Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: LoadWB on September 12, 2006, 11:18:24 AM
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The "retro" movement is gaining popularity these days. And those of us who have been retro before retro was cool are starting to lose our elite status. We can welcome the new insurgencies, or we can become sullen and sulk about how we were doing it long before...
My girlfriend and I were discussing the Austrian kidnapper's C64 and how that was his only computer. I mentioned that there are a lot of people in the world who only use old computers -- TI-99/4, C64, Atari ST, Amiga, etc. -- for whatever reason, usually mainly because the darned thing works so why buy a bloat machine.
It was at this point in the conversation that she reminded me that I did not own a Windows PC until after she started dating me in 2000 when I bought my first laptop. I really had forgotten that up until 1999 my only home computers were Amiga (of course, post-Commodore 64/128 days) and it was only a year later that I actually purchased a Windows PC.
So I told you all of that to ask you this: when did you acquire your first Windows or Mac to become your primary computer, or do you still use Amiga (or other "retro"/"classic"/"alternative" computer) primarily?
Are we sick? :-)
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Sick? No! Mad? Probably! :-)
Personally, I held off getting a home PC until 1996 (even though I was using them at work prior to that) and my A1200 did what I needed (as did my A500 prior to that).
However, the advent of Win95, the Internet, cheap (and supported!) hardware plus great 3D first-person games like Duke Nukem finally got the better of me!
But I kept my A1200 and it's sitting here next to my PCs now, all plugged in and ready to go - and still gets some use now and again.
- Ali
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My MacBook is now my primary computer. But that's only because of convenience. Most of my computng is done on the sofa, and that would be awkward with an Amiga.
In theory, most things I do with my MacBook could be done with an Amiga:
- Web surfing
- Email
- Games
The only thing my Amiga can't do is run Reason. If there was a laptop Amiga, then that would be my primary machine, and my Mac running Reason would be in the office instead of the Amiga :-)
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moto
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I use Pegasos II G4 as my primary system. I do most browsing, ircing (thru ssh connection) and coding on it. The system is triplebooting to MorphOS (http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/pics/peg2-morphos.jpg) (development version), MacOS X 10.4.7 (http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/pics/peg2-macosx.jpg) and Debian/GNU Linux (http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/pics/peg2-debian.jpg), but I use MorphOS 99% of the time.
I also have Pegasos I running Debian GNU/Linux 24/7 and some Windows XP PC boxen. The Debian system is used for IRC (ircii), mail (pine), gateway/firewall (natting my adsl connection with ipmasq), file server (samba) etc. The PC is handy for some browsing that can't be done using IBrowse, and some gaming. I could do browsing on the Debian side aswell, but I only use linux thru console.
So, I use four kind of systems: MorphOS PPC, Linux PPC, Windows x86 and Mac OS X PPC. It's "tool for the job" kind of thing, I don't feel terrified for using the Windows XP machine when I need to, but I feel most confortable on the MorphOS. It feels much more responsive than any of the other systems, anyway. :-)
This is perhaps more alternative than most, but I don't consider myself "retro user".
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Well I'm going to just out and say it. I'm a big online multiplayer whore. There I said it. With that said, you kinda have to have a more modern computer. Some people say that you can just get an XBox 360 if you just want to play games, but a XBox only has so much flexibility to it, besides you have to pay for Live.
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Piru wrote:
It's "tool for the job" kind of thing, I don't feel terrified...
I can relate to this sentiment! Some of my machines are better suited to certain tasks than others, and are used accordingly.
My "primary" machine is a 400MHz Powerbook G3 "Lombard" used for work on the go, with my two main "home" machines being a Sun Sparcstation IPX used for mundane internet chores (simple HTML editing, ftp, irc, email, browsing) and a P166MMX (Win98SE) used for everything the IPX can't/won't do.
...and of course my A2000 is used for creating/editing graphics for my other projects.
I'm not a "retro" fan either, per se, I just don't see the point of having more "computing power" than I actually NEED.
-dove
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I got my first pc (a p200 that I found) about 2-3 years ago or something. I got a new one 6 months later to run Amithlon which remained my primary system until 3 months ago when I got my Athlon 64. Since then I only use windows because Amithlon won`t boot anymore and I`ve been seduced by the technology.
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Thanks for interesting post, and for the point it raises. The Austrian police force has called upon the retro-hacking community to help them extract any meaningfull information from the C64, so to all C64 into-coding nerds out there, now's your time to shine!!
