01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) (06/05/89)
Larry Rymal feels that ST software is not as polished as packages on other machines. In some cases I have to agree. When he says that ST software costs more I begin to see red! Let's look at some examples. PC World had a blurb on Timeworks PUBLISH IT for the PC (this is a port of the ST package to the PC GEM environment). They marvelled at its price of ONLY $285 (Canadian prices will be used). Hell, I bought the ST package over a year ago for $149 and now it's listed in Joppa's catalog for $92. At work, we spent $400 for dBASE III Plus and dbMAN V sells for $175 (dbMAN, while not as polished as dBASE III, outruns dBASE III on our AT clone). We spent $250 for 1ST Word Plus for the PC and the ST version costs $70! LDW cost me $169 and LOTUS 123 cost us over $400 at work. I bought EXCEL at work (to run under Spectre) and it cost $350. It does not have the great LOTUS keyboard interface like LDW so I create sheets in LDW and import them to EXCEL to do the graphics. Yes, ST ware has traditionally been a little rougher around the edges but that can be attributed to the ST community's dogged adherence to 'it has to be inexpensive' principle. If you want codes with all the bells and whistles, frequent updates and stong support then you have to pay for it. The Atari community has to learn that inexpensive can have its dark side too! On the bright side, the ST community has lots of great codes in the <$100 range; that's good for the home user market. Now, we need some powerful $>200 packages, with all the goodies, for the business community. Just tell the boss "Look, the AT can cost $2500 and I need $1500 worth of code. The Mega 2 costs $1300 so can I buy $2700 of code?" PS. Just compare DRAFIX on the PC and DRAFIX on the ST; then you'll see how ST codes can cost less. Lots less!