers machine the Amiga software lags, and frankly it isn't > quite as stable due to multitasking (a price us Amigans are willing to pay). I am not sure why a multi-taking machine is less stable (I presume in the sense of crashing oftener). When I crashed Amigas, it was because I was hacking microemacs and fiddling with the display window (Now I know what Amiga fireworks are. Tho' I don't know why Ami gets upset about conflicting commands about window sizes); or because I was using timer device improperly (On a borrowed 1000 with nothing to help me except the RKM). With finished programs I have never had a crash. (Freeware excluded). The only trouble I have had (I call it a bug; my friends don't) is: printer.device timing out becuase I was compling a c program while emacs was trying to read a 3000-line file. (Obvously the printer driver was being kept idle too long) I don't run games except Chessmaster. If that is a guide, crashing is due to bad programmers and not becuase of multi-tasking. If I am wrong, please tell me and include exapmles.