Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!AECLCR.BITNET!01659
From: 01659@AECLCR.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: RE: Praising the ST
Message-ID: <8808170403.AA26274@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 17 Aug 88 04:07:04 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 100

Date:     Tue, 16 Aug 1988 23:59 EDT
From:     <<<<< Greg >>>>> <01659@AECLCR>
Subject:  RE: Praising the ST
To:       

I have long since known that computer loyalty is far stronger than
loyalty to cars. C-64 owners buy Amigas, XE owners buy STs, etc.
This blind loyalty to a computer manufacturer is often evidenced
in the device specific magazines that heap praise upon fairly
mediocre software (e.g. VIP is OK but bloody slow!!!!!).

I have no loyalties. I use a 1040ST and an AT at work. I have a
Mega 2 at home. There are two MAC SEs in my Division at work and I
act as a support person to the users via MAGIC SAC. If I had the
bucks I would probably run out and buy a MAC II (love the colour).
I am a USER, not a hacker nor a programmer, but a user.

However, in my daily activities at work and at home I have found
that the following make the ST the best value for my money (and
the company's money) at the present time:

1. Many of my best loved programs are public domain. The ST world
has no shortage of great public domain codes (UNITERM and ST640
are the best examples), especially in the .ACC area. I use GEM on
the AT at work and hate the fact that there are so few desk
accessories. Maybe there is a commercial market porting .ACCs to
the PC since businesses will actually BUY these things if they're
on a PC.

2. While I am proficient at dBASE III Plus, LOTUS and Word Perfect
(God I hate Word Perfect) I detest the fact that the PC lacked a
common environment and as such all major codes I run interact
differently. It is so easy to show novices how to use ST or MAC
applications because of the consistent interfaces these machines
use. While it can be argued that GEM is primitive compared to the
MAC's opsys, it's a heck of a lot easier to teach (the ST has to
have the smallest owner's manual of any major micro).

3. MAC's unstable HFS filing system makes me wince. Watch what
happens with a software crash or a power outage - there is a good
chance your hard disk will be obliterated (it's easy to find a MAC
user who has had to reinstall all of his applications). Good old
MAGIC SAC with MFS (I decided not to switch to HFS) is totally
stable after a crash. Go ahead, re-boot your ST while running a
MAC application and you will see that no harm is done to the MAGIC
partition on your hard disk.

4. The ST arrived as a minimum 512K machine so it works very well
as a single drive system with the aid of RAM disks. Just listen,
you can hear the moans of single drive PC and MAC users.

5. ST software prices are the most reasonable of any system on the
market today. I bought Timeworks desktop publisher (DTP) and it
cost less than the HP laserjet driver sold for the MAC
(LaserStart). In addition, DTP has drivers for the laserjet,
postscript and other lasers. No self respecting ST owner would pay
the kinds of prices that PC and MAC codes are asking
(price/performance being a consideration).

6. I have full disk compatability with the PCs at work. I write
with Word Writer on my ST and the secretary prints out the final
copies to an HP laserjet using GEM 1ST Word Plus on her PC.
EASYDRAW and GEMDRAW can be used interchangeably to create/edit
diagrams (GEMDRAW has easier text handling capability). I have
taken LOTUS data on a disk from my AT and read the file into EXCEL
on a 1040ST. Graphs were created and printed on an HP laserjet
(borrowed from the secretary), still on the ST under MAGIC SAC.
The edited EXCEL file was rewritten as a LOTUS file and the AT
copy updated by feeding the AT the disk written on the ST. Try
doing these tricks on any other system!

Before anyone criticizes, Appletalk would have allowed me to print
on the secretary's laser without borrowing it - the ST's not
perfect!

I could go on, but this note is already quite long. The point is,
the ST (which is "FLAMED" so much on Info-Digest16) does have some
good points. Its strongest is, if you have an ST at work you can
duplicate the system for peanuts at home. Just get a 520 or a 1040
with a mono monitor and then carry your hard disk home (I did it
for ages with no harm to the SH204). For about $CDN 1000,
depending on what you buy, you can have a powerful complement to a
system at work. You can't do this for anywhere near the price with
a MAC or a PC (unless you want some dog of an XT).

My only regrets about the ST are:

- software still lags behind the PC and MAC in terms of
sophistication

- too much piracy abounds in the ST world, this makes truly
wonderful programmers like Small, Moore and Hudson turn away from
the ST because they cannot earn a living

- Atari is the ultimate VAPOURWARE firm. No wonder it was such an
uphill battle to get STs at work (there are about 80 STs in our
community of 4000, 2/3 at work and 1/3 in home use). From my brief
exposure to Info-Digest16, I know Atari reads these listings
faithfully so PLEASE work hard to change your image as the VW
kings.