CompuServe Messages

Laurie, >No, no-one has been able to show yet that CBM world-wide has hit the >skids. It is still a wait and see position (Monday 2nd), there is still a There certainly are fascinating rumours, especially from France and Germany; but so far they are just rumours. The only official information I've seen (CIS, GEnie, Dow Jones, etc.) strongly implies, if not outright states, that Commodore everywhere –and the Amiga– has had it. But these Amiga forums now are certainly entertaining, if in a somewhat bizarre way… 🙂 >I just couldnt and would not afford the programmes you referenced, all >that stuff is aimed at companies that can write the lot off against TAX. >Period. A year ago, yes. However, there has been an incredible price-crash here in the United States. A classic is Quattro-Pro. It has been cut, no, guillotined, all the way down to $49.95 list — and street price is even less. It has been followed by dramatic price drops in ALL of the "standard" Microsoft, Lotus, and WordPerfect products, especially the latest "office suites". The deep discounts are supposedly "Updates", and "Competitive Upgrades" — but it's mostly a game. Here's what I bought, new, from retail dealers (not mail-order): Quattro-Pro For Windows 5.0: $37 (Yes, thirty-seven dollars) Microsoft Office 4.2 "Standard Edition" (standalone, not network group) Includes three high-end applications: . Word For Windows 6.0 (Word processor) . Excel 5.0 (Spreadsheet) . PowerPoint (Presentation Pkg) .Plus accessories including a nice little "Office Manager" toolbar OFFICE PKG PRICE: $270 (Yes, a "Special Competitive Upgrade" price — that accepted the $37 Quattro-Pro as the competitive product…!) So, I have two major spreadsheets, a major word-processor, and a major slide presentation-creator — all advanced and sophisticated, and all for a total of just over $300. One or two years ago this might have been $1000 or more — but not today. And if I just needed a spreadsheet, I could have stayed with Quattro-Pro — a state-of-the-art package, for a measly $37. I did a quick check on "similar" Amiga programs. Mail-order prices from a magazine were $79 for Final Copy II (word processor), and $129 for Pro-Calc 2 (spreadsheet). That's already over $200, so any complete pkg would match the cost of the Windows-based pkgs. But with a major difference. The Amiga programs are primitive and unsophisticated — years behind the current Windows and Mac apps. There's that niche-market ogre. Amiga video/animation is great… but THAT'S ALL IT'S GOT. Yes, I hate Windows, and I'm disgusted at the absurd amounts of RAM and harddrive that are necessary. But — the RAM and drives are now affordable, the applications are IMPRESSIVE and at surprisingly low prices, and I use Windows as simply the means to the end. –apl