Xenophobia (was Re:jobs in Linux / IT)

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

[warning: only Atari vs Amiga vs Mac stuff follows.]

| From: Scott Elcomb <psema4-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
| 
| On 1/24/06, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
| > On Wed, Jan 18, 2006 at 09:15:00PM -0500, Christopher Browne wrote:
| > > I remember the old days when Commodore and Atari and Apple fans fought
| > > over which was the best 8 bit system, when various fans fought over
| > > which 68K home computer was "best," and such...  Back in those days,
| > > we were bright but nonetheless pretty stupid kids.  "We're the best;
| > > the other computers SUCK!!!"
| >
| > Oh the 68k question is easy: Commodore had the best hardware, Apple the
| > best marketing, and atari got nothing.
| 
| Not sure if I remember correctly or not, but I think at that time
| Atari was fairly strong on video technology...

Semi-proof of silliness: the Atari 16-bit line was designed by the
Commodore 8-bit folks and vice versa.  Yet the loyalty of the fans
seemed to be to the brand, not the engineering team.

The Atari had a few winning aspects.  In the interest of bias, I won't
mention the losses.

Atari vs Amiga:

- Atari ST was perhaps half the price of the Amiga (at least for the
  first few models)

- The Atari ST had a wonderful (for its day) mono monitor.  Amiga
  didn't.

- built-in midi endeared the machine to musicians

- the file system was compatible with MS DOS.  This was also limiting,
  but it was often a plus.


Atari ST vs Mac

- ST was perhaps a third the cost

- ST was faster.  (Faster clock and less contention with video.)

- ST had more memory.  520 ST (512K RAM) came before "Fat Mac" or Mac
  Plus.  By the time the Mac Plus came out, the 1040 ST (1024K) was
  available.

- ST had a larger mono monitor (more area AND more pixels).  You
  could also use a colour monitor (Mac didn't have colour until the
  Mac II (a whole different price range)).

- ST mouse had two buttons.

- ST had built-in midi

- ST had cheaper hard drives.

- ST worked reasonably without hard drives.

I chose the Atari ST (I waited until the 1040).  It turned out that my
main use for it was as a terminal to my UNIX box.  For that, the mono
monitor and the price were the factors that made it the right choice.
I wrote very few ST programs although I expected to write more.  UNIX
was just better suited to programming.

If I'd had an Amiga, *maybe* I would have found it
useful/interesting/pleasant enough that I would not have just used it
as a terminal.

Now if a hard-core Amigan wants to convert me, I've collected a 2000
that I've never powered on...
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