Amiga.org
Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Announcements and Press Releases => Topic started by: System on October 03, 2007, 02:07:06 AM
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Over the last several months and in fact couple of years, Amiga has continued our software and business development and generally kept quiet. This path of quietness was chosen so that we communicated only when there was a development that culminated in a product that could be purchased.
In recent weeks, our being quiet has been interpreted as weakness or an open invitation to attempt harming our business relationships and opportunities with partners and customers.
Amiga is dedicated to providing a new operating system and digital environment for the Amiga community and the broader public, and to delivering products and services that are used by a variety of third party consumer electronics companies.
Amiga has never wavered from the path that was laid out and will deliver on that promise.
I am writing this letter to all in the Amiga community, past, present and future. We have learned a great many lessons over these years together. We made many mistakes, and not every partner we selected turned out to be the best or the most ethical. We can certainly point fingers and blame others, but it really does not matter. What matters is that contrary to a great deal of the nonsense that I am reading lately, Amiga at no time has ever abandoned our goals, the Amiga community and our dream. I recently read a post about how OS 4 should power a phone, and somehow this is supposed to be an epiphany that the Amiga OS could power more than a desktop. This has long been part of our core business plan, Amiga entered into and paid for an agreement to develop a pilot of an embedded version of OS 4 in 2005. Amiga lost a deal worth more than 250,000 units because the development was not properly handled. Amiga has been working and negotiating with third party OEM’s and ODM’s for far more units than the iPhone® has shipped and we still are unable to provide the product. The people who are being hurt are the legitimate third party developers who worked hard on OS 4.0, the customers that we are losing and the community.
No one wants to see OS 4.0 shipping more than Amiga does. Amiga tried for more than 3 years to work on and work with the necessary parties to reach that goal. Millions of dollars were offered, and refused, millions of dollars offered to make sure that the third party developers were paid, and yet without the third parties being consulted Amiga efforts are denied and frustrated. With these activities and continued efforts Amiga is the one that is portrayed as being in the wrong by those who are driven by self-interest and who do not care about the best interests of the broader Amiga community. We want to be particularly clear on the following point: Contrary to what has been said in public forums, Amiga has never expected to or tried to take intellectual property rights or money away from the legitimate, independent third party developers who worked (and continue to work) on OS 4.0, In fact, if our last offer had been accepted, these developers would have either been paid by now, or at least would be seeing a revenue stream, and millions of customers would have Amiga running on their systems – whether computers, mobile devices or phones.
In fact, Amiga’s consistent position has been that Amiga would assume all of the legitimate third party contracts and make sure that all legitimate outstanding amounts are paid.
What many of you do not seem to understand is that KMOS (now known as Amiga, Inc.), which acquired the tangible and intangible assets of the Amiga business in 2004, was and is a company with new financial wherewithal and new strengths. We have added people with proven records and they are keeping us focused as a company. We are able to focus our attention on developing products and technology that will drive revenue and our future as a company.
For those of you wanting to point fingers and blame Amiga for the fact that OS 4.0 is not shipping, you are pointing your fingers at the wrong people, and frankly I am not going to sit quietly any longer and let this unfounded criticism continue.
New hardware is indeed being developed, and we have selected the first 3rd party manufacturer that will build in high quantities, and yes, this new hardware is being delayed because OS 4.0 is needed to complete the package and to resolve certain technical issues. As I said before, no one wants OS 4.0 shipping more than Amiga.
The OS 4.0 situation could be resolved very quickly. We have tried. We were forced to take a legal course when the other side would not even mediate (which the contract calls for). This situation can still be resolved without the courts, but it cannot be a one sided solution.
With regard to recent comments about Tao and Intent, the reality is that Amiga does not support Intent and we have not since before Tao was forced into receivership. We have been working on our “AA2” solution for Amiga Anywhere. We wanted to keep quiet about it until the SDK and documentation were completed and made public when it was ready to ship. However, because of recent posts where incorrect statements have been made, we want to let you all know that Amiga Anywhere is not dependent on intent and that the new solution is in the pipeline .
My last point concerns a recent post about another company making offers for Amiga. This is categorically false. A bona fide offer was never received. Amiga received a letter that asked for our financials. In the phone conversation that followed, we explained to the contact at the other company our current valuation based on the last round of funding we had completed, and then gave them the current valuation on the round that is in the process of closing, and we were told that there was no way they could even get close to those numbers.
Amiga is making great strides and technical progress on our products and services, and with the partners and companies that Amiga has amassed not only in the cell phone space, but in other consumer electronics disciplines as well. With the new people who have joined, our recent acquisition in India, Amiga is opening the doors to a long term strategy that the community can support, respect and be proud of.
One of my frustrations lies with the fact that this Amiga team sacrificed a great deal to deliver on our promises. I want to thank the loyal members of the Amiga community for sticking with us through thick and thin.
Bill McEwen
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I really don`t know what to say.. Maybe i haven`t payed enough attention to the entire situation. I know they said new hardware was going to be available summer 07 (?). And i thought OS 4.0 was completed. Is this the hardware getting delayed because OS 4 "isn`t available"? Please fill me in people.. What is really going on?
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Wow, did anyone understand all of that? Seemed like "mumbo jumbo" to me.
It sounds great on paper, or even spoken. Now it's time to put actions behind those words. Otherwise all of this talk is about as useless as an "ashtray on a motorbike". :lol:
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People are jerks.
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Great Letter. Great News. My views over bill have changed now. Honors to him... chins up and lets look towards the future...
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Bill!!! We want some facts, something we can buy, touch, play with and have fun. I am sorry and I speak for myself but I am tired of words and mambo jumbo statements and excuses. It is time to either do it or be quiet from now and after.
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It's about friggin' time we had an open letter from Amiga, Inc.
Unfortunately, by this point, apologies and excuses are irrelevant. It doesn't matter if you almost had a product that outsold the iPhone. The fact is you don't.
But the bottom line is still what it has always been: get a product to market and we'll buy it!
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As Grandpa used to say:
Put up or shut up.
or how about
Actions speak louder than words.
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Another saying that comes to mind, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. How many broken promises are we up to already? The 20 questions at Amigaweb.net got ditched. And this seems like more fluff....AGAIN. :-(
Tangible things to show progress communicated to the community at regular intervals are the only fix IMHO. OS5 for instance, what happened there? Can't that be what you use for the ACK hardware and the cell phone deals you mention working on that exceeds the one million units shipped success of the iPhone?
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Bill,
Thank you for taking time to post your thoughtful letter on Amiga.com. Sadly, I'm sure you will receive many rude and thoughtless replies. Since I once had the honor of visiting with you for a few minutes, I know you're a man of deep convictions so this should make sense to you. In our marriages and friendships frequent open, honest communication is essential for a healthy relationship. It seems to me that's where Amiga Inc. has let down it's end of the bargain. We often go months with no information or are told something is coming then nothing happens and there is no explanation. Speaking to "The Community" is like using a CB radio in it's peak of popularity. There were often dozens of voices all going at once some speaking abusively. One has to persist in trying to cut through the chaos to reach the genuine recipients. Tens of thousands of us check these boards and your website frequently looking a real viable product that will run much of our old software but has the muscle to grow in the future. We're not kids anymore. We may have dropped $1700 on a new Mac or PC to find it still doesn't give us the joy of our old Amiga 1200's. We're still here and not kids anymore. Show us a real shipping product and we'll get the credit cards out and buy even if we've said some hurtful things in frustrated moments.
Blessings,
Radio Guy.
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If any Amiga Devs trust AI to work for them, they deserve what they get. McBill doesn't give a rat's rear end about end users, never have, never will. What he needs is content to bundle up AA2 and that means he needs Devs.
Dammy
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Hmmmm...this letter sounds like when my customers are asking when a product is going to be released and I answer "soon" because I have no clue at all :)
Well, a "soon" is better than nothing, cheers!
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Hey there Bill McEwen,
Quit being an imbicile. Sell the damn G5 MB you have with an inflated price of +$300, and let Hyperion sell AOS4.x for it for whatever they can get; I'm sure they'll send $20 per unit your way.... They just want SOMETHING out there that it'll run on!!!!!
At a $300 surcharge, that MUST be enough to keep you happy certainly? You can't be much more greedy than that?
Then you don't have any reason to pursue them in court as you'll make a healthy profit, and don't need to have the "assets" back at all.
Quit killing the non-existent market you don't have anymore!
