Why do you stick with the Amiga?

[amiga92570]

I have had an amiga since 1986, it just wouldn't feel right without one. :-) Its also really fun. :-D

[amiga92570]

murple wrote:
Two exceptions to my statement that I dont use vintage machines for serious stuff, though so far I haven't done much with either... I'd like to explore using Genlock stuff to do some video editting. I'd also like to explore music making on the C64 and Amiga. This applies to the C64 more because the SID chip has a very distinct cool sound.

The 64 is very cool to play with the sounds. Stereo sids are the greatest.

[marcfrick2112]

Why do I stick with the Amiga?.... Lots of reasons.. The
fact that there are freeware apps on the Amiga that work
better than some commercial apps. on the PC... A big part of
it is the sense of community with Amiga users...
Not long ago, A4000_Mad from here helped me much fixing up
my DirOpus config. and has E-Mailed me regularly ever since...

Maybe it's the fact that my A1200 Tower is my favorite computer,
so I have always spent more money on it (It has the 20"
Stereo monitor, $500.00 (when new) Epson Stylus Photo printer,
scanner, digitizer (audio and video) etc.....

Maybe it's just because, when I boot up my miggy, I don't blurt
out, "OK, NOW what's wrong...."
Compare that to my dad's Win98SE machine, that will 'sometimes'
connect to the Internet, 'sometimes' his image processing programs
work.... My WinXP machine connects fine....if you wait long enough..

In the time it takes me to get connected on my PC, I have
booted up my Amiga, gone online, read my E-Mail, and shut it
off....
And what idiot at Micro$oft thought of putting 'shut down' under
the 'start' menu??? My amiga has a shut down button too, it's called
the power switch.....

[dammy]

Because it's not Linux and certainly because it's not Windbloat.  My primary OS is Linux with XP hanging around mostly for my game (DAoC).  I like having a clean and snappy OS to escape from X11 and XP.  

The one thing I do feel wealthy in this, is the community.  I feel apart of it, I know even as a none coding or none artistic individual, I can make a slight difference.  The same would be pretty hard to be said with a straight facee in regards to *nix or Windows developer enviroment.


Dammy

[EDanaII]

I stopped sticking to my Amiga ages ago. But I keep coming back to it because of what it once was... I just miss it. :-)

Ed.

[skurk]

I guess it's like asking an old couple why they still are married.  Sure they probably see other younger, more attractive candidates here and there, but once you've found your true love, you don't let it go.

[avanham]

I would have to agree with the others that said the Amiga community is what keeps the amiga the most interesting.  

After that, I would say that it is the fact that the amiga was designed by a few guys with a great idea.   And there are lots of examples of hardware add-ons created by small teams.  In the modern computer world that just doesn't happen anymore.  One guy really can't make that big a splash.  Just look at the credits for a video game and you see that it took a hundred people to make it.  These days, one guy is insignificant.  That is different in the amiga community.  It is full of guys (and ladies) that made some big contribution without having a million dollar budget or huge design teams.

Lastly, I think that as a programmer it is entirely possible to learn every detail about the amiga (not that I am in that position).  Try mastering Mac OS X or Windows XP.  How many other machines give you a complete desctription of the hardware registers and all the libraries?  

[TNovosel]

@skurk

Hehe, nice one. :-)

[TrevorDick]

Have you tried Windows? (any flavour) ;-)

TrevorDick

[eidofoor]

I don't care about teaching my old amiga new tricks. It tried to do the PCI/USB/PPC/RTG/AHI thing, but it just isn't my cup of tea.
Sure it worked for a while, but I no longer have the need to compete with silly PC users on what machine is the best.

Besides, it makes me sad that all the new stuff becomes crippled due to the IP troubles and the resulting lack of support.

But instead of letting the amiga lose it's appeal, I reverted to the classic amiga aproach; Simple stable machines that do exactly what it says on the tin! In my case, real-time video control. And for that matter, there's still no substitute for D-paint and a Genlock!

[stopthegop]

I don't intend to start any big arguments over the merits of Amiga OS with this question. I'm just honestly curious what people perceive as the benefits over alternative solutions.

The Amiga is, by far, the best 'personal' computer ever created.  Windows, Macintosh, and Linux are the "alternatives".   Sometimes, in order to view a poorly written, poorly designed, non-standard website, I need to use an alternative computer.  

[swift240]

In the beginning I started with an Amiga A600 that for me was it.
Then onto a 1200, I got myself a 486. I noticed a big difference between the two computers.
The Amiga did not throw wobblies or crash at the slightest thing.
With the Amiga you can actually get into it, for example the directories, C,L,S,Libs,Devs. nice and easy but a PC not a chance there is all sorts of stuff like system,system32, and all the Registery directories and all sorts of other before it will work.
On the Amiga I found AmosPro and that was and still is great to work with. For some reason I just find the Amiga far better to get on with.
A PC seems to be more hostile.
It just amazes me that when the Amiga first ever came out and I saw the first ever demo on a BBC program a A500 it was, it was years ahead of any PC of its day no matter what.
I use Amikit on my Athlon but for me you cant beat the real thing.
I am more than happy that I stuck with the Amiga over all this time.  You ask any Amiga user the amount of fun they had or still are having with there Amiga. I use a PC, I have  a good time with my Amiga.
Its just a great pity that the company of the day was as bad as there was, if they was not then the Amiga would be another story.
To be fair its not as fast as a modern day PC, but lets face it if the Amiga had the exact same power as a modern day PC I would dump the PC.
Its just sad how it ended up for the Amiga, a lot of fancy talk but nothing hard to back it all up.  I mean nothing really serious to keep it going in the modern market.

