CompuServe Messages

This brings up a point that is of particular interest to Amiga users. Overall, Amiga users are pretty smart. If you know more than a little bit about computers, you are going to look around and make your own opinion before you go out and buy something. That's the group that forms the basis of the Amiga user community. We are folks who took a look and said "hey, here's a machine that will do more than what I was looking for and costs half the price." We are also not afraid to take a chance on a lesser-known product because we know enough to keep it going on our own, despite a lack of available support. The average computer buyer is not so lucky. He/She must have some sort of support (hardware, software, and emotional) before going out to purchase equipment. Spending the extra $ on a Mac or name brand PC is like buying an insurance policy. There are enough people around who DO know how to handle those machines and enough people who already own them that the buyer can feel safe. One side effect, however: most people I know who purchased their equipment that way become very defensive if you suggest that there might be a better way. Finally, this situation causes its own problems for Amiga owners. Many of us who are compu-smart enough to buy an Amiga are also willing to take the chance of purchasing it from mail-order shop. This reduces the profit for the local Amiga vendors, who wind up selling less. This means that they cannot affort to pay the support staff that they should have for the Amiga, which reduces the level of support that they can offer, which makes it more likely that we will buy our equipment from a mail-order shop. Bad circle. Anyway, that's part of the problem (IMHO) with the Chicago area dealers. We can't support them because they can't support us because we can't support them… You get the idea. Chris -)—–