> Sure, it was expensive, but really, the point was that the OS was > pretty much unusable without a hard disk. I know, I used it. It worked > but it wasn't pleasant. So the cheap price of the Amiga was illusory: > to get it to shine, you needed to spend a lot more than the basic > system price.
I developed software on an Amiga 1000 with two floppies, and it was fine. Boot up. Load a minimal system into RRD:, reboot into the RAMdisk, now you've got two floppies to use. Running from two floppies I had DMCS, Sculpt-3d, the compiler, and a terminal program all chugging along. It was a FAR more productive environment for me than a 7600/180 running OS 8 or OS 9. More responsive, too, since the OS was inherently multitasking rather than having every application pass control on when it was good-and-ready. Disk I/O was a problem because there were single-threaded botlenecks in the I/O subsystems. They could have multithreaded or maintained a request queue in DOS... but the system got killed before they got that far. This was also a problem in other early microkernels and why the single-server model Mac OS X uses caught on. You can get better response with a pure microkernel but you have to make DAMN sure there's no critical path that can block on a single thread. > Yes, an Amiga could do all the cool multitasking and so on running > from floppies, but so could a PC if you had the patience of a rock. No, a PC couldn't, not in any PC operating system available in the '80s. -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:compact.macs@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
