Amiga - What If It Were Today....

[runequester]

Tell us exactly how you feel



The desktop computer is becoming a thing of the past. Computers are bought by most people for simple internet tasks, and we're at the point where that will start phasing out in favour of smart phones, tablets, netbooks etc

[runequester]

Wish it did in large numbers. I sold Amiga's from about '89 to '91 in one of the more affluent areas in the Midwest (Chicago burbs). Can't tell you how many people I'd demonstrate the machine to (full Amiga 500 system w/ memory, spare drive and monitor for less than a grand) that would end up purchasing a $3000-$6000 IBM clone anyway. There was hardly any margin in selling Amiga stuff, but those overpriced PeeCee's brought in a cool 6%-8% commission off the top! As an Amiga user and believer since '87, it was REALLY difficult selling both platforms - let me tell you. The few I did sell, most of them ended up coming right straight back to us weeks later. Of course, the customers always knew when you wouldn't be around, despite your 50+ hour work week, so they'd return the Amiga (which I would then lose the already paltry commission on) and purchase a "multi-media" 8088 or 286 for thousands more from someone else. ARRGGHH!   lol

FOr a 286,I imagine "multimedia" meant "more than 4 colours"

Cobblers... they're toys/gimmicks that sad gits buy just to be trendy, how do you do D.T.P. on an I phone ? where to you plug in the printer ?, where's the video output to connect up to a monitor ? etc.. etc..

As I say nothing but toys/gimmicks that mugs buy just to try and look cool, sad really...

Not sure about the iphone, but my wife's phone has an HDMI output that can connect to all sorts of displays.

And printers :furious:
The sooner those infernal things disappear the better mate.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

[runequester]

The Amiga was introduced at a time when less than 1% of the world's population had use for computers in general. Today, with that percentage much higher and trends taking hold much faster, the Amiga, with technology even marginally comparable to today's standards, would likely flourish.

Think Johnny Depp instead of Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga instead of Debby Harry driving the hype and you might get a feel for what the enthusiasm could be.

I don't think the technology would necessarily have to be better than the competition. New products with a decent introduction tend to do well regardless of real technical merit.

But then again, the geniuses in Commodore's front office would again find a way to squander any success gained, and the Amiga would fizzle after its short rise to fame.

I think the real key is "good enough"

Ipods arent the best MP3 players.. but they were marketed well, and they are good enough for the majority of people.

Itunes isn't the best place to buy music online. But its good enough.

So on and so forth.

A good enough product that people can buy, and have marketed to them will always beat a better product that nobody knows about, or is out of reach

[runequester]

its one of these funny things.

On one hand, I love technology today. I like having a quick, reliable internet device at hand if I am travelling, I love having an MP3 player, I love my linux computer and what it stands for.

On the other hand, I hate the social networking, I hate people text messaging in the middle of a conversation or dinner, I hate the consumer must buy the new gadget mentality.


So eh

[runequester]

Actually, even well before the '286 there was a rather neat piece of kit that IBM created called the IBM Graphics System.  It consisted of two ISA (8-bit!) cards, each driven by an 8086 on the card, capable of millions of colors and some effects that wouldn't be seen again until ... well, the Amiga!

It was prohibitively expensive (imagine, you've bought an XT already, and now you turn around and have to buy essentially two more) and required a separate (and expensive) display.

But some of the real-time graphic effects you could get out of it were, for the time, amazing.

here are the specs on the card.

Very interesting. Thank you!