Using your Amiga for 'serious' stuff

antonvaltaz · 26 October 2009, 21:59

Back in the '90s, when I had a 'real' Amiga (by the time I got rid, an A1200 with an '030/50, 10 MB RAM, hard drive, CD-ROM etc) it was the only computer I had, and I used it for everything - not just games, but word processing, spreadsheets, music sequencing etc. Thanks in large part to Amiga Format coverdisks and tutorials, I dabbled in graphics, animation, DTP, multimedia, programming etc as well.

Now thanks to WinUAE I have a far more powerful virtual Amiga than my souped up machine ever was... yet I find myself only using it for games (most of which ran on an A500!) It seems such a waste...

So my question for discussion is... For those of you who use your 'classic' (i.e. not OS 4.x) Amigas for 'serious' purposes... What do you use it for, and why (why not more modern alternatives)?

cosmicfrog · 26 October 2009, 22:15

good question wish I knew the answer

DamienD · 26 October 2009, 22:59

Other similar threads which you may find interesting antonvaltaz

... What do you use your Amiga's for?
... Who is still using their Amiga for something other than gaming?
... Amazing things you've done with your Amiga

Paul_s · 26 October 2009, 23:03

The only serious thing I'd ever use my 500 for these days would be Word Processing..

But there's not much point as;

a) I get Office for nout through work
b) I'd need to find a compatible printer for me Amiga
c) I'd have to have an Indivision ECS or something to make it work on me monitor

I never really used my Amiga's back in the 90's for anything more serious than that... oh I used it for comms/bbs's but again, not much point these days... more like hard work than anything

coze · 27 October 2009, 02:26

well, if somebody ported Serious Sam to the Amiga, I could put it into a serious use

truth be told, the age for using amiga for 'serious' stuff is past by now. except for tracking or 68k coding. Which is also a hobby anyway.

Thorham · 27 October 2009, 03:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by coze

truth be told, the age for using amiga for 'serious' stuff is past by now.

And why is that? I see no reason why you can't:

1) Use a word processor.
2) Use a spread sheet.
3) Use a relational database.
4) Use a mail application.
5) Use a news reader.
6) etc.

The only thing missing is a fast browser for 68k+ ecs/aga which isn't as far behind the times as the current browsers (and don't say Flash, Flash sucks even on a Pentium 3

). And besides, some people still don't have a peecee and do everything on the Amiga

kriz · 27 October 2009, 05:10

For sure it still does the job

I mostly use TVPaint on my A4000, very nice software. Also msn, irc and some web goes fine.

Photon · 27 October 2009, 05:36

I'm totally the other way round, anything serious I do on the PC is for the Amiga

Well apart from spending way too much time in browsers...

What's this hobby talk!? We're not talking about 'what do you use your Amiga for at work', right!?

Actually, I think the ratio of game vs. 'serious' use of computers in the evening is probably pretty even across the computer models...

But yes, word processing, database, spreadsheet is the area where Commodore Amigas are still decent ehm, editing machines. I don't know, are there decent webdev packages? Should be possible to make a decent Frontpage/DreamWeaver type editor for simple and useful webpages, at least.

PHP/MySQL/JS, dunno how tricky it is on Amiga, at least testing JS would be quite hard

And don't forget that not long ago all the university professors used far less capable machines for all their research, data processing and publishing. I bet they still thought they did serious work!

NovaCoder · 27 October 2009, 06:38

I'm using mine for coding, but that's only because I'm coding Amiga games (it is a bit painful).

I also use it to play MP3 files sometimes and surf the net if the wife is hogging the PC....does that count as serious?

IMHO Classic Amiga's today do best what they've always done...play games and demos

antonvaltaz · 27 October 2009, 07:18

Thanks for your responses... Is there any news of a modern standards-compliant browser coming to the 'classic' Amiga, e.g. a port of that Origyn (sp?) or I vaguely remember talk of a Firefox-based browser?

Also for office software, what is best? I used to own Wordworth 7 Office, or is Final Writer or something else better?

Finally, any good image processing software?

meega · 27 October 2009, 08:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonvaltaz

So my question for discussion is... For those of you who use your 'classic' (i.e. not OS 4.x) Amigas for 'serious' purposes... What do you use it for, and why (why not more modern alternatives)?

