#Siggraph
To all who could not attend the Siggraph show in LA.
The show was great, I could have spent more time there but didn't want to
get stuck in the traffic rush hour(s) so I left at about 2:30pm. It was sad to
see almost no Amiga's there. Even the NewTek booth had only one or two that I
could see and only one guy hiding behind the main display was showing the
Flyer. No handouts or anything for the Flyer. I was very suprised, it almost
seemed that they didn't want to talk about something that has been such a
disappointment and trouble for them. Their entire display was about LightWave,
primarily for WindowsNT I think. I watched them demonstrate for a while and
then watched some of the SGI machines at work and some of the multiple
processor pentiums and alphas. The Amiga has definately lost it's edge in
animation and video at the upper end. I am sure those systems cost much more
but the people that need them have the money to spend and as soon as they are
in mass production the prices will come down. This makes me worry about the
future for the Amiga. That glimmer of hope that I still have is getting very
dim. I will however still continue to use my Amigas for years to come and may
even buy an A4000T/060 when they are reasonably priced. I would love to have a
PPC Amiga if they are ever produced.
I do not write this to degrade NewTek or the Amiga, I very much want both to
continue and be great successes. I just think that the only way for the Amiga
to survive is to provide some of the amazing abilities shown at Siggraph at a
very low price and to have some level of compatibility with the overpowering
weight of the numbers of PC's being produced and developed for. The Amiga
needs quality software, compatibility built in from the factory, low
competitive pricing and ADVERTIZING! My 2 cents.
P.S. Thanks to Syndesis for the pass to get in the show.
David (75714,2776)
Just waiting "two more weeks" <G> for my 060/A4000T