There was an Amiga 600:
but the last model was the Amiga 1200:
that DID have a 10 key pad...
Posted on 04/05/2006 8:15:14 AM PDT by Swordmaker
When Apple users
boot Windows and realize
it's pretty darn good,
it's fairly solid
and it gives them access to
a vastly larger
community of
fellow OS users, then
they might not go back . . .
I thought something like this would happen when Gates "invested" $150 million a few years ago ,pre iPod.
Within a couple of years at most,I predict there will be a new Windows release ,hopefully combining the best of Mac with the best of Windows.Perhaps Gates is behind this in order to salvage the Vista ? OS can be compared to the fuel in our cars;nearly every one uses gasoline that isn't much different from station to station.Sure the cars look (are) different but not what makes them go. Just as a few are willing to use diesel,electric or other variants,I suspect some will continue to use Mac,linux, or whatever works for them. The appliance user will simply use what ever is best marketed not necessarily what is best for the task.That is why millions commute alone in large 4 wheel drive trucks burning twice or three times the fuel needed to move them in the same comfort and speed.Marketing wins.
Apple will shortly become just another,albeit "cooler" brand of PC.
Gamers should probably enjoy whatever has already been converted ,the game publishers aren't likely to bother porting when all future machines are Windows compatible.Apple gamers and Apple power users now find themselves in the situation experienced by Amiga users in 1992 when the Amiga management blew it despite having jumped out ahead with the best video and graphics early in the 80s. You have to run like h--- just to stay in the race.
For those that didn't know it,Amiga had the first 32bit CD game console with video that whipped everything else,...but...Commodore execs had taken such huge salaries there wasn't money to properly market,nor build enough machines.They missed that years Christmas gift season and were bankrupt by the next one.The public doesn't buy what they don't hear/see.
If you look closely
at the functionality
of Windows Office,
which has Excel and
Word both programmable by
Visual Basic
for Applications,
you'll see that Windows is not
only marketing --
It's an amazing
delivery of code power
to "average" users.
I thought Claris(apple)works had lots of capabilities as well.Including moving files from one app to another.
How many users simply fill in the blanks ,point and click on their computer ? The majority ? And if the apps are better now after 25 years of home computers the user shouldn't need to write programs,etc. The whole point was making the computer another tool wasn't it ?
I think Apple had a better GUI and the standardization of program style before Windows but they failed to deliver perceived value to enough people.
I wonder if the Steves picked Apple as a name because they thought it would be cute to use a name/logo similar to the trendy Beates, or just dumb luck ? Millions have been given to the Beatles and spent on lawyers that could better have gone into the computers.
Really not much difference in my 'Net experience or word processing with either system;except less site acceptance of the mac/netscape. But Apple was first with standard usb,firewire,wireless,and dvd. Which is why there still is a lime iMac nearby.That $1k machine might bring $100 now that it is a few years old but it still works as a mini-entertainment center,
Why would that drop in the bucket have any affect on Apple 10 years later? Apple had over $2 billion in cash in the bank when MS made that "investment."
When Gates was required by a lawsuit settlement that Microsoft LOST to purchase $150 million of Apple Preferred Stock (no vote), AND continue developing and selling Microsoft Office for Mac for an additional six years AND license certain patents from Apple (Apple was only required by the settlement to license those patents to MS), it can hardly be called an "investment." Microsoft sold that preferred stock on the open market a couple of years after.
The MacOS/Windows battle is now over;Apple has surrendered.
On the contrary, Apple just fired a shot across the bow of the MSS. Microsoft.
The diehards and those comfortable with MacOS or the "cats" will use that but new users will Windoze because of familiarlity. Never underestimate inertia.I'm tired,too.
I remember seeing the Amiga CD32 game console. To me, it just didn't compare to the other niche consoles like the 3DO or the Jaguar (I still have my Jaguar...the Tramiels while running Atari were good at putting out hardware, but the Tramiels while running Atari were also sh** when supporting the hardware they put out). I think it was based on the Amiga 500 computer and could be turned into an CD-enabled Amiga 500 with a piece of optional hardware, however the computer add-on and the planned MPEG-1 VCD adapter didn't make it because Commodore went completely belly-up just a few months after releasing the CD32.
