I'll eventually get a SAM or (hopefully something more powerful will come along) to
run 4.1 with. But really, the legacy Amiga systems are where it's at for me. I do use
my A2500 for a lot of modern things. Why? Because it can. Especially newsgroup
reading, mail and surfing. For me, it's about using the original hardware in ways I
never have before. The Deneb is a great example of this. So is the accelerated video
card. The machine seems like two machines really... the Desktop environment and
then the 15khz games aspect. OS3.9 is new to me (even though I've had it for 7 years)
as far as my every day Amiga usage goes and I'm still pretty thrilled with it. The fact
that there's an Aminet repository really makes ownership of a legacy Amiga totally
legitimate for usage as an every day machine. Tinkering around with or not, I'm
still "using" the system in the literal sense. While I do use my Mac's to burn a DVD
or CD or transfer music files ala iTunes & my iPod, there's really not too much I can
think of that I can't get my Amiga to do. Stuff that *I* personally use a computer for
I'm talking about. If I was more serious into electronic music, I guess I'd learn to use
Garageband more. If I was more serious about using all the crap that came with my
$1800 Adobe suite, I guess I'd take better pictures worth editing in the first place. But
as they sit now, the Mac stuff is pretty useless to me. Going back and using programs
on the Amiga I never got a chance to in the past is where a lot of the fun is. They're
more compelling to learn than a modern program IMO. Deluxe Music and MIDI for
example. On an A500 with 3mb RAM no less.
The legacy Amiga computers work and they work extremely well. From the minute
you turn them on to actually working with and loading programs - they're quick. Way
snappier than my Mac. To be honest and this may seem like a lame excuse to some, I
hate opening any of that Adobe stuff up on my G5 2.1ghz Mac. It especially takes
forever for Photoshop to load and when it does, I still don't know how to fully use the
damn thing. And Dreamweaver?!? Bah. Guess it's time to take some courses, or stick
with iWeb & iPhoto ;-)
Bottom line - I will get a 4.1 system someday and I suspect I'll be just as tickled with
it as I was when I got my first A1000 with OS1.1. I want an alternative to the Mac and
I've been PeeCee free forever now. I would and plan on using an OS4.1 system truly
as an everyday computer. Be nice to not even use a Mac to be honest. The uniqueness
is gone with the release of 10.5. My system feels like a bloated and inefficient
PeeCee clone.