Seriously, I have been using an A500+ with a 2Mb expansion and three (3!) Floppy drives (but no hard disk) right before the advent of Windows 95. I used it for my A-Level project, to write numerous programs, doodle in Dpaint, wordprocessing (Worthworth, slow as hell but good) and spreadsheets (something made by Oxxi, can't remember the name)
Then, I went on holiday to London, intending to buy a big-box Amiga there. While strolling through Oxford street, I saw an all singing all dancing PC at NESS (now defunct). Surprisingly, the price was less then half of what the Amiga would cost, and the specificatons were far superior. After toying with the machine at the shop for ages (I remember I was dressed shabbily and the salesperson was getting quite nervous) I took the plunge, and 8 long years had to pass before I bought another Amiga computer.
Sad but true (sob)
Cheerio
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I cant remember when I bought my first pc.. but when I saw Win 95 I though it was cool as heck. Basically it did what the Amiga couldnt do. Internet was out.. Amiga was falling behind.. I mostly use E-UAE if I want to do retro stuff or VICE.
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There is something romantic with using old hardware. Or using 10 different old "boxen" for 10 different tasks (that could be run on one modern computer). But in the end I think you will all end up with Microsofts latest OS in the future :-)
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cv643d wrote:
I think you will all end up with Microsofts latest OS in the future :-)
B0llocks will I!
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moto
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Wow! Let me just say that I hope that my story isn't going to be too redundant, but my computer geekness started when I was back in high school.
As a junior in 1988 I fell in love with this machine that the school used for Library functions (it had a whopping 300 BPS modem) and the name on the badge was Apple ][, not (c, or e, or gs). The next year, after becoming familiar with Appleworks (I still use the modern version on my Mac today) I began to write BASIC programs on the Apple ][ and eventually by the end of 1989 (My Senior Year in High School) an Apple ][e. I wanted very badly to purchase an Apple ][e but they were like $3000 and I did not have it. Somewhere between the latter half of my Senior Year (1989) and the middle of 1990, I got into PCs and MS-DOS. I resisted Windows (then version 2, heading to 3) until the launch of Windows 3.1 for workgroups which came on a PC I bought (a 286 clone from Computer Shopper) to go to College. Windows 95 came out and by then I was running a 486DX2 and we were moving our BBS from a Tandy 1000 TX I bought to a newer 486 level clone we bought second hand and moving from Desqview to Windows 95 for our BBS system.
I was also now a bench tech with 2 years under my belt in PC service.
Got really P.O.'d with Microsoft and started looking at Slackware Linux (but too dumb to figure it out then) so I traded my new DX2 box for a Mac LC (which later led me to be considered the Mac expert in the various shops I worked for). 1996, I bought my Macintosh 7500/100 and OS 8 and stayed with Mac until about 1998 when I landed a job as a System Administrator for Windows NT 4 (which I had played with on my bench jobs) and learned AIX (IBM UNIX). I started playing with FreeBSD and though still have not mastered installing FBSD on an Intel box (already installed when I learned it) developed a love for it.
Backing up a bit, when we bought the Tandy 1000 TX in 1992, we were looking at an Amiga and it was just too expensive, though I was very impressed. Not sure today why I bought the Tandy instead of a C64? I believe it was just because we were running a BBS that we already liked and knew the software ins and outs for is most likely the reason :-)
Anyhow, 1998 -- I am back in PC land and using Windows 95 or NT 4 and there is this new Windows OS called "2000" which people were talking about. When I went to work for Sprint in 1999, I was of course using 2000 both server and desktop (Professional). I had a PC and a Macintosh (iMac slotload) at home. Got really mad at Microsoft (recurring theme) and dumped the PC. I later moved and sold the iMac. For a while, I am actually devoid of computer at home (2 months -- January through Feburary 2000). Bought a used Dell and a SGI Indigo with IRIX on it. Sold the Indy and kept the Dell for a while running Win2K. I had steady work even though I was laid off from Sprint in November 2000, until 2001, I had contracts that lasted 3 months at a time and I was now working for myself.
Along the way, I worked for an ISP that supported Amigas (they hired me to support Macintosh) and became good friends with the resident Amiga guru (not the error screen, the support guy) and had a renewed interest in Amiga. In 2003, I was looking for a way to play SpaceQuest and was considering finding an old PC (pentium 1 or pro) to do the job and it dawned on me that Amiga would do this and still actually supported stuff natively... I have old MS-DOS install disks and all, but setting up an old PC just did not appeal to me. I found this community and I am now purchasing more Amigas. I have agreed to buy 2 A2000's and I am still building one A4000. One A2000 is going to be the resurrected "Electronic Oblivion" BBS using CNET. The other is a stand by machine. The A4000 I am building will do Video work and play my retro games... Lemmings and SQ and etc. My main computer is a Macintosh Mini (bought last October) running OS 10.4.7. I plan to go find a used PII or PIII laptop for FreeBSD 6.1 and it will become another "every day" use box. The Amigas are as mentioned.
