what kind of specs would I need to use my amiga everyday

[Marcb]

Jeez you guys are harsh, funny though.

I actually tried web browsing when I first resurrected the A1200 with a dkb cobra accelerator late last year, it was miserably slow and just stopped dead ( using Mosaic I think).
Funny thing is that I remember web browsing with it years ago, web sites must have been simpler back then..

[alexh]

If you need a benchmark on how fast webpages used to be:

http://thalion.exotica.org.uk

I created the site in 1998 for Amiga's and apart from the font I use (and the content) nothing has changed since.

All pages were hand edited in Gold-Ed (although some pages touched up recently with Frontpage Express)

I guess it is a bit dated.

[meega]

Marcb wrote:
Jeez you guys are harsh, funny though.

I actually tried web browsing when I first resurrected the A1200 with a dkb cobra accelerator late last year, it was miserably slow and just stopped dead ( using Mosaic I think).
Funny thing is that I remember web browsing with it years ago, web sites must have been simpler back then..

Take a look-see. Don't forget your rose-tinted specs. ;-)

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.amiga.org/

[persia]

Think of it this way, I have a friend that collect old cars.  He has an old Model T.  It's a great car to drive, it's simple to maintain and work on, it takes you back to the early days of automobiles.  Exactly what the Amiga does in the computer world.  But would you take a Model T on a road trip from Sydney to Cairns?  No, of course not.  

That's not a criticism of the Model T, it was and is a great automobile, the beginning of mass production.  It's simply a fact.  If you think of the Amiga in the same terms you will appreciate it and understand that what you want to do simply isn't possible.  It will lead to frustration and headaches.

Buy a cheap PC, surf the web and word process without problem and then, when you want the simple pleasures of yesterday's computing fire up the Amiga.

:pint::rtfm::elvis::juggler::mickeymouse::cheers::popcorn:

[Marcb]

Meega & Alexh,

Both look great on my PSP  :lol:

Thanks for both the links, just the kind of sites I can lose myself for hours in...

[Marcb]

@ Persia

agreed, I haven't tried using the 1200 for web browsing since.
My amiga memories are made up of many things but web browsing isn't one of them...

Funny story about the rose coloured glasses Meega alluded to : in an effort to explain to my 9yo what a BBS was I restored my BBS files to the 1200 & logged in locally to show off my brilliant ANSI menus and my door games I'd written.

God love him, he was too nice to tell me what he really thought but even I thought they were crap :-D

[meega]

persia wrote:But would you take a Model T on a road trip from Sydney to Cairns?  No, of course not.

Why not?

We travelled from Swan Hill, Victoria to Perth, Western Australia in a Model T Ford. At that time it took 26 days to complete the journey, whereas this time however, it is expected to take only 10 days.

[persia]

oh, wow the Nullarbor by Model T.  At least you did it in the winter

[swoslover]

Ok cool

All this curiosity was aroused, originally, when reading an ST forum where they bemoaned the fact the ST was dead while the Amiga scene was still very much active.

I didn't think it was all that unreasonable to use a "souped-up" Amiga for WP and the net, although now remembering laborious surfing on my 200mhz dreamcast I have some perspective.

[Psy]

swoslover wrote:
Ok cool

All this curiosity was aroused, originally, when reading an ST forum where they bemoaned the fact the ST was dead while the Amiga scene was still very much active.

Yes the Amiga scene is still active.

I didn't think it was all that unreasonable to use a "souped-up" Amiga for WP and the net, although now remembering laborious surfing on my 200mhz dreamcast I have some perspective.

The issue is the Amiga hardware is so dated it requires alot of souping-up just to match the performance of the Dreamcast.

The problem with the PPC system that offer Amiga compatibility (AmigaOne/PegasusPPC) is they are not very accessible thus software that takes advantage of the new hardware mostly doesn't exist.

[Tenacious]

@ swoslover

This has come up time and again and there are always ppl on all sides on the issue.  All computers are compromises, even those commonly reguarded as modern, state-of-the-art, etc.

There are a handful of ppl here who use the Amiga platform as their main computer, me included.  I have all the other platforms available to me too.  For me, it's a matter of fun, preference and trust.  I'm tickled with my choice.  Also, I spent the money for a capable Amiga (actually several) only when a great deal came along.

Only you can decide what your needs and expectations of modern web use are and if the Amiga can meet them.  One more free thinking individual is always welcome, grin.

If you decide to try the Amiga route, the 1200 is expandable. One of the big box Amigas might be easier and cheaper to get the required souped-uppedness.  Maybe not. (I've surfed on an A600 before. It was not as much fun as my current set-up.)

Good Luck.  Do it your way.


@ Alexh

Your page came up almost instantly.  I found the "Mythic Breasts" button very provocative until I read it closer.  Grin.

[stefcep2]

meega wrote:

Marcb wrote:
Jeez you guys are harsh, funny though.

I actually tried web browsing when I first resurrected the A1200 with a dkb cobra accelerator late last year, it was miserably slow and just stopped dead ( using Mosaic I think).
Funny thing is that I remember web browsing with it years ago, web sites must have been simpler back then..

Take a look-see. Don't forget your rose-tinted specs. ;-)

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.amiga.org/

I'd thought I'd try browsing some web pages on my A1200 68040 @40 mhz , but by reading web pages off a Cu Amiga cover CD because I can't be bothered getting it online but also to see how quickly old pages were decoded.  As a bonus it would show how it might perform on a high-speed connection.  I configured the browser to show image maps only and to use external viewers if I wanted to see the images, opening up on a separate screen. I used PAl overscan hires in 64 colors with ftext and fblit to help screen redraw speeds.  Pages reading off the 8x Cdrom were rendered very quickly, not as fast as a PC would, but quite acceptable.  If I configured to display images in within web pages, things slowed down a bit, but still OK.  I then did the same on my 68060 A4000 on a CGX screen, web browsing off the cd was every bit as fast the PC.  

I used my A4000 as my only machine up until 18 months ago, and i thought I'd get it online again.

Firstly, email using YAM was faster then outlook:  outlook seems to take longer establishing the connection to the server, and working out whats on it, before it decides to download the messages.  Web browsing speeds were ok if simple pages were being viewed: anything with complicated javascipt and layout took MUCH longer with lots of errors.  text was however nearly always rendered.  Other problems are that some sites insist you have a PC browser, flash animations really bog things down with errors, (having said that I don't use flash on my pc either) and some banking sites wouldn't let me in.

Not sure if this helps..

[Damion]

Simple browsing can be relatively quick on an 040/060 and patched AGA system. While definitely not recommended for everyday use, you could, say, check your gmail, transfer some money around, and read amiga.org with relative speed and ease.

Again though, it's more of a cool "novelty" factor than something you'd want to use exclusively.