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- Escom Announce Workbench Four - The Truth!!!
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- · Escom Announce Workbench Four ·
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- At a recent press conference, Escom have, at last, admitted to the
- existance of Workbench 4 which they say is being developed to bring the Amiga
- upto todays GUI standards. So far, it has successfully passed the beta
- testing stage, and only a few major bugs remain within the code. The final
- product will be finished in time to be included with the new Amigas when they
- hit the streets.
-
- The standards of Graphic User Interfacing have taken an enourmous leap
- forward recently with the release of the awesome "Windows 95" by software
- giants MicroSoft. This GUI-driven software has the power and speed that
- todays computer users have dreamed about for years.
-
- David Pleasance of Commodore Inc. told us "It [Windows 95] really is an
- amazingly powerful piece of software, and the Amiga platform has been crying
- out for something like this for some time now - that's why Escom asked us to
- design Workbench 4. Our spec was simple; `Bring the old Workbench 3.1 upto
- Windows 95 standards.' We`ve had three teams working round the clock to push
- the product passed the beta stage on time, and I`m glad to say that it will
- soon be here, and every bit as good as Windows 95."
-
- In effect, Escom are now starting to target the Amiga at business'. By
- introducing a Windows-based GUI, the millions of PC owners can be instantly at
- home on a somewhat unfarmilliar machine. But to their advantage, they will
- have the power of the Amigas custom chips at their disposal - something which
- the PC can never hope to have. Mr. Pleasance's aim was to design a GUI
- enviroment that was akin to Windows in every aspect, down to the finest
- detail.
-
- "Take the installer for instance. We have worked very hard to get it to
- feel just like the Windows installer. For a start it`s written in AMOS to
- make it as slow as possible, and it's as unhelpful as we could have made it -
- with all the text in Manderin. The bit I`m proud of most," he continued, "is
- the end part of the installer - it picks two numbers at random, and if they`re
- not the same it uninstalls Workbanch 4! You can still get that great Windows
- `Spent-three-hours-installing-the-thing-and-it-hasn't-worked' feeling. It's
- the first time in the history of computing that another machine has been able
- to emulate this - It's a true breakthrough!" he boasted.
-
- We asked about the system requirements for the new Workbench, would it
- still work on an A500 with 512k of memory? "Goodness, no!" he exclaimed, "It
- needs a A4000/060 running at 50Mhz, with a 50Mhz FPU, and 34 meg of memory
- even before it will even consider running. But when you consider what it's
- doing, you realise that it has taken true programming tallent to make such a
- low-spec machine run such powerful software."
-
- Escom are planning to start an impressive 80m pound advertising campaign in
- the UK alone. "The campaign will target everyone," said Johnathon Anderson,
- Escoms cheif promoter, "from 12 year old games players right the way through
- to the biggest business' in the UK. We are confident that people will take to
- the machines and Workbench 4 like ducks to water."
-
- We asked Bill Gates, MicroSoft Owner and Computer Guru if he felt
- threatened by Escom's moves. "No, not really," he said, "Windows 95 has a
- feel to it that all PC owners have grown up with. Your Workbench 4 might
- *LOOK* like Windows 95, but it won't gel with the serious PC owners. They'll
- notice the slight differences and come back to the software they know and
- love."
-
- We put it to David Pleasance that this might be true. Could Windows 95
- users ever feel at home using Workbench 4?
-
- "Well, if they don't then they could try installing some of our special
- commodities that give Workbench 4 a more Windows-like feel. There's the
- `Mouseflicker' (tm) commodity, which makes your mouse-pointer flicker
- every time you move the mouse, and the `HardWareCrash' (tm) commodity that
- will inform you that you can't load your software due to your incompatable
- hardware everytime you try and load something."
-
- Escom hope to produce a GUI enviroment such that existing Windows users can
- change system without having to learn new skills and techniques. In doing
- this they have already received over 14,000 advanced orders from current PC
- based companies, hoping to upgrade their existing systems for the fraction of
- the price they would pay for a new high-spec PC and Windows 95.
-
- "We're very proud of Workbench 4 so far. We feel that it will breath new
- life into the Amiga, and help generate the necessary sales we need to bring
- the Amiga back into mainstream computing."
-
- "The box is as big as a garage, too." they added.
-