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[Poster: Amigamia Posted: 2007/10/3 4:58:28 Wrote:]
Bill!!! We want some facts, something we can buy, touch, play with and have fun.
[End of Quote]
Are you talking bout' computers ?? *LOL*
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Poor retort with lots of whinning. It's no mystery why they're in the situation they're in when letters like this earn my pity, not respect.
No solutions, no reconciliation, no vision, but lots of talk about nice ideas. Been seeing that since when... 2000? Now back to minimig and Aros I suppose.
BTW, more thoughts at aw.org if anyone cares...
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3975&order=0#53468
Plaz
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I am still really waiting for OS4 or OS5, whatever, but I am curious to know what is so special in AmigaOS4 to take years to be ready...
Even the good old MSX has a new and cool OS!
http://www.symbos.de/
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Ubuntu Linux 7.10 will be out this month....
That OS rocks, and probably as close to an Amiga i will ever get. :-D
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Well I am new here, but I've been following this whole episode for a long time.
Point is I think this letter is trying to say "A-Inc" has Huge Plans for OS4 and has not abandoned the loyal users.
But without the critical co-operation from a certain "3rd party" .... Nothing will happen.... mening we the users just rot with blame game.
Anyways ..... just my views on this :crazy:
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Is there any chance what so ever that the saber-rattling and finger-pointing can just plain stop?! WTF, people?
In this tangled mess that is Amiga, I apparently missed the whole KMOS thing. I thought this was the same Amiga, Inc. for which I renewed their expired domain in 2001.
How long has it been since the promise of OS4? How long have we been told "just a few more months"? How many times have we been told "there's hardware running a modern Amiga OS, I have it, and it's great, and you'll love it, too... as soon as we release it."
DAMMIT. Anymore, I don't give a rat's butt whisker who's at fault. Just stop playing with me. This is worse than a frigid prom date.
The secrets, the lies, the subterfuge, the half-truths and quarter-lies, SHOW US SOMETHING FOR $_DEITY's SAKE, something real. All of this is just words. Words we've heard before, words we'll hear again. How does a company stay running on words?
::shouts loud curse word and hits [Post Comment]::
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DAMMIT. Anymore, I don't give a rat's butt whisker who's at fault. Just stop playing with me. This is worse than a frigid prom date.
Time to turn over the IP to some one who knows how to care for it. Com'mon LoadWB, I'll by the next round of punch though I can't help ya with the prom problem. :-)
Plaz
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Plaz wrote:
Time to turn over the IP to some one who knows how to care for it.
Hi Plaz,
I most certainly agree!!!!
BUT, court or NO court battle, there is NO reason that Amiga Inc. (Del.) can't sell this mythical ACK G5 HW they claim to have.... Hyperion can provide the OS, we (all of us here and on AW.Net and Amigans.net) know all the ins and outs about it, not like we're going to get confused about just what it is we're buying, and create an actual market/user community out here!
Amiga Inc. can STILL make money off of AOS4.x, by just adding a considerable amount to the HW (whatever it is they think they're losing). We're pretty desperate, and it's not like we didn't pay large amounts for computer HW in the past anyhow.
No more talk, DO SOMETHING Amiga Inc.!
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Who on earth is still funding these people?
With these results I'm surprised the doors are still open.
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:popcorn:
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(http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/pics/beating-a-dead-horse.gif)
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Amiga Roundtable's Open Letter to the Amiga Community (http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3977)
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Nice to finally get a response from Amiga. My thing is that maybe its too late for a lot of people. I remember a lot of promises in the past number of years and last i looked in my computer room the newest editions to my Amiga family are from Ebay. I can't say i'm believing what i was reading, who knows I really hope that my skeptism is proven wrong and I can buy a shiny new Miggy with OS4 (by new mean new hardware not a powered up A4000 with OS4). I really hope that they come out onto millions of devices, manufacture and sell millions of new Amiga Computers and kick butt, but at this point I just can't really believe them. We had letters like this before with promise of new hardware. Remember ACK was supposed to make new ones and the deadline came and went without ONE word from anyone there or Amiga. Hmmnnn I'm just gonna enjoy my A4000, A1200 and A1000 until I can find an A3000 to add to the collection. Cheers and who knows maybe our future will shine.
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@Piru
Time to get "Office Space" on some arses. :-)
But, yeah, I'm pretty much resigned to enjoying my Amiga systems while they're still alive. Once they die, I'll be living la vida Amiga in emulation.
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If it's true and there is hardware lined up, let's all wish a swift end to this lawsuit and just get on with it.
Robert
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This is the computer business, and it's 2007, Mr McEwan. Talk is cheap, words are irrelevant, products matter. Your company has continually talked itself and it's 'third parties' up, and no products are forthcoming, ergo you're doing something wrong. You don't see Steve Jobs (love him or hate him) talking up vapourware for years and years then telling us 'it'll be out as soon as some hardware comes along' then telling us 'the hardware will be along as soon as we reach an agreement with our developers.' Apple simply say 'we're doing this' and it happens, and they show us exactly how along the way. One good example of how this business is supposed to work. I hope you are taking notes. I work on the same principles and that's worked form me too...
We gave you time, for a while it looked semi-promising, so we gave you some more, nothing more happened, and some even gave you more than that (i.e. too much). You still have singularly failed to produce the product(s). You still continue to talk. I for one am sick of listening. The boy who cried fire is very close to getting burned, and here at least went up in flames a long time ago... :madashell:
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Amiga Inc. Please do one thing right.
Either focus on delivering OS4.
OR focus on delivering "AA2".
You cannot do both. You do not have enough staff or experience to deliver two products.
Do one product. Do one "insanely great" product. Gain some credibility. Then move on. FOCUS. EXECUTE. DELIVER.
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Poster: LoadWB Posted: 2007/10/3 6:05:42
Is there any chance what so ever that the saber-rattling and finger-pointing can just plain stop?! WTF, people?
In this tangled mess that is Amiga, I apparently missed the whole KMOS thing. I thought this was the same Amiga, Inc. for which I renewed their expired domain in 2001.
How long has it been since the promise of OS4? How long have we been told "just a few more months"? How many times have we been told "there's hardware running a modern Amiga OS, I have it, and it's great, and you'll love it, too... as soon as we release it."
DAMMIT. Anymore, I don't give a rat's butt whisker who's at fault. Just stop playing with me. This is worse than a frigid prom date.
The secrets, the lies, the subterfuge, the half-truths and quarter-lies, SHOW US SOMETHING FOR $_DEITY's SAKE, something real. All of this is just words. Words we've heard before, words we'll hear again. How does a company stay running on words?
::shouts loud curse word and hits [Post Comment]::
Well said. Couldn't agree more.
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Boy!
The spirit of Jim Jones lives on....
Are you so deranged that you are asking us to believe that ACK will deliver? :crazy:
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More words - no products.
It's been 15 years(!) since the community got fresh hardware. I don't think there are still "millions" out there, eagerly waiting for products they are being promised for a decade. And there's still more vapor in the pipeline.
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what i read above is actually confirming what i had thought of the majority of this community. Grumblers. it does not matter that people are doing their best to keep things up for those who actually **appreciate** that. i have a feeling that most of you grumblers think you would have done better.
so why the heck won't you prove that rather than sitting and criticizing others? or maybe you could rethink your complaints???
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Just printed the open letter onto toiletpaper. Be back in twenty.
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McOdd, signed 8-)
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Bill, please shut up :-(
The new owners of Amiga came in wanting a OS for a mobile phone, they couldnt care less about the real Amiga, 68K or PPC. You have made no products and make stupid claims about Amiga OS5 and now AA2.
You employ three memebers of staff tops, you work out of a tiny office (See the Kent reporters writeup) and you try to rub the Amiga name into the ground by selling licences to unknown tiny companies.
Your website looks poor, not just for "the biggest software company" it looks worse than a local computer shops website.
What happened to the Amiga Kent offer? It came time for you to pay and you ran!
Why did you even sign up for that in the first place? You have no products, even if you had OS4 available at the time a one product company doesnt do that sort of thing, ever!
As for OS4, yeah I think its yours and tbh if Amiga lost control of its own OS then there is no chance of Amiga ever being put back together in any form.. that isnt to say you deserve it though, you couldnt give a feck about Amiga users and instead of offering millions you should have made some hardware, you! not ACK or anyone else.
Also what is up with buying an indian computer firm? for starters what products have they made since you bought them? second can we have some pictures of this company? how many does it employ? etc because I think you havent bought that company, I think its a PO box in a small indian office.