What unimpressed me the most with the CD32 were the game titles like Zool 2 (it was already available for the Genesis and was later released for the Jaguar) and Mortal Kombat II (I was satisfied with the Genesis and Super NES versions).
I never used a Amiga (but I have used a Windows-based Amiga emulator called WinUAE, and I liked it), but I used to have a Commodore 64, Atari 600 XL, and an Atari 520 ST (although the last time I used an ST was using a Windows-based emulator called WinSTon...it's fairly easy to find the TOS roms). I still have my "built like a tank" Atari 800 computer (the one that had two cartridge slots and a real full-size keyboard).
And I still think to this day that the Atari ST was named ST for Sam Tramiel.
Like I said, if I have to use a Windows-based app, I have three options :
1. Crossover Office
2. Netraverse Win4Lin (let you install and use Windows 98; in fact, with Win4Lin you can run Windows 98 and your Linux distro [such as Redhat, Suse, Ubuntu, Linspire, or Xandros] at the same time)
3. Transgaming Cedega (lets you install and play some Windows-based games on your Linux box; not at 100% compatibility yet)
I've been using Linux since 2004 because I was tired of Windows and wanted something different. I love playing around with apt-get, and I also like having my hardware automatically work without installing any drivers (so far Linux has been better for me in that aspect that Windows). I've even gotten to the point where I can easily install and use GNOME on Xandros (which is KDE-based by default) and have a choice of using GNOME or KDE.
And my dial-up ISP (NetZero) actually supports dial-up, which is all I have around here (apart from using a WiFi hotspot at the local pizza place).
$199 is half the price of a Wal-Mart low-end pc with XP installed.Makes more sense to buy the cheap pc for those must be Windows office tasks.
The Amiga CDTV was the 500 twin,it was a 16 bit ;the CD32 was based on the later generation chips ,32 bit and twice the clock speed .A CD32 could be made into a A1200. Quite a few Amiga users emulated Macs for work purposes;history seems to repeat!
This actually solves a dilemma. I want a Mac, but I also don't want to invalidate my collection of Windows based games.
Thanks, Apple.
Regards, Ivan
No, but the thing is,
many businesses create
quite involved front ends
to standard programs
using macros, then deploy
those functions throughout
their secretaries
or supervisors and such.
The Mac and Linux
also have scripting,
but my point was that Windows
provides access to
almost all .NET
and that is not a shabby
object collection.
Me saying that the CD32 could be turned into an Amiga 500...that just shows how much I know about Amigas.
What was that later-release Amiga that didn't include the numeric keypad? Was it the Amiga 600?
There was an Amiga 600:
but the last model was the Amiga 1200:
that DID have a 10 key pad...
The chips Amiga engineers had in planning for the next generation had promise but the research money wasn't there.
The ironic part is that many Amiga users were encouraged to move to the Macintosh as being more similar in operation;now they will be moving again.
Standardization has its uses but I like for there to be alternate choices just so the standards don't grow stagnant.
The 4000 was the last Amiga still in production... but the 1200 which was based on some of the chips developed for the 4000 was the last introduced.
The A4000/060 was released far after Commodore went bankrupt and was broken up and sold at auction. It was assembled out of parts left over in inventory by a third party.
$199 was also the final price (after the $50 rebate) of that Wintergreen 2.4 GHz desktop PC I bought on Tigerdirect.com. Really nice computer...it came with Linspire Five-0, which has since been removed and had Xandros 3.0 installed. Only thing I had to add to it was an extra 512 MB RAM (the overall speed of the PC with 768 MB RAM is definitely better than when it had the basic 256 MB RAM).
Linspire with LSongs is a very nice distro, but I can get the same use by installing Xandros, Crossover Office 5.0 Pro, and Apple iTunes (yep, I have iTunes installed on Xandros).
I also like that photo management software Linspire has...LPhoto...but I've managed to install LPhoto on Xandros.
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