🚀 go-pugleaf

Commodore recently brought out 2 more machines, the C-16 and the 128k
version of the 64. This is probably an omen of Commodore's impending
doom. When Atari brings out their ST, they can sell it at $400
and not worry about any of it's other products (which they are
trying to "phase" out) decline in profit/productions. Commodore however,
when they release this "wonderous Amiga" machine will HAVE to
raise the price so it does not damage the profits coming from the
C-64 and their newly released machines.
  On the other hand, this might be an advantage. If Amiga turns out to
be a nice UNIX machine which is loaded with software for business people
 even at an "inflated" price. MIGHT. That sector of the market is flooded with
"IBM" stickers, and people will STILL buy IBM machines over anything..
 ("It says IBM on it, it's gotta be good" syndrome)
  I remember reading a COMPUTE! article about the new ATARI machines
and it seems that they are trying to sell them as "business/home"
computers - like Apples. I think that they could do this
successfully if they convince the general public that "ATARI IS NOT
PLAYING GAMES ANYMORE". 

  What it comes down to is if the ST is really good and cheap, Commodore
will have a fight on it's hand. I don't think the ST will hamper the Mac's
sales much. This however depends on whether Atari can successfully sell
the machine to the business community. I doubt it. But maybe.. If they
do, then Apple and even IBM might be in for a bit of a shock.

Buying a computer is always a waiting game, but this might be one
to wait for..
 
--------------------------
Of course, if the ST can't run UNIX then what use is it! (except
for playing games..)

I called Atari with regard to their policy towards software developers.
In particular, I was trying to see if they were interested in my
company's software.

Their policy is not very good:
	1) The machines will be sold in K-Marts and similar stores
	2) No software will cost more than $50
	3) On that $50 software, developers will get no more than ONE dollar.
	4) If you want a machine now, you can get one for $4,500, and all
	   that gets you is a machine with floppies and a monitor, plus
	   a download kit.  No C compilers etc.
	5) No advances to developers of any kind
	6) No bundled software except GEM.

At this rate, most developers are saying no.  You'll have to wait a while
for good software on this one, folks.  $1 per product is a joke.  Your
product would have to become one of the all-time sales greats of the
microcomputer industry to make you some decent money.   At the same time,
they are distributing the computer through distribution channels that a
small company can't use easily or even get access to.  And who ever heard
of developers having to pay a 500% premium to get a machine whose success
is uncertain.

-- 
	Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ont. (519) 886-7304

They had a full page article on atari and their chances for
making a comeback in the February 10 business section of the
N.Y. Times. Near the end of the article they said that one of
the advantages of the amiga over the ST line would be
multitasking capability. I somehow doubt though that they have
put in a mmu chip to do this. More likely is that the bundled
turbo pascal generates relocatable code and thus is limited to
32kbyte segments. I am not sure that this would be an
advancement as it brings back one of the worst features of the
IBM pc namely segmentation, except that it is even worse since
at least you can have 64k segments in the pc. If you want a true
multitasking environment I can bet that you probably won't find
it in these machines. Of course neither can the IBM pc(excluding
AT) or the macintosh.


(Hey,I like the new name of the Commodore 68k machine, eh amigo!)
-- 
ARPA:	eneevax!ravi@maryland
UUCP:   [seismo,allegra]!umcp-cs!eneevax!ravi

In article <250@eneevax.UUCP> ravi@eneevax.UUCP (Ravi Kulkarni) writes:
>the advantages of the amiga over the ST line would be
>multitasking capability. I somehow doubt though that they have
>put in a mmu chip to do this. More likely is that the bundled

Why wouldn't they put an mmu in?  You don't need a fancy and expensive
mmu chip to do memory management.  You can build a quite decent mmu out
of a small number of standard, cheap chips.
-- 
Duty Now for the Future
					Tim Smith
			ihnp4!wlbr!callan!tim or ihnp4!cithep!tim

Distribution:net.micro.atari 


Pleeease, amigos, its  Amig*A*
  (nee  Amiga Lorraine)