If there was a way to use my Amiga for everything, I would do it. But there are just certain things (like my PHP development) that require Linux(UNIX) or MacOS ( I use a text editing program called BBEDIT, which is very high dollar on the Mac, and so far, I have found *no equal* to it on any platform, although I am watching an Editor in Linux called Bluefish). So the Macintosh remains my desktop solutuion and the Linux or FreeBSD boxes are normally test servers for my web applications. The Amigas are for my games... I am stuck in retro land because modern games do not give me the feel of the old "adventures" like Sierra On-Line games did and even the later renditions of SpaceQuest (after 4) were less appealing, though definitely technically superior in the areas of controls and graphics. SQ 5 was totally a bomb to me.
So, I have my Macintosh Mini is my main computer, FreeBSD box will be my X-Windows main box and I will find uses for my Amigas as need be.
I guess this exhaustive post boils down to that I agree with "proper tool" approach to computing, but would love to have only one that did it all (natively). Since the "do it all" is highly unlikely, it looks like I will have a minimum of 3 to get done what I want. BTW: iTunes is a major reason that I stay with Macintosh as well, because personally, I am still very anti-Windows! I only use it where I have to, however, I absolutely refuse to own a Windows Machine, if a company I work for deems it necessary, they can (and have) provide[d] a laptop.
Anyhow, my main machine would have to be the Mac.
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Hi...I use an PowerMac G4 500mhz as my main computer
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My primary machine has been Mac since 2003, before then Windows PC, and before that until 1999... Amstrad CPC :-D
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At work I have my Linux workstation, because I administer Unix servers. It's vital because it has so many (networking) tools built in that are helpfull to an adminisrator.
At home I use Windows XP on a "silent" pc that I built. I do some amature game developemnt and VS.NET 2003 + DirectX is an outstanding development IDE. It dual boots Ubuntu Linux but I hardly ever run Linux at home anymore because after 10 or 15 years of use I still find it kind of exhusting.
I use my Amiga 1200 pretty regularly for hacking around and games. Mostly just hacking around. Also, I occasionally use my Atari ST when I want to play Dungeon Master.
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LoadWB wrote:
So I told you all of that to ask you this: when did you acquire your first Windows or Mac to become your primary computer, or do you still use Amiga (or other "retro"/"classic"/"alternative" computer) primarily?
I don't know if I would call it primary. I'm at the office a lot, and PC's are it, besides a few Mac laptops people personally own. So I tend to use them a lot. Personally, Amiga's are all I have personally owned, although I don't seem to do too much, draw, 3D, a few games, scan stuff. A cheap IBM laptop was bought one year ago and until the sound system died and now the network PCMCIA card has crapped out, was my main internet PC along with older PC games, but now shoved in a corner, and the little time I have at night, if I'm not reading is spent on Amiga.
Interestingly, a future class my friend and I plan to give, I'm planning to use my A3000 and Scalla hooked up to the office projector to give my presentation, which will be on Matthew Carey and the early 19th century in America.
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it did what the Amiga couldnt do
What, crash repeatedly? Sorry couldn't resist. :lol:
I used Win95 and Amiga side by side for years. Don't recall 95 being more capable at anything. I will agree that by the time 98 came out Amiga was lagging behind, but still a more stable OS.
These days I still enjoy doing retro C64 stuff. Even thought about publishing my own new cart app.
Plaz
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I was pure amiga until about 1996/97 when I built my first win NT workstaion. (needed speed for 3d animation) It sucked and I got beamed up into SGI country. Bein running Irix and Linux since then. Did try win 2000 and winXP and even beoOS. Have a winXP box at home for my girlfriend... she does design work with it, I use it for casula browsing. At work I have a linux box. At home I still run my ortane2 with irix, runns maya just fine for R and D work and coding. I also have a readhat system thats realy fast for rendeirng. I also have an a3k/par and an a4k with a toaster/flyer at this point mainly for fun but find the a3k060 fast enough for casual browsing and find I use it qute a bit still!
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I used Win95 and Amiga side by side for years. Don't recall 95 being more capable at anything.
I ran Win95/98 and Amiga together... I can say by that time, Win 95 had a number of features over Amiga.
It had an integrated TCP/IP stack you didn't have to purchase/register/use for more than 30 minutes. It had several decent browsers available. It had available PDF viewers (ghostscript finally got ported, but it was a couple years later).
And, stability was about the same. I could expect to do about 8 hours work on either one, with a minimal of fuss.
Despite that, I kept my Amiga 4000 as my primary machine up until early 2000, when I built an AMD Win98 (and updated it to Win2k, when available) machine.
Nowadays, pretty much the only thing that keeps me on Windows is games. Otherwise, Linux or OSX looks rather nice. I dual-boot my PC, but 99% of its time is spent in Windows XP, as that's where the games are, and there isn't anything I CAN'T do in XP to force me to use the Linux boot.
I've thought about putting something like a VMWare or QEMU Linux installation onto my Win build and running all my network apps and browsing through that for more security, but with Firefox and other GPL apps, I haven't had many problems just running them right on Windows. (shrug)
Anyhow, if I had to go with an unsupported OS these days (something really alternative -- not Win, Linux, or OSX), I'd probably go with my SGI Octane and IRIX! :-)
Have I rambled enough? :lol:
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Amiga 4000 060/PPC is my "main" computer. I also use my CT60 Falcon for a lot of projects. Less frequently, I use my Milan040, Amiga 1200/060 and TT030. No Macs (can't stand the OS). I also have PCs in the house (like almost everyone else), but I've never actually bought one. I have two PII machines and one PIII, all of which I've plucked from the trash. The only thing I really use the PCs for is to remote into work which is MS Office VB apps via VPN or through Citrix or to view some websites that unfortunately don't work with Ibrowse. Not really into games at all so I don't need -or want- a "quad" duo core orgasmatron or whatever.. My computers are more than powerful enough -and then some- to satisfy my needs, plus they're a joy to use. Unlike windoze, which is a burden to use. Mostly I use my "retro" machines to, ummm...., compute things. :) I do C and .asm coding, DTP, PLC and robotics projects, automation, D.R. modeling, database design, and to balance my checkbook. :)
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@Ilwrath
Maybe I was just pushing 95 harder than normal. Harddisk recording, 3D, and video. First on a Dell later on a compaq, 95 just loved to crash or lock when things got cpu intensive. Similar work on the Amiga wasn't 100% either, but vastly better. Later when I moved to NT, things improved. You mention tcp and browsers. Amiga had them too. Sure I had to pay a little more, but I didn't mind. Was iexporer 3.0 better than amiga's? Who could tell at 38k? :lol: Back then I just wanted to get my editing done, and 95 couldn't hack it. If I really wanted to get some work done, I pulled out Geos on the 128. :-P
Have I rambled enough? :lol:
Rambling... what rambling? :-)
Plaz
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My first computer was (is) a C64, and was my main computer until 1997 when I bought an A500.
From 1997 to 2000, I used both the A500 and the C64, the A500 for coding/graphics/games and the C64 with GEOS for DTP.
Then on 2000 I bought a PC (Ciryx M2 64MB), because I needed to use Turbo Pascal to do college work. I keep using the A500 almost everyday for a couple of months, then, all of a sudden, I have to move to another city and quit college. Due to the initial space restrictions on the new house, I only took the PC with me. Two years later, as things settled down, I move the A500 and the C64 to the new house. Unfortunately the A500 broke a week after that :(
Two years ago I bought my second PC, a Semprom 2400 witch I'm using until today.
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My first computer was an IBM PS/2 Model 55SX running MS-DOS 5.0 that I bought new in 1991. I used that computer mostly for games until 1997 when I acquired a Windows 95 computer. I later upgraded to Windows 98 and ran that until a couple of years ago when the hard drive crashed. I gave it to a guy I knew to fix it up for me, and he in turn built me a whole new PC from scratch with an Athlon XP 1500+ and Windows XP. It still runs alright, although it has been giving me quite a few problems lately.
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@Waterland: wot no Amigas??! :-o
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As I become more involved with my Amiga 500, I can say that if there was a very good Web Browser for the Amiga, I might not even use my PC.
-Miked
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My conversion hit around 1996, up until then I had an A500 mostly used for playing games. I did actually use it for typing one of my frist-year Uni term papers connected to a dot-matrix printer, Shudder!!! I couldnt afford a proper word processor and used some text editing program I found. It was quite aweful.
After that experience, I sold the A500 and got myself a used 386 with Win3.1 and Word for $50, it made my Uni life a LOT easier.
When I started work, I got a AMD-K6-350 (still didnt like intel) running 95, it was actually very good, maybe 5 lockups in 2 years, (I have above average mechanical sympathy). By its side I had an A1200 for a while as a hobby box, but that eventually moved into storage after I started using WinUAE.