I wrote all the essays for my degree (2000-3) on my A1200 (Kick 3.0, Workbench 3.0/1)*, and printed them out on a Canon BJ130. The department didn't mind at all - what was said being paramount, fancy formatting a long way down on the list of priorities. It's all still sitting in a drawer on the hard drive, the whole lot will fit onto a single floppy disk.

It makes a very good typewriter, the keyboard is beautiful to the touch, and I don't have to remember stupid ALT-keypad combinations to get accented/unusual characters.

*The university systems were based on a hacked Win95 at the time, Netscape was their "official" browser, rebooting a workstation took about five minutes (longer if the network was busy).

Thorham · 27 October 2009, 12:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by meega

*The university systems were based on a hacked Win95 at the time, Netscape was their "official" browser, rebooting a workstation took about five minutes (longer if the network was busy).

Some peoples modern (!) peecees still take that long

Charlie · 27 October 2009, 14:57

FWIW:
-My 'real' amiga (A1200) gets used for imaging rare floppies to .apd format (hmm, must pull finger out), though is mostly used for hardware 'fiddling'.
-Amithlon + OS3.9 is still a very useful general OS platform, though where software is lacking or where even Amithlon lacks sufficient grunt (I'm quite impatient) then there is the PC...
-PC's are otherwise for playing with (games + emulation)
-Got to admit to choosing RiscOS for most 'day-to-day' activities.

I don't see myself as a self-flagellating retro-freak, I simply use the software & OS environment I find most pleasant for the job in hand:
RiscOS, AmigaOS, Windoze.

(Apologies to platforms I either don't like or have too little experience to comment)

BrooksterMax · 27 October 2009, 15:52

I can't use my A1200 for serious purposes today, the PC and MS Office just blow it away.

I did use my A500+ with Wordworth and DPIII for school work, I used CrossDOS to transfer files between the RM Nimbus PCs at school and the Amiga at home.

Today, it would just seem soo much effort to do "productivity work" on the classic amiga - although the Compact Flash PCMCIA adaptor would make it easy to share files.

Paul_s · 27 October 2009, 15:56

Does anyone reckon you could pull a girl wooing her with Desert Dream demo?

Charlie · 27 October 2009, 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Does anyone reckon you could pull a girl wooing her with Desert Dream demo?

Dessert Ice-creams demo you say..?

Most girls would go for that, especially if it involved chocolate. So I say YES.

andreas · 27 October 2009, 20:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie

FWIW:
-My 'real' amiga (A1200) gets used for imaging rare floppies to .apd format

.apd?? What kind of format is this? Please?

TCD · 27 October 2009, 20:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by andreas

.apd?? What kind of format is this? Please?

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...APD#post605399

DH · 27 October 2009, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Does anyone reckon you could pull a girl wooing her with Desert Dream demo?

Not a chance paul, my wife doesn't understand it's complexity and brilliance

I used my A500/A1200 for spreadsheet, database, Word Processing, DTP, Design (not quite cad), but unfortunately due to overpowering demands, I had to move to the PC

Merlin · 27 October 2009, 22:18

I wrote my BTEC ONC final year project up on an A600 using Final Writer software and printed it up on a Brother M1009 dot matrix printer. The nearest a PC could get to that for word processing at the time was Word Perfect 6.0 for DOS on floppy that I still have today, although I suspect that the floppies have long since had it. To get WYSIWYG such as Wordworth, Pagestream and Final Writer standards on the PC took a fair bit longer to achieve.

26 October 2009, 21:59	#1
antonvaltaz Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 43 Posts: 511	Using your Amiga for 'serious' stuff Back in the '90s, when I had a 'real' Amiga (by the time I got rid, an A1200 with an '030/50, 10 MB RAM, hard drive, CD-ROM etc) it was the only computer I had, and I used it for everything - not just games, but word processing, spreadsheets, music sequencing etc. Thanks in large part to Amiga Format coverdisks and tutorials, I dabbled in graphics, animation, DTP, multimedia, programming etc as well. Now thanks to WinUAE I have a far more powerful virtual Amiga than my souped up machine ever was... yet I find myself only using it for games (most of which ran on an A500!) It seems such a waste... So my question for discussion is... For those of you who use your 'classic' (i.e. not OS 4.x) Amigas for 'serious' purposes... What do you use it for, and why (why not more modern alternatives)?

