CompuServe Messages

Steve– I think the talk about "the Amiga becoming an orphan" is probably closer to reality that you think. However, this possible reality is relative to what you use the Amiga for. As a professional platform, the Amiga has its greatest claim to fame with graphics and video. However, both IBM (the company and the platform) and Apple are making serious inroads into the Amiga's home turf. When NewTek announces that they are going to relabel their OEM machines, or going to make a Mac remote application to control the Amiga, many throw their hands up in panic. There's a reason for that. Fact is, the consumer looking for a multimedia/video/graphics machine has lots of choices now. I still think the Amiga is the superior machine in this niche, but there are already things that other machines will do that the Amiga cannot. Eventually, something with a '486 or '586, IBM Risc set, or souped up Motorola chip will be able to do everything the Amiga can do through simple brute force. Combine that with the economies of scale that PC's have, and its a lethal combination for our favorite machine. This used to be offset by many of the native advantages the Amiga had, but those are becoming eclipsed. Time marches on, and Commodore has not kept up. What does the Amiga really need? First of all, real support from CBM. The Mac is where its at because of relentless marketing and R&D by Apple. There is no reason why the Amiga can't be in the same place. I'm sure you've heard the same moaning a million times before, but what about a chipset that can handle 8-bit graphics? How about DIG? I'd sure like to run ProPage on a Firecracker. How about scaleable font support? How about AmigaDos 2.0? These are pretty key things, and no one sees them coming soon enough. We don't even have high density disk drives! I guess what I'm saying is the Amiga is really in trouble as an applications machine. Can it survive on as a home computer, or a recreational machine? Sure; the 500 still gives more bang for the buck [ MORE ]