* Typical "in the style of..." title illustration. Check.
* Only expands on a single idea easily expressed in a prompt sentence. Check.
Yup.
The worst part is it makes a trite point which totally misses the much more interesting and nuanced reality. In the late 80s I ran one of the largest Amiga users groups in the U.S. with hundreds of members. I went to almost all the Ami Expo shows around the country, I knew lots of developers and most of the editors and writers at the top magazines. I partied with Amiga engineers like Dale Luck and Dave Haynie at Comdex and CES shows. In short, I was as hardcore Amiga as anyone.
Yet, the reality was I also knew some users in the ST community along with a few senior people at Atari. I got along fine with Atari people. Just because my computer was technically better than theirs, doesn't mean they were bad people :-). Amigas were more expensive and besides cost, the ST could be a decent choice for MIDI-centric musicians and people mostly focused on productivity or desktop publishing.
Another factor was that Amigas and Ataris weren't all that widely available. Most big computer stores carried neither. It was usually smaller mom and pop stores which carried either the Amiga or the ST (but rarely both in the same store). Back then, most people wanted to get hands-on a computer before buying and often needed some after-sale support as well as a place to see and buy their platform's software. So for a lot of Amiga/ Atari ST users, which one you ended up with often came down to which platform the "indie store" in your area happened to carry.
Both the Amiga and Atari ST were niche platforms in an increasingly PC/Mac-centric world. The big computer magazines barely mentioned either one. So at larger multi-platform trade shows the users, developers, dealers and journalists of both platforms would inevitably end up hanging out at the same places after hours (there were only so many good bars). Sure, we'd joke around and trade jabs but it was all good-natured. Frankly, Amiga and Atari users were more similar to each other than either of us was to owners of other types of computers, so there was solidarity around the fact that at least none of us were pretentiously monochrome Mac people or boring PC suits. :-) And it hasn't changed, last weekend I was at an Amiga show and there were (gasp) people there with both Amigas and some pretty nice Atari ST rigs. Even I own a 520ST and a 1040ST I picked up at a some thrift store for a few bucks 20 years ago.
don't forge the classic slop conclusion "zubba zubba is about more than just rutabaga worship -- it's about x, y, and z. If you rode the fleeb way back when, your feels are all feeling."
* Gratuitous use of em-dashes. Check.
* Traditional essay structure. Check.
* Typical "in the style of..." title illustration. Check.
* Only expands on a single idea easily expressed in a prompt sentence. Check.
Yup.
The worst part is it makes a trite point which totally misses the much more interesting and nuanced reality. In the late 80s I ran one of the largest Amiga users groups in the U.S. with hundreds of members. I went to almost all the Ami Expo shows around the country, I knew lots of developers and most of the editors and writers at the top magazines. I partied with Amiga engineers like Dale Luck and Dave Haynie at Comdex and CES shows. In short, I was as hardcore Amiga as anyone.
Yet, the reality was I also knew some users in the ST community along with a few senior people at Atari. I got along fine with Atari people. Just because my computer was technically better than theirs, doesn't mean they were bad people :-). Amigas were more expensive and besides cost, the ST could be a decent choice for MIDI-centric musicians and people mostly focused on productivity or desktop publishing.
Another factor was that Amigas and Ataris weren't all that widely available. Most big computer stores carried neither. It was usually smaller mom and pop stores which carried either the Amiga or the ST (but rarely both in the same store). Back then, most people wanted to get hands-on a computer before buying and often needed some after-sale support as well as a place to see and buy their platform's software. So for a lot of Amiga/ Atari ST users, which one you ended up with often came down to which platform the "indie store" in your area happened to carry.
Both the Amiga and Atari ST were niche platforms in an increasingly PC/Mac-centric world. The big computer magazines barely mentioned either one. So at larger multi-platform trade shows the users, developers, dealers and journalists of both platforms would inevitably end up hanging out at the same places after hours (there were only so many good bars). Sure, we'd joke around and trade jabs but it was all good-natured. Frankly, Amiga and Atari users were more similar to each other than either of us was to owners of other types of computers, so there was solidarity around the fact that at least none of us were pretentiously monochrome Mac people or boring PC suits. :-) And it hasn't changed, last weekend I was at an Amiga show and there were (gasp) people there with both Amigas and some pretty nice Atari ST rigs. Even I own a 520ST and a 1040ST I picked up at a some thrift store for a few bucks 20 years ago.