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26 October 2009, 22:15	#2
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	good question wish I knew the answer

26 October 2009, 22:59	#3
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Other similar threads which you may find interesting antonvaltaz ... What do you use your Amiga's for? ... Who is still using their Amiga for something other than gaming? ... Amazing things you've done with your Amiga

26 October 2009, 23:03	#4
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,336	The only serious thing I'd ever use my 500 for these days would be Word Processing.. But there's not much point as; a) I get Office for nout through work b) I'd need to find a compatible printer for me Amiga c) I'd have to have an Indivision ECS or something to make it work on me monitor I never really used my Amiga's back in the 90's for anything more serious than that... oh I used it for comms/bbs's but again, not much point these days... more like hard work than anything

27 October 2009, 02:26	#5
coze hastala vista winny vista Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: mt fuji Age: 46 Posts: 1,335	well, if somebody ported Serious Sam to the Amiga, I could put it into a serious use truth be told, the age for using amiga for 'serious' stuff is past by now. except for tracking or 68k coding. Which is also a hobby anyway.

27 October 2009, 05:10	#7
kriz Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: No(R)Way Age: 42 Posts: 3,210	For sure it still does the job I mostly use TVPaint on my A4000, very nice software. Also msn, irc and some web goes fine.

27 October 2009, 05:36	#8
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,619	I'm totally the other way round, anything serious I do on the PC is for the Amiga Well apart from spending way too much time in browsers... What's this hobby talk!? We're not talking about 'what do you use your Amiga for at work', right!? Actually, I think the ratio of game vs. 'serious' use of computers in the evening is probably pretty even across the computer models... But yes, word processing, database, spreadsheet is the area where Commodore Amigas are still decent ehm, editing machines. I don't know, are there decent webdev packages? Should be possible to make a decent Frontpage/DreamWeaver type editor for simple and useful webpages, at least. PHP/MySQL/JS, dunno how tricky it is on Amiga, at least testing JS would be quite hard And don't forget that not long ago all the university professors used far less capable machines for all their research, data processing and publishing. I bet they still thought they did serious work!

27 October 2009, 06:38	#9
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,404	I'm using mine for coding, but that's only because I'm coding Amiga games (it is a bit painful). I also use it to play MP3 files sometimes and surf the net if the wife is hogging the PC....does that count as serious? IMHO Classic Amiga's today do best what they've always done...play games and demos

27 October 2009, 07:18	#10
antonvaltaz Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 43 Posts: 511	Thanks for your responses... Is there any news of a modern standards-compliant browser coming to the 'classic' Amiga, e.g. a port of that Origyn (sp?) or I vaguely remember talk of a Firefox-based browser? Also for office software, what is best? I used to own Wordworth 7 Office, or is Final Writer or something else better? Finally, any good image processing software?

27 October 2009, 14:57	#13
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	FWIW: -My 'real' amiga (A1200) gets used for imaging rare floppies to .apd format (hmm, must pull finger out), though is mostly used for hardware 'fiddling'. -Amithlon + OS3.9 is still a very useful general OS platform, though where software is lacking or where even Amithlon lacks sufficient grunt (I'm quite impatient) then there is the PC... -PC's are otherwise for playing with (games + emulation) -Got to admit to choosing RiscOS for most 'day-to-day' activities. I don't see myself as a self-flagellating retro-freak, I simply use the software & OS environment I find most pleasant for the job in hand: RiscOS, AmigaOS, Windoze. (Apologies to platforms I either don't like or have too little experience to comment)

27 October 2009, 15:52	#14
BrooksterMax Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norfolk UK Age: 43 Posts: 433	I can't use my A1200 for serious purposes today, the PC and MS Office just blow it away. I did use my A500+ with Wordworth and DPIII for school work, I used CrossDOS to transfer files between the RM Nimbus PCs at school and the Amiga at home. Today, it would just seem soo much effort to do "productivity work" on the classic amiga - although the Compact Flash PCMCIA adaptor would make it easy to share files.

27 October 2009, 15:56	#15
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,336	Does anyone reckon you could pull a girl wooing her with Desert Dream demo?

27 October 2009, 22:18	#20
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	I wrote my BTEC ONC final year project up on an A600 using Final Writer software and printed it up on a Brother M1009 dot matrix printer. The nearest a PC could get to that for word processing at the time was Word Perfect 6.0 for DOS on floppy that I still have today, although I suspect that the floppies have long since had it. To get WYSIWYG such as Wordworth, Pagestream and Final Writer standards on the PC took a fair bit longer to achieve.

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