Commodore Liquidation Review

PRODUCT NAME

        Liquidation of Commodore International, Ltd.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A product that everyone feared would eventually come, and it 
 finally came upon us mercilessly.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:   Bahamian Courts, with some help from various legal eagles.


LIST PRICE

        Anywhere from $19 million to about $100 million (US), depending on
 whom you ask.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                Strong nerves.

        SOFTWARE

                Lots of patience.


COPY PROTECTION

        This product is protected from successfully operating by a couple 
 of fools named Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould.  I would rate this copy
 protection as unacceptable.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        This product has been in extensive testing on over 4 million Amigas
 worldwide.  Many users were so exhausted from testing that they just
 decided to sell their machine and migrate to a different platform.


INSTALLATION

        I never installed this on my system, honest. It just somehow made
 its way there.  I suppose you could describe its installation as simple 
 as, say, a computer virus.


REVIEW

        Well, what can I say.  For at least a year before it actually
 happened, I anticipated this product's hitting the Amiga market.  During
 this time, I almost began regarding it as another one of those vaporware
 products that we Amiga users have become so accustomed to.

        When the liquidation finally hit the market, I must say that I was
 quite disappointed.  The whole thing was full of bugs, and hardly ran at
 all. In fact, now, about 9 revisions and updates later, it still doesn't
 seem to deliver what was originally promised, which of course was the
 possibility of a capable company manufacturing and marketing the Amiga
 line of personal computers.

        Though the developers of this product still seem relatively
 enthusiastic about its possibilities, I am beginning to seriously doubt
 the liquidation's viability in the current Amiga market.  In fact, I would
 go as far as suggesting that the market might have been better off without
 such a product being available in the first place.


DOCUMENTATION

        Documentation is extremely poor.  If it weren't for a few good
 supplements, such as Amiga Report, there wouldn't be any documentation at
 all.  (Kudos to the editors.)

LIKES

        I can't say that I like anything about this product.


DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

        I dislike the lengthy, seemingly endless proceedings that never
 seem to end, and that every time there seems to be the proverbial light at
 the end of the tunnel, it just turns out to be an oncoming locomotive.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        Not much to compare this thing to; but if you're interested, go to
your local library and look up "Pan American Airlines."  They were also a
once-great company that didn't quite make it.


BUGS

        Full of bugs.  Simply doesn't work.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        None.


WARRANTY

        None - expressed nor implied.


CONCLUSIONS

        I would not recommend this liquidation to anyone.  It doesn't
 perform as promised, doesn't even work, and it costs too much.  It also
 causes many of your fellow Amiga owners leave you for little-endian
 pastures.  Stay away!


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        This review is Copyright 1995 Bo Najdrovsky.  It is freeware.  Do
 what you want with it but if you republish it in your newsletter, just let
 me now. My address is bn@okcforum.osrhe.edu.  Thanks.