Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rocky!ali
From: ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Amiga...
Message-ID: <822@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 10 Dec 87 15:34:10 GMT
References: <871209164350B24.AMMA@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU>
Reply-To: ali@rocky.UUCP (Ali Ozer)
Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department
Lines: 33

In article <871209164350B24.AMMA@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU> Consult@UMass writes:
>I know I am a musican...and the ST is fine for me...and that, while the
>Amiga is a good expandable machine, I feel the software and the company
>were soooo badly organized that their machine sucks.... ...
>so flame me if you want....
well... hmmm. using words like "sucks" is usually a good reason to get flamed.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry. If you bought your machine for music
applications, it'll serve you well in the years to come. But you must
realize that a lot of the things you're hearing are true --- the Amiga's
price has fallen a great deal, and it is easily expandable (especially
when it comes to replacing the 68000 with 68020 and possible a 68881,
for instance). You gripe about the "KickStart," well, that's history
now --- The 500s and the 2000s boot from ROM, and Commodore will provide
ROM upgrades when the time comes to move up to a new version of the OS.
You complain about software, well, some real nice stuff is appearing for the
Amiga, and has been, since First Qtr 87 or so. Most of the new stuff totally
blows away some of the stuff that was around in 86, for instance. 
Unfortunately, some people did their "Amiga-evaluations" during that time
and think the machine hasn't advanced since. Rumor has it that even
Dr T's stuff is being ported to the Amiga... 8-)

Anyway, another reason for the problem might be Atari itself. Especially
if what I hear is true: (1) they discourage mail order sales (2) THEN they
sell the 520ST without a monitor for $699 at Federated (of course, that's
the only computer Federated sells, so there's no competetion for the 
Federated customer.) $699! The Amiga 500 dealer price is under $600!

If you want to flame Atari, do so, but without flaming or badmouthing the
Amiga. A lot of Amiga owners flame or badmouth the Amiga on comp.sys.amiga
(they have a right to do so 8-) but they don't flame the ST in the process.

Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu