PC still playing Amiga catchup

[Wayne]

@stefcep

I understand your need to feel like the 1985 Amiga is still as capable as a modern day PC or Mac.  I really do.  Everyone feels the need to justify why they're still running what they do, especially in light of overwhelming evidence to support the contrary.

Using an Amiga today is a hobby for everyone, and I mean 99.999% of everyone on the planet.  Aside from the strange car wash or local public television station, there are literally no more legitimate uses for an Amiga in a professional setting.  

Take away professional settings, and you're left with personal use, which -- when you consider there are better and faster alternatives out there -- means "a hobby".

There's nothing wrong with that.

For the record, I loathe Windows to my very core and even moreso when I have to use it at work.

That being said, there simply isn't any single way on the planet that you can compare a 2 GIGAhertz machine to a 7 (or even 14) MEGAhertz computer and have the latter come out ahead in ANY category on the planet.  Sorry.  You just can't do it.

I often laugh when some people trot out reboot times and "I don't have to shut my machine down".

What you, and every other stalwart defender of the faith always forget is that yes, Windows and Macs take longer to boot, but when they boot, they're loading up easily 100 times more active features than the antiquated Amiga.  

If you want a fair test on boot times, take your 14mhz machine, load it down with network stacks, font handling stacks, printer handlers, and everything else that a stock Windows box does by default.  Have it then automatically connect to everything from your printer to the network to.. well, everything that Windows does automatically, then time it from the moment you hit the power button until the time the hard drive quits gronking.

You *will* find that your precious little Amiga will take -- at a minimum -- more time to boot than even a mid-level Windows box.  That is, *if* you could get the Amiga to even load 1/10th the features that Windows has, and you can't do it because frankly, the features Windows has by base install don't even exist for the Amiga.

I don't say this to tear you down.  I really don't.  Like I said, I'm a Mac guy and I hate Windows as much as you do, but... You can't sit here defending the Amiga as being better because it boots faster and come out sounding the least bit credible.  It just makes you sound like a fanboy, which I'm sure is not your intent.

Also for the record, prior to the demise of my last Windows box, which I worked on 10 hours a day, 6 days a week professionally for an Internet Registrar doing everything from programming to tech support.  During that time, my average "up time" (between reboots) was well over 6 months between reboots for a matter of 8 YEARS.  

Most of those reboots caused by extended power outages which drained the UPS system I have in place.

Live well, Learn much, Love often,

Wayne

[Wayne]

Is it about time to close this thread as pointless bickering over a subject which is clearly not true?

[Wayne]

Or it could be renamed the "the great PC v Amiga flamewar" and keep it as the fighting pit for people that want to duke it out so that they don't open equivalent threads elsewhere.

Or simply "The Delusional in the Amiga crowd versus reality 101".

Color me amazed that vBulletin seems to be readily handling 1 thread with over a thousand replies.  Xoops would have croaked by now.

Also... LOVE the tags for the thread...

[Wayne]

Perhaps this thread could be the beginning of a new coffee house section, well actually given the delusional nature of these postings maybe it should be called the crack house section.

Don't get me wrong folks, I'm delusional that a thread on this site can still pull 1000+ responses in a short time.  I just wish it was all threads..  Then we might actually be able to say that the Amiga isn't dead after all..

:laughing:

[Wayne]

I don't mind so much, the current status of the Amiga.  It is what it is, which is to say a niche machine that's still fun to play with, and reminds us of a simpler time.  Hell, I'd tinker with C64's if I had them.

What really gets to me on the pet peeve level is that in 2009, a full 15 years after the death of Commodore, there are still those so desperate to hang on to "what used to be", that they invent the smallest, most asinine reasons that they believe the Commodore Amiga -- a computer almost 8 times removed from Moore's Law -- is still a commercially competitive (not to even mention viable) platform...

While it's fun to debate these small niglets of factual stupidity, the Amiga is a "was" machine now, and I think we'd all be much happier -- if not less entertained -- if everyone could just come to grips with that and enjoy it for what it is. Not what it was.  Not what it "could have been".  

A hobby machine.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Now shut up, plug in your Pro Joystick and play F-18 Interceptor until your fingers bleed.  I command it!

[Wayne]

Did somebody say crack!? Oh goodie!

Now all we need is for someone to get mad, call the other person a Nazi and our lives will be complete..

Wayne

[Wayne]

Classic Amiga isn't competing against anything, the company that produced it went belly up 15 years ago.  It's a hobby machine that some of us find fun to play with, it's a bit of history.  It's a great learning tool to learn the basics.  Modern OSs do everything for us, the Amiga doesn't, it forces you to understand what you are doing and do it manually.  There is no competition for classic Amiga except the competition against time and electronics...

THANK YOU!  Someone actually "gets it".

Wayne