Eventually, I became more interested in PC's, building, modding, tinkering. Now, they are no longer a mystery or intimidating, Ive build 7 or 8 machines in the last 5 years and put PC's in arcade machines, built a HTPC and recently got into Linux which I dual-boot on my laptop.
I really would never go back.
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When you say "I would never go back" .. you mean to the Amiga?
The thing is..you have to treat the real Amiga (classic line) as a retro thing. Not the next big thing. Once you get beyond that, the drama thats unfolding with AI/Hyperion/OS4/MOS etc is just that..drama. If new hardware/promises never come through it wouldnt matter anyway. Hell I use E-UAE more then any of my Amiga's because its faster to load up/reboot etc.. if anything breaks, its a cheap $100 NEW mobo or similiar, not a refurb/used Amiga mobo.
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My main system is running FreeBSD 5.5, I guess you might still call that alternative. I actually do pretty much everything with it, i.e.
- office stuff with OpenOffice, Cups, laser printer
- web browsing, mail, irc, chat (Opera, Firefox, GnomeICU)
- audio / video streaming and playback (Mplayer, XMMS)
- some games (mostly MAME, some 3d games like bzflag)
- graphics & photo editing (Gimp, Xmorph)
- 3d stuff with Art Of Illusion, Blender
I also have a Windows box, but the only purpose of it is running Cubase. I have several other boxes, e.g. a SUN Netra server and lots of retro computers, including several Amigas. The Amigas are used for playing games and for keeping up to date with the development and latest aminet stuff. At the moment, I'm trying out some NetBSD cross-platform devevelopment with my desktop 1200 (030). Currently, I'm trying to get my WLAN card to work under NetBSD (works perfectly under AmigaOS). My Amigas are also used for some productive stuff like IRCing, burning CDs etc., but most is done with my FreeBSD system.
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Hi,
No Windoze here.
EyeTech Towered A1200 Blizzard 040/40 SCSI for DTP etc.
and
Elbox Towered A4K for surfing.
Regards, Michael
aka rockape
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Had been using various Amigas up to and through 2001 for Art and Video, when I discovered a "PC" online game called Tribes. Slowly started building an Athlon to do the things that the Amiga couldn't handle as well any more, such as Internet compatability and this adictive game called Tribes. Then came the Playstation and Grand Turismo. The eventual shift towards using the Athlon for everyday things and the Amiga as a tinker toy came around 2002. Also started working in the PrePress department at work using a MacG3 (which reminds me a lot of the Amiga). Bought a new HP Athlon, latest up-to-date home pc sporting winXP that can do all the things that the Amiga used to do (except Video Toaster stuff) and way loads more, last year. Still tinker with the Amigas...
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TheMagicM wrote:
When you say "I would never go back" .. you mean to the Amiga?
Sorry, I meant I'd never go back to using these "retro" real machines as my main computer. I'd hate to have to use a real C64 or A500 as a main computer nowdays, there's too much I now take for granted; Speed, 16M colours, MP3s, Connectivity, Cheap upgrades, Software, the list goes on...
Also, I probably wouldnt use a future-Amiga as my only computer, Windows and/or Linux here to stay, for better or worse.
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I use an Amiga 500 as my ONLY computer. Yes, this is a bit insane ...and similar to a Japanese WWII soldier hiding in the jungle 40 years after the war ended. Here's my story (as briefly as possible):
I was pretty obsessed with computers from 1983 to 1987 and spent long hours making my own games and "demos" - typing code as if I was possessed..or on drugs. Then, I started to see computers as an extreme waste of time (and I didn't want to become a "computer geek" - which was a bad thing in those days) so I stopped using computers.
Then I saw "Shadow of the Beast" and became obsessed with Amiga and spent long hours PLAYING games. In 1991 I put my Amiga away - mainly because of lack of software (stores in my area stopped selling Amiga stuff) and because once again I saw computers as an extreme waste of time.
In 1997, I decided to get back into computers because I now saw that computers were not only a waste of time, but big bucks. So I bought a cheap used 486 to teach myself Windows & DOS programming. At first, I had nothing against Windows or Microsoft. The more I programmed, the more I got annoyed. Then I got a programming job where I used Windows every single day (except weekends) and by 1999, annoyance changed to disgust. By 2001, disgust changed to anger and by 2002 anger changed to extreme hatred and loathing.
