I've been reading through a lot of the old threads here from the early noughties and not even having bothered with the internet until this year I was left feeling a bit dismayed and sad about what seems to have been a huge split and infighting in the Amiga community a number of years ago, mostly with the introduction of OS4 but also MorphOS & Aros Vs so called Classic OS.
I had no idea this had gone on, as when the last of the Amiga magazines rolled of the press and I lost touch with what was happening in the Amiga community. I was left in my own happy little world thinking that all Amiga users were still out their like me doing their best to keep the old machines running. It appears this was not the case and instead of helping one another some sort of silly war broke out and the community split into different factions.
Although this is obviously old news to most of you it's left me wondering for the first time in almost 25 years of being an Amiga user if their is such a thing as the Amiga community anymore and is it worth all the time, money & effort spent on this amazing machine or is it indeed time to move on to pastures new and remember fondly just what a great machine the Amiga was/is.
Given all that, personally I see the Natami as the way forward for the Amiga, as to me it appears it's going to be basically an Amiga that runs 68K code, is fully backward compatible but will run at much faster speeds and can use modern peripherals more easily. This seems to me to be closer to a real Amiga than using MorphOS or Aros running on a processor that is totally alien to the Amiga. I suppose though this will all depend upon the Natami actually making it to production or is it time to truly consider Aros or MorphOS or dare I say it move to pastures new.
Don't get me wrong, I have quite an interest now in Aros & MorphOS and am not putting them down in any way. It just seems to me looking at what I have learned so far about the aforementioned that the Natami would be the best way forward for the Amiga in my humble opinion.
Just wondering now where does everyone else stand with their views on the future of the Amiga and why you truly believe that your personal choice would be the right path for the Amiga to take... 
At the risk of sounding negative,its looking dismal. Used to be a time(yea the good old days) when everyone was working for one common goal to improve the amiga hardware and software wise. Sadly now you have half a dozen factions split off in all directions.most ignore the real machine and scoff about it being too slow instead of fixing it.Half of them whine real amiga stuff is too expensive but don't realize it holds its value mostly when you sell it which is a good thing and could be considered an investment.Some whine its not available,which is total BS because the typical 1200 is what $150-$500usd depending what it comes with.not often you can run a computer for 2,5,10 years and sell it for nearly what you paid or more in some cases. Most clones/macs depreciate before you even buy them.Luckily, some companies like e3b/individual still make hardware for our beloved old amiga's but suffer from ever declining market of real amiga hardware users and are forced to live in ever shrinking markets.You guys won't like this,but emulation users are partly to blame for this because when you quit being part of the amiga market,then you are helping to shrink the numbers for these companies to sell to and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that when they go we are left in the cold..Lets face it most emu users don't support the hardware makers by buying hardware and rarely if ever buy software(theres a few who do i know)..Then we have some emulator/PC users who code for the amiga but code bloatware designed to run on fake speeds emulation provides,and this contaminates the 68K code on aminet with apps that aren't even usable on a real amiga because they crawl(thanks assholes!).I can't count the number of times when someone asks a question about their hardware or some such that he/she is told "just got do it on a emulator or get a emulator its easier"... In the old days amigan's would band together to try and solve a problem,be it lack of a certain piece of hardware or a program and fix the problem.Emulation,aros,and now morphos with its lack of real amiga hardware support have joined the problem,splitting the amiga community further apart.They say aros will run on a real amiga,but then whats the point?
The reality is none of us would even be here if it weren't for the real machines. They are what a amiga is,you cannot simply reduce it to a OS.You can put amiga stickers all over clones pc's with emulation and call it amiga,but its not.If you do this you are missing out on the coolness that made amiga. I can say the only thing happening lately that seems remotely interesting is the NAtami,but i can't understand why they would want AROS.
The whole point of the A1000 was originally to do something new and revolutionary.When all your criteria for running amiga os is to simply dump it on cheap hardware,you have lost sight of this,and reduced it to just a OS. I can't help thing if amigans had stuck together true on their hardware,if we'd of not of had new ppc boards by now. The market was only viable when enough people want it.Amiga hardware was pretty dead end from the start but theres still so much more that could be done with it. Look at the atari crowd,they have 100Mhz+ 060 accelerators with fast ram. Why did no one put ethernet,and or usb on an accelerator for amiga? We can't say cost is the problem,because the atari people managed it, maybe they just stick together better than we do?
You see franko,i lived thru all this mess, i have been at this stuff since late 87'. i have seen it all. So much wasted time bickering,and watching people split off in factions,which don't even get along.Most won't agree,but it is pretty hopeless. Your choices are a real amiga,emulation on a pc clone,aros,morphos on a mac,or the new Aeon stuff that most can't afford and natami,which for me holds the most interesting hope.we may see natami,maybe not. I don't see a video slot on the natami,so old toaster users may be left out,it talks about zorro tho but i cant tell if the slots on board are original size zorro slots.
For now i stick with my real hardware,its the best feeling i get when i use it still but i won't kid my self.
Flame away gents
