CompuServe Messages

Michael: You've hit on a good point in your reply to Victor. It's no wonder Amiga owners get bummed out. We're three million-plus strong, but we're always being compared to umpity-umpteen million users in the MS-DOS market (of which I am also one!). Or, we're thought to own a "toy" computer because it's cute, a whiz at games and simulations and relatively cheap; then we're compared to the more "professional" and much more expensive Mackingdom. In reality, the Amiga (and Atari and NExt and even the Mac, plus a few others — isn't there an Archimedes system now in Europe?) are niche-market machines. Given Amiga's ability to run other operating systems (a feature I suspect will become more universal across platforms in the next decade, just as high-res color graphics are catching on now), we should think of the Amiga as a sort of super-set of MS-DOS machine. It can run MS-DOS (and MS-DOS can't run AmigaDOS!), but it can also run its own, more superior OS, as well as UNIX, et. al. So perhaps 90% of the computer owners will always be able to get along with something less capable. That's OK. "Ninety percent of everything is crap!" [Theodore Sturgeon]. Those who need an elegant, powerful, inexpensive system — albeit one that may take some self-education and diligence to customize — can choose an Amiga or its equivalent. >> Ron Legro / Milwaukee via WHAP!