3 ms·

The Amiga is similar to the Mac to the extent that the users loved it. Unlike the Mac however, the parent company detested and destroyed the Amiga.

jacquesm 17y ago
I remember when they first came out and literally standing glued to the floor, multiple active windows, it was the first time I ever saw that. The only other machines at the time capable of doing that were priced way out of ordinary mortals budget. There as the Acorn 'unicorn', probably the cheapest and then right away big $ stuff like the Apollos. There was no way I could afford a machine like that (nor the Amiga, for that matter, at least not at that time) so I stuck to my trusty 8 bitter for a bit longer and built the Elektuur 'GDP', a hardware assist for vector graphics. But it never looked as good as the Amiga OS.
- Luc 17y ago
  > [...] I stuck to my trusty 8 bitter for a bit longer and built the Elektuur 'GDP', a hardware assist for vector graphics. Interesting... This one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron#Slogger.2FElektuur_Turbo_Board http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron#Slogger.2FElektu...
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Close :) BBC model B.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  Same here. I brought home the BYTE issue with it on its cover and read the article eagerly. At that time, importing personal computers into Brazil was forbidden, and it took me a couple years to see an Amiga face to face, but from the extensive coverage, I was very impressed. I stuck to my Apple II for a couple more years before, grudgingly, moving to a v20-based PC. I never saw a 1000 in person, but I am the happy owner of a 500, and it's a centerpiece of my "interesting computer" collection. I really miss the 80's in that: you could tell different computers apart. Now even Macs are PCs...
rbanffy 17y ago
It was not that Commodore detested the Amiga. They were just aiming it at the wrong market for too long. They kept the Amiga a home computer. Finding a niche in videomaking allowed it to survive for some more time. It's analogous to what happened to the Mac - it was failing until desktop publishing created a niche for it. The difference is that it didn't work for the Amiga. The Amigas were built around TV signal timing. When it became common to run home computers with VGA screens, it took too long for Commodore to build a machine that could drive them. The Amiga 3000 was the first one with a VGA port, but, by then, it was depressingly clear the low-cost PCs had won.

jacquesm 17y ago

I remember when they first came out and literally standing glued to the floor, multiple active windows, it was the first time I ever saw that. The only other machines at the time capable of doing that were priced way out of ordinary mortals budget. There as the Acorn 'unicorn', probably the cheapest and then right away big $ stuff like the Apollos. There was no way I could afford a machine like that (nor the Amiga, for that matter, at least not at that time) so I stuck to my trusty 8 bitter for a bit longer and built the Elektuur 'GDP', a hardware assist for vector graphics. But it never looked as good as the Amiga OS.

Luc 17y ago
> [...] I stuck to my trusty 8 bitter for a bit longer and built the Elektuur 'GDP', a hardware assist for vector graphics. Interesting... This one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron#Slogger.2FElektuur_Turbo_Board http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron#Slogger.2FElektu...
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Close :) BBC model B.
rbanffy 17y ago
Same here. I brought home the BYTE issue with it on its cover and read the article eagerly. At that time, importing personal computers into Brazil was forbidden, and it took me a couple years to see an Amiga face to face, but from the extensive coverage, I was very impressed. I stuck to my Apple II for a couple more years before, grudgingly, moving to a v20-based PC. I never saw a 1000 in person, but I am the happy owner of a 500, and it's a centerpiece of my "interesting computer" collection. I really miss the 80's in that: you could tell different computers apart. Now even Macs are PCs...

rbanffy 17y ago

It was not that Commodore detested the Amiga. They were just aiming it at the wrong market for too long. They kept the Amiga a home computer. Finding a niche in videomaking allowed it to survive for some more time. It's analogous to what happened to the Mac - it was failing until desktop publishing created a niche for it. The difference is that it didn't work for the Amiga. The Amigas were built around TV signal timing. When it became common to run home computers with VGA screens, it took too long for Commodore to build a machine that could drive them. The Amiga 3000 was the first one with a VGA port, but, by then, it was depressingly clear the low-cost PCs had won.