Right To Reply ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After my compelling story last month on my decision to buy a PC and Andy Gibson's reply, I thought I had better reply to his questions, so here goes.... How did I manage to afford a PC on my Uni grants? Well Andy, I didn't! I worked all over the summer to earn enough money to pay for one! You don't think a grant these days could pay for a computer do you? (No I didn't! That's why I was asking - AG) I also hate people who buy computers just to play games. It's a waste of their money plus a waste of the computers potential. It makes me laugh when people buy PCs especially, just to play games. Incidentally, I bought my PC because I needed it to do work on! To be perfectly honest, I don't think that the PC is too good for games. Yes, they look amazing but they are terrible where playability is concerned. All PC software houses seem to be putting games on CDs (which in itself isn't a bad thing) but then put fancy animations along with the game to try and justify the price increase. This isn't on. I agree that the A1200 is a very capable machine but Amigas now are simply not good enough. What I want from Amiga Technologies is a package Amiga where it contains monitor, expandable box and Keyboard, something that the PC has been doing for years. Amigas at the moment look like door- wedges. Hopefully this will all change soon. It's a fact that salespeople lie when they say a particular computer is future proof. I can remember Amiga Format reviewing the A4000 saying that it is future proof. Utter tosh. A friend of mine bought a 486DX2 and he said, the good thing about my computer is that it is really easy to replace the 486 CPU with a Pentium. He was wrong of course. The processors have different motherboards, so if you want a faster processor, then its out with one motherboard and in with the new. Which is why most people buy a completely new PC. I can't understand your mate upgrading from a 486 to a Pentium though! Of course, if he wants to play games then a Pentium is going to be faster, but a 486 is adequate for most needs. I have had an Amiga 500+ for about 4 years now and I have never felt the need to sell it and upgrade, for it does exactly what I want it to do. I think the reason some people buy really powerful PCs is just for the statement, 'My Computer is better than yours'. They'll buy an extremely powerful PC and not use the features of it. This is a direct constrast to the Amiga owner who will start off with a basic 1200. They'll play games for a while then start getting into it seriously. Then they'll find the need for faster CPU and more memory. They pay the price for the power, but it certainly gets used, unlike PCs. The Amiga owner is a productive soul in my opinion. Andy Gibson here again now.... Thanx for taking the time out to reply to myself Andy. I still don't feel the need to buy a PC just yet as my trusty A1200 is doing exactly as I require it to. Sure, everyone wants to be able to play the latest games, but I don't see the computer being the best format most times. A dedicated Games console is good for the usual run of the mill games and I guess computers are the best place to play flight sims and graphic adventures, but surely people must realise that a computer is not just a games playing toy! Price is power? That may be so, but if you don't need the power, why pay the price? I guess being an Amiga user for so many years now, I have an advantage over PC users who have never seen/used an Amiga. They certainly don't realise the power behind an A1200 or indeed an A4000. Both machines do need upgrading though if you want to get the most out of them. In saying that, the Amiga has had multi-tasking since day one. The PC users are just catching onto this now and are probably think they were first to get it! Windoze 95! Is it really a good as they make out? It requires at least 8 megs of ram before you can use it! The Amiga can happily multi-task and run WB in under 1 meg (thats going back a bit Andy) I certainly don't know much about PC and maybe in time I will take time out to read up on them. After all, it can only be a good thing to learn how another machine works. I have used most models of Amiga and I personally think the A1200 is the best buy of the bunch and one of the best purchases I have ever made. The A4000 is far too expensive. If I had the money to buy one, I think I'd probably just buy a PC instead. I don't need to upgrade my A1200 anymore as I have everything I need for it. (CD Rom, Extra Mem, Sampler, Printer, Digitiser, Hard Disk. etc etc etc) The idea of owning a PC to me is simply just to keep up with the trend. Having used my friends PC a few times, I must say that I'd rather stick with my Amiga if you don't mind. I too agree that the A1200 is in need of a serious re-design. The idea of the RISC chip and all the other talk is interesting and no doubt I'll be one of the first to either upgrade my A1200 to the new specs or simply purchase a new machine - when/if the time comes of course. Probably the thing that holds me to the Amiga is the amount of demos and software I have created etc. That's not to mention the amount of hardware I have bought too. One major point that I will make is this: I have met loads of new friends and contacts through my Amiga and so far, any PC owners that I know of say that they have never been in touch with any other PC owner in this way! Yeah, OK, there is of course the modem, but I'm talking about real contacts, not some unknown face at the other end of the country typing messages to each other. Why don't they just pick up the phone? The Amiga community is great and has a very friendly atmosphere about it, if you know what I mean. How many Amiga owners do you know that have actually stated that they hate their Amiga or their contacts? None probably. Is this true of PC owners? I personally see them as people who have to be in contest against each other all the time! Ya know, "My PC is better than yours! Why don't you have Intel Inside? Ha Ha, imagine trying to still work with a double speed CD drive! I've got a quad ya know!". And all the rest .... I know a PC owner who can't stand the Amiga, even although he has never used one! He simply refuses to listen to anything I have to say about it. I'm not into the arguing over who's machine is best, if his PC keeps him happy, that's fine. Still, I find it very sad that he won't even look at an Amiga without some trashy comment on it such as, "I don't think Doom will ever run on that machine!". Which is another thing that pisses me off. Why does it always boil down to DOOM and games when comparing computers? Who the Bloody Hell cares if one machine runs a certain game and another doesn't? This is what children should be arguing about! If that is the attitude, why don't these people just buy a baby games console and play the same games as each other. Until the day I can afford to splash out hundreds of pounds on a PC and of course the continuos upgrading, I'll keep my views to myself. After all, I can only see things from an Amiga user's view! Good luck with your PC Andy and I hope you can tell us more about your views on the Amiga and PC now that you are lucky enough to own them both. PS My mate has now had to return his PC to the shop a he spent well over £2500 with his credit card buying upgrades etc. He is about £1500 above his credit limit! I don't know how this could happen, surely the shop should have refused him the goods after his credit limit was reached? I say it serves him right! He only bought the PC to be one better than myself and another few Amiga owners we know! He's always been like that! He has to be one better than all us - pretty childish don't ya think? I won't go into all the nasty details, but let me say this, everytime myself or one of my friends buys something better than my PC owning m8, he simply has to buy it too! I'm talking about video cassettes, Hi-Fi, Games, in fact, anything at all. I wonder what he would do if I bought the four pack of Andrex Toilet Roll. Do you think he would go out and buy the 8 pack? - Probably buy a whole bulk load more like!!! The moral of this story is that he is now left with no computer and is about £2500 in debt! He has no real friends (He's 27 and his only real friend is a 13 year old lad who loved to play games on his PC). I guess the 13 year old will find a new freind with a computer now - or maybe he will end up getting his own and my m8 can go to his house to play silly games! L-O-S-E-R-! End.