Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Verrrry nice!  Hope to see the graphics board and the Unix system soon.

    
    I'll be  posting any juicy tidbits of news from the Developers
    Conference that I find on PLINK.
    
    A few interesting items:
    
    WorkBench will now be able to display files in a window as filenames,
    ala Browser.  This is no big deal, and has been available on the Mac
    and GEM for years, but it's always been a glaring deficiency.
    
    A standard file requestor will be included.
    
    More as it develops...
    
    
    Ed.
    

    
    Don't hold your breath... the 1.4 that developers have is an Alpha
    version, subject to massive changes.  After Alpha, comes Beta and
    gamma.  It could be 9 months to a year.
    
    However, one insider on PLINK said that 'you'd be pleasantly surprised
    at how soon 1.4 will appear'.  
    
    Ed.

    
    Well, one comment from an "official" developer:
    WB 1.4 is in Alpha 15 and looks really nice and all, but is at least
    6 months away from gamma or release state, maybe more (see -1).
    Another thing is that people like me will keep their mouths shut,
    unless cleared by CBM. Advanced and false information as well wide
    spread beta and gamma releases really did hurt the 1.3 release.
    
    Regards,
    
    <CB>

    
    A quote from a friend who attended DEVCON.
    
    "1.4 is not as far along as 1.3 was a year before it's release"
    
    His best guess is Christmas 1990.
    
    wayne
    

    
    
    
    Sooo Sad....  Sparc stations and 486/040 will be well entrenched by
    or before Christmas 1990.
    
    With 030 production problems on the MAC, I'd repackage the 2500/020
    with 100MB into a small package (like the 500) and drop the price.
    Additionally, get rid of that ugly CGA looking screen!
    
    Maybe a 20Mhz 8 Meg package with AT and MAC hardware included would
    knock their socks-off! [Hear the MAC OS is being changed]
    
    Whoa... (slap slap) ... Whew ... I just woke-up.  Yup, the std Amiga
    is still a $%^*% 68000 box with toy display.  I guess I'll keep
    running my commodore PC40-III from now on.
    
    
    P.S.  I still have my 1000.  I'm going to trade in DPaint II for III
          while the $57 upgrade offer lasts.
    

    Christmas 1989 is more like it ... from what I have been hearing
    ...
    

>    Christmas 1989 is more like it ... from what I have been hearing
>    ...


Now thats what I want to hear!

John

    Don't let what you want to hear distort your judgement.  Remember how
    long it took to release 1.3.  I hope they don't skimp on the QA for
    1.4 in order to release it quickly.
        John Sauter

    
    Re: -1
    
    That's exactly it. 
    I sure hope that 1.4 will be in omega state by Xmas, but looking
    back at 1.3 it might take until the Easterbunny for the release.
    
    To quote an unknown genius: "Better safe than sorry"
    
    Cheers,
    <CB>

    I hear commordore is working on yet another 8-bit machine.  Lets' face
    it - Commodore didn't design the machine and hasn't to date understood,
    marketed or assisted Amiga owners.  I saw a "Amiga only" show this
    past weekend on channel two.  The only commodore rep. played MENACE
    as a demo.  Everyone else did a good job of showing off the machine.
    
    A suggeston - the HDTV consortiun should adopt the amiga as a 
    concept machine.  Have commodre spin it off as non-profit and get it
    out from under its' poor management.

    re: .12
    
    Can you imagine how poor the management would be if it were a
    non-profit consortium?  I think Commodore is doing an adequate
    job of managing the Amiga, and I hope it continues to make them
    money, so they'll continue to invest in it.
        John Sauter

    
    flame-on
    
    re.-1
    
    I think I stated a HDTV related foundation also.  I think Commodore
    needs Amiga to be adequate. [It saved their %^&% when their mgmnt
                                  was losing money]
    
    When Commodore showed Amiga on Computer Chronicles, their district
    guy choose a game on the 2500.  Constrast that with the Atari show
    where the MegaST was shown doing Desk TOP pub and CAD. I'm sorry,
    
    flame-off
    
    it looks like Amigas' cost shines only when used for an X11 window system
    or the vanilla 2000HD box.   Some 1000 owners think the 2000s'
    slots are "PC only" to this day.
    
