These last years, a lot of atarists passed on other machines. That it is
by necessity, by obligation or by disappointment, reasons are very various. I
organized a small poll in newsgroup (fr.comp.sys.atari) and I put some
questions to the French atarists. I asked them what they make with their
machine and what are the strong points of it and the weak points.
Even though only 11 people answered to the call (it is necessary to say
that I organized this poll in the beginning of the month of July, that explains
all), I think that their answers are nevertheless revealing enough of what
he/it happens in general in the world of data processing. The interrogated
atarists have in majority an Atari 32 bits, as the Falcon or the TT, and most
between them kept their good old ST under the hand.
I would want to bring some precisions. First, these 11 answers are not
representative of the population atarist, since all atarists don't have access
to Internet. And can I specify that no the interrogated people don't possess a
clone (Hades, Milan or other), there is no doubt that answers would have been
different in this case.
But what does an Atari serve to in 1999?
I arrive there. He/it is clear that the one who uses a ST doesn't have
the same works that the one who uses a TT, but the common point between the two
summarizes himself in only one word:
LEISURES. Hey yes, if atarists use their machine again, this is not to win
money, this is not to wedge their cupboard with, it is simply for leisures. By
leisures, I don't mean only " games ", but simply " hobby ", or " pastime ".
Atarists possessing machines bottoms of range especially serve themselves
of it to play to either look at demos. Them others have some various works:
programming, edition of pages for the Web, drawing, to reach Internet, to play
and to make the PAO or simply of the text seizure.
The Atari in general: their strengths, their weakness
To summarize, the principal dawns strong of the Atari comes of his/her/its
operating systems, that the interrogated atarists find, in majority, steady and
pleasant. It is here about all systems
of exploitation capable to make turn of them executable Atari (one doesn't
speak of Linux): TOS, MultiTOS, MagiC, MiNT, etc.
As for the weak points, and that won't astonish anybody, the Atari lacks
raw strength and software at a time.
But see these two points in detail, according to answers provided by the
interrogated people,:
Strong points:
Weak points:
Participants
I would want to thank here the 11 atarists that answered me. I also
indicated their configuration, so that those that remained some to the ST (or
those that deserted for other horizons) see the material that uses today's
atarists.
(PS: thank you for your encouragements concerning the Toxic Mag)
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