The Future Of The Amiga - Where Do You Stand...

[Tenacious]

Must there be a way foreward?  Most of my Amigas are as functional and fun to use as ever.  I certainly have enjoyed the advancing OS (3.5, and 3.9) and the brilliant hardware that has emerged since Commodore's death.  I intend to continue this way for a long time.  I have no illusions about Amiga returning from the fringe.  Strangely, I find this comforting in a way.  How many other people (besides us) have a computer plateform all to themselves?

Before responsibilty grabbed me, I had the time to learn Amiga OS very thoroughly.  I will never get the chance to learn another OS to the same depth.  Not that I want to, Amiga may be the last OS to truly serve the user.  Besides, I can always turn on a newer machine when a modern file comes along.

Do I need greener pastures?  For me there aren't any.  Computer advancement moves far faster than people, society, government and laws, and my ability to adapt.  I was ready for it all to stop when computers made good librarians for books, music, and movies.  The advances of the last 5 years seem much more Orwellian, the projected next 20 years may turn into a nightmare for our civilization.  Jay Miner may have got more right than our favorite computer.  

My 2 cents.

EDIT:  Sorry for the gloom, I found iMonitor running on my corporate laptop the other day.  It was a sobering moment!

[Iggy]

Same here. I want both a Replay and a Natami, though the Replay looks like it'll be most suitable under the TV where my Minimig lives, while the Natami might actually get powerful enough to get more "serious" use, and I'll keep running AROS on one of my X86 boxes too, though likely hosted or in a VM for now...

I still want an X1000 too, though, and I'll keep AmigaOS4 on that because I want to play with that too... This is an expensive hobby

My goal is to get to the stage where I return to spending a decent percentage of my time using one or more Amiga-like OS's with as many as possible of the amenities I expect from using mostly Linux for the last 12 years.

This isn't that expensive a hobby for me or Golem. And when you finally get your X1000, I'll probably have a G5 Mac with a X850 XT video card that will outperform it.
The Natami looks like a neat system as does the minimig w/ AGA, but these aren't realistic systems for everyday use.

As I said before, you keep blowing your money on old hardware or re-creations of old hardware. I'm getting more use out of what I've got and its gets better on a regular basis.

[TCMSLP]

I also partly agree with Mechy - if all the time invested in AROS, MorphOS, Natami etc was spent developing/advancing the original hardware & software we'd probably have a very advanced common platform now.  However, due to the legal screw-ups and uncertainty I guess this wasn't possible.

I still maintain my positive view of the current situation though.  Forgetting all the previous problems we're currently in a great (if fragmented) position.   I expect in another year or two we'll see some projects vanish and others gain support.   Through natural selection the most useful will survive.

[bloodline]

@mechy

Seriously, if you want revolutionary you are looking at totally the wrong retro hobby platform :lol:

[Iggy]

I also partly agree with Mechy - if all the time invested in AROS, MorphOS, Natami etc was spent developing/advancing the original hardware & software we'd probably have a very advanced common platform now.  However, due to the legal screw-ups and uncertainty I guess this wasn't possible.

I still maintain my positive view of the current situation though.  Forgetting all the previous problems we're currently in a great (if fragmented) position.   I expect in another year or two we'll see some projects vanish and others gain support.   Through natural selection the most useful will survive.

I don't think AROS or MorphOS are going to disappear anytime soon. I do worry about AOS4.X, but hopefully that will survive.
AROS68K looks like it has a lot of support, and the Natami may be released eventually.

I can't agree with you about a consolidation of resources/effort. We have survived because WE have carried this forward. If we were to make the mistake of investing all our hope again in one endeavor I'm convinvibced it would fail.

We break the Amiga curse by not commiting to a saviour, but by devoting our resources to what WE want.

Screw the people who have disappointed us, broken their promises, and still try to profit off the trademarks they have helped denigrate.

We know what Amiga is, we will direct its future(s), and diversity is helping ius, not hurting us.

[bloodline]

@Iggy

Put simply: don't put all your eggs in one basket...
Well said

[Iggy]

@Iggy

Put simply: don't put all your eggs in one basket...
Well said

Damed right!. I use and support MorphOS, but I SO much want to see all these other projects suceed.

If Amiga is to make a comeback, it will be due to OUR efforts, not Amiga Inc. or Commodore USA.

[Franko]

Reckon I have to agree a lot with what Mechy has to say as I seem to have travelled much the same Amiga path as him although I don't quite agree with his dismal outlook on the Amigas future. As for running the Amiga under emulation on a PC or MAC just to benefit from easy access to readily available peripherals then that to me is not what the Amiga is about.

I have to disagree with Iggy's viewpoint on the Amiga, ie:- wanting to play BluRay discs, to me that's why you'd buy a BluRay Recorder/Player. I don't mind what it costs me money wise to keep my Amigas going and will most likely end up purchasing a MiniMigAGA, Natami & X1000 if/when they become available. I've said elsewhere before that for all my computing needs the Amiga covers it all except for the internet, thats what I use the Mac for, the net & for nothing else.

While I sincerely hope that all the various options continue to flourish and that diversity is good up to a point, Mechy makes a very good point though about all this diversity eroding away the custom base of the few hardware developers & retailers who still strive to bring us genuine Amiga hardware.

While we can all hope that various methods we choose as individuals to remain an Amiga user continues to flourish I can't help but wonder why some are willing to spend money on a PC or MAC and run an Amiga under emulation and not invest some of that cash in purchasing genuine Amiga hardware (old or New) and help keep alive the few hardware developers & retailers who still strive to support the Amiga.

