🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4679@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> gregg@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (gregg.g.wonderly)
writes of the desirability of switching to UNIX.
> Everybody that I have talked computer purchasing with as of late
> wants UN*X, or at least UN*X compatibility.  Most are buying 386
> machines because they want it now.

UNIX is not real time. Many of the things we now take for granted would just
not be possible under UNIX, or would be unbearably slow. It would kill the
Amiga as a platform for MIDI (and music in general), animation, games, and
other real-time applications. Window and screen updates would slow down by a
factor of 10 (a 25 MHz 80386 under X is less responsive than a 7 MHz 68000
under Intuition, and it's about a 5 MIPS machine instead of a .7 MIPS one).

In my opinion, Commodore is doing the right thing in making UNIX a seperate
product. Now if they could set things up so that you could use Amigas running
AmigaOS as X/News servers, with X/News running concurrently with intuition,
they'd blow the doors off the competition. Using a proprietary protocol
optimised for serial transmission, or adopting the Graph-On protocol, they
would be able to sell a multi-user workstation package that would seriously
undercut the compatition, consisting of a central Amiga 2000UX and a bunch of
500s and 2000s as smart terminals. The little Amigas would also be able to
run software locally, under NeWS and AmigaOS. With the right protocol, you'd
be able to "copy unix:/usr1/peter/News/comp/sources/amiga/mg32/Part1 df0:",
or even "cp /n/petersamiga/df0:work-at-home ~/work".

It wouldn't have the same remote performance as a network of Suns, but with a
per-station cost of $1000 it'd still be great value. I know one company that's
been looing for a solution like this for some time. Stuff like the Graph-on
just don't cut it: they can't use Suns.
-- 
Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>
`-_-' "IT'S THE TWO GODDAMNED CULTURES AGAIN !*! Bit-brained nerdery on one
 'U`   side, effete fin-de-siecle malaise on the other. And kingdoms of hybrid
       delight abandoned in the middle."  -- burns@latcs1.oz (Jonathan Burns)