🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <89Oct25.213612edt.57384@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> MEGGIN@vm.epas.utoronto.ca (David Megginson) writes:
>I love my ST because it will run Calamus, which saves several hours
>every week for my spouse and me over other DTP packages.  I wish that
>it had a lot of things that it does not, and as a hacker, I'd switch
>to a Sun in a second if I could afford it.  I also find 4 megs too
>crowded.
Well, what happens when Calamus gets ported to another, better supported
machine? Will you still like your ST?

>Microsoft produces MSDOS, not IBM.  Same with Windows. DRI produces
>their GEM, and companies other than IBM produce the best IBM-compatible
>computers.  Who cares if Atari does not new software stuff (like the
>Postscript clone) for the ST, as long as someone does?
You should care a great deal. Argument follows thusly; Who cares about the
40 folder limit problems. Someone has hacked a workable solution (not
atari). Who cares about the bugs in TOS? I have these programs here that
have workarounds built into them. So what if the workarounds break other,
more fundamental rules? So what if it makes fixing the bugs difficult, if
not impossible, without breaking with popular software? 

Atari has to lay down the rules. I don't keep track that closely of ST
happenings, but I'm truly surprised that they don't have a postscript
emulator themselves for their laserprinter. Wasn't it announced with the
release of the printer. Letting 3rd party people do your work on "important
products" is fine, as long as they are working very closely with Atari. This
isn't happening. At some point, things will become increasingly
incompatable, and software companies will eventually give up on
compatability with other packages entirely. You must have a strong standard
bearer, and Atari isn't it. 
>And if other people stop supporting the ST, I stop using it.
Interesting. 
>    David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto

I have resisted posting a comment on the latest barrage of Atari bashing,
since I don't own anything made by Atari (just sold my 7800 ;-) ).

I am amazed at some of the comments I'm reading in this newsgroup. The
gentleman who posted his 386 comparison pointed out something, possibly
inadvertantly, that will have a lasting effect on TT sales.

If you are a new company, or a company that is trying to get a toehold in
the market, you can't simply sell something that is "as good" as the
existing standard, at around the same price. Your product has to the
compellingly better in some respect. Check out the Macintosh; it's not all
marketing. And look at what Commodore is attempting to do with the Amiga. 

On what may appear to be an unrelated note, look at what Atari is doing with
their slick piece of handheld technology, the Lynx. Two months till
christmas....

--hal

---------------
hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu       "Oh dear, now I've made a terrible mess of things. 
netoprhm@ncsuvm.bitnet    And all I wanted to do was rule the universe."
			  Dr. Zachary Smith