amiga@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Boing) (03/19/91)
to paraphrase an appropriate disclaimer I found attatched to an article in alt.religion.computers [original author is mfterman@stroke.Princeton.EDU (Mutant for Hire)]: These letters appeared recently in Radio Electronics magazine, and I decided it might be interesting to see some intelligent discussion on it. But then I changed my mind and dcided to post it here instead: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [From the letters column, one titled AMIGA AMIGO] I could not help but feel a bit disappointed whne I read Computer Con- nections [monthly feature column] in the January issue of Radio-Electronics. The author, Jeff Holtzman, speculates the future of personal computers, pre- dicting: (1) a (preemptive) multitasking operating system: (2) an NTSC com- patible video system; I/O subsystems based on coprocessors; a graphical operating environment (with command-line mode for power users); and multi- media. Gee! That's funny! The Amiga's been doing all that for five years!. You mean... MS-DOS machines might have all that in the future? Wow, that's great! Then they'll only be ten years behind! Perhaps the column's name should be changed to "MS-DOS Connections." The current title is misleading, because the reader might mistakenly think that the column provides an unbiased look at computer technology. Of course, in the October 1990 issue of Radio-Electronics, Mr Holtzman calls himself a "PC chau- vanist." Oh, I see--that makes it OK to ignore the rest of the computer world! What I'd like to see is more Amiga coverage. Mr. Holtzman may be a PC chau- vanist, but I'm a hot-blooded Amiga evangelist from the bowels of Hell. (Amiga--it's not just a computer, it's a religion!) He could at lesat mention my favorite machine, couldn't he? Surely nobody could have such a severe case of tunnel vision. But, alas, this letter is undoubtedly in vain. Nobody pays attention to us Amiga users... but thanks for reading this far! By the way, my original letter was typeset blazingly fast on a bottom-of-the- line Amiga 500, with AmigaTEX, of course. You know what they say-- "The best way to accelerate an MS-DOS machine is at 32 m/s^2" (Larry Phillips). RAYMOND CHENG Mississauga, Ontario, Canada *** [and here is Jeff Holtzman's response as it appears in this month's Computer Connections column] The following is a reply to the letter from Raymond Cheng of Ontario pub- lished in this month's "Letters" column: Ten years is right. Technological innovations typically take ten years to obtain widespread acceptance. And like it or not, the latest release of Windows has done more for promoting advanced computing environments than every- thing done by all the Amigas (and all the Macintoshes) put together over the past five or six years. Why don't we provide more Amiga coverage? That's easy. Most Radio- Electronics readers use PC's. Further, electronics experimenteers just don't seem to have much interest in the Amiga, so we get few article submissions for it. But if we did get any, and they were any good, we would publish them. We're not Anti-Amiga. We and our readers enjoy reading about alternate approaches. We have championed other "underdog" systems in the past; remember Peter Stark's series on the PT-68K? As for the Amiga, I'm sure it's a worthy computer. But--evangelicism and chauvanism aside--what effect has it had on the computer industry and what innovations has it supplied? I don't believe that preemptive multitasking was invented at Commodore, nor was NTSC video, coprocessor based I/O, the GUI, multimedia, and any of several other advanced architectural features. The Amiga wasn't even the first machine to combine several advanced achitectural elements; take a look at the Xerox Star from the early 1980's, and many engin- eering worlstations that were produced since then. You might argue that the Amiga was the first low-cost computer with those features, and I'd agree with that. But so what? Here's my point about influence. The Amiga has had precious little influencethus far, and I feel certain that it's position and Commodore's will only decline. Why doesn't Commodore build a low-cost MS-DOS multimedia machine? That might save the company. The original Macintosh was innovative, as is Job's latest brainchild the Next. But neither has attracted significant market share, and Apple con- tinues its steady decline in the marketplace. By contrast, the PC industry has seen a history of continual innovation in all facets of computer technology. The rate of innovation, combined with the concomitant lack of standards, has created many problems, some of which will be with us for many years. I'm sure Mr. Cheng would be more than willing to point out those faults for us, but he needn't bother: they're self-evident. And there are lots of smart people working on solutions to those problems-- more on this below. Mr. Cheng, you can bash MS-DOS and the PC architecture all you want, but together they have changed the world. At best, the Amiga has maintained a spot on the periphery of the PC revolution. Mr. Cheng, if you want to promote the Amiga, don't wrote sarcastic letters to the Editor. Do something intersting with your machine, and then share it with us. We'll then get it in print. P.S. Mr. Cheng: For your information, the value of acceleration in free fall (on Earth, anyway) is 32 _ft_/sec^2, not _m_/sec^2. *** Well, there it is kiddo's, have fun! Btw, there is also a short article on CDTV and the upcoming CD-I machines in the Video News column of the same issue. Nothing new that we haven't all heard already... You too can make a contribution to this age-old flamefest by contributing material about the Amiga, correcting misinformation, or by writing your own "sarcastic letters to the Editor" by writing to: Letters Radio-Electronics 500-B Bi-County Blvd. Farmingdale, NY 11735 -baron
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (03/21/91)
Radio Electronics magazine: > [and here is Jeff Holtzman's response as it appears in this month's Computer > Connections column] > Ten years is right. Technological innovations typically take ten years to > obtain widespread acceptance. Like the Mac? > You might argue that the Amiga was the first low-cost computer with those > features, and I'd agree with that. But so what? But then... > The original Macintosh was innovative, as is Job's latest brainchild the Next Contradiction city? > By contrast, the PC industry has seen a history of continual innovation in > all facets of computer technology. MS-DOS? AAAAAAAARGH! -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.