Also how about a real interview, lets get the Amiga round table to visit you/Amiga with a camcorder and lets see what Amiga is today!
Amiga is nothing!
You see frustration in the Amiga community because you have managed to destroy it, you have acted dishonestly and you dont care a bit about us. Thats why people want you to sell up and move on, if its just about a product name for your new mobile phone product please pick another name, the Amiga was and is so much more!
Oh and stop writing total BS: "Amiga is making great strides and technical progress on our products and services" << that is just a lie, you have done nothing.
Anyhow, this post is stepping over the line into attacks so I will stop but just to say it again, you have done nothing for this community but bring us pain, wether you ment to or not that is what you have done, and that is why you see the posts on sites dedicated to the REAL Amiga's, the 68K's and the Amiga One... if you want to push the Amiga DE why dont you go on to the Amiga DE/AA/AA2 forums? oh yeah its because no one likes the idea and as such there are no forums.. take a hint and help us or get out of the way!
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And i thought OS 4.0 was completed. Is this the hardware getting delayed because OS 4 "isn`t available"? Please fill me in people..
I think the sentence should be "isn't available to Amiga inc." which should make it more clear (and that's the reason for the lawsuit aswell, I guess)
Sure, Ben Hermans signed a bad deal for Hyperion, but that's not a valid excuse to break it. Re-negotiating a better deal is how these kind of cases are normally handled.
Of course it might be that the various shell games played by Amiga inc. invalidated the contract, but that's just one of the things we should know after the court case is over.
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My last point concerns a recent post about another company making offers for Amiga. This is categorically false. ... In the phone conversation that followed, we explained to the contact at the other company our current valuation based on the last round of funding we had completed, ... and we were told that there was no way they could even get close to those numbers.
Ok let's do the math (hopefully right...)
Prokom Software SA bought 800.000 "shares" (2,3%) of AMIGA Incorporated for a price of 2,5 US-Dollar each.
So whole AMIGA INC. should be up for sale for about: 86.966.521,74$ (US) :crazy:
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IMHO the entire letter it is worth only this passage:
The OS 4.0 situation could be resolved very quickly. We have tried. We were forced to take a legal course when the other side would not even mediate (which the contract calls for). This situation can still be resolved without the courts, but it cannot be a one sided solution.
It is a strong signal that Amiga Inc. wants an extra judiciary agreement with Hyperion.
Now if I was was in the shoes of Hyperion managers, I will open a roundtable in which to search for a deal.
IMHO Amiga inc. will be enough yelding and reasonable this time.
DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.
Situation it is still ambiguous and the trial results are still uncertain.
If I were of Hyperion's, then I will start discussions of peace.
AT THIS MOMENT IT IS VITAL FOR AMIGA NOT TO MISS DECEMBER 2007 CHRISTMAS SALES.
If Amiga will be present for Christmas sales with SAM 440 EP and AMIGAOS, WITH A LICENCE FROM AMIGA INC., then Christmas sales will lead to free advertising from any online news-magazine which will title news that Amiga it is again on the market... :-D
And more, the Christmas period it is the time of the year that people has enough money in the pocket to purchase an Amiga.
It is not important to win in court trial, just for the taste of having AmigaOS of your own.
It is not important to get your vendetta.
Profit, publicity and success for Amiga, and for your business are important!
And this all it is worth an agreement with Amiga Inc.
Don't miss this opportunity Hyperion.
Else Amiga will be taken as the new 2008 joke of the year...
And Amiga will be perceived as worst than Duke Nukem Forever joke...
Don't miss this opportunity Hyperion!
Amiga Inc. did their worst to let Amiga ship to ground in the sand...
Now, if you were so stupid to miss this last opportunity for an agreement, and you Hyperion let the Amiga ship to sunk...
...Then we the users will know how to do with you, and it will be of no importance that you developed AmigaOS 4.0... :madashell: :oops: :roll:
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"Sure, Ben Hermans signed a bad deal for Hyperion,"
Only if they lose.
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Poster: hooligan Posted: 2007/10/3 11:27:15
Just printed the open letter onto toiletpaper. Be back in twenty.
:bow:
hahahaa... me too mate
This letter is crap! Bill is lying us for too many years and now you will believe him?!!? Did you forget promises?
About DiscreetFX! Bill said the oposite thing of what DFX said. But... big but:
DFX put a lot of money on bounties and still tries to keep amiga spirit alive.
Amiga is lying for 10 years.
And still... Bill tries to attack DFX. Just like he did with Genesi!!??
Is this guy normal? :crazy: I don't think so
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what i read above is actually confirming what i had thought of the majority of this community. Grumblers. it does not matter that people are doing their best to keep things up for those who actually **appreciate** that. i have a feeling that most of you grumblers think you would have done better.
so why the heck won't you prove that rather than sitting and criticizing others? or maybe you could rethink your complaints???
Oh, but we are (http://www.aros.org).
Dammy
No Schedule 'N' Rocking
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Sure, Ben Hermans signed a bad deal for Hyperion, but that's not a valid excuse to break it. Re-negotiating a better deal is how these kind of cases are normally handled.
Didn't Ben write it? I really dislike AI far more then I could ever certain owner(s) of Hyperion. Be as that may; AI has legal grounds. How solid you may ask? We should know in six to twelve months. :horse:
Dammy
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and not every partner we selected turned out to be the best or the most ethical
True, no one should have had anything to do with that buch that ran dodgy voucher schemes that were never redeeemed. A T shirt is not the same as a $50 redeemable voucher and in my country would have gone against all advertising standards.
Oh, I just realised that dodgy buch *was* run by yourself, Mr. McEwen. How on earth do you expect anyone to believe what you say by now ?
Bill Eaves
Developer of Digital Universe for Hyperion OS4.
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nice words from you again bill mcewans. but you know bill mcewan we dont buy it anymore, your words today is as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike. :-x
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Donar wrote:
So whole AMIGA INC. should be up for sale for about : 86.966.521,74$ (US)
Actually it's only $US 86,956,521.74 - which makes it a lot more reasonable... :lol:
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This is pure utter baloney. Anyone who believes Scamiga must be on hallucinogens.
They are trying to screw the developers yet again.
How can this guy sleep at night?
Have you no shame?
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So whole AMIGA INC. should be up for sale for about : 86.966.521,74$ (US)
Enron accounting.
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Yaawwwnnnn... Same old, same old...
Please clear the area, nothing to see here.
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Great Letter. Great News. My views over bill have changed now. Honors to him... chins up and lets look towards the future...
Where is the great news? This letter pretty much confirmed that there wont be any chance of OS4 in any near future due to the disagreement between hyperion and amiga inc.
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What a load of sanctimonious crap. To try and insult the intelligence of the community after everything else they have done is just taking it too far. :madashell:
Anyone giving them the benefit of doubt either hasn't been around long enough or is the epitome of naivety.
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:madashell: Here's a thought for the **community**:
Don't waste your breath, your brain power, your longevity on speculating what will be or lamenting what has happened. Look at what exists (ie. classic amiga) and stop damn well wondering/arguing about what will happen, because its irrelevant and helps no-one.
Rather than {bleep}ing and moaning on here go take up a hobby... like chess... or fishing... and then some years from now you will hear the news you are waiting for or you won't. Either way, you'd be doing something more worthwhile in the meantime rather than reading useless crap like this. And Amiga Inc. and its contractees will continue doing whatever the hell they are doing without concern for your petty woes... which is what's going to happen anyway.
Jarrod
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Hmm, what do I think...
A: A steaming pile
B: The crowning turd
C: A huge crock
... Can I choose 'all of the above'?
:-D
Look, for those here who want the Amiga to be 'born again' in the 21st century, the way forward is MiniMig, AROS, etc...
Otherwise we should be happy with our classic boxes and bask in the warm glow of days gone by when 'Amiga' really meant something...
Amiga Inc has as much relevance as the cheese sandwich sitting here next to me, on my plate!
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I have a short but heartfelt message for Mr McEwen, but in respect to the readership of this forum I won't spell it out. As a clue, the second word is "off"!
Years of lies, years of being sold dud software and other "products" that proved to go nowhere and you still think you have credibility with this audience?
I've moved on to being a Linux user these days - mostly due to the stagnation in the Amiga scene and the complete absence of any realistic vision from anyone - and quite frankly wouldn't touch any product range in which McEwen and his band of happy morons are involved with even if it was the last computing solution available on the planet, because whatever they touch turns into a scam and ends in ultimate failure. Buying anything from them is the equivalent of burning money. In fact burning money is probably more fun!