While browsing the internet in 2002 (...with extreme hatred and loathing), I saw to my utter amazement that Amiga Inc. was still "alive" (although this later turned out to be a cruel hoax, but anyway). I had no idea that there even was anything past Workbench 2.0 or that the A1200 existed. I had no idea that you could do email or browse the internet with an Amiga. I discovered there were lots of possible upgrades for my Amiga 500.
So I started buying upgrades and software for my A500 as if I was possessed..or on drugs. Every week I discovered more and more things that were possible on this old computer. I've used my Amiga 500 every single day for the last 4 years and I always feel happy while using it (*cough... except for a recent unexplained random crash...*cough).
(...but lately I'm starting to realize that computers are an extreme waste of time...)
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InTheSand wrote:
@Waterland: wot no Amigas??! :-o
I just recently discovered the Amiga scene this summer. I had heard of Amiga before but didn't know anything about it. The first and only Amiga I've ever owned is the A2000 I found at a garage sale this summer. I didn't even know anything about what I could do with it when I bought it, I just thought it was a cool old computer. Then I discovered the Amiga community and all the cool upgrades I could get for my 2000. Now I'm hooked.
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My A1200T was my primary computer from somewhere around 1996 up until October 2000, when I went from the UK to work in South Korea for a couple of years. The old Miggy (then in a pc tower) was just too big to go with me, so it was a P3 WinME lappie !
Sad really, as the Miggy could do everything I needed in the UK. Parallel port scanner, inkjet printer, Pace Solo modem (fantastic when I was beta testing Oliver Roberts' Amiga update software), Zip and LS120 drives allowed me to connect to the outside computing world.
I've spent many long hours since pointing out to Windoze afficionados that when they had a 40Mhz Win 95 PC they could surf the web, send emails, write letters, and what can they do now, with 100 times the Cpu power ? Surf the web, send emails and write letters ! :lol:
Thats enough for now, lets all have a couple of :pint: !!
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I've spent many long hours since pointing out to Windoze afficionados that when they had a 40Mhz Win 95 PC they could surf the web, send emails, write letters, and what can they do now, with 100 times the Cpu power ? Surf the web, send emails and write letters ! :lol:
Thats enough for now, lets all have a couple of :pint: !!
haha! funny. :) How true
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Homer wrote:
I've spent many long hours since pointing out to Windoze afficionados that when they had a 40Mhz Win 95 PC they could surf the web, send emails, write letters, and what can they do now, with 100 times the Cpu power ? Surf the web, send emails and write letters ! :lol:
Thats enough for now, lets all have a couple of :pint: !!
Oblivion!
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I've had an A500 as my primary computer from 1989 to 1993. Among the expansions I bought were a harddisk and, more important, a KCS Power PC Board. I noticed that in the period 1992-1993, most of the time, I was running MS-DOS (4dos is great!) and decided to buy a 486DX2/66 in 1993 for a hideous amount of money. I've always liked DOS and Windows, and I have used 3.1, 95, 98, NT and 2000 (never saw use for XP) up until now.
I now own quite a bunch of computers, ranging from a C64 to Amigas and pretty up-to-date Windows/Linuxmachines, and have expanded most machines as far as my bankaccount would allow, and I might eventually completely switch to Linux, but I will not 'return' to my A1200 or my A3000 as a primary computer. I like using my Amigas, but I find both Windows (2000) and Linux (Ubuntu) to be more stable and more comfortable for my everyday needs.
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"I've spent many long hours since pointing out to Windoze afficionados that when they had a 40Mhz Win 95 PC they could surf the web, send emails, write letters, and what can they do now, with 100 times the Cpu power ? Surf the web, send emails and write letters ! "
My first internet computer was a Mac IIci with 25mHz cpu (68030?) and 14.4 modem.
Fine for every thing but as more graphics became part of web sites was forced to get faster machines.Even eBay was o.k. except for the few sellers who insisted on large patterned backgrounds and eight 2 meg pics of a coffeee cup.
I wish the websites did not lock you out if not using latest browsers,just let ME decide if I want/need the singing,dancing,superhires video .
If our cars were like computers we would all be driving Lamborghinis to work and grocery,except there would be a huge travvel trailer hooked on the back!
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Surely if our cars were like computers we would have to keep rebooting them and having to open and close the windows to keep them running :crazy:
Nooo, don't go off topic, have a :pint:
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I had an Oric Atmos (my first computer), a C64, a MSX (for a while) and after that I switched to consoles and ended with an arcade cabinet in 1992 (I was totally addicted to retro arcade games) and some months later I bought my first Amiga.
