I'm really happy for them boys over at Tao, as it seems that not only is intent the real deal, the big players like Sony see the value and are using it. So good on them.
At the same time, I'm a little sad and a lot pissed off that we've yet to see more than a few token efforts on the part of the company that was supposed to have parked a kick-ass OS on top of the solid intent foundation. As they say on IRC, WTF? Where's the Amiga OS that was supposed to run FAST on top of any other OS, and run even faster native on any CPU? Where's the seamless networking envirionment where you could access the content of any device on the network FROM any device on the network, with the output optimized to the best ability of the device, whether it was a set-top box, PDA, full-fledged computer or even a cell phone?
Maybe I'm just blindingly ignorant about the complexities involved, but exactly how long should this really take, if this wasn't all outrageous hyperbole to begin with? Even working with external partners, AInc doesn't seem to be able to get even a new version of the OLD Amiga OS out the door! How many release dates have come and gone? I'll give'em that the hardware does exist, but there's precious little that you can do with it right now save run Linux (and yes, I know that's more than good enough for some out there, but this is an Amiga forum, not Slashdot). As far as I can see, MorphOS/Pegasos is as acceptable as an Amiga hobbyist solution and at least they don't have a sad trail of broken promises behind them.
But as far as, y'know, actually moving forward with an OS that might actually attract new users and some first-class software development, none of these hardware/processor-bound OSs have a tenth the promise of the Amiga DE/Anywhere, though perhaps it should be more fittingly retitled Amiga NA/Nowhere! If all we're doing, even on the official Amiga Anywhere site, is "celebrating" the selling of a set of rudimentary games on CompUSA, then our collective vision has become quite myopic indeed. It's a nice achievement, but SFW? The game packs have been around for over a year. What have you done for me lately? Where are the word processors, web browsers, and spreadsheet apps? Any new graphics or desktop video apps, or any sort of modern games that compare favorably with what's available elsewhere? At this point, I'll take an Amiga DE/Anywhere version of Notepad as progress. I won't buy it, but at least it'd be better than the near-bupkus we've gotten so far.
So does anyone have a clue as to where things go from here? Does the Amiga market just continue to degrade into the kind of C64 community that I used to nervously laugh at? Can AInc really survive serving that market, with a token PDA/cell phone gaming sideline? Were those promises of not so long ago as overblown then as they seem now? Was it all puffery or could it have ever been with a little more committment on the part of those blowing all that smoke? Hitting this site is the only Amiga activity I've regularly experienced in months, and it seems more and more like that's the case only because in a time when I was FAR more hopeful about the future of Amiga I put a link to here on my web browser's personal toolbar. Now I'm seriously wondering why.
