28 Jan
2010
28 Jan
'10
10:39 a.m.
On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Dan Roganti <ragooman at comcast.net> wrote:
I'm not referring to any timeline. I was only saying how Tramiel has a reputation
ignoring engineering advice. He has a
lot of cost cutting tactics as a businessman - some good, but also some bad = such as
slashing valuable personal in the
engineering staff. ?Although I feel Atari lost out, I would shudder to think what Tramiel
might have done afterwards to
Jay Miner's design just to make it cheaper, that's his MO ?( I know this is
hindsight).
Warner/Atari Inc.'s contract was simply for licensing the chip
technology, allowing Jay and company to also continue on with their
own full computer designs and license it out to whoever else they
wanted to - or even sell the company to who they wanted to, which is
something Morse wanted. So the implication isn't really valid.
The lawsuit was also in regards to this - full access to the chipset.
He may be famous for the early Commodore success, but
Commodore was still successful without him--thanks to engineers.
If he was so remarkable, how is it that the Atari ST was just a mediocre design ( I know
this just another religious war
- but open your eyes for a minute).
It was Shiraz's design, and it was following the same "power without
the price" methodology they did back at Commodore with the vic20 and
C64. At least according to them. Although the ST's main competitor
wound up being the Amiga, it was actually promoted as a cheaper full
color Macintosh (hence the Jackintosh).
Thankfully, we were privileged to see Jay Miner's
achievement as Commodore succeeded
without a hatchet job on his design.
Never would have happened anyway, per above.
Marty