From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: sdlitvin@earthlink.net   
   Subject: Re: William Shatner wants YOU to buy a VIC-20   
      
   Your Name wrote:   
   > "Brian Thorn"  wrote in message   
   > news:7lqeg5d826td8m4i5oq9v92rjtlc4qjnil@4ax.com...   
   >> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:45:26 -0800 (PST), Graeme    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On Nov 20, 12:04 am, "Your Name"  wrote:   
   >>>> The VIC-20 *was* "the best thing since warp drive". We had one which   
   > was   
   >>>> later upgraded to a C64, and then my brother bought an Amiga 500 ...   
   > and   
   >>>> then Commodore was destroyed by inept and incompetent management, so we   
   >>>> moved to Apple Macs.   
   >>> Yeah, it was.  People forget how groundbreaking those systems were in   
   >>> their day.   
   >> VIC-20 and Commodore 64 were decent enough, but their main virtue was   
   >> their price tag. Commodore dumped them on the market at very close to   
   >> a loss, launching a price war that competitors (Radio Shack, Apple,   
   >> Texas Instruments...) were unwilling to wage, leaving Commodore   
   >> dominating the home computer market of the early 80s. Of course, it   
   >> also left Commodore on weak financial ground where they were never   
   >> able to take full advantage of the truly groundbreaking Amiga in the   
   >> second half of the 80s.   
   >    
   > Commodore's inept management never quite knew what to do with the Amiga ...   
   > one day it was a home games machine, the next it was a video editing   
   > station, the next it was a business computer, and then back to being a games   
   > computer. They kept changing their tiny minds until it was far too late.   
   > It's ironic that the logo often associated with the Amiga was a 3D graphic   
   > ball, because the management certainly dropped it.   :-(   
      
   It wouldn't have mattered.   
      
   No home computer manufacturer could survive back then who didn't make    
   their peace with Microsoft and run Microsoft software.   
      
   Including Apple.   
      
   The only business decision that would have mattered, would have been to    
   put Microsoft Office on the Amiga.  And Microsoft expressed no interest.   
      
   The only exception is Linux.  But by the time Linux had matured and a    
   reasonable library of software had become available for it, the Amiga    
   was dead.   
      
      
      
   --    
   Steven L.   
   Email:  sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net   
   Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.   
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