How did Amiga influence you?

[cecilia]

My Amiga 2000 was my very first computer. It taught me everything about how to use a computer. Because it was logical I was able to see the relationship between icons and CLI commands. I was able to play around and figure things out.....I know it would never have been so easy or fun on another OS.

My Amiga let me see the possibilities of a computer as an artists tool. It was THE most important purchase of my career. I learned how to multitask - I still don't think you can do that on a windows machine. it DOES feel different.

Amiga let me see how to solve problems - this is a subtle point and I don't think I can fully explain it. I was able to see that computer related problems can be solved in a variety of ways. You just have to keep looking and you will eventually find it.

These and many other lessons were used during my career, even when we had to change to other computers.

"Amiga" is not just a computer, it's a way of thinking and creating. Which is why it will never die.

[stefcep2]

..maybe if all you do is boot the machine, look at the wallpaper, and shut it down..  Try editing video or encoding large batches of media on a PIII running Windows XP and then again on an i7 machine running Windows 7.  I guarantee you'll appreciate those extra resources.

And how, exactly is Windows 7 responsible for any of that?  Its a function of the faster/ more cores CPU.

Oh BTW, most encoding and decoding benchmarks I've seen in reputable PC magazines, XP is the fastest.  So the point that every new version of Windows steals some of your resources and slows your machine (for even things like encoding/decoding which is just number crunching and should just depend on the CPU) is very real.

[tone007]

And how, exactly is Windows 7 responsible for any of that?  Its a function of the faster/ more cores CPU.

That was exactly my argument, which was in response to "you never get to use any of the additional resources of your computer because Windows steals it all," which is obviously incorrect.

So the point that every new version of Windows steals some of your resources and slows your machine (for even things like encoding/decoding which is just number crunching and should just depend on the CPU) is very real.

Remove "new" from your above sentence and you've got it.  Every OS has overhead.  Overhead goes up as the OS becomes larger and wants to do more things at once, as they all seem to be doing.  A faster computer with a newer OS is still going to be faster at number crunching than an older computer with an older OS, unless your application has been coded horribly wrong.  If your older hardware is capable of running the newer OS, obviously more of your machine's resources will be taken up with basic OS tasks, but with fine tuning and staying within some limits (don't work in swap!) you'll notice a marginal difference in number crunching tasks.

These are very basic principles, and it sounds like you've almost got a handle on it.

[stefcep2]

That was exactly my argument, which was in response to "you never get to use any of the additional resources of your computer because Windows steals it all," which is obviously incorrect.



Remove "new" from your above sentence and you've got it.  Every OS has overhead.  Overhead goes up as the OS becomes larger and wants to do more things at once, as they all seem to be doing.  A faster computer with a newer OS is still going to be faster at number crunching than an older computer with an older OS, unless your application has been coded horribly wrong.  If your older hardware is capable of running the newer OS, obviously more of your machine's resources will be taken up with basic OS tasks, but with fine tuning and staying within some limits (don't work in swap!) you'll notice a marginal difference in number crunching tasks.

These are very basic principles, and it sounds like you've almost got a handle on it.

"Seem to be", except that in terms of functionality, Win 7 offers nothing much for the user in addition to what XP can do, 'cept for a faster search tool (which you can get for free from third parties for XP anyway), and security (which still requires a third party security suite on Win 7, and can mostly be avoided if people stopped logging in as admins in XP).

For all the Win 7 hoopla, XP is still the most used OS in the world, by a long shot.

The windows-pc upgrade world has always felt like two step forward, one step back.  The Amiga never felt like that.

[tone007]

..dont forget far better 64-bit support, which is increasingly important with 4GB seeming to be the starting point for RAM these days.

I don't disagree that XP is the most widely used OS, nor do I suggest that 7 is a good choice for older hardware.  We're still using XP at the office, our clients are still using it, and it's been around nearly 10 years.  Win7 is making the rounds though, very difficult to buy a new PC with XP anymore, most home users seem happy to go with 7.  I'm waiting for the day they ask me to install 7 in the test lab.

..and in all fairness, Amiga really only did take a couple of steps...