Amigas and OSX
Congrats on the switch!
Your posting brings back great memories of the C64 days.
OH the ecstacy of the very first time I ran THROUGH one of the robots on "Impossible Mission" game b/c I had altered the assembly code from LDA $DO1E to NOP NOP NOP! Yes, I became addicted!
It was the openeing of a new way of looking at computers for me - one I still find myself dabbling in. Granted, 8 bits were easier to twiddle than 16, but when the AMIGA came along, I was one wondering why in the world people would ever use a greenscreen-limited, non-multitasking, WOW-I-can-make-a-CIRCLE (GASP!)-in-my-drawing-program type machine when they could have 3D ray tracing on an AMIGA.
As the PC evolved, it still sadly lacked ability/friendliness. Even Mac platforms were B&W and had no concept of multitasking.
I was an AMIGA die-hard. The fact is they were way ahead of their time. In fact there is still something to be said for AMIGA when compared to my beloved OS X Tiger-equipped G4 1.25 Flat Panel (more later).
Time progressed - Windows got a whole 16 colors! AMiGA 100,000 virtual colors onscreen vs 16 - OK.
I was laughing when one of my friends was amazed when he could make his Windows machine say, "I'll be back." When, for years, I had used the "Chatterbox" freeware that had allowed assigning a voice/sound/music clip to any action I wanted on the AMIGA Workbench.
Virtual reality was introduced using the AMIGA b/c it had a dedicated graphics chip that could make real-time graphics. It always seemed the Windoze world took AMIGA nomenclature and applied it to their inferior tech. The result was most people hearing VR would, mistakenly, use the Windoze definition. AMIGA VR was the funny looking headset that put you into a virtual world to interact with characters in that world. Windows VR only a 3-D maze displayed onscreen. What angered me was that such a great game concept was killed in the US by the computer-making-powers-that-were. AMIGA VR was a hit in Europe. Europeans were a little more careful of how they spent money (since they do not have as much of it to go into hobbies, etc.) Europe was always ahead of the US in seeing tha value of the AMIGA.
Years pass... Steve introduced the "NEXT" machine. Using one, I was amazed at how much it's user-frienliness and GUI structure felt AMIGA-ish. I heard rumors Steve had seen the AMIGA and did some cloning. I am not sure of this. However, anyone who has used both systems will admit they are VERY much alike. The AMIGA even had "AmiDock" - a "dock" like the NEXT used.
OH NO! Commodore Busness Machines went under. Large, heavy shackles were then a part of my computing life. I was forced to step backwards 10-12 years in technology/user-frienliness/ease-of-use.
Hmmm...choose Apple or a Windoze.
I chose the Windoze platform over the Mac's-that-were. Mainly b/c I specifically was un-impressed with Apple at the time. Why? Because their Apple GS (was this the name?) was called the "AMIGA-killer" but fell flat on its face.
We had a person show up to demonstrate the AMIGA-killer it at our local AMIGA users group. AnAMIGA running the good ol' "Boing" demo was up front. The Apple owner (as he had come "prepared") put a duplicate of the demo on his Apple (with sort of a smug look on his face). We sped our Boing Ball up by hitting the numbers on the keyboard. He did the same on his. See? IApple has all the power an AMIGA does!
We then slid the front screen down to reveal the "Juggler" animation (a 3-D "person" juggling 3 mirrored balls [each keeping the proper reflection in them as they moved] running behind Boing; we then slid down this screen to reveal the "Robo-City" animation running behind both the other demos. The AMIGA-killer owner powered down and, without a word, walked out the door.
In 1998, my 7 Mhz AMIGA 500 on the internet spun circles around the lack of ability my "cuting edge" Windoze '98 at 350 Mhz could do. Dedicated chip set? What WERE the designers of the AMIGA thinking?
