Atari ST versus Commodore Amiga in pictures

[HenryCase]

Watched the vid, only minor differences between most of the screens, but as others have said showing intro screens isn't a truly accurate representation of the differences between the two machines.

@monami
Please clarify this one point for me (and please leave out the Atari almost buying Amiga history stuff, most of us know this already). Are you trying to say that the Atari ST's existence is the only reason the A500 was created?

[HenryCase]

@monami

I'm going to quote myself (how sad) so that my later comments make more sense:

HenryCase wrote:
Are you trying to say that the Atari ST's existence is the only reason the A500 was created?

In response...

monami wrote:
no i suspected that miner was in on the atari next gen computer and tried to cut their throat. and that using a reasonable ability of phycology "mines bigger than yours." he would win with a slighter improved computer that to be honest was his only want to get up the nose of atari corp or who ever.

You started so well with the "no" part, but the rest of your statement was certainly implying "yes". So to clarify again, you think the A500 was only created because Jay Miner wanted a computer that would compete with the Atari ST? It's a simple yes or no question.

(I'm leaving out the fact that the A500's existence was probably more due to Thomas Rattigan than Jay Miner, but the question is still valid if you replace 'Jay Miner' with 'Commodore').

[HenryCase]

@DigitalQ

Forgive my ignorance, but in what ways is OS/2 more similar to the Amiga than DOS-based Windows?

[HenryCase]

@monami

monami wrote:
i think the a500 was meant to usurp the st. make of that what you will.

Thank you for answering my question. I don't see it as being quite as straightforward as you propose. Take a look at this article on the history of the Amiga:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/amiga-history-part-5.ars/4
As you can see, the A1000 wasn't selling all too well, so Thomas Rattigan decided to split the Amiga line with a high end and a low end model, hence A500/A2000.

I'm not going to pretend that Commodore were making their decisions without considering what their competitors were up to, but I really think you're overselling the importance of the ST. Just my opinion.