UD140469@NDSUVM1.BITNET.UUCP (04/17/87)
Received: by NDSUVM1 (Mailer X1.23) id 0013; Fri, 17 Apr 87 11:39:32 CDT
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1987 11:25 CDT
From: Scott Udell <UD140469@NDSUVM1>
Subject: The experiment ends... (or, Atari's 520ST replacement plan
To: Digest <INFO-ATARI16@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU>
Well, after 5 weeks, my new 520 from Atari arrived. That's right, new--I sent
in my sickly old one with it's power supply, and got back a completly new one,
along with new power supply, mouse (now I have an extra!), manuals, etc. For
only $95 (which includes return shipping), I think this is a great deal,
especially if you have an older model with out the R/F modulator--gives you a
machine of greater resale value when it comes time to upgrade to a MEGA...
One of the interesting pieces of paper that came along with the system was
a voucher for a copy of the BOS/5 operating system. Apparently Atari has
worked out a deal with the BOS (either British Operating System or Business
Operating System, depending on who you talk to) people that lets you get a
copy of BOS for "a materials and handling fee only" instead of spending the
usual $45 ($45! I thought BOS cost somewhere in the area of $300!). The OS
is available in two versions: a diskette-based system (1 disk) costing $11.95
($11.95 for materials and handling?) or a hard disk-based system (3 disks)
costing $21.95. According to the flyer, the "diskette-based system includes
automatic demos, games that illustrate the power of MicroCobol (i.e.,
BOS/Space Invaders, BOS/Othello), and BOS product descriptions."
Why do I have the feeling that the OS is nearly useless with out some of the
applications programs that they list (like BOS/MicroCobol, BOS/Writer, etc.),
programs that, if I remember correctly, cost quite a bit. Well, maybe it's
worth it (after all, you do get Space Invaders). Isn't BOS supposed to be
multi-tasking? Oh yeah--the BOS/5 User Manual is another $10.
Scott Udell
UD140469@NDSUVM1.BITNET
..manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vincent Manis) (04/19/87)
In article <8704171832.AA07396@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> UD140469@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Scott Udell) writes, anent BOS: > ...According to the flyer, the "diskette-based system includes >automatic demos, games that illustrate the power of MicroCobol (i.e., >BOS/Space Invaders, BOS/Othello), and BOS product descriptions." Gee, too bad that these are proprietary programs. I'd love to see the source code for Space Invaders done in Cobol. Rather less tongue-in-cheek: did BOS go anywhere? I saw a blurb on it in InfoWorld a year or so ago, and then neither saw nor thought about it any more. ----- Vincent Manis {seismo,uw-beaver}!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!manis Dept. of Computer Science manis@cs.ubc.cdn Univ. of British Columbia manis%ubc.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1W5 manis@ubc.csnet (604) 228-6770 or 228-3061 "Long live the ideals of Marxism-Lennonism! May the thoughts of Groucho and John guide us in word, thought, and deed!"