Back in the 80s and 90s, though it may be hard for some of you youngsters to believe, the choice of home computing platforms wasn't just between Apples and A. N. Other PC Clone. Companies such as Commodore and Atari (in the USA) and Acorn and Sinclair (in the UK), among others also produced popular machines.
Of these alternatives the best, technically speaking at least, were probably the Commodore Amiga series (about 6 million sold) and Acorn's A(rchimedes) series (and later their RISC PC). Both systems had features that were revolutionary for the time. Superb graphics rendering in the case of the Amiga So superb, in fact, that Amigas were used in the production of the special fx for B5), and the introduction of the RISC based 32 bit ARM chip: arguably a much more energy efficient, powerful and faster processor than the ubiquitous Motorola 68000 to be found in many other (non PC) home computers. On top of this both systems boasted Operating Systems that made Mac's System/OS N and MS DOS/Windows look second rate.
What eventually brought both Commodore and Acorn down wasn't bad products, or inferior software, but the kind of truely bizarre management decisions that seemed to be endemic in the high tech sector in the 90s. Of course, Apple wasn't immune from this (the three companies share the distinction of being both producers of hardware and software) and could well be just a page in the history of computing itself if not for (a) MS buying $50,000,000 worth of Apple shares and making its software available for the platform (MS Office actually began life as a Mac app) and (b) the iPod.
So. What would it take to have Acorn and Commodore still active as players in the home and business computer market of the 00s?
Of these alternatives the best, technically speaking at least, were probably the Commodore Amiga series (about 6 million sold) and Acorn's A(rchimedes) series (and later their RISC PC). Both systems had features that were revolutionary for the time. Superb graphics rendering in the case of the Amiga So superb, in fact, that Amigas were used in the production of the special fx for B5), and the introduction of the RISC based 32 bit ARM chip: arguably a much more energy efficient, powerful and faster processor than the ubiquitous Motorola 68000 to be found in many other (non PC) home computers. On top of this both systems boasted Operating Systems that made Mac's System/OS N and MS DOS/Windows look second rate.
What eventually brought both Commodore and Acorn down wasn't bad products, or inferior software, but the kind of truely bizarre management decisions that seemed to be endemic in the high tech sector in the 90s. Of course, Apple wasn't immune from this (the three companies share the distinction of being both producers of hardware and software) and could well be just a page in the history of computing itself if not for (a) MS buying $50,000,000 worth of Apple shares and making its software available for the platform (MS Office actually began life as a Mac app) and (b) the iPod.
So. What would it take to have Acorn and Commodore still active as players in the home and business computer market of the 00s?