About 4 years ago (3?), I went to Best Buy as I needed to upgrade the Windoze machine. I laughed when the sales person asked, "Do you know what Multitasking means?" My wife rolled her eyes and groaned while jabbing me in the ribs (trying to get me to keep quiet). He asked why I laughed. To my wife's horror, I proceeded to tell the salesman that I most certainly DID know what multitasking meant - but I also knew he did NOT!" I explained the (re)invention of Windoze "Mul-tie-tasking" was not true "Mul- tee- tasking" as the original platform of the AMIGA had predated this "new" concept by over a decade. I went on to explain the custom chip set.
To further the point (wife now tugging at the elbow), and as a death blow to his idea that he DID know what multitasking was, I asked him what would happen to the speed of other running programs if he tried to format a floppy. His response, "of course," was that the machine would bog down until the formatting was over. I told him I had daisy chained 2 drives to my AMIGA and was using them (and the internal drive) to format a few boxes of disks - while using the word processor - AND without slowing the machine down. THIS, I said to him, was what "Mul-TEE-tasking" meant. Too bad he had missed the boat.
Fast forward a few years. I got the coolest looking computer I had ever seen - a ruby red iMac. Why? It looked more AMIGA-like with its GUI and I was hopeful. Speech recognition was a reality and I loved it.
The shackles lightened for a little time. Then the system crash came and put them right back on. I got tired of trying to get the machine to work properly again.
I was forced back into the Windoze world b/c of where I worked.
OS X - The new operating system - to teachers - for FREE???? ANYTHING to get me out of this insane world of Windoze! I got a white 500 Mhz iBook. At first, I really liked it ... felt like an AMIGA.
Hmm - a few links of the chains fell from off my hands (Clink, Clink!)!
Preferences in only one place (ooh - veryAMIGAlike - Clink, Clink).
Icons actually pop onscreen when I insert a disk (Clink, Clink)!
True (almost) Plug and Play - just like the AMIGA (Clink, Clink).
Crash! Fix. Crash! Fix. Crash! Re-install?! AAArrrgh - never heard the word in the AMIGA days. The shackles were lighter, but still there.
Back (horror in my mind at the thought) to Windoze for business again. Grrr - heavy shackles replaced.
I moved to a new location and was given a WINDOZE system for my desk. Finding just how inefficient Windoze is in networking situations put even more of a weight upon me. Oh how I longed for the good ol' AMIGA "It just works: days.
2 years of struggling - I was finally ready, no matter the pain, to get rid of this plague called Windoze.
Ebay helped with a great buy on an 800 flat panel (hey - if nothing else it was the coolest looking machine I had ever seen - this would help ease the pain!). Maybe OS X'[s ugs were gone!
(choir sining in background)
Hallelujah...Hallelujah...Hallelujah...
Need I say more? My shackles of so many years are gone! Tiger is like the AMIGA reborn. I admit I STILL wish they would design the machine around a set of dedicated chips (like one JUST for speech recognition - this would be truly amazing!). The AMIGA's chips were only 7 Mhz and it could do a real-time vuirtual walkthrough of a building - with a SINGLE-SPIN CD ROM drive. CCan you imagine what a true multitasking architecture would do with today's modern chip speeds?
As a side note - personally, I think if they used this approach of dedicated chips, tieds to a central CPU, that AI research would be a lot farther along than it is. This is a very simple model of the way the human brain works - so why not do it in a machine?
Anyway, for the first time in a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time my computing power is back (AMIGA cloned as NEXT, NEXT cloned as OS X)!
YES! BASH shell - and it uses UNIX commands - hmmmmm - seems to me I remember Arrex on the AMIGA looking something like this!
Hey - AmigaDOS commands and UNIX seem... like they fell off of the same tree - visionaries, those AMIGA people!
Thanks Steve - its fun once more...
Thanks Jay. The taste of the future you gave us back in the 80's was amazing. can you imagine how far we would be if the idea had stuck? Twenty years later the custom chip set has yet to be reborn...
but if you were still with us, I know you would also like Apple pie!
