unccab@uncmed.med.unc.edu (01/06/90)
Hi there. I have a friend who wants to buy a computer for his business.
He wants to be able to do Accounts Payable/Receivable, Word Processing,
Spreadsheeting, Graphics (like specs for carpentry/electrical work) and
to have some fun as well. He will need between 40-80 megs HD, but speed
isnt that important to him. I will be advising him and helping him make
his purchase since this is his first experience with computers!
I use a 386 ibm-clone at work, but I teach and prefer the Macintosh. I _had_ been
steering him toward Mac because of his less then *wizardly* ability with
computers, typing, learning programs, etc. He is _sorta_ afraid of being
overwhelmed with having to learn a lot of programs at once, which is why
I thought that a Mac would be perfect. *THEN, I remembered the AMIGA.
To be honest, I do not know ONE PERSON who uses an AMIGA for other than
family/fun stuff. I have seen an AMIGA once in person and liked the
graphics capability and its *similarity* (that is a compliment) to the
Mac environment. But, I don't want to rule out this machine for my
friend. So, here is my question:
Would someone please give me a rundown on
a) How much would a good machine run? What are the available
hardware for the Amiga. No modem is needed but he might want one
later. He wants as much RAM as possible (how much will he need
for most applications?) and, as I said, 40-80 meg hard disk. Are
there High Density and regular density diskette drives or what?
(Please remember I am *completely* ignorant of AMIGA, but want to
learn.) Do most setups include monitor?
b) What software would we look for to do the things he wants to
do, i.e. Payroll, word Proc., spreadsheets and business graphics.
Are AMIGA programs compatible/convertible with Mac or other
machines? Please NAME the software and $ if you can.
c) What kinda printer is available for what prices? Is there a
good mail-order magazine for AMIGA products? He doesn't need a
laser printer unless a cheap :-) one can be had somewhere.
I do NOT really want a comparison of AMIGA to Mac/IBM/whatever but just
want to know about AMIGA. I KNOW what the others can do :-)
I would appreciate any e-mailed responses. If there is interest, I will
post a summary. Thanks again.
Charles Balan
UNCCAB@med.unc.edu , UNCCAB@uncmed.uucp , UNCCAB@unc.bitnet
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