Consult@UMass.BITNET (03/23/88)
While I did not see the editorial in Compute, I agree with it's basic message. Let's use the Macintosh as a comparsion to the ST. About 3 or 4 years ago apple introduced the mac. Everyone said "Gee, it sure is neat, but it can't possiblely do anything." True, the machine had it's share of problems. Starting before last summer, however, that reaaaly started to change. I'm not saying the mac wasn't flying before that time, but rather, that the sales really started to jump. I was selling macs at that time. The Key: advertising! I looked in a recent music mag (Music Technology) and found comparable ads for macs and ataris. The mac's was slick, with good photography. The atari ad was pretty lame. It showed three screens (colour I think) that were poorly photographed and lame programs that are long outdated! They were: Hybrid Arts CZ editor, Dr. T's copyist (looked really lame) and Softsynth from digidesign and, oh I forgot, Midisoft Studio from Passport. Only Softsynth is a new program, and all the photographs look like they were taken on a colour monitor. Now most of these programs look ten times better in mono! So why not photograph them the way they look best. This is an example, perhaps not the best one, of Atari's mistakes in advestising. If they correct this kind of thing their sales could only go up. The other problem atari has is more basic: support. The atari support is pretty lame right now. As an example, I wrote a letter to Allan Pratt with some questions, and although I know he's a busy guy, I thought he might at least respond. I guess, (I'll take that back) that that is asking too much. Granted. Ok, but how about some books on the ST? The mac took about 4 years to get off the ground. The ST is in it's 3rd (?) year. If they are planning on surviving (actually I know they will survive because of european ST sales) then they better get working.... The clock is running... Damian Roskill ___________________________________________________________________ All opinions expressed here are my own...so naaaah! -------------------------------------------------------------------
drs@bnl.ARPA (David R. Stampf) (03/27/88)
In article <88032219051620D.AFQC@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU> Consult@UMass.BITNET writes: >While I did not see the editorial in Compute, I agree with it's basic >message. Let's use the Macintosh as a comparsion to the ST. >About 3 or 4 years ago apple introduced the mac. Everyone said "Gee, >it sure is neat, but it can't possiblely do anything." >True, the machine had it's share of problems. Starting before last >summer, however, that reaaaly started to change. I'm not saying the mac >wasn't flying before that time, but rather, that the sales really started >to jump. I was selling macs at that time. The Key: advertising! ^^^^^^^^^^^ Nonsense. A year and a half ago I bought a 1040 based on its price, the basic look and feel of the machine (screen size, color etc.) and a whole load of promises of the great things to follow. Well, it was a lot of fun for a while. Some nifty free programs, good languages and games. But there were problems too - nothing was forthcomming from atari nor developers to bring it into the mainstream - no really top notch business programs, publishing programs and the like. You don't have to be an expert on quality publishing to look at the output of -say- personal publisher to see that nobody would use it for anything important - the output of that program was worse than an ordinary typewriter. The only area where the ST seemed to be doing well was in the music area - and while that's pretty nice, you can't build a computer market on that narrow a base. So why this state of affairs? * No documentation * Nothing to document - I can't see the same level of thought behind Gem, Tos and (dare I mention) GDOS. * No followup on promises - the delay in the Mega, Printer, Blitter, IBM attachment (remember that one?), the PC clone. * Lack of any ability to fix bugs. * A dead O/S - sorry to say, but it ain't going anywhere. Having recently purchased a Mac, I am totally amazed by how much thought has been placed in the operating system and the general design of the system. Sure it suffers from a poor screen, but drawing, scrooling and the ability to use fonts clearly are better than anything that Atari has come up with - or is likely to in the future. >The mac took about 4 years to get off the ground. The ST is in it's 3rd >(?) year. If they are planning on surviving (actually I know they will >survive because of european ST sales) then they better get working.... > >The clock is running... > >Damian Roskill >___________________________________________________________________ >All opinions expressed here are my own...so naaaah! >------------------------------------------------------------------- The ST is not showing any signs of taking off - in fact, it seems to be kind of stuck where it is. In fact, it anyone is looking for anything other than a game machine, the Mac Plus is a definite competitor pricewise. Quality wise, there is no contest. The ST is a pretty good machine - but not a great one. The mega is about the same - just in a different case. Still no add in boards, no O/S improvements no future. Really quite a disappointment. < dave. (PS - Nothing against salesmen, but it is quite typical to blame the problems on advertising rather than more essential things.)
lean@sbcs.sunysb.edu (Lean L. Loh) (03/28/88)
In article <401@bnl.ARPA>, drs@bnl.ARPA (David R. Stampf) writes: ....... > for a while. Some nifty free programs, good languages and games. But there > were problems too - nothing was forthcomming from atari nor developers > to bring it into the mainstream - no really top notch business programs, > publishing programs and the like. You don't have to be an expert on quality > publishing to look at the output of -say- personal publisher to see that > nobody would use it for anything important - the output of that program was > worse than an ordinary typewriter. The only area where the ST seemed to be > doing well was in the music area - and while that's pretty nice, you can't > build a computer market on that narrow a base. > ...... I suppose you haven't seen many publishing programs for the ST. Publishing Partner from SoftLogik is decent. Using a 24-pin printer can get you almost laser-like output. And if you know some tricks, a 9-pin printer can get you amazing output too. Of course, using a laser printer gets you awesome quality. And the new features in PP.Professinal should make it really top notch. > Having recently purchased a Mac, I am totally amazed by how much thought > has been placed in the operating system and the general design of the system. > Sure it suffers from a poor screen, but drawing, scrooling and the ability > to use fonts clearly are better than anything that Atari has come up with > - or is likely to in the future. Sure, the OS in the ST isn't something to shout about, but that area has been hacked to bits. Still the ST is a decent machine. I played on the Mac SE a while, and have not touched it since. The screen is just too small to do anything for a long period of time. BTW, there's a VIRUS exterminator program at the Houston server (UACE) for those of us who are nervous. Thanks to the authors. -- only fools have no fear. CSNET:lean@sbcs.csnet .... Worf ARPA:lean%suny-sb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa UUCP:{allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax}!sbcs!lean