Amiga Multitask

[Thorham]

I find it quite cool than Amiga in 1985 could multitask

Preemptive multitasking is nothing special, any CPU that can save registers, program counter and stack pointer can do it. That means machines such as the C64, MSX, and other 8 bitters can do preemptive multitasking as well

[Thorham]

"Can do" and "actually did" are different.
I believe he is saying he is impressed that the Amiga actually did it..

All I'm saying is that preemptive multitasking isn't impressive from the computer hardware's point of view, because just about anything can do it properly

[Thorham]

The C64 was my first computer and as much as I can remember, there was no way to task switch and have more than 1 open application and switch between them.

That's because the OS doesn't have preemptive multitasking, not because the C64 can't do it (it's easy to do, actually).

[Thorham]

Well, that's basically the problem, isn't it? Software companies (or, actually, pretty much all companies, these days) have zero interest in actually providing quality anymore except insofar as it can be used to justify a higher price tag, because the whole pirahna-pool atmosphere of the modern business world sneers at the idea of pride in a job well done, let alone any other reason for doing anything than making the most money with the least expenditure of effort possible. It's a disease...

Very well said. Greed is what drives these 'people'. Especially the greedy trash at the top. These 'people' need to be kicked down into the gutter where they belong (time for another French revolution).

[Thorham]

And because of that, they could all multitask as badly as each other.

Memory protection and multitasking are to separate things, because neither one requires the other. You could, for example, have a single tasking OS with memory protection.

Pre-emptive multitasking means you can still be run, even if some other software is so badly written that it never yields.

Why would you even want to use such badly written crap anyway?

[Thorham]

As for the 6510 based C64 doing multitasking, yeh sure and a Sinclair C5 has 4 wheels so is as good as driving to the shops in a real car lol.

You say it as if it would be utterly useless, which with extra memory it obviously wouldn't be.