CompuServe Thread

It may be that Ethernet support for the Amiga is a reality today because there are enough Amiga's in Unix areas to support the need for Unix access. I don't know, but I wouldn't doubt that there was some PD support for Amiga's in the Unix world long before CBM's Ethernet board appeared. Unfortunately, the major part of the Token-Ring marketplace appears to be the same as a good to major part of the MS-DOS marketplace, which for the most part doesn't know what Unix or Ethernet are. Since this marketplace is much broader than the apparent Ethernet marketplace, there seems to be less tolerance for non-MS-DOS machines, hence, there are few Amiga's in such environments. What needs to be done, is to provide the Amiga with the opportunity to BE compatible (at least, network-wise) with the "other guys" so those of us like myself who HAVE to work in a MS-DOS, OS/2, Token-Ring environment can THEN bring in an Amiga and make it work in the business, Token-Ring scenario. Since this marketplace is much broader than the educational marketplace, where it appears a lot of development for Amiga "attachment" to various Unix related components came from, there isn't much if ANY development or hacking to provide "true blue" connectivity in a native Amiga (eg; no Bridgeboards). So, while the market demand for Token-Ring support for Amiga may not be overwhelming, I actually doubt that the Ethernet demand is either. The simple matter of the fact is that WITHOUT native Token-Ring support, and Novell Netware support, etc; etc; etc; the Amiga is NEVER going to become a player in the major business OR major non-Unix-only educational markets, for the same capabilities as can be found in the various MS-DOS machines (eg; databases, spreadsheets, electronic mail, network access, etc; etc; etc.). I have tried several times to get an authorization from our department to purchase an Amiga, but have always been turned down for a number of reasons. One of which is that Amiga's can't do Token-Ring, natively. [ MORE ]

[ continuation ] I think that if you broadened your survey to include different markets and/or niches, that you would find more of an interest, though you MAY not find gobs of people flocking to throw their money down for what doesn't exist. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on….. but will hold my breath for now. WE NEED NATIVE TOKEN-RING CARDS AND SOFTWARE for the Amiga. I certainly hope that CBM has their ears unplugged! Golly gee, just look at the efforts that Apple is going through to make their platform BUSINESS CAPABLE (which includes Token-Ring)?! As a potential purchaser of your potential (full) Amiga port of IBM's Xedit editor (ala Mansfield's Kedit, but better, thanks), I would probably be willing to settle for somewhere between $65 and $150 (with full ARexx support). Or, was that a question for how much I would be able and/or willing to invest in such a conversion? 😉 – Using Whap! (from Southern Illinois) (Internet: ca0008@siucvmb.siu.edu)