microcrapintel... No Thanks!

[stopthegop]

"And then there was one..."

This merging of Microsoft and Apple was entirely predictable; nauseating, but somehow stimulating because they so richly deserve each other.  Bad marries worse.  May their union grow to be as big as...?  Well, as big as the Titanic.  True innovation in computer development is dying, if not dead, under the weight of these two alleged "competitors": co-conspirators is more like it.  Two bloated, greedy monoliths consolidated into one massive, reaking blob of self-interested power.  

I'm not saying that technolgy hasn't progressed in the last 15 or so years.  Clearly it has.  But only for one (ok, two)platform(s)!  The small company with a great original idea doesn't stand a chance; the idea will either be bought immediately, then buried or it will be stolen outright and included free in the next version of Wincintosh.  I don't see what is so "innovative" about selling, say, a 1.0Ghz chip one week and calling it things like "breakthrough", "cutting edge", "all new", "totally redesigned", etc.. then the following week introducing the same exact chip, only with a slighly higher voltage applied to its master clock ocillator and a few pin re-assignments to make it incompatible with all previous versions, and describe it in those exact same terms.  Week after week, month after month, year after year.  The 2.5ghz PC that I own today running Windows is basically the same slow, crash-prone piece of {bleep} that I had in 1994.  Ditto for all the years in-between.  Software is even worse.  We went to the moon on 64K, but now we need 100 Meg just to send email.  Thats progress?  

The consolidation in the computer industry at this point seems inevitable.  Microsoft likes to call it "competing".  With whom?  I grew up in Missouri.  We had a term for it.  Its called inbreading.  I'll keep my Amigas as long as they're legal!  Cheers

[stopthegop]

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Merge??? Are you refering to "Boot Camp"? If so, I personally would call that offering the end user more choice.
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Last I checked Bill Gates owned ~20% of Apple's (not a majority stake, but quite possibly a plurality stake?) stock.  Correspondingly, Steve Jobs owns (or has owned) a significant chunk of MS stock. I'm honestly not sure if this is still the case, but if I was betting I would stake that they each still do.  Wasn't Microsoft, back in the 90s, Apple Corp's "Angel Investor?", saving them from certain bankruptcy.  Oops, what I meant to say was they are in fact "competitors".... uh hu.   You are right about choice.  I go to a computer store and they give me a choice.  Wintel or the door.  And yea, Mac...  Just for argument's sake, I'll cede the point and agree that Mac was indeed a choice (albeit a lousy one).  I said was a choice.  Now even Macs use intel chips and run Windows without emulation.  So where's my choice now?   If it looks like a PC and runs the same software as a PC and uses exactly the same hardware as a PC, then...  Its a PC!  If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck....    



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I'm yet to see my current Windows box crash and it runs oh so much faster than anything I have owned previous, I wish my A1200 was as stable. As for 100Mbps connections for email, I only have 10Mbps and email works perfectly fine  
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My first Amiga was a 500 in 1987 (maybe it was '88?).  After that an A4000.  I had never even SEEN a crash until I got a PC.  I know of numerous organizations that have Amiga computers in production to this day precisely because they do not crash.  They are still widely used in PLC environments (factories, mechanical automation, assembly line, robotics, etc..).  The US FRB uses them to maintain "absolute, 100%, 7x24x365" uptime of currency monitoring systems.  Nasa uses them (although I'm not so sure thats an endorsement anymore?).    Anyway, if your 1200 is crashing something isn't configured right.    



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Not much the end user can really do about it, but there are alternatives to Windows and we are free to choose what we want to run. I personally use a whole variety or operating systems, Windows, MacOS, Linux, BSD, AmigaOS, they each serve their purpose and have all served me well. So see, we do have a choice, just open your eyes.
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You're right about that.  But I reserve the right to {bleep} about it.    Of the systems you listed, which one really stands out to you as truly being different?   Only the Amiga.  The others are genetic mutations of each other.  At least imho.  It would be like buying a car and, say, Ford was the dominant manufacturer.  Every car dealer would only carry Fords, but you'd have a "choice" between a Ford Escort, a Ford Truck, a Ford Sedan, or a Ford Escape.  If you didn't want any of these, you could also buy a Lincoln (which, unknown to many consumers, is owned by Ford).   Problem is Lincoln has less than 5% market share, so its more difficult to find parts for plus 3/4 of all gas stations don't sell gas that will work in a Lincoln....  etc.  

[stopthegop]

D.A.R.E.
Drugs are really excellent.  

[stopthegop]

I don't see what is so "innovative" about selling, say, a 1.0Ghz chip one week and calling it things like "breakthrough", "cutting edge", "all new", "totally redesigned", etc.. then the following week introducing the same exact chip, only with a slighly higher voltage applied to its master clock ocillator and a few pin re-assignments to make it incompatible with all previous versions, and describe it in those exact same terms.

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Ahhh, now I see, we've moved onto Intel bashing, hmmm, is that an "axis of evil" I see forming?
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That is not Intel bashing.  Thats the truth.

[stopthegop]

Not my 500, never once crashed.  The 4000 did occasionally, sure.  but a lot of the time it was my own fault.  I was gaining confidence with it, writing c code, and in general trying to do more things.  So yes, I succeeded on several occasions in getting my A4000 to crash.  But it never did so without my help.  I can't say the same for the many PCs I've owned and the few I actually paid money for.  PCs and Macs are free here in Brooklyn on Mondays and Thursdays: Trash day.

[stopthegop]

The speed thing is nice, but way overrated.   Speed ratings are usually just fallic substitutes (bragging rights) for adolescent boys who play video games all the time.  I'm way too old to qualify for that demographic..  As such, to say modern PCs are "faster" than Amigas is a true statement.  But that does not mean Amigas aren't fast.  Mine sure is.  Fast enough, anyway.  A computer isn't necessarily "slow" only because of the existance something faster.  Last month's PC was considered fast, Last month.  But this month, that same PC becomes "slow" the moment a faster one is released.  That kind thinking is really nutso.  Absurd, bordering on pathalogical imho.  But boy does it ever work on a gullible public.  I sure wish I'd bought Intel stock when the brainwashing began.  Anthropologists will study this strange behavior in 10,000 years..

[stopthegop]

I only had that A500 for a year and a half.  It was the first computer I actually owned.  Yes, in 1988 I was pretty green and didn't really do much with aside from use the word processor and play games.  I remember playing with Flight Simulator on it and also connecting to Compuserv and actually filing flight plans with it.  I was a 15 student pilot taking flying lessons at the time.  I sold the A500 not long after that -I think- to buy a dirtbike.  I don't see why its so hard for you to believe that it never crashed on me.  I wasn't doing raytracing with it or anything like that, but I was most definately 'using' it.  When I got my first A4, as I said earlier, I started doing more.  Naturally, I met the guru.  But it was almost always my own fault.  Live and learn.  These days I almost never get the guru.  The Mirage 4k is our main family computer, we use it every day.  Wife is a professional writer; she uses it for dtp and web surfing.  I use it to do modeling and cad projects and, of course, surf.  

[stopthegop]

I could have been clearer about what I was trying to say, for sure..  I don't think I'd had any caffeinated beverages at that point in the morning yet.