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Bill, Bill, Bill... big dreams only make big money when they arrive on your shelf at christmastime. You don't have time for this. What I suggest, have suggested before, is make some quick money while you can, to keep your core development going. HiTorro did this with joysticks. High goals mean nothing if you cannot deliver even basic needs.
I gave you a plan, in '00, to deliver a steady source of income, even if low, which would have kept all of this mess from happening. After the moves you've made since, the disregarding of basic business sence, why should we give you even a second more thought?
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@mingle
Never underestimate a cheese sandwich! :-D
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I gave you a plan, in '00, to deliver a steady source of income, even if low, which would have kept all of this mess from happening.
I think a lot of us have "given plans" and tried to work with them to make things work only to be met with silence. Then again, if they gave us free reign to do what it takes to support the platform, how many "Hyperions" would they have to deal with now? (speaking primarily of lawsuits/etcetera)
Wayne
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@Oli_hd
Well said, every last word...
@McBill
New hardware is indeed being developed, and we have selected the first 3rd party manufacturer that will build in high quantities, and yes, this new hardware is being delayed because OS 4.0 is needed to complete the package and to resolve certain technical issues. As I said before, no one wants OS 4.0 shipping more than Amiga.
Don't make me laugh! Only thing ACK controls has developed is a monstrous reputation for non delivery and fraud within this community for years, only which being exceeded by your own reputation ocourse!
So from Hyperion we have seen REAL software. From their respected choice of partners we have seen REAL hardware.
When will we see REAL hardware from ACK? When will we see even a shred of evidence such hardware exists??
But I think anyone with any sense of past history knows the answer!
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Great Letter. Great News. My views over bill have changed now. Honors to him... chins up and lets look towards the future...
ahhahah - you really had me going for a second there!
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Rather than {bleep}ing and moaning on here go take up a hobby... like chess... or fishing... and then some years from now you will hear the news you are waiting for or you won't.
nah, I already tried that for 10 years. :-)
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well, if nothing else, I hope the legal issues clear up quickly because I hate seeing lawyers sucking up any money better used for creative efforts
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Amiga has never wavered from the path that was laid out and will deliver on that promise.
He should do stand-up comedy :-D.
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This is a serious question to you amiga guys: Do you actually use amigas for anything serious, or is it just games, really.
Don't flame me; I honestly want to know if the amiga community is doing real stuff out there ...
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First off, I appologize for writing a thesis here, but it's hard not to in response to this communication from Amiga Inc.
In recent weeks, our being quiet has been interpreted as weakness or an open invitation to attempt harming our business relationships and opportunities with partners and customers.
I've been suspicious about your quietness because of this: http://www.amigaweb.net/index.php?function=view_news&id=612 and what seems to be a lack of answers for so long. I'm not sure which questions from those offered were chosen to be sent, but I think we're still waiting for answers there...
Some people are also untrusting of Amiga Inc. because of things that Mr. McEwen has said to us, and who we know about they claim to be working with.
We've been told that "every" (McEwen's quotes) inquiry to Amiga Inc's defined technology licensing email address to learn abotu licensing OS4 for hardware porting was answered. I sent a number of such emails to that defined contact address and never received any response of any kind whatsoever. No questionairre about my employer's revenues or anything else said to have been part of that. Nothing. At all. Period. We've seen others posting here that they tried contacting Amiga Inc. inquiring about a 3rd-party Pegasos license to port OS4 to Pegasos but they never got any resposnes either. So I do not believe Mr. McEwen's claim there to be true.
He also chose to work with a hardware vendor that has earned itself a poor reputation with many members of the Amiga community. Numerous failed deadlines spanning across years of delays, complete and total lack of proof that anything claimed to exist does, and holding users' AmigaOne machines and money against their will for years insteaad of just returning them if he can't find time to work on them. Heck, even Helgis has begun to show cracks in his unbreakable faith in this.
Amiga Inc. left the Amiga community feeling neglected for quite a few years. Especially when you gave us special contacts to discuss business dealings and then ignored them. Sorry, but you've earned a good bit of our distaste through your own actions. Partnering with another "company" that has also earned itself a less than ideal reputation in these circles did nothing to help you rebuild your own. You can't blame everything on Hyperion. Hyperion told us to get an OS4 license before we could talk seriously with them about such things, and you ignored a number of people that tried to do the right thing. Perhaps your OS4 revenues wouldn't be so zero if you'd actually been willing to do OS4 business, not making us feel like that offer was a total sham. I honestly do not believe these claims of 3rd party OEM/ODM discussions.
Claims that DiscreteFX's inquiry to purchase Amiga Inc. were not bona fide, you'll have to do some mroe convincing there as well. Very few of us see any significant value in Amiga Inc. these days. I don't know or care how many rounds of venture capital you've been seeking out, or how much cash that may be. An offer to purchase is largely based on what the item purchased is seen to be worth. Look around us. The public us long forgotten what Amiga is. A number of people I work with never did know it to begin with. People laugh at us for still being interested in that, telling us we should let that dead horse alone and move on. That does not inspire significant brand value in my opinion. What I can perceive in brand value has shrunk since Commodore, since Escom, since Gateway, Amino, Amiga Washington, itec/Kmos/Amiga Delaware. The Kent thing has surely done nothing but weaken the brand and cause a number of people to hold a grudge against "Amiga", further devaluing the brand and company. There's no current revenue stream from AmigaOS, for anyone that I know of. Considering your current reputation with the nanoscopic potential market for your only known product, I'm sorry, but it's hard to imagine Amiga Inc. being worth much of anything. You may feel you're worth a heck of a lot, but realize that many observers are laughing at you and strongly disagree.
For years, most of us have seen you as nothing more than someone that must provide a license allowing other companies to do what we want done, and we a;so see you as refusing to do that much. You've shown us that you aren't even willing to do nothing mroe than cash a royalty check every now and then, else why have you avoided such responsibilities so thoroughly?
You tell us here that the independent OS4 contractors need not worry about their IP rights, how many of these people have you contacted to reassure them, discuss re-licensing their work yourself, or even to ask just what the heck is their current deal with Hyperion in order for your supposed offer to pay all outstanding balances to be seen as remotely legitimate? While my contribution may not be core or critical to OS4, I haven't heard from you about that... Who of the OS4 development crew HAS heard anything from Amiga Inc to discuss their work and OS4 asfter the lawsuit? Anyone? Anything at all? If not, then McEwen needs to stop preaching to us here and DO SOMETHING.
If Amiga Inc. wants to rebuild its reputation hre and its relationship with this community, you need to do more than come in here and tell us we're wrong to support the only company we've seen doing anything at all with Amiga stuff. (Most of us here do not consider DE or Anywhere to be "Amiga stuff") We've not seen you doing anything for or with us for a very long time. Last we saw that was, in OUR opinion, Amiga related, was your announcement of the SAM440 board last year, which I think a lot of people were confused to see that deal go south.
What about the rebates and coupons? We were promised these by Bill McEwen of Amiga Inc. What does Bill McEwen of Amiga Inc. intend to do abotu those today. Many believe the $50 offer on ACK's boards for that coupon is a sham, as they believe the ACK boards it is based on are a sham. If ACK fails, then we're still out our $50. And then what of the $100 rebates for AmigaOne/OS4 for buying the AmigaDE PartyPacks? I bought both the Linux and Windows flavors of that, and Bill McEwen's promises owe me $250 total. What of that will I ever see? After all these years, I've resigned myself to believing I've been defrauded. Stop preaching to me and convince me that Amiga Inc. and/or Bill McEwen's word is worth anything today, because I myself place very little value on those.
I'm not saying that everyone other than Amiga Inc. is perfect. We've seen complaints about Hyperion's old hardware repair service, and we all know how well they have met the OS4 scheduling from days past. But they did eventually release something, and something relevant at that. Regardless of imperfection, they've been seen to do something, anything at all, and that's more than we've observed from Amiga Inc. DO something, and preferrably something on-topic in OUR opinion.
Anyway... Amiga Inc needs to begin rebuilding its relationship with we the community. That's going to require effort, discussion, and real results, not lectures and unfulfilled promises, from you or your new partners. People in the community have demanded proof of any of ACK's products for years. Why not encourage that to happen, lest we continue to believe it is all complete B.S.? Why not begin some dialog with the OS4 contractors about their work, and making sure you will have any legal right to distribute it should you win your lawsuit?
