PC Imagine?
You bring up very good points and I agree with most of them. I, too, have a
hard time recommending the Amiga for general purpose home computing these
days, when I know that the potential owner is thinking of it as a five-year
investment, regardless of my explanations as to the finite length of
computer lifespans. Amigas were revolutionary at first, and indeed through
the next 5 years. Their capabilities were FAR beyond IBM's at first, then
less so if you were willing to throw a bunch of money and add-ons into
them, until price was the only difference. Now that's eroding too. I still
feel that you have to get a fast 486 to rival animation and multimedia
speeds on the Amiga, and get irritated with people who compare such 486
machines with a 500 instead of a 3000, but as the prices keep dropping,
that's inevitable, I suppose. I was into computers long before I bought my
Amiga. I saw the PC and just laughed; I refused to buy such a lousy
operating system, and the graphics power was rediculous. I have never
regreted my decision for an instant. A 486 is just faster garbage to my
eyes. But I'm well aware that others don't feel the same. People to whom
compatibility is much more important. People who want to use the same
software at home as they do at work. And yes, people who simply expect to
steal such software for this purpose.
I feel for you in making this decision. I think it's going to be a while
before you see Amiga-video-quality-softare on the IBM's or Mac's, though
they are indeed starting. The software prices seem overly steep for
capability on IBM/Macs too.
I suspect your decision will come down to timing. Can you put off doing
your projects easily for awhile as you make the "safe" decision. Or can you
justify buying the Amiga setup NOW, do the work you need to do, and simply
decide to reevaluate later and see if you need to start over, painful as
that may be. And don't let price of the hardware make your decision. If
it's work you have to do, decide if the application does what you want on
the various
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