There are many days I ask myself why couldn't Hyperion produce an Amiga OS4 for the x86 platform, or for ppc Mac. With an x86 version of AOS4 many of us who own or owned a classic Amiga and now are sitting in front of an Windows or Linux system would be run to the next dealer around the corner to catch one package of AOS4. And I believe that this market would be a much bigger one than the 1000 or less Amiga Ones they've bought until today.
I'm pretty confident that this is something being heavily considered by Hyperion. Frankly, you don't spend a couple of years developing software that won't be able to be run on any hardware. My guess would be that they have tried running the OS on some different hardware platforms, and are hoping to find a way of releasing the OS while not having to be tied to the Amiga One motherboards (because, let's face it, the Amiga Ones are scarce already and a couple of machines dies of every year). Would anyone in their right mind continue developing such extensive software for a platform that, as of today (might of course change if some new hardware will be released), has no future whatsoever (and now I am not talking about all those people developing software for OS4, but the OS in itself)?
Hyperion is probably not aiming at pleasing only the community. Like someone said elsewhere: the community might feel there is a deadline for the 'return of Amiga'. People in general don't have that deadline, because to them Amiga has been dead since ages, and it won't matter if it will make a return in 1,2 or 5 years time.
The major problem, according to me, is that people that want to develop software for the OS isn't able to do so as of today. According to me, if they want software, they should aim at releasing the OS4 beta for classic PPC as soon as possible (relasing it as is, of course, and only if it is in such a shape that it is possible to use it for developing software for the OS).
Then there is also the problem of communication. Which is one of the major problems with some of the software and hardware developers still developing for the Amiga. Elbox, Hyperion, ACK, and many many others... they simply can't do good communication with the community. And, in the end, we all know what happens... people will start to doubt... there will be flaming... god knows what... and in some extreme cases the developers will be so upset by this (oh, it should really come as a surprise to them, no?) that they just quit doing what they are doing.
Heh.
I lost my focus. Sorry if this post makes no sense whatsoever.
It is, in the end, pretty ridicilous that the one thing that makes me not bothering about anything annouced for the Amiga today... (until it actually is released)... is bad communication. You don't announce things that you don't know for sure that you can deliver, you don't set deadlines which you can't keep, you don't promise things over and over again just to over and over again let the people you promised this and that down...
It isn't really strange that things look the way they do. With so much anger, hatred and doubt... in the community as of today... but, whatever, I am not really part of that any longer. I'm happy with the software/hardware I've got... and I will be happy with it for many years to come... so, if there will be no new hardware I won't be disappointed, and if OS4 won't be commercially released I won't be disappointed... but if... just if... I will of course be happy. But it will be a bonus... and not something that I've expected or eagerly awaited... and, thus, I feel rather well with one of my hobbies, the Amiga.