You don't have to share all your business secrets with the community, but you do have to start acknowledging our existence, talk to us, work with us, and earn our respect and trust back. You can't continue to stay quiet, and if you do then we'll continue to believe you're mostly irrelevant. Your post here may be a first step in rebuilding relationships, lets hope so. Now, go answer those questions from amigaweb that you promised to do a few months ago. And don't just go away again, because we have lost patience with you, and very few remaining Amiga fans care to chase after you these days. If you want us, if you want our respect, our trust, then start earning it. This task is on your shoulders, not ours.
Thank you for your time and patience in all that.
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If the company had all these strengths, etc.. they would not be so evasive.
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Is this the hardware getting delayed because OS 4 "isn`t available"? Please fill me in people.. What is really going on?
There have been numerous requests for some evidence of any ACK hardware design's existence. Old stuff from years ago like the PowerVixxen to the new stuff. You can make hardware exist without OS4. You can test it and debug it without OS4. (Use Linux) You can make it ready for OS4, running, usable, functional, and existant before worrying about porting OS4 to it. You can take a photograph of it without and before OS4. Yet has refused to do so, even after promising to do it. He may have good intentions, or did at one time. I believed at one time he did. I've since given up on all that. McEwen's going on about this here is actually making me trust him less than I did yesterday.
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I emailed Bill a few weeks ago and he said he had something big on the horizon.. I guess this is what it was... He also wanted to sell the classic Amiga warez ported to the ibm platform.. I wasnt to happy with that!
:P
edit by admin : e-mail contents removed
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This is a serious question to you amiga guys: Do you actually use amigas for anything serious, or is it just games, really.
Well, there are people who use it for internet surfing, mp3/video playback, video processing using videotoaster and so on.. But for some of these tasks you will of course need a souped up amiga or a amigaone. Also it might be worth noting that the web browsers are quite a bit behind modern browsers like firefox, which means many sites will render wrong and some might not even work at all.
Most of us however have both a pc/mac and a amiga and see the amiga more as a hobby these days.
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I think if bill is a good leader of his bunch, he write this letter to Hyperion. To change the situation about os4.
Open letters in the history not wrote to everyone just adressed to everyone. Every "open letter" had its own target person.
If amigainc has much $ in its pocket, then os4 already in the market. Simply bought out from hyperion or just rewroted with 3 party developers.
Anyway if this letter has any other reason to being written, i simply don't have time for it.
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@IOWASURFER
What do you mean by classic amiga warez? These classic games are from what i have heard a result of a partnership with the companies who originally developed the games, and thus that means Amiga has the license to sell these games and i bet cinemaware and vulcan software get their share of the profits as well.
I will keep moving if you can keep the faith, but I would really like to sell about 10,000 copies of the software to show my board that we need to increase funding.
This part on the other hand looks a bit shady... Reminds me alot about the fund raising through club amiga coupons and also shows that they are in bad shape financial wise again..
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@Error
what i read above is actually confirming what i had thought of the majority of this community. Grumblers.
Then you obviously don't know us.
doing their best to keep things up for those who actually **appreciate** that.
Please, please, please explain to all of us exacly what they have been keeping up all these years. When your done researching and responding, I think you'll have a better idea why we don't take this seriously.
or maybe you could rethink your complaints???
I've been rethinking them for about 7 years with and open mind and actually mostly on the side of Amiga Inc. But now I'm more than convienced of their lack of professionalism and competence. And yes, hand most any of us millions of dollars and ownership of the Amiga IP, damn strait we'd do better.
Plaz
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Just wanted to say I agree with most of you here.
But my favorite letter from Bill was the one from last year where he boosted OS5.0, it is supposed to be better than OS X you know :lol: . This years letter was not as funny so I hope next years annual letter of promise from Amiga will carry big plans of OS6.0 and new Amiga hardware like triple dual PPC system with integrated OS5 environment from ACK and Amiga - the international leader of multimedia hi-quality systems.
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@dwlegg
I was using mine as part of my recording studio, some document editing and web/irc browsing. With in 2 months, 2 of my boards died beyond the abiliy of myself or the third party shop to repair. Used hardware is scarce and expensive since we've been so long with out new products. The only system I was playing games on was actually my "game systems", windowsXP and PS2.
Now with my main Amiga hardware dead, (I do have other slower Ami systems) I'm pretty exclusive to windows and missing my Amigas. There's always been a perception as Commodore/Amiga as game machines, but typically they are/were used quite seriously.
Plaz
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"Occam's razor"
Which is more likely.....?
It's heart felt statement on the true situation and the actual facts
or
BM tales.
In the end, from my perspective, it really doesn't matter if any new products materialise. As its most likely if there is any intrinsic value in the IP, it would be owned by someone who could extract as much market value out of the US legal system.
Lawyers get fat on it.
The truth sadly is the Amiga has no market value and even in the unlikely event it ever did. It would be gobbled up in someones portfolio for a rainy day.
Hang on....Hmmmmm....Bill ? Lets be honest...Tax Loss.....no product.....where have I seen that before......Am I right, would someone be out of pocket if it made a profit ?
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@Bill McEwen
It is not a good idea to admit talks of selling the company and at the same time promoting it.
You also mentioned that you have not supported Intent for a long time, which I conclude that AA is dead. This should be posted first on your website, before being put on a message board.
Please provide proof instead of just claims. We are all tired of the finger pointing.
Kirka
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Poster: kd7ota Posted: 2007/10/2 23:00:08
Ubuntu Linux 7.10 will be out this month....
That OS rocks, and probably as close to an Amiga i will ever get.
I agree. I love Ubuntu. I don't know about the multitasking part, but it feels like a next generation "Amiga". It's a fun OS, it takes work to tweak and configure, but most importantly it's here and works with modern hardware.
I have Feisty Fawn. I think I'll skip the new release this month and wait for the one coming early next year which has the extended service date. I don't know much about AmigaOS4, but I don't see how it can really compare. Has anyone done any side by side comparisons between OS4 and Linux? Or perhaps AROS and Linux? I'd be interested to read that.
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CLAP! CLAP!
That's the spirit. As you, Mr Bill McEwen, can see, there's a lot of ppl here waiting for a new REAL A-m-i-g-a.
This type of spirit - I may call it "open minded", is the best thing you can do to every Amiga User.
This can be a test to see the results, but it can be a REAL new shining light. I'll bet on the last one:)
...And Why not ask to Amiga Users our wishes for the new hardware, for example? (Myself would like to see a 800mhz PPC + 68040(60) with some kind of aga compatibility, for example... is that possible?)
Best Regards,
from Portugal
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Amiga Inc is like a cuckoo clock. Now they have
done their cuckoo'ing so months (maybe 6 months)
will pass before we hear the cuckoo again.
Amiga Inc you've let us all down. You have
not been able to protect what you inherited.
You did not belive in what you bought, so it
slipped out of your hands and that is all
your own fault.
Fight your fights now because you were lazy
and not careful enough when you lent your IP
to Hyperion. I feel NO pity for you.
I am amazed that so many people has commented
in a very similar manner, I hope you read them
all and realize NO ONE BELIEVES IN YOU ANYMORE !
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Bill McEwen, you never belonged to the Amiga community, and never will. Your delusional insistence is pathetic.
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Dear Mr. McEwen.
It`s an bad joke, i think. An ugly bad Joke! :pissed: YOU are frustrated because the Amiga Community doesn`t clap they hands an praises the great work of AmigaINC?! You can't be serious?! :crazy: :angry:
YOU are talking about frustration? What should WE do?! More than 15 Jears, we are waiting for the new Generation of Amiga Computers.
Computer - Not some ugly Handygames.
In this decade, we heard billions of promises, the most from you. Promises, Visions, Visions and Promises. I wanna to touch one, only one Promise. They are only Promises for the next years. What is going on, on the next weeks? Where are the new Generations of Amiga?
In Fact we are the MOST FAITHFUL Community. The Community with the biggest patience. And you are frustrated, because we are not in upbeat mood after the painful Kent-Affair? Are you joking?!
YOU are NOT in the Position to claim loyality from US!
We do not have to proof you our Loyality, no, YOU have to proof, that you are loyal to the Community! :pissed:
I have enough to hear some "our deal was`nt it, because the other company wasn`t really ethical" - bulls***!
i am sorry about my poor english, but i think, the message is recognizeable. :evil:
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I've been rethinking them for about 7 years with and open mind and actually mostly on the side of Amiga Inc. But now I'm more than convienced of their lack of professionalism and competence. And yes, hand most any of us millions of dollars and ownership of the Amiga IP, damn strait we'd do better.
