Re: The AMIGA is DEAD - please buy a PC!!!

Mark McDougall wrote:
Bob Edgeworthy wrote:

Do you believe that the PC standard will be the last word in computing FOREVER? Do you believe that 100 years from now we'll still be using PC compatible systems?

Sadly, the answer is - probably.

The PC is becoming more of a commodity item each year. Innovations come and go but at the end of the day, the winner is whoever had marketing appeal and market share. Period. Technical specifiations, features and potential all come a distant second in this race.

Computer hobbyists may sit around and discuss 100 reasons why a PowerPC running Unix or a 68k running AmigaOS is preferable to an Intel chip running Windows, but the reality is that 99.9% of the population couldn't give a toss. And who do you think the PC makers are targetting?

In 100 years time, 99.9% of the users won't be able to tell you what the name of the CPU _or_ OS is running on it - because it won't even be advertised! You'll be more concerned that it's a Dell, or an ASUS - because they're your favourite brand or because it comes in 6 different colours or because there's a really hot chick on the ad - than anything else.

People that lament the passing of technology such as the Amiga and continue to dream about "what if" and "if only", and insist that a re-imagining even in modern technology is going to produce something wonderful and technologically superiour simply have no absolutely idea what they're talking about. Of course you never hear this kind of fluff from chip designers and industry veterans - it's always the hobbyists and part-time "experts".

The stark reality is that cpu design has left old technology in the dark ages. I dislike Intel architecture but everything from 6-core processors from AMD down to the new Intel Atom modules - despite some protestations to the contrary - have actually been designed by people that do know a bit about what they're doing. To claim otherwise - and that a new 68k could compete even at the lowest end - is just laughable.

And I hate Windows as much as the next guy, and I also believe that linux is way overhyped and has just as many problems - if not more - than Windows. But if you think that any operating system built from the ground up is going to offer anywhere close to what these systems - in development for decade now - may offer in terms of features, then again you're sorely deluded. You want speed and simplicity? Then you'll get that - with a massive reduction in capabilities.

You may argue that the old Amiga did everything you need, and did it quickly. The reason it was quick and simple is because... drum-roll... it _was_ simple!!! After all, you can implement the whole bloody thing in an FPGA clocked at 100MHz! If it works for you, then by all means dig up your old Amiga and use it until the cows come home. But don't claim that simply "modernising" it is the silver bullet we all need for supercomputing on the desktop. It's complete and utter rubbish.


If you disregard hype of `market share` and ideas of competition, then basically we are all capable of using whatever we feel like using. It is a personal choice, no matter if it is just a `feel` or the experience of having worked with many kinds of computers for the past 44 years.

Some need speed, others don`t, some want bells and whistles, others don`t, some like to be patronised by a system that does what it wants, when it wants, while others don`t. Features are just there to make newbies able to do things. I can design a webspace in Notepad, never use or need anything like FrontPage or DreamWeaver, and the same goes for any other activity on the computer that I care to use it for.

I am just grateful that there is still something available that isn`t the `mainstream` - just as with cars, where there are choices between a Skoda or a Porsche, a Mitsubishi or Ferrari, a 2CV or a classic Ford GT40, with different levels of technology between them. It is not a "one design for all" approach, nor would anyone in their right mind attempt to organise races between them.

We are all individual and different, and trying to suppress that would be madness, just like what John Malkovich saw in "Being John Malkovich"...


C`ya,
--
Hari - http://far-out.eu

Old programmers never die, they just branch to a new address.
.

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