#Byte's NEW AMIGA??
19 messages in this thread
BYTE magazine is essentially a PC & Mac magazine, but it mentions the word
"Amiga" at least once a year to calm Amiga-user's protests (and not with
very in-depth reviews).
There are a lot of rumours in the Amiga community about the so-called "new
generation" Amigas… but a recent article in Byte really confused me…
It's on page 110, in the August isuue. Jerry Pournelle's comment: "Next
month, the Amiga scene: a new Amiga arrived last week. More on multimedia
and a whole bunch of CD-ROMs…" (That's all the Amiga coverage for
August!!!)
What's happening ?? … new Amiga … or maybe Jerry Pournelle stopped
dreaming and discovered CDTV??? or maybe the A3000T…
Ahhh, these Intel-Minded writers…
What do you think???
Fernando Cassia
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fernando,
Jerry Pournelle is in a position of incredible power through his column. I
think the situation is detestable. Like critics in other media he can make
or break one's reputaion.
He has been less than kind to the Amiga over the years. But then maybe
that's because CBM hasn't fawned over him and sent him lots of Amiga
goodies. I dunno.
But make no mistake about it. If he were to praise some aspect of the
Amiga, and do it more than just once or twice, the benefits to the Amiga
community could be astounding.
If he _does_ have some new model Amiga, this could get _very_ interesting.
Maybe somebody at CBM finally had a stroke of genius . . .
. . . sitting around a conference table . . . brain storming new ad
campaign for new generation machines . .
"Hey, how bout we give Pournelle the 6000 Belchfire to play with . . .
Plenty of software. CD ROMS. Mega pixel display. 3D imaging. Direct
printing dye-sublimation output. Scanners. Digital audio samplers . . ."
Naaaah
Rich
I agree with you in all!. And also read CD-I article in Byte's last issue!
(I send a message in Amigatech!, read it and let me know!)
Thanks for answering,
Fernando.
Buenos Aires, Argentina … and AMIGA!
What a dream! I hope someday that be possible!
Great comments!
Fernando,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fernando,
What a great communication medium this system is!
Yours is the first message I've noticed from Argentina. Here I am sitting
on a rock (Maui, HI) in the middle of the Pacific ocean able to instantly
converse with the entire world for almost the cost of a local phone call.
We have at times had messages here from the continents of North and South
America, Europe, Great Britain, the Arabian peninsula, and even Japan all
within a few minutes of each other.
Are you a native of Argentina? How accessable is Compuserve there? What is
the Amiga situation?
Rich
Believe it or not, I know some PC users who have respect for the Amiga
_because_ of what Jerry P. says. As Amiga users, we tend to notice the
unkind comments–especially since they've all been pretty much unfounded.
But apparently he's made enough "hey, this is neat" comments to positively
influence _some_ PC folks' perceptions about the machine.
Denny,
Jerry _has_ made some positive comments about the Amiga. But in general,
his very few comments over the last year or so have indicated that it is
just about moribund.
It will be very interesting to see what he has to say in his hinted-at
upcoiming column. Sure hope it's a little more positive.
Denny,
If you know folks who are influeneced by what Pournelle says then you hang
out with some strange people! <grin>
-sja
Steve,
Actually, both folks who said that they were influenced by Pournelle were
CIS members. 🙂
(Of course, they were CIS members who hang out in PC areas. <g>)
Thats true… In fact doesn't he actually own an Amiga 2000 or 1000 ? I
think I have some old issue of Byte wher he mentions his Amiga…
Since BYTE's article lead time is very long, a lot of people have guessed
that Pournelle may have gotten an A3000 or perhaps a Toaster system.
My guess is either one of those, and perhaps Vista Pro. (Isn't that what
A. C. Clarke uses?) q/ex
I don't think BYTE's lead time is *that* long. Remember, they had the
A3000 on the cover and have had a number of articles on the Toaster and
Toaster related items.
I could be just about anything…A600, CDTV, whatever. I don't think
Pournelle would write too much about the Toaster — that is mor in line
with Byte's Multimedia Lab. He has always struck me as "if it isn't the
biggest, fastest and free (to him), it isn't news". The man should go back
to writing SciFi and stop extolling the virtues of a 50MHz 80486, CD-ROM
based, multigigabyte drive/RAM machines to the general public.
-Chas
I'm completely in agreement with you Amigans as to BYTE and Mr. Pournelle,
its just that I hope we won't wind up in another days-long thread of
emotional vituperation against those people. It gives them more attention
than they deserve and it gets my epiZOOtic worked up!
– via Whap!
The Toaster system was mentioned in the June issue of Byte… (compared
with Mac and PC 3D rendering software)
I think that Pournelle just got an A3000T…
Fernando,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Kevin,
You seem to go to the four corners in BBS land. Is John Dvorak a writer
of substance? In the August issue of PC Magazine he commented on the
whining Amiga diehards and almost admitted that our OS was superior.
Is this of significance? Or is it typical of his and/or Byte's views on
the Amiga and it's fanatics.
–Paul Still on AutoPilot
Paul,
Yah, I spend about six hours a day on various nets. One thing I think I've
mentioned here before is how fascinating it has been to watch the changing
attitudes towards the Amiga and Amiga owners over the years.
In some places, people still don't want to hear about the Amiga, and Amiga
owners are still seen as annoying religious fanatics. Those are tied
together, in my opinion. People are usually turned off by totally fanatical
behavior.
On the other hand, in some places more and more people seek out information
about the Amiga or are at least willing to hear about it. For example,
here on CIS. Why? Because instead of raw all-is-great fanaticism, they
now usually get back the calm straight dope, bad and good combined. I think
that's partly because of the more mature (aka "older" 🙂 group of people
here. Another part is because many people here also own other systems.
But I ramble. I think Dvorak was simply using Amiga fanaticism as an
analogy to OS/2 fanaticism. Back when OS/2 first came out, there were hot
religious debates in some PC groups about multitasking vs non-multitasking,
etc. Sound familiar? <grin> I don't know if that's what you meant,
but…
cheers – kevin
Kevin…
I think you make some really good points:
1) the Amiga user is maturing
2) the Amiga user is now in general more familiar with other platforms
3) the non-Amiga user is also maturing, and becoming aware that different
tools are suited to different jobs.
Nice to see isn't it?
Michael
Paul,
John Dvorak is one of the best-known of PC writers. He'd be cutting his
own throat to say anything else was better! Just have a look at all of
his books in the computer section of your local bookstore – and every one
about PC-Compatibles.
Jerry's got an A3000.