[dammy]

While we can all hope that various methods we choose as individuals to remain an Amiga user continues to flourish I can't help but wonder why some are willing to spend money on a PC or MAC and run an Amiga under emulation and not invest some of that cash in purchasing genuine Amiga hardware (old or New) and help keep alive the few hardware developers & retailers who still strive to support the Amiga.

Reason why most people have opted for x86 (or shortly ARM) is UAE (in whatever flavor) plays the Amiga games and that is what it was all about, play games.  Some of us would not buy classic hardware nor PPC because there is no benefit to do so.  I look at the AROS/MOS/OS4 groups and shake my head because none of them are true Next Generation OSs that I need to run today.  Once one of them can do true SMP with MP, give me a call when it can run on portables of my choosing.

[mechy]

@bloodline: no idea where you got the idea i want a revolution,never said anything in my post about a revolt, i simply call it like i see it for better or for worse.

@franko  you probabaly added to what i wanted to say quite well,ports to other hardware are just cheap easy way out.My fingers are just tired from lifting the fork of leftover turkey! (happy thanksgiving to all who celebrated it yesterday!)to type much more

@tcmslp You have probabaly hit the nail right on the head.. imagine what could of been accomplished with everyone working toward one better goal/machine. We have these coders who know the amiga inside and out,and where is the effort put toward?? emulation .. what a waste. All these people saying that the 3x kickstart roms are a problem etc is silly,they are still for sale and easy to get and will be for a long time.Why is it no one can build some hardware with a boostrap rom(simular how draco vision does it) that adds the wanted missing stuff to the real rom. OS3.9 COULD of had real roms sold with it,the eproms are not expensive and programming them is not a big deal! the damn eproms cost $6 or less each new! With the simple bootstrap roms,we could have bootable cdroms and mem sticks.. you can basically do this with deneb now. same principle!

@Tenacious You also make a good point.. All this time the amiga still does and will do what its always done and what it is good at. Most people dont realize it,but they try and turn it into a modern internet/1080P movie watching machine to replace the clone/mac,which is ok,i'm all for killer apps on amiga,but trying to keep up with the joneses is not always practicle.Like everyone else i want to see us progress,i want faster/better amiga's too,but the way its going is not the best way imho.

There is so much stuff that could be fixed/improved on this old amiga hardware.

[commodorejohn]

I'm personally uninterested in anybody's turf wars over what the "true" Amiga future is. For me, it's the 68k and the OCS/ECS hardware and the elegant OS design that make the Amiga the Amiga, and that's always going to be the case, but I'm not going to begrudge PPC fans their own accomplishments. Not sure what I think of AROS as a whole yet, but I am at least grateful that they're working towards an open-source Kickstart, as that's going to be especially useful for NatAmi. As for NatAmi, I'm not holding my breath for it to be ready in the immediate future, but I am hopeful - I'd very much like to see new 68k Amiga hardware in production. That's my two cents.

[Tenacious]

There is so much stuff that could be fixed/improved on this old amiga hardware.

I've often wondered why more effort has not been put into booting from a CD for all models.  I think you have a great idea about creating a grass-roots rom.

[Franko]

Reason why most people have opted for x86 (or shortly ARM) is UAE (in whatever flavor) plays the Amiga games and that is what it was all about, play games.  Some of us would not buy classic hardware nor PPC because there is no benefit to do so.  I look at the AROS/MOS/OS4 groups and shake my head because none of them are true Next Generation OSs that I need to run today.  Once one of them can do true SMP with MP, give me a call when it can run on portables of my choosing.

Man have you missed out if you think the Amiga is only a games console, I aint knocking anyone who just uses the Amiga (in whatever form) for just playing games but there's a whole lot more interesting & productive things the Amiga can do. Give it a try sometime you might just be pleasantly surprised...

[mechy]

I've often wondered why more effort has not been put into booting from a CD for all models.  I think you have a great idea about creating a grass-roots rom.

Well the cyberstorm MK3 and ppc can boot from cdrom, not sure about the bliz? but i suspect it can also.you stopped one revision too early on the phase 5 cards tenacious hehe
I'm pretty sure installing a cdfs in the deneb rom is possiblke for booting also?

sorry franko! off on a tangent in your thread

If i could get away with it,i would dump a shitload of os3.9 real eproms out there.. hehe

mike

[bloodline]

@bloodline: no idea where you got the idea i want a revolution,never said anything in my post about a revolt, i simply call it like i see it for better or for worse.

Well Here (From your post):

¨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.¨

[vidarh]

This isn't that expensive a hobby for me or Golem. And when you finally get your X1000, I'll probably have a G5 Mac with a X850 XT video card that will outperform it.

When maximum performance matters to me, I have my Linux box which can easily crush any box you can MorphOS on while running several instances of AROS and UAE hosted side by side, as well as assorted other VM's if I so want.

Old PowerPC based Mac's simply have no appeal to me, regardless which OS they run. We recently threw a fully working one away at work because nobody could be bothered taking it home.

The Natami looks like a neat system as does the minimig w/ AGA, but these aren't realistic systems for everyday use.

As I said before, you keep blowing your money on old hardware or re-creations of old hardware. I'm getting more use out of what I've got and its gets better on a regular basis.

MorphOS on a G5 wouldn't be a realistic system for everyday use for me either. I don't have any animosity towards MorphOS but it just doesn't interest me - AROS appeals to me because it's open source, and AmigaOS4/X1000 appeals to me because it's new hardware specifically designed for AmigaOS. Classic AmigaOS appeals to me because, well, it's M68k and the classic chipset or derivations of it that I know and love. MorphOS has none of those.

If MorphOS does it for you, then good for you, but to me it doesn't matter at all if it's more "cost effective". Cost effective is what my Linux box is for.

I'm not "blowing my money" on anything. I'm spending money on things I enjoy to tinker with. As I said: It's a hobby.