Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    I read the one in April, and it was a pretty evenhanded article.
    They really didn't name any machine as the "winner", as there really
    isn't one.  They graded each of the machines according to their
    strong points and weaknesses.
    
    I don't remember the whole article (just the part that they were
    pleasingly unbiased), so I can't go into any greater detail here.
    The gist of the article was that each machine was pretty strong
    on its own strong points.  Anymore, and my biases will start showing.

    I think I'll let my bias show through alittle. The March'1986
    Byte (p82) has a feature product review of the Atari 1040ST. The
    August 1985 Byte (p83) also has a feature product review of the
    Amiga. For the most part both articles were an objective view
    of each machines weak and strong points. The difference is between
    the lines. The Amiga's features are described with more
    emotional adjectives. EX. compare the title of the two articles:
    "THE AMIGA PRESONAL COMPUTER: It has plenty of computing power
                                  and impressive color graphics"
    "THE ATARI 1040ST: The Byte editors take a look at Atari's new
                       $999 1-megabyte machine"
    
     There's another article on the Amiga in the MAY 1,1986 Electronic's
    Design (P42). Suprise, suprise.. " Introduced last year as the
    latest and brightest personal computer for the low end home market,
    the Commodore Amiga is finding a niche as a tool for engineers working
    in the laboratory."
    
       ... .   .     Rich

    Thanks folks,
    I guess I just needed a little prompting. I think I knew the answer
    to which I was going to purchase anyway but you always have doubts
    until the machine actually arrives. I'm ordering my Amiga this week.
	
    You here lots of things from Atari about what is "around the corner"
    and, given their past performances, I guess they are a bit hard
    to trust. Reports of poor reliability from the Atari were
    major considerations too.

    Thank you,
    John

    Speaking of reliability:  My brother has had an Atari 1040ST on
    order for several weeks.  On Friday, he was told by the distributor
    that Atari has halted all shipments of 1040's until further notice.
    No explanation was given, but rumors have been flying that it involves
    the internal power supply and possible cooling problems.
    

    re: .4
    
    If you read the SPHINX::ATARIST notes (I like to see what the
    competition is doing) there is alot of chatter about the reliabitity
    of the internal ST power supply.  Doesn't sound like a nice problem
    to have.
    
    Art

    I have seen a lot of VERY negative press about the Amiga, mostly
    from Atari partisans.  They seem to feel very threatened by the
    Amiga and resort to all sorts of namecalling and innuendo.  It's
    almost as if they'd betray their manhood by admitting that they're
    both good machines.  Amiga partisans seem to be somewhat more even
    handed, admitting that while the Ataris are cheaper, ultimately
    the Amiga's a better machine if you can afford it and aren't scared
    off by the lack of "just-like-IBM-PC-software" for it.  Anyway,
    I bought an Amiga.  I admit I didn't look too hard at the Ataris.
    
    My impression is that the second of the Byte articles is sort of
    even handed but I detect some pro-Atari bias on the part of the
    author.  E.g., one section's titled "The New Atari" and the next
    is titled "The Old Amiga".  Mostly the author laments Commodore's
    lame marketing efforts on behalf of the Amiga, and fails to draw
    much attention to the machine's more stellar features, while raving
    about the 1040ST's price/performance.  Interestingly, the Amiga
    outsold the Ataris at Christmas, and Electronic Arts shipped $1M
    worth of Amiga software in December alone.  Given the recent promotion
    sales should be even better (the article says Commodore Amiga sales were
    production limited).  The dealers I have talked to are having no
    trouble moving Amigas and I have yet to hear anyone who's bought
    one do anything less than rave about it.

    One useful thing from the article - none of the Tecmar add ons are
    available (as of the time of writing) except as dealer demonstrators
    and list price for the 20 MB hard disk has gone to $1495.
    
    len.
    

    ah flaming...
    
    rather than take issue with the claims in .6, let me point out that
    competition is good for both machines.  I attended a computer show
    in Woburn last Saturday that had two STs and no AMIGAs, but LOTs
    of IBM PC clones.
    
    In my mind, the ST is built for price/performance, the AMIGA is
    built for quality/performance, and the IBM clones are built to 
    take advantage of cheap add-ons.  All have niche markets, my
    concern is that enough STs and AMIGAs get sold before the IBM
    clones take over the market.
    
    The only problems i have heard about power supplies for the ST
    were with the early model external power transformers.  I too
    was curious about how well the 1040ST could handle the heat
    of a 3.5" disk drive and a internal power supply.  At that computer
    show i checked how hot the case of the 1040ST (running demos) got
    after 3 hours - not even warm.  The reason given for that - the
    3.5" drives used by the 1040 require less power than previous 
    versions of 3.5" drives.  Don't know how true that might be,
    certainly sounds like a reasonable goal for the drive manufacturers
    to try for.
    
    Note - i haven't bought any of the above.  Still waiting for the
    16-bit technology to drop in price to match my 8-bit budget.
    
    -Dave

    Didn't realize I made any flaming claims - just thought I'd share
    some impressions.  I reread my assessment of the second of the
    Byte articles, and it's factual.
    
    It's almost worth posting a letter that was recently published in
    Keyboard magazine where an Atarian rips the Amiga to shreds, to 
    support my point.
    
    I agree the Ataris and the Amigas serve different goals, and the
    Amiga suits my needs better.  The Ataris are certainly good machines,
    but it seems that Amiga owners are more willing to say that about
    Ataris than Atari owners are willing to say that about Amigas.
    If that's flaming on my part I'll go take a shower.
    
    IBM clones have already taken over the market.  There are MILLIONS
    of IBM PCs/clones/compatibles out there, compared to at best maybe
    a quarter of a million Amigas AND Ataris.  We'll never catch up or
    come close.  And how about Macs?  The fact that I didn't care was
    part of my purchase decision.
    
    len.
    

    actually the flaming referred to the topic Amigans vs. Atarians.
    
    After your descriptions, i went to library to read the Byte articles.
    Somehow i get the impression that Byte is trying to stir up the
    debate to sell more magazines.  From .8 it appears Keyboard magazine
    is also trying for that.
    
    How about a compromise, lets all dump on the IBM clones...
    That would give Byte something to write about, the 68xxxs vs 80xxxx
    families of processors, Motorola vs Intel, sort of a David vs Goliath
    story.  What ever happened to those great Apple ads?
    
    -dave 

    Food for thought...
    
    Rumor has it (as if we need yet another nasty rumor ...) that Mr.
    Jack Tramiel, former-Commodore-turn-Atari-Head-Honcho, fought his
    old company for the rights to market the amiga (then known as
    "Lorraine").  Now, I'm not one to start any malicious rumors, but
    if there exists any truth to this story ...
    

    Re 15.10:  I don't see the point .. That Tramiel wanted to be able
    to use the Lorraine chip set, is not a rumor: it was dutifully
    reported by the trade press that he went to court to get the right
    to use them, and lost. All this about two years or so ago (I think).
    
    Lowell