mstreet@crash.cts.com (Michael Street) (07/19/88)
I just heard the terrible news that Tom Hudson is leaving the ST to go
to the IBM! I have only one thing to say about this:
TOM! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US! I'm sure all of you will agree with me that
Tom Hudson has done more for the Graphics capabilities of the ST than
any other single person and that such a loss would be disasterous to the
ST communitity. I hope that Tom will change his mind or at least support
the ST as well as the IBM.
And that's the opinion of one concerned Atari ST citizen...
Mike
UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!mstreet
ARPA: crash!pnet01!mstreet@nosc.mil
INET: mstreet@pnet01.cts.com
PAPERNET: 1184 Blackbird St. El Cajon, CA. 92020
SOUNDNET: (619) 449-3515
Spock: "They are not the hell your whales."
--
UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!mstreet
ARPA: crash!pnet01!mstreet@nosc.mil
INET: mstreet@pnet01.cts.com
PAPERNET: 1184 Blackbird St. El Cajon, CA. 92020
SOUNDNET: (619) 449-3515
Spock: "They are not the hell your whales."dlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (07/21/88)
in article <3222@crash.cts.com>, mstreet@crash.cts.com (Michael Street) says: > I just heard the terrible news that Tom Hudson is leaving the ST to go > to the IBM! I have only one thing to say about this: > > TOM! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US! I'm sure all of you will agree with me that > Tom Hudson has done more for the Graphics capabilities of the ST than > any other single person and that such a loss would be disasterous to the > ST communitity. I hope that Tom will change his mind or at least support > the ST as well as the IBM. > > And that's the opinion of one concerned Atari ST citizen... > > Mike What do you expect given the way Atari deals with it's developers? Tom is just the latest in a long list of people who have left the ST behind. I left Data Pacific because I was tired of dealing with BS from Atari and not making much money. I still have lots of BS to deal with but at least I'm now paid for it. Tom made essentially the same choice months ago. He just spent a lot of time deciding what should be his new home. The Amiga, Mac II, and IBM were all considered. IBM won simply by market size. Given the low sales of the ST in the US (and the low software sales that result from that) it just isn't worth my time to put up with the BS Atari puts out. If they had helped their developers maybe things would be different. In a small market (the only large market is the IBM PC) you have to give your developers support. Apple and CBM do a much better job than Atari does, they are far from perfect but at least they do try. The ST is a fairly decent machine. It can be lots of fun to work with and to program. Unfortunately it isn't a very good system to try and live off. If Atari was interested in selling computers things might be different. Unfortunatly they just want to design amazing vaporware, not sell it. One last point -- Tom is still going to support the ST. Not a lot but some. Just like I still am going to write articles with Dave Small. But no more trying to live off selling 2 or 4 thousand copies a year of a program. It's real hard to live off the $4,000 to $8,000 that makes an author. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Moore ex-Data Pacific programmer, AT&T Denver technical support, hardware ihnp4!druhi!dlm tester and general go-fer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) (07/27/88)
I think Dan Moore hit the nail on the head here so I'm not going to
say the same thing again. But I would like to add the following.
If it appears that Dan is bitter, he probably is. I think one reason
some of us who were there in the beginning with the ST are so frustrated
is becuase we like the ST, for the most part, and a lot of us saw a time
when Atari really could have done something with it. It was one of the
first exciting computers in that market in a long time. We saw the
chance for success and we saw Atari screw it up, and in the process,
hurt a lot of people. I think it's also becuase we feel a little
stupid for not listening to everyone who told us that it was a big
mistake to get invloved with Atari and the Flying T's but we did it
anyway - live and learn.
--
David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.uucp) | "Yea I've got medicine..." as the
Beckemeyer Development Tools | cookie cocks a his Colt, "and if
478 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland, CA 94610 | you don't keep your mouth shut, I'm
UUCP: {unisoft,sun}!hoptoad!bdt!david | gonna give you a big dose of it!"