I used the A1200 as primary computer until a friend built me a pc in 1998 when I was student because I needed one to work my class projects (Photoshop, Director etc.). It was a P200 I overclocked to 225 Mhz ! ;-)
My second pc was a XP1800+ in 2002, I've flashed the BIOS and I could upgrade the CPU to a XP2600+. I use it mainly to go to the web, and to calculate proteins for the FightAIDS@home project, but it's not very fast to compute the blocks, that's why I'm looking for a second hand Cray T3e. :-D
But my fav computer is the A1200. I use it quite often, mainly for drawing, playing some games, and to test some soft I grab from Aminet.
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Surely if our cars were like computers we would have to keep rebooting them and having to open and close the windows to keep them running
You know... when autos that are full of computerized gadgetry get old and corroded, very strange things can happen. Besides that, I have found that rebooting (or disconnecting the battery or flipping the breaker as appropriate) is standard procedure for pretty much all software-controlled things that don't feel like doing their job properly.
And I would say that computers have made more progress in two decades than cars have. Todays cheap wintel box can emulate the once impressive and pricey Sharp X68000 but todays VW Jetta (or whatever) doesn't offer much compared to an '87 BMW M3.
Back to the topic... I first used an Atari 800XL and later became an MS-DOS/Windoze user. With a dozen or more years experience, many MBs of code written in QuickBASIC/EDIT, etc. I will probably never switch. It remains to be seen whether I will "upgrade" to Windoze XP or Vista.
Never really liked any of Apple's OSs. Unix is too complicated. Opensource is a nice idea except that actually reading source code is the least fun thing I can imagine. Amiga ru1ez but is out of date and not cost effective.
Sorry for the long post but this kind of topic is irresistable for a nerd (and gearhead) like me :-D
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Used my A1200 (040/240Mhz 603e ppc+bvision,128MB RAM)) as the main machine till 2004, before i bought my first pc running server 2003.
At the beginning of last year i had my old A4000 back for a while (sold that one in 2003 coz i needed the money)
The machine was claimed to be dead but after cleaning the dust out it worked fine again, it was a A4kD in a elbox power tower with CSPPC (060+233 604e),mediator,voodoo 3 3000 PCI,cvisionppc 128 megs of ram.
I also re-installed os3.9 and was still amazed with speed of the OS it out preformed my 2Ghz AMD(XP 2600+) by far on everything except for processor heavy tasks (rendering/3D gaming etc).
But with remote desktop my Amiga life was more fun then ever and the pc became nothing more then a terminal for browsing (firefox) and file server (FTP mount dir) :-D
When i really had to return the A4k and got back to the pc was a shock!
Got used again to the supirior multitasking,booting starting programs on the Amiga.
I really hope some affordable OS4 hardware comes quick now because i really mis a fast Amiga.
Window$ still sucks like it always did......slow,buggy, unstable and have to re-install it to much... :madashell:
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DamageX wrote:
And I would say that computers have made more progress in two decades than cars have. Todays cheap wintel box can emulate the once impressive and pricey Sharp X68000 but todays VW Jetta (or whatever) doesn't offer much compared to an '87 BMW M3.
Yes and no. I guess it kind of depends on how you look at it. In a broad sense cars have only one real purpose; that is to haul one's **tt from point a to point b. Since they only perform this one function, certainly a very important function, they tend to do it quite well. PCs, on the other hand, are pitched as the tool for every job -- a digital swiss army knife. Consequently it tends to be a mediocre tool for a lot of jobs that could be accomplished faster and with less effort than with specialized, yet more primitive tools. My favorite example (no, LEAST favorite example) is the computer screen as a substitute for the printed manual! A huge leap backwards! Another is computer "photo albums". Pleasing to the eyes maybe, but no substitute for the real thing. Real photo albums are like living time capsules, physical witnesses to a bygone era. They have a unique texture, even a faint musk; that charm is completely lost in digital. Too much "duct tape" (tacked on "features") in newer machines. Computer companies have long abandoned the time-tested wisdom found in the K.I.S.S. principle. As such I would say that computers have not necessarily advanced more than cars over the last two decades. I say "advanced" in the purest sense of the word.
Never really liked any of Apple's OSs.
Me either! MacOS is like trying to work in Crayon.
Amiga ru1ez but is out of date and not cost effective.
Yes it does. No it isn't. Perhaps.
Dave
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stopthegop wrote:
Never really liked any of Apple's OSs.
Me either! MacOS is like trying to work in Crayon.
Can't agree with that. I'm not a fan of the classic MacOS (I have an ancient Powerbook running Sysytem 7.5, it's usable but clunky.) OSX, however, feels totally different IMO. In fact, it reminds me a little of AmigaOS, simple to use but with power under the hood for people who are want to delve deeper.
