Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    To answer your questions, in order...
    
    1.  Public domain software can be had from a variety of sources.
        People Link is a dial-in network that now has 27 MBytes of Amiga
        PD online.  Your dealer is generally a good source of Fred Fish
        and Amicus disks, which are...
    
    2.  Fred Fish is the world's most wonderful person.  He works for
        Motorola in Arizona, and spends about eleventy-nine hours per
        week collecting the best of Public Domain, and releases a new
        disk every few weeks.  Amicus is an acronym for AMIga USsers,
        and is a national user group organized by John Foust of Amazing
        Computing magazine.  There is a lot of overlap between the Fish
        and Amicus disks.  If you don't have a good dealer near your
        home, both Fish and Amicus disks can be bought for $7.00 each
        directly from Amazing Computing magazine.  An order form is
        included with each issue.
    
    3.  Almost everything released so far for the Amiga works under
        DOS 1.2.  The most notable exceptions are Deluxe Video, which
        kinda works, but runs flaky.  Electronic Arts has promised an
        upgrade.  The only game that I know of that reqires 1.1 is Leader
        Board, a golf simulation.   Almost everything runs better and
        faster under 1.2, and of course, 1.2 auto-configures any hardware
        add-ons on the buss.
    
    As far as waiting for the 2000 to be released, I am skeptical when
    it comes to CBM's record of delivering products on time.  I personally
    prefer the Kickstart in RAM, not ROM.  RJ Mical has been hinting
    at a version 1.3 of DOS, and ROM changes are a pain in the neck.
    
    Unless you really desire a slotted box and a PC/XT card, I would
    not wait for the 2000.  Also, although CBM promises 100% software
    compatibility with the 1000, I am reminded of all of Apple's ROM
    changes on the MAC.  Each upgrade zaps about 10% of backward
    compatibility.  At least you know that all Amiga software will run
    on the 1000, since it's still the only machine available.
    
    Whatever you choose to do, good luck.  I'm sure you'll find that
    the Amiga is a fascinating toy with tremendous potential to be whatever
    you want it to be.  (Gee, don't I sound full of sh*t)?
    

    I forgot to mention in .1 that there are over 250 Amiga Bulletin
    Boards now running in the USA.  These are usually a good place to
    get the hottest PD software making the rounds.  I don't know where
    you are located, but the Amiga rags usually publish a monthly update
    on all these boards, giving location, phone number, and online hours.

    There are two Amiga,s that will be on the market soon if they aren't
    already. They are the Amiga 500,which comes with 512k. That is
    expandable to 1 meg. Then there is the Amiga 2000 and i can't remember
    all the details so read the March issue of Compute's Gazette. It
    is one powerful machine. 

Re: .1

I have found another program that doesn't work on Kickstart 1.1.
It is Typing Tutor.  It comes up, but doesn't recognize any keyboard input.
This isn't very convenient when learning to type.

I haven't made any effort to fix it.  Perhaps if I install it on a 1.2 DOS it 
will work.

	Paul

    re: .0
    the easiest way to start is to find a friend with an Amiga full
    of public domain software.  Where are you located?

    re: .5
    I think I will end up being that person. I am located at the Waltham
    office (WAO) in MA. No one else seems to have much of anything let
    alone and Amiga. I have my boss hot to trot for an Amiga, but I
    get the feeling I will be the first.
    
    I probably will end up at the Memory Location looking for tidbits.

    What I really was looking for where sources on EasyNet for Amiga stuff.

    <jim

  I live in framingham and would be willing to serve as a source.  Basically
all that you need to get started is the vt100 terminal emulator.  With this 
program you can then get at the various kits.

  The following accounts have archived kits available.  I have found that
these are tested and proved.  All you need to do is to down load the files
and unpack them.

   elwood""::user2:[peters.amiga...]
   tle""::uport$:[rmeyers.trade...]
   cookie""::disk$gz_disk:[wecker.amiga...]
   author""::user:[macdonaold.public.amiga...]


  db

   re: .6
    
 >>                           -< all alone in Waltham >-

    Visit Club Computer on Mifflin Pl., Cambridge (behind Brattle Sq.)
    Good directions in elsewhere in this notesfile.
    
    To get some idea of what's going on currently, and to access public
    domain software, attend a Boston Computer Society Amiga group meeting.
    Details in 355.1.

       re .9, What does the BCS have to offer?

    (Apologies to notes readers far from Boston.)
    