    What I'm truly thankful for is the multitasking and reasonable priced
    software.  The appearance of a cost-effective hard-drive came too late
    for me.  I could have used a UNIX last year.  Now $1,300 386 machines
    are appearing with somw OS/2 products availability.
    
    "Non-performance is death"
    
    

    
    .14> When Commodore showed Amiga on Computer Chronicles, their district 
    .14> guy choose a game on the 2500.  Contrast that with the Atari show
    .14> where the MegaST was shown doing Desk TOP pub and CAD.
    
    So?  Has this helped to sell more Atari computers?  Or hurt Amiga
    sales?  I doubt it.  I'd be willing to bet that more people went and
    checked out Macintoshes to see what Desktop Publishing was all about. 
    This is not to imply that the Atari is not a nice machine; it's just
    that people will spend their money where they perceive the best value
    to be.  Right now, that happens to be in the Macintosh.
    
    Why is this?  The '386 Clones (which, by the way, are a good bit more
    than $1300 with VGA and a decent .28 pitch monitor and fast HD)
    certainly offer more hardware/dollar than the Mac.  I think it's due to
    the Mac's brilliant user interface and system software.  People are
    willing to pay extra for that added value.
    
    Which brings us back to the subject of WB 1.4...  Commodore may not
    know how to market the Amiga (neither do I), but at least someone has
    recognized it's deficiencies and is commencing to fix them.  1.4 is
    supposed to be a major step in that direction, with a much nicer
    interface and FFS for floppies.  The Enhanced Chip Set is an even
    bigger step (they should have ditched the toy display loooong ago).
    
    If the Amiga can be made into a much 'nicer' system to use, then I
    think that cost relative to uninspiring Clones becomes less of an issue
    to the buyer.
    
    Ed.
    
    
    

    re: -1
    
    Ed, ever think of a career in marketing?
    

    
    Why, am I that convincing? :^)  No, I'm destined to be a poor
    engineering grunt for the rest of my life.
    
    I just have a hard time understanding what could have been done to
    make the Amiga more of a success than it has been.  The obvious things
    come to mind, like a better (ie; flicker-fixed) display, faster
    floppies, more colors, etc.  Then I look at the Macintosh's phenomonal
    success in spite of a tiny monochrome display, relatively poor
    processing power, crappy keyboard, etc.  The Mac's success cannot be
    wholly attributed to better Apple advertising, so it must be in the
    system and application software.   Hence Commodore should maybe
    concentrate it's efforts in this area, which seems to be happening.  I
    take this as a much healthier sign than if Commodore were devoting all
    it's resources to a larger color pallett or some other non-crucial
    area.
    
    Ed.

    re .14
    	$1300.00 can,t be right if you take into consideration that
    OS2 takes two meg just to run.Add another meg minimum for applications
    and you have only change left for a drive,CRT etc.
    								bill
    ps.Amazing Computing had a nice write up on 1.4

    For those of us in the unwashed rabble, :-) :-), details of Workbench
    1.4 are starting to leak out.  Here are a few snippets from
    "Developer's Conference '89: New Operating System Developments
    Highlight the Conference," in the August issue of _Amiga Sentry_.  Once
    again _Sentry_ delivers on its reputation of having an inside track at
    Commodore. 

    The unsigned article runs three pages and includes two black and white
    photos. Pictures are apparently of version "1.4A15"... 

    ===== 

    "Last year, a Gamma version of WB 1.3 was distributed at DevCon.  This
    year, an Alpha version of WB 1.4 is the current 'state of the art.'
    Commodore will not predict a release date for WB 1.4, but since it took
    about six months from Gamma 1.3 to release, we shouldn't expect the
    finished 1.4 much before early 1990. 

    "The most noticeable changes involve Workbench and display modes.  One
    look at the pictures [hard to include in a text file] will show that
    the Workbench is getting a 'new look.'  In addition to the patterned
    background, disk-window title bars display information about their
    contents.  Instead of the 'fuel gauge,' you'll find the percentage
    full, number of free blocks and total blocks used.  A new gadget on the
    drag-bar looks like a thick arrow pointing up.  Click here to open the
    parent of a window. 

