mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) (06/01/87)
In article <5954@linus.UUCP> sdl@linus.UUCP (Steven D. Litvintchouk) writes:
<2. AmigaDos has got to go. If Unix became available on A2000's, then
<engineering houses that have standardized on Unix workstations (like
<Suns) could simply hang Amigas and Suns interchangeably on the same
<Ethernet. The engineers wouldn't need to learn another (not as good)
<operating system; and the same CAD tools would run on both Amigas and
<Suns.
AmigaDOS may have to go, but replace it with Unix? No thanx, I'll keep
AmigaDOS. After all, AmigaDOS machines are probably as interchangeable
as different versions of Suns (Wanna know what happens when you run a
3.2 binary on a 3.0 Sun?): you just make sure it mounts the partitions
with the Amiga 68000 binaries (or, if you've got a turbo-Amiga, the
Amiga 68020 binaries) instead of the Sun-1, Sun-2 or Sun-3 binaries.
Chuck, would you like to tell us how hard it is to put an Amiga on an
ethernet with Suns?
As for "better," Unix still hasn't figured out that while files are
good, ports and messages are better. [Anyone got a conman for Unix?]
On the other hand, people building add-ons for the Amiga should
*like* Unix. Eating more memory for the same functionality means
people buy more memory cards. Eating more cycles means they buy more
processor upgrades. Slower disk I/O means they buy more expensive hard
disks. Needing large quantites of disk space just to hold the system
means they buy larger hard disks. Worse documentation means they spend
more time talking to experts (which can charge for it), and more
cycles experimenting with how things work.
Hmm - it looks like Commodore should sell Unix on the A2000. After
all, they're going into the peripherals market with that machine.
<mike
P.S. - you want Unix on the A2000? It's there, if you stop and think
about it. It's just that you won't be able to run the CAD/CAM tools
you're used to on Suns under it.
--
How many times do you have to fall Mike Meyer
While people stand there gawking? mwm@berkeley.edu
How many times do you have to fall ucbvax!mwm
Before you end up walking? mwm@ucbjade.BITNEThansb@ariel.unm.edu (Richard Harris PSYCHOLOGY) (06/02/87)
here is a small thought... can you imagine taking the kickstart disk and redoing SOME of the code on it so that you could EMULATE or OPERATE in IBM or C64 or MAC or OS/9 or ETC... mode? From what I know about operating systems, os/9 can be written to use the 68000 directly... Now, everything that I have brought up here is just a thought. If you have some comments, PLEASE try to make them POSITIVE and try to make some reasons why this might be possible. I know that most people do not like to use assembly code directly with the machine, leaving all common amiga windows and other "standard" amiga code out of this, but I am just trying to bring up a possibility that might work. Remember the Transformer? rather slow, monochrome only, etc.. I have a feeling that if you made a "transformer disk" in place of kickstart, and set it up correctly, you might have a somewhat faster system. (this goes for ANY emulation/operating system) Hans Bechtel