Author: Damion Jones (host213-1-81-124.btinternet.com)
Date: 05-25-2001 00:26
I have read all your replies to Trax's Original, and at first, I was 100% behing him, but Brian had summed it up perfectly!
I think what Trax is trying to point out, is that With Open Source : As-in the GNU/Linux style of things, is what Atarians may well need, and yes, Brian is right in that it simply will not bring others to the Atari.
However, in the way Linux works, is that all code is completely free, people are allowed to do with it, as they see fit, this almost cuts out such issues as piracy, I mean, how can you pirate software that you are free to give away in the first place?
But, Linux works even better than that, in that if there is any bugs in the software, be in an Application, or the O/S itself, you have the source code, and if you know how to fix it, you fix it, and if you can, or will, you send the fix off to everyone else who wants it, or just dump it onto a server!
Perhaps Atari Might benefit from such things as this yes, but only within our own ranks I am afraid.
Yes, a lot of the better software does cost. This is the price we pay for the continued support, and although I myself am not too happy at paying for anything, I will do in order to get it on the Atari rather than the PC, and anyway, most of the time, the atari versions do the same job every bit as good, and sometimes even better!
The real issue we should be looking at, is the price of Atari Hardware!
Thats nothing but utterly disgusting!
If we need people to convert to Atari, there is plenty of software out there, but its no good when you have a choice of what computer to buy, even if you do know about atari, when you can buy a PC thats many times faster, many times more powerfull, not to mention it can display pictures, and you can do it for a fraction of the price of an Atari.
Take my TT, and My MAndrake Linux PC as 2 great examples...
The TT Cost me £150, a further £100 to get a RAM Adapter, £34 for the 2x16MB RAM itself and another £170 for the Graphics Card. This came to £454 for just the base unit, I also have plenty of other stuff on it, but we will just go on those for now.
The PC Is an AMD K6/2-400Mhz, It Has a Matrox G200 Graphics Card, and SoundBlaster Live, and 256MB, I have also put in a 10.2Gb HD, 50x CDROM and 4x4x12 CDRW, and I have not even hit the £150 Mark yet!
It does not take a genuis to see what is the choice computer to go for there!
However, I do certainly think, that older software should not be kept behind closed doors!
Ok, so I am not saying that When v2 gets released commercially, that v1 should be instantly put on the net even if it would appeal to many, but certainly after a given time it should! - thats not too much to ask I dont think, because lets be honest... If something was for sale, for example for £30 for Version 4, but v2 was still on sale for £20... You might as well give the extra tenner and go for the big one mightnt you?
Ok, I suppose this would also depend on what extras you will get of course, but its something that might be an idea!
I think I have gone on far too long now.
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