Plaz
Who'd need millions of dollars. Hand me the IP with nothing but the money in my pocket and I'd do better!
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did i mention "as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike." ? if not i think it fits bill mcewen very good... :-x
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This is so bizarre. What is the point of this? The remnants of the Amiga community have nothing to offer Amiga Inc. Why bother with this drivel?
Even if they did have something to peddle they must surely know that there is only about 12 people left who would even consider buying into anything with Amiga Inc's dirty finger marks all over it. It really makes no sense at all.
The ultimate unanswerable question isn't "why are we here?" or "what is the meaning of life?" it's "Amiga Inc....WTF?". The very existence of this post, and potentially Amiga Inc. itself defies all logic and possibly breaks the laws of thermodynamics (Where is all this hot air coming from?)
It's 2007. I wonder if they can keep this freak show going for an even decade.
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Who'd need millions of dollars. Hand me the IP with nothing but the money in my pocket and I'd do better!
You're absolutely correct. I was just going with the same startup capital they had. All the more reason not to fail with all the extra assets.
Plaz
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Amiga lost a deal worth more than 250,000 units because the development was not properly handled. Amiga has been working and negotiating with third party OEM’s and ODM’s for far more units than the iPhone® has shipped and we still are unable to provide the product.
Ok well, I didn't want to start out with something negative... but I call BULLSH*T on this. WHY WHY WHY do we have to have such OUTRAGIOUS BS claims from you, it just makes you look foolish. I mean, like leading an entire city government on that you were going to give them $10,000,000.00, which you clearly don't even come close to having.
Really, you were ready to sell MORE phones than iPhones? Sure buddy. :lol: You really do think it's just You, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. That's pretty bold, but you're going to have to live with this statement to your name now like so many others.
New hardware is indeed being developed, and we have selected the first 3rd party manufacturer that will build in high quantities
I hope this isn't the "ACK" boards you STILL have listed on your website that are, what now, 6 MONTHS LATE at this point?? No discrepect to, ACK, as I think he has done a lot to over at Amigaworld.net to improve his cedibility, but we all know now that ACK turned out to be just a one man show.
Where is AmigaOS5?? If you guys have been SOOOOOO busy all these years WHAT exactly HAVE you produced??
I don't understand it. You always talk about ALL this work you are doing. But there is NEVER anything to show????? How is that possible after all these YEARS AND YEARS???
It appears you have just been sitting waiting for AOS4 and really doing nothing. I mean if people make fun of how long it took to make AOS4 then you guys should have something twice as good as Vista.
Oh wait, that's right AmigaOS5 that should be out real soon now will, what was it you said, "Blow the socks of of Mac OS X"
So OS4 and lawsuit aside where are YOUR other products from the last 7 years Bill?? Do you have ANYTHING to show?? Really??
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Thread:
I think this weird whine/rant is perhaps that last we will hear from him. Call me crazy - but I think he gets the sack by the end of the year/end of court case. And trust me - that will surely not fix anything.
I found the whole open letter extremely funny and frustrating at the same time, hence our joking version of it that our little podcast put together right after reading this mess. What a freakin joke. God help us.
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Hello Bill!
You know reading you letter I found NOTHING. NOTHING.
You told me that you do something for "Amiga". WHAT. When I will go to www.amiga.com what I see there. NOTHING. Pictures and some crapy games for PC or other "high end" hardware. Amaing software!!! Do you want me to but this software? Do you think I would like to lose my money for such a thinks? :lol:
You didn't release ONE good program for Ami... and you telling me that you work on it. SURE.
Hardware. Yes, I also have a hardware for Ami, but I'm NOT going to show you :P.
You say OS4.0. THIS SYSTEM IS WRITEN. IT'S WORKING. On AmigaONE, Amiga "classic", COULD work on Sam440 and SharkPPC.
THIS IS WHAT IS DONE. I can see it, I can smell it, I can touch it.
Where is your hardware and software? WHERE? NOBODY knows about that expect you, alone...
Please, just agree for OS4.0 for Sam440, Classics, SharkPPC this will be SOMETHING you could do... not just talking, writing...
There are people who recognize this system, and this people can advertise it... to other... you can write the software for this OS...if you can...
Kreciu
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Last think.
This companes which are not loyal. I know WHY!! (really ;).
THEY DEVELOP SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE!!
This is why you don't like them! You sit and do NOTHING, they DEVELOP and sell HARDWARE and SOFTWARE last 15 years.
I don't have a SINGLE thing from Amiga Inc.
You talking about frustration...
You know, I hava Ami around 16 years. You know what is frustration. Good that I can only write. Talking would be more difficult.
And again, your great "software", please go for your own web site... PRODUCTS, select AMIGA CLASSIC (15 possitons).
AND what is there? GAMES FOR PC/WindowsXP
http://www.amiga.com/shop/index.php?cat_id=45
:pissed:
THERE IS NOTHING.
Buy, and give the rights to do something for Amiga to PEOPLE who ARE WORKING on it and have some "identity"...
Kreciu
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Call me crazy - but I think he gets the sack by the end of the year/end of court case. And trust me - that will surely not fix anything.
Your crazy! :-) There is no way in hell the court case will go to trial before spring 08. Itec has till Nov 10th to reply of joining KMOS/AI vs Hyperion in federal court. Odds are they will appeal which drags the court case out even longer. If they lose, then AI and Itec and Hyperion will begin deps and other explority request prior to jury trial which doesn't even have a date set yet.
I'd say maybe this time next year we will a verdict.
Dammy
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Rather than {bleep}ing and moaning on here go take up a hobby... like chess... or fishing... and then some years from now you will hear the news you are waiting for or you won't. Either way, you'd be doing something more worthwhile in the meantime rather than reading useless crap like this.
You talk as if we have put everything on hold waiting for Ainc to do something.
I stopped expecting anything from them years ago.
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Dammy:
Pardon me, I meant to phrase it as one or the other. Needless to say they will give him the sack - and it is impending.
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McEwen certainly hasn't convinced me of anything. His letter is, as usual, lacking in details and not addressing the concerns of the Amiga community. He does though seem to have admitted his incompetence, eg.: "we still are unable to provide the product.", "We made many mistakes", "Amiga lost a deal worth more than 250,000 units because the development was not properly handled."
He is still going on about that AmigaAnywhere crap, when he finally shuts up about this it will give me more confidence that he is going to pay some attention to the Amiga rather than to this other crap.
Going to their website doesn't fill me with much confidence either, after you have logged in as a developer, the blog page doesn't work,, the reports page doesn't work, there is no developer information there. The only thing that seems to work is the bug tracker which doesn't even use the standard Amiga bug reporting format.
What a pathetic joke. What HAVE you been working on for the past 7 years Bill?
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This is a joke, right? :roll:
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An open response to Bill McEwan ... :roll:
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redfox
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Thread:
Actually, I think it's quite reasonable. They can't ship a product that won't work. Nothing wrong with the hardware, but they don't have an OS for it. There is a 3rd party that won't give it to them. It's their OS and because of all this, they are now in court. They still can't sell a working product unless people want Linux, if that's the case, go buy a generic PC.
Makes sense to me, there have been a lot of setbacks with the OS and programming of it by a delivery date. Heck it was supposed to be ready years ago! I still have a flyer labled "AOS on tour 2003!!" "come and see the new AmigaOne PPC ATX motherboard and Amiga OS4..." etc etc.
One thing I know is AI aren't to blame for that lack of maturation. It has taken far far too long tog get out. Now that it's supposedly finished, they can't get their hands on it to sell with new hardware.
I wouldn't sell new hardware with no product it was meant to run, I certainly wouldn't let some 3rd party take away my OS they were contracted to program and sell for me either oif they had broken their contracts and held my company at ransom. Nope, whatever the reason is, there is a reason AMIGA is in court and fighting to get it's OS, it's not a lie, it is something we can touch, see and feel. There is no lie here about the current situation, the court will decide on what is to happen with AMIGA products and it is also the deciding factor on how long this time period will be. Until this is sorted, we can't expect anything. Again, the consumers must suffer. I do understand why though.
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Bill,
DiscreetFX has creditability.
Hyperion & the Frieden brothers have creditability.
