kleef@ark.UUCP (04/14/87)
FLAME ON Slowly but surely my confidence (or whatever looked like it) in Atari is declining. In fact it's not far from reaching an ultimate low. I find very little business-like software is being released. MS-Write, the MS-Word version for the ST, has only been seen in an extremely pre-release form (for many months). I even had to buy a Macintosh to fullfill my desperate needs for a good wordprocessor. I run MS-Word 3.0 on the Mac and that program is something I'd like to see run on the Atari ST. Actually, it doesn't really have to be all that sophisticated, but I feel we may expect a little more than the S.O.B. called First Word (Plus). It is by no means an advanced word processor, but it's just about the only thing out. Signum is nice, but doesn't even provide Ascii export. My worries that Paperclip Elite which was under development by Batteries Included (r.i.p.) would remain vaporware for ever the moment Electronic Arts took over B.I. seem to come true. (BTW: any1 heard anything more about the take-over? Is EA gonna publish some *real* ATari ST programs and not the 13 in a dozen stuff like FireFox and Arctic Fox?) I have serious doubts regarding the development group of Atari US. Whereas 'plain' users find solutions for the 40-folder limit, they can't do better than promising a solution in the future! Did they lose the sources of the system software currently plugged into the ST's??? Seems to me like guys like Simon Poole and other programmers do a better job than Atari itsself!! Personally I don't care a bit what Atari does next. The Mac is my work horse now and I'm utterly satisfied. Ok, ok, there's a substantial differenced in price. But I'd rather invest $4000 in a Mac, than lose $2500 on an Atari ST system! I just feel Atari's letting down its customers in a way I've never seen before, not by any other company. Look at the constructive messages George Robbins puts in comp.sys.amiga and the entire Apple development crew put in comp.sys.mac!!! Now I use my Atari ST for games and as a terminal using the 'should_be_award_winning' Uniterm program. And that's all! Pity! FLAME OFF Paul 'Red' Molenaar