I have spent a lot of money on my Amiga, why you may ask? When I could have put all that money on a really fast powerful PC?  Because I find the Amiga worth it.

Simple as......

[Seaquest]

Because its so fun and easy to use:-)
And like many others have said you have control not the computer.

I use my classic Amiga daily, running protracker and listening to olds mods:-) watching old demos:-)
playing old games:-) reading my mail etc.....

and midi sequencing with Radium:-)

It just isn't the same trough UAE:-(

I just cant get enough of true Amiga's

[guru-666]

I like my amigas because they are unique and interesting to work with.  I have had one since the 1000 days... BUT I am getting tired of paing big money to fix increasing problems with these old systems.  Prices are out out control and functionality is pretty weak, hate to say but thinking of ditching mine to get some free space and maybe some cash I can use on new toys...

[leirbag28]

@MskoDestiny

 I know this may sound ingnorant to say, but As StopTheGop said........The Amiga is the best computer ever made. I know its best if I gave more details why so I will try saying the reasons I use it.

First I agreee with what everyone here said because it is true in all our experiences. I can get DEEP DEEP DEEP into my Amigas OS and manipulate it at will...........it is excrutiatingly fun to know how powerful you are with this machine.

Just think of why Boys play video games and girls don't............knw what ts really about?  Boys like it because they can control something exactly as they want to move it and control it.........they can make the character shoot, Jump, Roll, climb, with no slowdown and supersmooth scrolling..........and finding out combo moves and executing them in Street Figher types. being able to blow up your enemy by pressing the fire button and he's a gonner! its alot to do with Power. No one wants a Robot that disobeys him or crashes in the middle of his task............nor does anyone want a Robot that tells his master what do do, or you need a Masters degree to operate...or at leat to fix or trouble shoot.

The Amiga and Workbench OS (AmigaOS) offer the user super control and knowledge. I feel like I can create an Arexx script and can program, even though I dont know........but its so close and reachable that I feel I can do it. And besides Programs like SCALA let you do almost anything........I think SCALA is one of the programs that define the Amiga........I dont know if your aware but SCALA inc helped create part of the Amiga OS and SCALA was designed for the Amiga specifically...........I remember them trying to create SCALA for the PC.......it ran so bad because of Windows, that SCALA had to actually create an Entire New OS for the PC just to get it run properly.

Windows is still a massive Memory hog........I feel scared everytime I use windows when I am attempting to multitask, that the Computer will start accessing the Harddrive for virtual memory thus slowing down the action (wow do I despise this to the core)

When you have something good and then compare it, one can clearly see that Windows is a disaster. This si really true.and not an attempt to insult the OS. When you look at the History of how windows was made and what its foundation is.......one might be able to see that.........as all they have done is build on that very bad foundation.........one day Windows is going to topple over I feel.

 I never ever have to worry about Amigas functionality or the OS slowing down as it runs fine on 1mb of Ram or 4mb if you have your OS spruced up...........thats darn amazing. I feel the Amiga OS can be slapped onto a PDA and work insanely awesome...........even my Pocket PC crashes and slows down like heck........thats utterly unacceptible and ridiculous.

I have never seen a Gameboy or Nintendo DS or a PSP slow down............this is how Amigas are........but why the heck to Pocket PC's slow down?

I also love the way Hardware integrates with the Amiga. Im never scared that I lost some gfx driver or something. Very very refreshing. In this day and age with the world geting more complex......I dont have time to worry about some DLL freakin file...........DLL hell man! ANNOYING.


We Amigans are passionate as heck for a reason........one because we know what we hate(Windows.....and with very good reason), and we know what works and why we love it...........Amiga!  thats why I stick with it.

[rdolores]

I still use it for two main reasons: Nostalgia and Challenge.

Nostalgia, because the Amiga is the first computer I ever really got into, mainly for music composition and desktop publishing.

Challenge, because it is a lot of fun trying to get the system to do modern things it was never designed to do in the first place.

My main Amiga now is an Amithlon. With it I have connected it to the Internet and my home network. I also have set up a CD-burner on it as well as USB capability.

Using RDesktop, I can remote into my WinXP machine which I use as a pseudo-Bridgeboard to run FireFox and other modern apps which we don't have on the Amiga. I've also used TwinVNC to remote into an Ubuntu Linux box.

It's neat to have Amiga OS3.9 running on a 1280x1024 32-bit color screen, and it's blazingly fast. I also have ShapeShifter to run my old Mac programs (System 7.5).

It's also neat to play CD's and MP3's as well as my old Mod files.

For Deluxe Music, I still use my old classics. Nothing can emulate the warmth and accuracy of the original Paula chips.