🚀 go-pugleaf

This is not a flame, nor is it a "my computer is better than your computer"
posting. In Larry's followup he posted this :

In article <890318.15195162.015395@SFA.CP6> (Larry Rymal) writes:
>      Compare the Atari ST with other systems.  How many times has the
> Amiga been upgraded?  Look how the Amiga 1000 was dropped so that the
> Amiga 500 and 2000 could take its place.

If you saw my original article on why the 1040ST and the Amiga 500 were
the same machine, you will know that I believe that in the pure hardware
sense both of these machines have desirable qualities. What Larry is 
comparing above is manufacturer support. This is an area where Atari
is lacking. Below is the text of a message I sent to the original author
which just yesterday returned to my system unopened. Please read it and 
think which of these things you would like Atari to do, rather than think
of it as a condemnation of Atari or the ST computer in general.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: ucbvax.berkeley.edu!es56!karl
Subject: Re: Disappointing ST support from Atari
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
In-Reply-To: <8903170020.AA03032@es56.escd.uucp>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Cc: 
Bcc: 

A sad testament it's true, compare that to the Commodore Amiga ...

In article <8903170020.AA03032@es56.escd.uucp> you write:
>The ST is now four years old, and is maturing.  

The Amiga is not quite 4 years old (Oct '85) and is maturing.

>The support for the machine from Atari is still disappointing.

The support for the machine continues to improve. There are now 
yearly developer's conferences in Europe and the U.S., a monthly
newsletter that contains solid technical information, a developers
program that is supported on a couple of networks, and dedicated
phone support for commercial developers.

>There is a new line of hardware (the Mega ST and the laser 
>printer) but there are no enhancements from Atari for existing
>520ST and 1040ST owners.

There are now three "new" machines, and expandable 68000 based machine
the A2000, an expandable 68020 based machine the A2500, and a more
cost effective home machine the A500. Owners of the Amiga 1000 were
given a couple of opportunities to "trade in" their older 1000 for
the newer A2000 model. This week Commodore began shipping 80286 
"bridgeboards" to dealers. These boards can replace existing 8088
bridgeboards to provide PC/AT speed and compatibility in addition to
the already quick Amiga 2000 and 2500. They also began shipping
A500 expansion boxes to upgrade them to a total of 3Meg and a 20Meg
hard disk.

>The blitter upgrade died a slow death.  After years of promissing
>upgrades to 520 and 1040 owners, the subject is not mentioned
>by Atari much any more.  No one in their right minds believes that
>the blitter upgrade will ever take place.

Since it's introduction there have been four releases of the operating
system (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3), today there is a fifth (1.4) in alpha
testing. ROM upgrades are available, and a new updated chip set for
better graphics is currently being tested for release with 1.4. This
deals with the biggest complaint of Amiga owners, the requirement of
using interlace to display 700 X 420 graphics. 

>The nicely printed documentation for the ST has never materialized.
>Years ago this documentation was supposedly close to release.

Nicely printed documentation has been available for the Amiga since
a few months after it's announcement. Commodore made available for
a nominal fee disk based updates to that documentation when the OS
was revised.  Last week, a newly revised version of the Amiga ROM 
Kernel Manual was released by Addison-Wessley. This manual contains
all of the latest information available with the existing 1.3 OS 
release.  Upgrades to the other volumes of this manual are promised 
by A-W for this summer. 

>Networking?  Yeah, there's MosesPromiseLan.  Appletalk connections?
>Are you kidding?

Only one year after it's announcement an ethernet product was available.
Today, Ameristar supplies TCP/IP and NFS for use with all expandable
Amiga models, with A500 support being shown but not yet available.

>Now TOS 1.4 is coming out.  Will this be available for 520 and 
>1040 owners?  Look at history for the probable answer.

Now AmigaDOS 1.4 is starting alpha testing. Will it be available for
previous owners ? Look at history for the probably answer which says :
Yes, it will be available as will new ROMs for owners of the A500 and
A2xxx machines. UNIX has been shown at several shows on the higher end
machines. 

>After four years of promises with a zero delivery rate, I have 
>become skeptical.

After four years of improvements with an improving delivery rate I
have become even more enthusiastic about the machine, it's possibilities
and its future.

Pretty amazing what some commitment on the part of a manufacturer can
do for a machine. If you were a commercial developer and saw these two
histories side by side which machine would you develop for ?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.