ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2017
Entry 3rd November 2017: Post: 4
Are you a survivor ?
As the years progress the battle cry of Eric Schwartz becomes
ever more poignant. So in truth.. ' are you an Amiga survivor ? '
Old words with a heavy heart
'The Amiga is also a testament to having advantages that double
as disadvantages. The Amiga has custom-made graphic and sound
chips that are heavily interdependent with the main processor
and the OS. This means graphics, animation, video, and multimedia
applications are very powerful, fast, and capable regardless of
the processor speed. It also means it's not so simple to set up a
retargetable display (it's easier now than it used to be) or
change the system over to a faster processor type such as PowerPC.
The Amiga has a very efficient graphic operating system with
preemptive multitasking that uses little memory (under 1 meg)
and disk space (a minimal system can run from a DD floppy).
It doesn't take much imagination to guess the benefits of
such a system, considering the Mac and PC can't match it's
efficiency, and probably never will. Unfortunately, a lightweight
system doesn't match the other's feature set and polish, such
as built in networking, virtual memory, and a Minesweeper game.
There are other examples in this vein, but you get the idea.
The Amiga is far from a perfect computer platform, but nothing
else is either. I prefer the Amiga, pure and simple. I admit,
you have to work to get the stuff you want for it, but I look
at it as a classic car sorta thing. It's a lot easier to live
with a new overpriced Toyota fatass car, if I didn't have any
pride or spirit in me, but I'll stick it out for as long as
it takes with my Amiga Mustang with the rust spots in the rear
fender and laugh at you all. A lot of you might be saying
"It's only a computer!", to which my response is "It's only a car.
It's only a college. It's only a religion." There's a lot less
difference from your own causes than you might think, so don't
bug me about being an Amiga advocate until you can tie a name
to your computer, and 'Packard Bell' doesn't count.'
Eric W. Schwartz
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