CompuServe Messages

I have been following the PowerPC saga since mid '92. The computer industry is in DESPERATE need for something better than Micros**t's dreary PC architecture. The Amiga has the *features* but not the visibility, support, or integration in today's networked infrastructure. And of course, now it's an orphan (at least until somebody buys Commodore's bones). For the last two years I have been reading how the PowerPC will break the stranglehold that Intel has on the computer market, as though Intel was the problem. Now that actual machines are available, one has two choices, the Power Mac and the IBM Power PC. As an Amiga owner, I can attest to life with an "alternate" platform. If you own any computer other than a PC, you are on an island. If you are going to live on an island, there darn well better be some good reasons for doing so. This was what undid the Atari ST-it was an island, yet managed to incorporate almost all of the PC's shortcomings. The result was the worst of both and the best of neither one. Both the Amiga and the Mac offer their owners valid reasons for living on their respective islands. For all of the contempt shown by Amiga owners for the Mac, at least Apple truly has a vision of what their product is about. The Power Mac is that vision operating four times faster. For Mac users, that is sufficient reason to live on the Apple island. Despite Micros**t's claims, the PC has NEVER worked like a Mac. When I discussed the Power PC with IBM reps recently, it was clear that they have no vision concerning the PowerPC. As far as they are concerned, you should live on the IBM PowerPC island just because it is IBM's new box. Operating system? How about some strange amalgam of OS/2, Unix, Windows, Presentation Manager, MS-DOS, and VM with an object oriented angle. Well, you first. The bottom line is that after more than two years of hype, we have two completely different machines, one of which is being marketed in complete absence of any vision. Each machine is available from exactly one company. And this is going to defeat Micros**t's clone army. Right. Tab Trepagnier Cruising on AutoPilot from Beaumont, Texas