Why I like my ST

jedinovice · November 14, 2006

Here are a few reasons why I live my ST. Most of them are not rational....

1) It's a mark 1 atari ST(m) with TOS 1.0. I like having a near prototype, pioneering technology... :-)

2) I like pressing buttons. The modern PC has soulless 'keys.' The ST has buttons. OK, the keyboard on my STm appears to be slightly better than the later STFM's which really were super spongy. My ST has buttons. What is the point of having a computer without buttons? I means, computers are about pressing buttons!

3) The ST is silent! Trust me, this is a HUGE factor when writing, especially fiction (I write fiction and non-fiction.) I have managed to leave my ST on for a full 24 hours by accident. I couldn’t do that with any PC due to the sheer racket from the fans! When you need to transport yourself to another world as a writer not having ruddy great whirring fans helps get you there!

4) You can do useful things on the ST. I tried the Amiga. I really did. Sure, it was powerful in it's day but a cretin to use! You had to have two disk drives, you really did. The user interface was horrible and far more bugged than people admitted to! The PC was just dull in it's day and hideously expensive. The ST can play games AND run useful software without the operating system fighting me all the way. OK, modern PC's are better but, consider how you have to close down system apps to run a game...

5) The ST has limits. I don’t know about you but I can’t hold 512 colours in my head, leave alone 4096 or 16.7 million. The ST has limits so there is enough power to do useful _and_ fun things but I can also understand the machine. There is, for me, such a thing as too much hardware.

6) I can write a utility using (say) STOS without having to learn VB.NET or C#, plus Java, plus the Windows API's plus XML, plus having to produce an installation program which may or may not completely knacker my operating system.

I could go on. Shall we just say, also, that as I head towards getting married I also have a machine I can use which I know my wife won’t touch that is completely silent in operation (bar the occasion floppy disk 'chug') and will let me write the odd paper, a major book and let me burn off stress with the odd game or two while leaving the 'real' computer in her hands so she feels I've given her the best! :-)