braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) (01/11/87)
[] The announced $200 monochrome monitor for the PC-clown: it sounds like a monochrome 'multi-sync' sort of thing. Is it really GREEN? Is there a monitor coming for the ST series (perhaps the same one?) that will work with ALL THREE of the ST screen resolutions, showing the colors as shades of off-white (not off-green)? About the future of the 1040ST: The people who just want the ST's power for using games, word-processors, etc buy the 520ST, while the 1040ST is the favorite among programmers and such - which will obviously switch to the Mega-ST. Is it safe to predict the 1040 will go extinct? Alternatively: since single-sided disk drives were obsolete even before the day the first ST came out, and since the 1040 causes a lot less cable- clutter, and since it is getting cheaper, is it the 520ST that will go extinct? (Of course the 520ST may be bundled with a DS drive...) I'd like to know what SOFTWARE enhancements are in the Mega-ST, as compared with the current TOS-ROM. Also: is Atari going to erase the small difference between ST and IBM disk formats? (Reminder: the ST CAN read and write IBM-Convertible 3.5" disks, but the IBM will accept them only if FORMATTED on the IBM.) - Moshe Braner
grunau_b@husc4.harvard.edu (justin grunau) (01/11/87)
In article <1987@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> braner@batcomputer.UUCP (braner) writes: . . . >About the future of the 1040ST: The people who just want the ST's >power for using games, word-processors, etc buy the 520ST, while the >1040ST is the favorite among programmers and such - which will obviously >switch to the Mega-ST. . . . >- Moshe Braner Um, I've been thinking about this, and I am very curious to hear how anybody might figure out how those of us who are "programmers and such" will "switch to the Mega-ST". From everything I've heard about it, that is exactly what I would like to do this very minute -- save some desktop space and get an improved keyboard, not to mention everything else! No, strike that. What I wish is that I had waited until the Mega-ST came out! Honestly, how are those of us who have 1040STs going to sell them off now that the Mega-STs are out and our 1040s have dropped in retail price to probably significantly below what we paid for them? Even without considering taking the bite in price-drop, how are we going to find a market for used 1040s now that they have been made obsolete? I am fantastically glad and excited about these new developments: but for my own personal purposes, I am concerned ... JJMG { seismo | rutgers | decvax!ihnp4 } !husc6!husc4!grunau_b
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (01/13/87)
In article <982@husc6.UUCP> grunau_b@husc4.UUCP (justin grunau) writes: >In article <1987@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> braner@batcomputer.UUCP (braner) writes: >>About the future of the 1040ST: The people who just want the ST's >>power for using games, word-processors, etc buy the 520ST, while the >>1040ST is the favorite among programmers and such - which will obviously >>switch to the Mega-ST. This is astounding to me. Atari has been marketting the 1040ST as an office machine and frankly, that's what I felt it was best used for. The lack of wires hanging around needlessly makes it an ideal "end user" machine for business applications. Doesn't anybody 'here' want to become a "professional" programmer or consultant? (just joking ;-) The thing to do is to develop applications, package them and sell systems to people who don't want to do programming, but don't want to muck around with a "toy" computer with wires and little boxes cluttering up their desks. Yes, I realize that I'm talking about going head to head with the PC Clones. I think we are at the point where it's possible to do this with what's currently on the market. ...
bds@mtgzz.UUCP (01/13/87)
In article <982@husc6.UUCP>, grunau_b@husc4.harvard.edu (justin grunau) writes: > > Honestly, how are those of us who have 1040STs going to sell them off now > that the Mega-STs are out and our 1040s have dropped in retail price to > probably significantly below what we paid for them? Even without considering > taking the bite in price-drop, how are we going to find a market for used > 1040s now that they have been made obsolete? > This was my first reaction as a 520ST owner after the 1040ST came out. However, I realized that you can never hold back progress, and if I upgraded to the 1040ST, I would be soon in the same boat when the next (current) generation of STs came out. My solution? I bought a hard disk and found the 520 to be all the machine I could want. But I may add that while 520 is all the machine I could want, the software (and especially the documentation) available leaves much to be desired (too expensive and of poor quality). As long as the MEGA systems are OBJECT code compatable with the STs (so that you can safely invest in software that will useable when you DO upgrade because the cost to do so is so low you can't resist), and as long as the Atari PC is SUPPLIED with GEM (so that more GEM applications will be written that can potentially be ported to the ST), I welcome the new additions. If substantial incompatabilities exist however, then the new additions will just muddle and confuse things more than they already are.