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From: BRAIL@SEISMO.CSS.GOV
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: AmigaDOS in ROM?
Message-ID: <938@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 18:24:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.938
Posted: Fri Aug 23 18:24:08 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Aug-85 00:52:15 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 74


	From InfoWorld, August 26, 1985:
	
	OPERATING SYSTEMS RUSHED

	...
	Commodore/Amiga's operating system, Amiga DOS, will be
supplied on two 'kickstart' disks to the initial purchasers of the
computer, according to Rick Geiger, general manager of Commodore/Amiga
at Los Gatos, California.
	Both computer companies [Commodore & Atari] say they will
eventually perfect their operating systems and manufacture read-only
memory (ROM) chips, for which slots exist inside the machines, and
begin shipping the computers with ROM-based operating systems as soon
as they are available. Neither company will say, however, when those
ROMs will be ready.
	...
	...
	At Commodore/Amiga, delayed production of the ROM is
primarily related to quality control. "If you remember back when the
Macintosh was introduced, Apple was guilty of design oversight,"
Geiger says. "That's not going to happen to us. We've already exerted
an enormous quality assurance effort, but it's inevitable that when
the machine gets wider distribution, you find things. When people come
back and say, why didn't you do this, or make some small tweak, we will
have the ability to do that."
	Geiger says that because of this, early Amiga purchasers will
not be penalized. Those purchasers will be able to obtain updated
versions of Amiga DOS from dealers, or by mail, if the computer owners
have sent in registration cards. "If there is a charge, it will be
nominal," says Geiger.
	...
	..."At the moment, the plan is those machines will not be
retrofitted with ROM," he says, "Our expectation is nobody's going to
request that. Obviously, is we're inundated with requests, we'll
figure out a way to do it."
	...
	In the Amiga, Amiga DOS loads into a special section of RAM,
the "writeable control store," which becomes write-protected as soon
as it is loaded, according to Miner. That leaves 256K of RAM free for
programs and data -- 512K if users are able to obtain the RAM
expansion option that will be sold for the Amiga.
	Many software developers, including Microsoft's chairman Bill
Gates, note that the Amiga and Atari operating systems still contain
too many bugs to be converted to ROM form at this time.
	One Amiga software developer says his prototype computer
crashed every 15 minutes. "It's an utter fallacy that it's easier to
program than the Macintosh," says Marc Canter, president of Macro Mind
of Chicago.
	Carter says problems with Amiga DOS go beyond known bugs.
"We're totally infuriated with the double-button mouse," he says.
Canter says Macintosh programmers are confused by a mouse with a
left-hand button dedicated to starting functions and a right one to
displaying and hiding menus...
	The ultimate solution will be found in sensible software
design, and the learning curve on the Amiga is just beginning for most
developers. "It's not incredibly straightforward to use the custon
chips," says Jay Miner, vice president of product development at
Commodore/Amiga. Comparing the 256K Amiga operating system to the 128K
Macintosh ROM, Miner says, "I don't know that much about the Mac
tools, but I do know the nature of the Mac tools wasn't anywhere near
complete enough to handle the problems we have had. I would tend to
think there's much more in our toolkit.

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

	That answers the question about where Amiga DOS is located,
but it's too bad they're planning to put in in ROM. I liked the
idea of the writeable control store. Maybe someone would have ported
UN*X to the thing, and I could have either Amiga DOS or the UN*X
kernel in the WCS. Maybe there will be a market of old Amigas (with
the WCS) for hacker-types (see previous messages for definition of
'hacker') who like to fiddle with operating systems.
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