world of „ commodore AMIGA For more information or your nearest GVP Dealer, call 215*337-8770. Dealer inquiries welcome. For technical support call 215*354*9495. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Am a, Inc A50DHD5- AS30 Turijo and FamstRQM are trademarks of Great Valley Products. Inc 01992 Great Valley Products, inc. CHIEF CONCERNS Mi: Robinson should learn to qualify his bald statements with “It is my opinion...” A ROAR BKGAN almost immediately after the article ran in the July 12th edition of the San Jose Mercury Mews, a prestigious Silicon Valley newspaper. It seems that the usually dull computer columnist Phillip Robinson took it upon himself to declare the Amiga a dead machine. In fact, the first sentence of the column reads “The Amiga is dead." 'This gave West Coast Amiga users conniptions, and sent them raving to their keyboards, where they really let it fly on-line. The syndicated column has since run in newspapers across the country; prompting a flood of calls lo Amiga- World asking if Commodore had pulled the plug on the Amiga. The answer is a resounding Not! Columnists have an obligation to express opinions honestly, and Mr. Robinson had every right given to us in this great nation to write that column. The best columns are a bit pointed, and those that provoke are particularly valuable because thev make us think. If Robinson wanted us to think, he succeeded. He apparently received more responses from this column than from any he has written in the past eight years. I guess all those people with dead machines just wanted to thank him for letting them know. For those who are personally upset with Mr. Robinson, that’s all well and good. Bui to those that have reportedly threatened the man, you’d best get a healthier attitude, or perhaps a life. While I'll defend to the death Mr. Robinson’s right to publish his opinion, 1 do think that his column was misleading and damaging. By stating that the Amiga is dead, he led many to believe that the computer was no longer being produced, sold, marketed, or supported. We received many phone calls from people worried that the Amiga had been yanked. The problem is that Robinson did seem to state as fact what was merely opinion. It was this lack of care that got me steamed. Shortly after the article appeared, I got a call from a guy named Roy. Roy was pretty upset. The company he works for uses Amigas, and the Big Cheese was giving Roy a big beef over buying a new A3000. Roy's boss had O i read the article and apparently believed it. It takes a lot of convincing to turn these beliefs around. Commodore Hot Commodore also felt the heat from Robinson’s blasts, and that, I’d say, is a good thing. The firm cranked out a three-page reply outlining its arguments. And posted it on the nets. The guys from the big C pointed out that we are up to about three million machines installed worldwide, that new machines are 011 the way (beyond the 600) , that there are about 1000 Amiga dealers in the US, and that Digital Equipment Corp. is an Amiga reseller.