CompuServe Messages

I like your observations! "Using a CLI requires certain ROMs on your motherboard" is absolutely true. Even using a GUI requires a certain level of abstraction and experience. I gave one of my old A1000s to my grandparents. To their virgin eyes, even distinguishing that an icon was an icon and a window was a window was a difficult task. Using the mouse was difficult for my grandfather, who expected it to be an absolute device, instead of one that used relative motions. He'd shove the mouse to the edge of the mousepad, then lift the mouse into the air, move the mousepad over a few inches on the table, set the mouse down again, and move the mouse a little further to the (absolute) right. There's something to be said for the Mac… its absence of a CLI has forced developers to really, really use their own products, without resorting to the magic that CLI people use. The Amiga is still earth-bound with startup-sequence scripts, magic ASSIGNs that must be entered by hand, etc. Amiga user interfaces tend to be much more cluttered and less elegant-appearing than the Mac. This is a nerd machine, no doubt.