    "Other visible changes are found in the Workbench menus.  Instead of
    duplicating the Empty drawer, you can select 'New Drawer.'  You can
    'Select All' the icons in a window and 'Quit the Workbench' and return
    to CLI.  'Last Error' now returns a text message with the error number.
    'View By' includes options to show files in a new text mode, sorted by
    name, date or size.  Select 'Show All Files' and Workbench will create
    default icons for any files which don't have them. 

    "The final menu is named 'Tools.'  The new WB will allow user menu
    items to be installed here. 
    
    "Other Workbench changes are not as visible.  Many operations will
    be asynchronous, meaning that info, copying operations, window opening,
    etc., will not tie up the entire Workbench.

    "There are new mouse functions as well.  Press and hold the left mouse
    button.  A dotted line will expand to a box shape as you move the
    mouse, and everything which you surround will become selected. 

    "The Alpha release distributed at DevCon had no new 'C' [directory]
    programs, system utilities or tools.  There was a new drawer, though,
    called 'WBStartup.'  As it loads, Workbench 1.4 will automatically
    execute any program located in the drawer, giving WB users the
    equivalent of a startup-sequence!" 

    There are more comments on how the release is being tested (mostly on
    high end Amigas), new display modes in the Enhanced Chip Set, and some
    of the other system software enhancements. Of note -- the Fast Filing
    System will be included in Kickstart, and will be the default for
    floppy disks.  The original filing system will still be supported with
    no special actions by users. 

    "Remember that this overview is based on an early alpha version.  As
    this project progresses, we can expect many more features and changes
    to some of what I've described." 

    ===== 

    Comment:  the photos show Workbench moving closer to the look and
    features of MS-Windows, although the article compares the new look to
    OS/2 and Macintosh's desktop.  Remembering the rumors about 1.3
    features, and then my delight at exploring the real thing, I think that
    this article shows a snapshot of a moving target.  Next year, the real
    WB 1.4 will no doubt be different, and better, than what we see here.
    
    Wes 

    NOt having been in this conference for a while, let me ask the
    (probably silly) question:
    
    	What's the current status of 1.4?
    
    BobW
    

    Availability and capabilities of V1.4 remain rumors.  There is even
    a suggestion that it's name will change.  Stay loose.
        John Sauter  

All right, below is a meager serving of fact.  Mike Smithwick, author of the 
"Galileo" and "Distant Suns" astronomy programs, replied to a topic where some 
people read the last page of the April _Amiga World_ and concluded that the 
next Amiga OS release would be called Version 2.0.  They forgot to read the 
date on the front cover and the disclaimer in the table of contents.

Enjoy, and A1000 owners beware.

Wes_who_has_taken_the_upgrade_deal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article        51319
From: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Whirled and WB 1.4
Date: 14 Mar 90 17:31:53 GMT
Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center
Lines: 28
 
In article <27754@cup.portal.com> FelineGrace@cup.portal.com (Dana B Bourgeois) writes:
<I also read this in Amiga World and was amazed!  All last year we
<heard several times that 2.0 would break just about everything and
<1.4 (and 1.5 and 1.6!) where definitely *NOT* going to be 2.0!!!
<
<So I think an authoritative voice should comment on this question.
<Is the next release of AmigaDOS going to be 1.4 or is it going to
<be 2.0??!?  And is it coming out on 512K ROMS or 256K ROMs?
<
<Dana Bourgeois @ cup.portal.com
 
Well, since no authoritative voice has spoken, I guess I'll chime in.
I just received an inch thick document from C= with "1.4" stamped all
over the cover. This was handed out last Friday, so it's somewhat more
current then AmigaWeird.
 
Sorry boys, but don't ask me anything more cuz I can`t tell ya. . .
;-).
 
BTW, it aint gonna work on 1000s either. 1.4 alpha did, but the Beta
release won't and doesn't work on mine.
 
mike
 
                                                      *** mike smithwick ***
 
"E Pluribus Unix!"
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]