Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Ahh yes (Score 4, Insightful) 103

To amplify on this a bit . . .

In the 1980s, a lot of people wanted to expose their kids to this newfangled "computer" technology. But not every kid was going to like it! ($400-$2500 in 1984 dollars, $1000-$6582 in 2021 dollars) was a lot to risk.

If it had a somewhat-usable keyboard and you could plug a few games into it, it was a start. The ZX81 got a LOT of people started!

Comment Re:then buy an old mac for $200 (Score 2) 220

It is the way of Macs. Keep a PowerMac G4 to run Quark, a G5 for that art application that was never updated, an early Intel Mac for GlassWriter Pro, a late Intel Mac for 93 Escort Wagon's app that needs Mojave, and a early M1 Mac to run the inevitable ARM-native stuff after the next transition. That's five computers over 20 years. I hope your work desk has a LOT of space . . .

Comment Re:We'd probably not be where we are today (Score 1) 221

Absolutely. For the Amiga to have survived, it would need to:
0. Get better business software. I tried word processing and creating spreadsheets on the Amiga. At least for me, it was a miserable experience. Great games, good imaging and audio software, but the business side was sorely lacking.
1. Embrace chunky graphics modes instead of bitplanes. Everyone moved on to 24 bits per pixel, some people still need more. Bitplane processing gets awkward when you start using lots of them.
2. Fix the weird audio/chip versus fast memory thing, probably by moving to some kind of split I/O versus memory bus like the x86. People who do lots of audio don't want to squeeze their samples into chip memory. And nobody, but nobody, wants to sort out multiple types of RAM to run their programs.
3. Bring protected memory and some multi-user capabilities to keep up with Windows and Linux. The whole "this one program took down your whole computer" thing was common to computers when the Amiga was first developed, but it got really old fast.
There's more, but this is probably enough.

It's not that you can't run an Amiga in 2019: there are several projects that produce modern Amiga and Amiga-like OSs. These can get you on the internet and play MP3s and have some deeply dedicated fans. It's just that you can generally do more, cheaper, with other operating systems now.

Comment Re:What a waste (Score 0) 64

Both OSs have plenty of things you just have to learn. A friend tried to tell me how to open the search box on his iPad: "Swipe down. No, not there. Not there either, I guess." And opening the control center in iOS 12 is as undiscoverable as possible. The only way to find it organically is to swipe in from the edge of the screen at every possible location. Honestly, it remind me of Windows 8: "Hover the mouse pointer over the top right corner of the main screen, and then scroll up and click a charm"

Android has plenty of flawed spots of its own! But let's not pretend iOS has clean hands here.

Slashdot Top Deals

Kill Ugly Processor Architectures - Karl Lehenbauer

Working...