Commodore was incompetent and had *some* creditability.
Amiga Inc. is incompetent and has *zero* creditability! You have consistently delivered lies for years. Look at the response to your lies! Your not fooling anyone! Wake up! Look in the mirror and examine who you have become! You have turned to the dark side but it is not too late to turn back. You will never recover the money they owe you so save yourself, your integrity, and quit this hoax. Search your heart and do the right thing Bill. Your not a bad man. You used to care.
Come back to us as an honest caring part of the Amiga community and we will forgive you. You can do it.
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@SHADES:
Even accepting what you said, that still doesn't excuse their lack of direction/activity, lack of communication with the community, refusal to honour previous committments, the ridiculous situation with the "Amiga Center", lack of any content on their site, partnership with convicted illegal monopolist, general unprofessionalism etc.
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There is a 3rd party that won't give it to them. It's their OS and because of all this, they are now in court.
Yeah, but that's not really what we're talking about.
This has nothing to do with Hyperion and AOS4.
See, there are TWO different paths...
One path is AOS4 -> Hyperion's job in which A Inc. invested almost NO money up front. IE. None of Amiga's capitol went to this project at least not close to the MILLIONS that have been invested into Amiga Inc.
The OTHER path is the one we are talking about. WHAT HAS AMIGA INC BEEN DOING FOR 8 YEARS??
They always have claims like they are working on Amiga OS 5, which will be better than MAC OS X.
Ok lets see a screen shot of Amiga OS 5. Hyperion showed us early screen shots of AOS4 even when it didn't look so great.
There always announcing new hardware. Dual Core motherboards were suppose to be out 6 months ago, so lets see a screen shot of a board. Even of a pre-production board?
You can't blame broken promises about AA or AmigaOS5 on Hyperion.
What kind of crazy people, have a crappy website, have ALMOST NO business going at all and then CLAIM they are going to donate $10,000,000.00 for a hockey stadium? :crazy:
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What does Bill McEwen DO all day anyway?!??!?!
7 years, 9 months, 3 days! Tick, tick, tick....
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What does Bill McEwen DO all day anyway?!??!?!
I think he's usually attentionwh*ring somewhere else. He probably runs a LiveJournal, ranting about himself or something, and every 6 months or so he remembers the name Amiga and decides to draw attention to himself over here again...
He's probably just an Emo-kid, but of somewhat older age :-)
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The ultimate unanswerable question isn't "why are we here?" or "what is the meaning of life?" it's "Amiga Inc....WTF?"
ROTFL, Can I use that in my signature. LOL!
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Well, whatever he does. He does it right here:
Main office of Amiga Inc on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q=355+NE+Gilman+Blvd,+Issaquah,+King,+Washington+98027,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=27.447727,58.447266&ie=UTF8&cd=2&geocode=0,47.534255,-122.031118&ll=47.534193,-122.031235&spn=0.005693,0.014269&t=h&z=17&om=1)
Makes at least some things a bit more tangible doesn't? :lol:
I see a lot of you guys fly off the handle and support most of it but in Bill McEwen defense; I remember back in the day when he didn't disclose things, he got a lot of flack and critism on the things he did. When he did set deadlines and things got boched up beyond his controle, he was the one getting crapped on. I think his strategy since then is this kneejerk reaction.
The problem is that everyone has fond memories of the Amiga but this memory is different for every groups of Amigans. Defining what makes an Amiga just adds to the complexity. You can't please all people of all of the time, but most people most of the time.
It sounds harse to us Amigans but It hink Bill McEwen should have stuck to his own vision how the Amiga should be and gone for it (like Mark Shuttleworth and Linux) Because if he would believe it is good and turned out to be be succesfull who are we to critize?
Of course, this is all projection and theory at this point. I think AROS will give us more peace of mind.
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@Debaser
Pardon me, I meant to phrase it as one or the other. Needless to say they will give him the sack - and it is impending.
I highly doubt Kouri will fire McBill as McBill has been doing what Kouri has instructed him to do. Your blaming alot of this on McBill because he is an easy fall guy that the community has come to hate. Follow the money and then you will see who is really calling the shots at AI. It is certainly not McBill.
Dammy
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He says its an open letter to all Amigan's past, present and future. Hey, Billmunch wrote a letter to me.
I guess I can write a response too:
Don't waste my time Billmunch!
He says we don't understand the new Amiga has resources. Ya right! What about the stadium deal?
Investing in proven track records....ya right, what about all this crud about ACK designs, which reads like a hobbyist looking for some kind of geek validation, if I ever saw one.
It's the same old same old...
Nothing to see here.
Billmunch, if you have such vast resources, you don't need my agreement on anything...and thank goodness, because YOU WILL NOT GET IT.
Sincerely,
past Amigan
p.s. mcB was absolutely told to not ignore classic Amiga as a revenue stream, and he decided to patronize the advice givers as not understanding 'real business'...mcB made bad decision after bad decision, no reason to blame Gateway, he got his chance to prove his mettle.
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Ever think we're part of one of the biggest wind ups of all time?
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Actually, I think it's quite reasonable. They can't ship a product that won't work. Nothing wrong with the hardware, but they don't have an OS for it.
That's no reason to withhold evidence that such hardware exists. A lot of people are demanding that, and without it they continue their belief that ACK is lieing to them. Linux is enough to boot hardware for testing and debugging, to get things truely ready for OS4, instead of waiting for OS4 and THEN starting to test/debug hardware. But considering how many people believe there IS any hardware, it's irrelevant and we'll still have nothing from Amiga/ACK after the lawsuit regardless of who wins.
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bill bill bill mcewen please stop with the amigaanywhere crap, its as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike. righ now end the lawsuit, give acube a licence and pay hyperion for the aos4.0 and let hyperion continue work on it!! :-x
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Poster: Atheist Posted: 2007/10/4 0:53:19
What does Bill McEwen DO all day anyway?!??!?!
It would at least seem he reads the forums based on what he wrote here. I then would suspect he gets quite the chuckle doing so. So I think we are sadly merely providing more entertainment for him most likely. I hope I'm wrong, but my gut tells me otherwise.
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Bill, [Edited by Admin: Personal Attack]... :madashell:
You are the biggest liar ever seen! :crazy:
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I agree with a-pex.
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New hardware is being developed and ready to be developed in quantities!!!! :laughing:
Yeah, right.
If that's true then you know it is working and have some sort of Linux running on it. So show it to us at Amiwest or another Amiga show. If not then just go away with your pitiful lies.
Amiga Inc isn't a company. It doesn't have employees. It's nothing more than a tax tool for some rich asshole.
Amiga Anywhere.......huh...... better call it Amiga Nowhere. You have nothing.
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I get a kick out of Bill McNugget's email, everybody knows he's full of it and nobody cares. LOL, what a total loser.
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I agree whole-heartedly with Oli_hd. The Amiga is nothing. It's dead, and it'll take an enormous electric shock to ever make it go again, and Bill McEwan is too cheap to even buy a 9V battery. I'll preserve the Amiga's illustrious past and the great machines that were born out of it, but I want no part in this so called 'future', if this is all it's going to be.
what i read above is actually confirming what i had thought of the majority of this community. Grumblers. it does not matter that people are doing their best to keep things up for those who actually **appreciate** that. i have a feeling that most of you grumblers think you would have done better.
so why the heck won't you prove that rather than sitting and criticizing others? or maybe you could rethink your complaints???
http://www.lincsamiga.org.uk/
Any further questions?
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umm not much new then in Amiga Inc land, maybe 1 day. :roll:
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OMG
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@ Minuous,
"@SHADES:
Even accepting what you said, that still doesn't excuse their lack of direction/activity, lack of communication with the community"
Why not?
Simply, they have no product!
Why bother talking about something that hasn't materalised.
I see what you're trying to get at but realistcly, it's those other companies doing all the talking and being late, so late, umm, 4 years late keeping AMIGA from filling any promise it may have talked about.
Put quite simply, unless AMIGA can ship a finished product, it fails. AMIGA decided to shut up or put up. Personally I think it's a wise decsion from what happens even in it's own community. Too much damage on failed deadlines again. ...4 years *laugh you are right, what a pilliar of the AMi community those others are.
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Ever think we're part of one of the biggest wind ups of all time?
ZOMG! Itec = IWIN!!!
The similarities are there! :-D
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@Thread
Did you realise that "Bill McEwan and ACK" is an anagram for "Complete load of bollocks"?