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Let's see...
I started off with a C128 (Christmas gift from my folks waaay back in the 4th grade), had much fun as a child learning BASIC and playing my silly cartridge games. Eventually I acquired a '41 and a 300 baud modem (soon replaced with teh uber 1200 baud version)... and spent several years heavily entrenched in the local C= BBS scene, at one point was even a co-sysop -- and that was just *SO* freakin' cool, especially as a kid. ;) Call-waiting was the absolute BANE of my existence back then, LOL. I had several friends with Amigas and Atari STs, but there was no way my folks were going to spring for another computer, since the C128 still handled my schoolwork just fine. Ownership of several game consoles passed through my hands (even had a NEC TurboDuo at one point, LOL), I also acquired an early x86 box for WordPerfect and playing Wasteland.
I picked up an A500 fairly late in the game, somewhere around '92 I believe (I recall being jealous as my Amiga buds had just bought new A1200 HDs). I sold my mint, absolutely flawless comic collection to buy it (about 450 comics at the time, all selectively purchased stricly for future "collector" value), which I *really* wish I hadn't done. Anyhow, I used the 500 mostly for watching demos and gaming, and since I couldn't afford a hard drive, I played games like Dune II (5 disks IIRC) and Civ with a single floppy drive. I upgraded it a little (1 meg Agnus and some fast ram), but eventually it went into storage. By the time I *finally* had an Amiga, it was getting seriously long in the tooth... unless you had 4k to blow on upgrades, which I did not.
I had little to do with computers for about 5 or 6 years, I just got into other things and didn't have time and money for both. Sometime around '99 I picked up an Intel P3, and shortly after a 1 GHz Athlon. Around this time my interest in the Amiga as a retro-hobby picked up, I bought a brand new A1200 (strange find at a tiny computer shop somewhere in northern Cali), learned all about it, and had a blast upgrading it in small increments. Really great watching all the AGA demos I missed out on. Amiga OS was intriguing, and it might sound masochistic but I actually ENJOYED spending hours playing with things like BlizKick, and getting the thing connected to my broadband service.
I bought a Pegasos 2, which arrived around Christmas 2003 IIRC (Genesi shipped it with free, overnight UPS, which I always thought was pretty "stand up"), enjoyed toying around with MorphOS and Linux. AmiNetRadio was probably my favorite program on that platform.
I upgraded my PC around that time, decided it was ridiculous to have a bunch of expensive hardware that I really didn't have time to enjoy (also hand an eMac laying around), so I sold my Pegasos, '060 card for the 1200 and a few other little things. I still own my first computer, also the A500 and A1200, along with a few C= monitors (not to mention all the software), and I'll probably hang on to it all for a while... their worth so little, it would be almost pointelss to sell them. I remember reading a while back about a planned PPC board for the A1200 with onboard Radeon GFX, now that would be interesting... I'm definitely not loosing any sleep over it (I'm fully aware of how things work in Amigaland), but the slight possibility of running something like AOS or MorphOS on a desktop A1200 with modern screenmodes *is* a pretty cool thought.
Anyway, my interest in Amiga these days is passing and largely for nostalgic/retro purposes, but I just might buy another Pegasos someday if I really get the itch. I've been "out of the loop" for about 2 years, so it's been interesting to check back and catch up on everything. I love PCs (just watercooled my main rig), but I still fire-up WinUAE on occasion. Truth is, with work, girlfriend, and a motorcycle to ride, there's just not much time left for my other hobbies anymore.
Nice to see amiga.org is still alive and well, it's by far the best amiga site on the net, and still one of my favorite sites to visit.
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I had a few dark years (2000-2005) when I only used PCs, but about a year ago I suddently got the urge again. I put my Falcon/CT60 in a tower case, installed EasyMiNT (a FreeMiNT distro; FreeMiNT is a popular open source un*x-sortof-kernel-thingy for these machines), and started coding like crazy.
Recently I was fortunate to find a Hades060, which is about half as "fast" as the CT60, however since it features PCI graphics it's a lot more pleasant to work with (the falcon/CT60 suffers from chipmem bandwidth problems just like the Amiga, so graphics is slow in higher resolutions).
I'm using the Hades as my main machine. I mostly use GCC, IRC & ICQ, so I'm not very limited by this setup at all. There is no decent browser for FreeMiNT and I miss Cubase SX, so I'll be getting a MacBook soon.
Still have no Amiga, but I'm definitely Amiga-curious.
-- PeP/Shoggoth