    The Boston Computer Society Amiga User's Group is the largest Amiga
    group in New England, with over 300 members.  Meetings are held twice
    per month: 
    
    	first Monday	Developer's group
    	third Tuesday	General meeting
    
    7:30 PM at the Department of Transportation Bldg. in Kendall Square,
    Cambridge.  General meetings include reports on Commodore, local
    activities and new products.  New product reports are given by the New
    England Amiga manufacturer's representative, Tech Plus. 
    
    Developer's group meetings are more technical, ranging from basic to
    advanced topics with a heavy software bias.  The active commercial
    developer community in this area keeps meeting quality high.
    
    Programs include product demonstrations, often by the originators, and
    talks by famous and/or heavy-duty Amiga community people. Recent
    programs include a talk by RJ Mical and one by the man who ported True
    Basic to the Macintosh and Amiga.  Recent product demonstrations
    include early looks at Sidecar, Genlock, various frame-grabber and MIDI
    music products, and the Caligari three-dimensional animation package. 

    The group maintains a public domain disk library of 20+ disks, notable
    for being fairly bug-free.

    BCS general meetings are held near the end of the month.  Programs
    include talks by personal computer industry leaders and first looks
    at many important products.

    BCS members have a wide variety of interest groups to choose from.
    Membership includes a basic selection of three groups, though all
    group meetings are open to all BCS members.  Members also receive
    discounts from many computer stores and mail-order firms, including
    a few Amiga dealers.
        
    That's the commercial.
    
    
    The BCS Amiga group is better than you'd expect for this kind of
    volunteer organization.  Meetings are sometimes excruciatingly dull
    and sometimes very exciting.  The newsletter is good at listing
    local resources and activities, but not very timely.  I think that
    the quality of the BCS umbrella encourages professionals to attend
    and keeps away the pale, whiny time-wasters.  The group even has
    a few video- and music-oriented members, though not the overall
    artistic level of the Macintosh group.

    It's a good place to meet people who use the Amiga for a wide variety
    of tasks.

    BTW, I used one interest group choice to join the Consultants and
    Entrepreneurs' group.  This gives me regular feedback on why I prefer
    weekly paychecks. 

    Best way to find out more is to show up at a meeting.

Pardon me.  I did not mean to evoke such a lengthy and well-intended
response.  I suppose I was looking for a fight, but the text of the
note disappeared.

Note .9 was not a question, it was a warning!

I joined the BCS recently because (for ONE thing) I wanted to go to
the BCS AMIGA meetings and have easy access to lots of public domain
software.  (I've vowed not to pay one dollar for the crap [pardon my
French] on the market today.)  I ran around like nuts buying disks
and figuring out what Fish disks I wanted, and getting to the meeting.
As promised. there were public domain disks -- already copied even!
OK, I guess I didn't need to run off finding cheap disks.  I ask for
Fish disks X, Y, and Z.  And away we go!

(PLASMA TORCH ON)

"Oh, we don't distribute Fish disks."

"You don't distribute Fish disks?  WHY NOT!?"

"Well, Fred Fish just throws stuff on his disks without testing or
documentation or icons."

"ICONS!?!?!?"

Luckily I shuffled away in a daze before I realized what this man
had saved me from.  I might have embarrassed myself by kissing his
feet!  I might have had to use the CLI (oh, horrors) just to see
what is on the disk!  I might have had to struggle with compiler
bugs while recompiling naughty source code.  I might have been
stumped by executables that don't explain why "Bad Arguments".
God knows I couldn't have survived without the cute, little,
terribly informative read.me-esque files that grace another BCS
disk I bought previously.  Certainly, I could have no thought but
to differ to the Master BCS Software Librarian (ta ta-ta daaaa!)
and his superior expertise at puzzling all these frustrating
little problems out.  Of COURSE I'm completely content to sit
back and patiently await the completely bug free and fool proof
disks that are a model of BCS quality.

(PLASMA TORCH OFF)

To make matters worse, this was one of those dull meetings.  I've
never gone back.  (Mainly because I was tied up the night of
RJ Mical's talk.)

Oooooo that felt good.  Hope I didn't waste too much of anyone's
time (besides mine, that is).

Oh, yeah...

	OOO		))
	OOO		 ))
			  ))
	      ======       ))
	      ======       ))
			  ))
	OOO		 ))
	OOO		))


BTW, I don't remember who this fascist was (and dare not guess,
lest I be sued by an innocent), but perhaps someone knows whether
there was a recent change of Software Librarian (or at least of
library policy)?

-Matt