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@BootWB
Amiga Incorporated is an anagram of 'A Dramatic Ripe Goon' and 'A Maniac Tripod Ogre', but I think yours sums them up best.
Back on topic..
They say a bad workman always blames his tools.
Here we see a bad businessman blaming all his business partners and potential customers.
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"Ashtray on a motorbike" seems to be a popular phrase in the Amiga community around these days.. :-D
Anyway, with stuff like Minimig and AROS and lot's of other goodies around the corner, the future doesn't look that bad at all anymore for the Amiga legacy.
Open source is the way to go, and i have the feeling that a lot of people seem to get the message right now.
The first time in years the Amiga will go unhampered by greedy one-man corporations.
So, who cares about what Mr. McEwen has to say anyway?
I certainly don't do.
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I'm sorry, but he should have kept his frakking mouth shut. I can think of several people that attempted to give him an out, myself included, but he ignored it.
Bill McEwen is full of piss and vinegar.
I'd believe G. Dubya, before I'd believe anything this man has to say and I don't believe a *WORD* out of the mouth of my {bleep}mander and Chief. :getmad:
[edit]
At least 3DRealms was smart enough to say, "When it's done". :lol:
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Maybe there is some truth in what McBill has to say after all! I managed to find this picture of what could be Bill hard at work overseeing the development of OS5:
(http://www.humpjones.com/img/hippie_fag.jpg)
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:-( I don't believe that I've ever seen so much vitriol from the community as this. There are also many assumptions and false logic going around the thread.
Have any of you guys ever signed a Non Disclosure Agreement? (NDA?) It means that you are contractually forbidden to discuss something with others. That means not on the Internet message boards, either. Some folks disregard them, of course, while others honor them. The point being that just because you haven't heard of it on the Internet doesn't mean that it isn't happening.
It's never been my practice to judge things too quickly. It certainly seems silly to weigh the opinions of message board regulars over those of venture capitalists who have enough on the ball to create the wealth that they're investing in Amiga, Inc. Simply put, they have more information than we do.
Instead, I'll continue to lurk the boards until the lawsuit is resolved, and things have a chance to progress. We'll see what happens then. Meanwhile, it's too soon too call the turn on this one, though all to many haven't let that stop them.
@McEwen:
;-) Thanks for sharing this. I look forward to learning more, preferably soon.
[Edited spelling typo.]
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I love "Kill Bill" movie .... or maybe only name.?! ;-)
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whatever.
Amiga Inc needs to be banned. They are worse than dommy.
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"acquired the tangible and intangible assets of the Amiga business"...
Every company that buys Amiga seems to aspire to be what Commodore was. Latching onto some great technology, guarding it closely, trumping it up with pomp and bluster, delivering too little constantly to the market and telling the fans that they're lucky the company did that for them. &*%@ that. Commodore sucked and is nothing to aspire to. I fully realize no one is going to get a fat wad of investment money without being in the mindset of monopolizing and guarding the infamous "intellectual property", but, please, stop acting surprised that the people you're hoping to some day sell to are happy about the arrangement.
Again, fully aware that investment money would never support this, but there are a hell of a lot of talented developers with roots in the Amiga running around today, and their energies are divided; some are working on OS reimplementations, other on portable hardware emulators, and one guy recently went public with a gate array re-implementation of most of the A500 hardware. Efforts are divided to insane levels. The vast majority of people that want to do something with or for the Amiga are shut out and forced into being competition, forced to fragment the market beyond just fragmenting efforts. Any "value" still in Amiga isn't in the intellectual property but in the spirit of the people of cut their teeth on the thing. That's your asset.
Let's have a little thought experiment here. What if, rather than hiding behind your curtain working on a product that will be a real contender in a wide array of markets, you worked with the community on everything that's already out there, and came to market, doing us a favor by helping sell those things?
Someone was working on a Dragaonball (200+ mhz 68000) accelerator card. Let's say that gone done. Let's say you worked with the guy re-implemented the chipset in PGA logic. You now have a whole system you can market, without any tedious porting to PPC or creating emulation layers -- maybe that stuff happens later, but no one is waiting for it. Again, you're selling what exists now, to people who are extremely interested in this kind of stuff. Package the thing with 16 megs of video RAM and a stock ATI card with retargetable graphics and you'll have an Amiga that can spit out great resolution -- it won't be faster than anything on the market, but it'll be a killer Amiga.
Looking at all of this from the perspective of what your company could be expected to do and what they're trying to do, all of these days and political run-ins are expected and forgivable; looking at it from the perspective of what little it would take to please the community -- new hardware, semi-frequent OS releases without anything revoluation, like OS 3.9 -- and what the community itself is capable of, your lack of tangible product is inexcusable and unforgivable.
You keep saying that the whole matter could be solved if only they'd work with you. Hypocrite. There are people more passionate about Amiga than you. *This* whole problem could be resolved instantly if you would just work with them.
-scott
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I think it is time for the third part of KILL BILL, this time Uma Thurman will destroy the evil headquarter of the biggest multimedia company on the world. ;-)
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It's all very interesting, but they could release OS4 and OS5 and it won't make much difference so long as it only runs on PPC hardware. Move the OS to Intel and forget about PPC.
- Mike
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So just curious here, but why would Ami Inc want to delay all these years?
If you poke around the net you may find the court proceedings and from what I can tell Hyperion is going for the whole enchilada, not just trying to get paid.
Sadly we all suffer over this, no matter who is really to blame..
But think about it, if your point was to produce an OS and Hardware why delay it? After all thats your bottom line..
:idea:
As far as OS5, what when etc will there be a new motherboard? its 4th quarter, and from what I have seen of OS4 maybe we aren't missing anything..
Maybe its time to move on past it, let the court stuff dictate any OS4 <> 5 compatibility and get us all new stuff..
:rtfm:
I want a low end say 200mhz - 700mhz x 128mb ram setup for dirt cheap so we can all start looking at whatever OS its going to be and helping get apps ported to it..
Then once we have more to work with move up to some multi ghz gb setups..
as it stands now we have nothing, but a few A1's and emulation Oh and Aros.. but its more vacant than OS3.9 - 4 :rtfm:
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All I want now is an OS4.0 that I can install on a cheap laptop. Forget dedicated hardware and get back to the original goal of AmigaDE.
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Thats also a good idea,, Im pondering a euae / debian load for now.. Just so I can kick around in amikit's tweaked 3.9 setup..
At least it would feel like 4.0..
Though you need amiga forever or a full 3.9 + Roms of your own.. My last A3000 had all that except the amikit stuff..
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As someone who has absolutely no interest in present or future Amiga products, I just wonder if the joke isn't on Bill and AmigaInc?
Even if they do finally get something to market, isnt abundantly clear by now that besides a few hundred hardcore hangers-on (at most), the Amiga community/market has all but dried up and the intellectual property of AmigaInc become largely irrelevant?
Dreams of shifting units in the millions were dreams even in the late 80's, when the Amiga was in its heyday - now, such thoughts verge on naivety, at best.
I'll continue to watch this train wreck with morbid fascination.
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Bill is admitting that Amiga (Washington) is the same company as Amiga (Delaware), dumb ass move as ask the creditors he screwed with that move are going to take him to court with this letter...
And what is this talk of millions? A company that has yet to deliver a single machine, or OS upgrade is talking about outselling iPhone! The letter is pure {bleep}e.
Open letter to Bill, the old Buddhist saying "Don't just do something, sit there" doesn't work in business. If you had millions to throw around you wouldn't be fighting over $7000 for OS/4. Just pay Hyperion and get on with the show for cripes sake.
Final note to Bill, the ScAmiga comments were jokes, they weren't an invitation to operate your company that way.
How can anyone write such utter crap and still face the world. Bill, nobody expects Amiga to take a share anywhere near Apple, maybe a few tens of thousands of machines if you are lucky, it's a long uphill battle to take on the leaders and you don't have the killer apps to do it. But nobody is going to write killer apps for a machine that doesn't exist.
ACK is one person, you offered overpriced outdated machines produced by a one man company, what does that mean? Why not let OS/4 run on old non-intel Macs? You can pick up machines that are more powerful than what you announced for 1/2 of your price.
Clearly you are not interested in producing anything, why not set the Amiga free?
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"acquired the tangible and intangible assets of the Amiga business"...
This smells, I wonder if they didn't get SCO'ed, that is they got the name and the rights to produce the OS but not the actual IP.
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts Acer got the Amiga IP in it's purchase of Gateway...