*My Amiga Views* let the trolling begin!

[mantisspider]

Hey Guys,

I'm baaaack! Just when you thought it was safe to return to your browsers and IRC rooms.

How has everyone been? Are people still here from years ago?

I have been trolling trying to see how the Amiga is coping these days. I am not suprised to see that the development side of the Amiga is a shambles. Having met them on both sides and seeing exactly what they are like and how much bull comes out of them I can see why. People who have had more dealings with them than myself have even better stories about them.

I have to say that Redhouse had a good idea with the Chinese. Making the amiga as a low power consuming machine and rolling it out to china to combat their low power needs. The country has brownouts and cant handle the amount of power being sucked out so kiosk, office, hospital, administraton ect blah blah machines at 5W needed to power the motherboard and CPU would be great.

Could have made the Amiga rich rich rich! but what happened? A great machine, that has lots of potential a whole system at 20W or less. But what a crazy price! was 400% more expensive that its competitors. The components being used were not expensive, production is also not that expensive (i know that from first hand experience). So why charge silly money? Scared everyone away. I know I could not offer the miniAmigeOne as a solution to anyone. Everyone just went and used a VIA or alternative board at a fraction of the cost.

Question with the Amiga was always, what would you use it for? Its all well and good building an Amiga to bring to market, but what would you use it for?
* Games? why not use a PC, better hardware, already has millions of games made for it and tried and tested. Also for developers is much cheaper to design games for. Consoles? even cheaper, but not so cheap for bedroom developers.
* DTP and Graphics? Well first choice is always a Mac, and then PC. Amiga? has to offer something new. Has to be Faster, Cheaper and Better.
* Multimedia? NOW WE HAVE IT! this is where the Amiga could have stolen the show. Design the new Amiga as a Media PC with a funky case small form factor TV tuners all in the box and away you go! Was it hard? No. Marketing? Yes! I had hundreds of companies lining up to buy the Amiga as a Media System but one look at the price (and wasnt retail price i am talking about) and they ran a mile.

So back again to the Amiga. How I came back wishing that the Amiga had woken from its sleep and roared for the world to hear that it is back. But no. I remember when the Amiga Java OS was being worked on. A good friend showed it to me and the Amiga seemed as though it was working towards a specific target and would get it right. Amiga being able to be used cross platform, on PDAs, Mobiles etc great!

So now, where for the Amiga to go?
Should the new Amiga be based on custom chips and Power PC processors? No. Simply No. That ship has sailed. Long before the AmigaOne even started. The only use of the Amiga being on PowerPC was for a low power systems. Unless the Amiga is going to be a industrial machine and not for consumers then its not going to be PowerPC.

Let me make my rant a bit clearer:
PowerPC = Industrial PC
x86 = Home / Office PC
Amiga = Decide what it wants to be

VIA, Intel, AMD. This is the path.

Hmmmm. now Back to the what does the Amiga want to be question. Stick to EXISTING hardware. Dont try to make a new motherboard for your machine. Be an OS that is compatible with existing hardware and doesnt matter what motherboard you initially use.

BeOS was a great example. With better support and marketing would have worked much better.

SOFTWARE! SOFTWARE! SOFTWARE! Amiga should be developing software only and stick to x86!

The best example of a CHEAP linux OS that is trying to battle microsoft is Lindows/Linspire.

The Amiga development should take a good look at what they have done right and done wrong.


I am going to end my little rant while i do some work and come back to it later

in closing, i will simply say. I loved the Amiga but if the Amiga is ever going to make a come back and not be just an Emulation or selection of old games from the 80s and 90s, then it has to offer something different to the Mac and PC. If it is not going to be very different, then it has to be a CHEAP! and easy to use.

much love

[mantisspider]

hehe thanks.

Yep the Avatar only changes for christmas, when a nice hat gets put on it Also the incoherent rants are trade mark.

Well you weren't exactly gone for long:

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*My Amiga Views* let the trolling begin! - 2007/1/30 2:52:19

what can i use my amiga for? - 2006/9/30 12:51:20

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Hehe that was a fleeting visit, as this may turn out to be if I get kicked off from ADSL access again. Unfortunately I had not found an answer to what my Amiga could be used for apart from Gunship 2000, and the A1200s were given away, CD32 sold and the AmigaOne given away for safe keeping and for them to try and see if anything can be developed on it.

I gave up looking at the Amiga as a platform to develop a new game on, dealing with the companies handling Amiga development left me bitter and twisted. But if Linux and Macs can handle brand new high end games, why not a new AmigaOS?

I honestly do not belive the Amiga can be saved, a big change of direction is needed. OS4 is taking a lifetime. It is never good to see an OS that takes so long to develop the hardware has become obsolete three generations ago before its completed.

The OS4 that I had on my AmigaOne offered nothing and not sure whats changed. (someone please let me know)

OS5? Why? Why are people waiting for companies to make an Amiga OS?

The Amiga community always has had some great developers. From major players to people in bedrooms who have uncanny skills and brains the size of basketballs.

Its time for the community to make their own OS
Have a open forum where people post what they want from an OS, then have a nice fund raising drive and approach a company to make it

Fun things to look at:
http://meos.sourceforge.net/
http://haiku-os.org/
http://www.syllable.org/
http://www.dragonflybsd.org/index.shtml

no person; not anyone; nobody (:crazy:) at Amiga or even Genesi can offer a PowerPC system that is viable to consumers. Nintendo, Sony even Microsoft, these are companies that are able to produce PowerPC based systems that can break into the home. 3 reasons:

1) They have a specific use; Consoles! they are making gaming systems and targeting a single goal. Not a jack of all trades machine with no identity.

2) Power! These companies have the commercial presence to be able to make games developers, hardware developers and gamers all flock to their machines.

3) Money! To make a motherboard doesnt cost that much, to be honest in the grand scale of things. Design and Tooling, then get into production and role them out. Get a loan from the bank and find a Chinese company that isnt going to go bankrupt *cough* and get it done. But then what? Making it isnt the hard thing, marketing it and getting it sold is. You need the money to get it on TV, Magazine, Newspapers and on the street.

Keep your overheads low and your returns dont need to be so high. Focus on the OS, make it something different. Something people have been crying for. What is it thats missing from current OS's out there? There seems to be a few independant OS's being made, why is that? What can the Amiga offer?

I am still scratching my head to see what the Amiga can offer apart from nostalga.

Let the community make it (but not a mishmash project, organised and structured). MorphOS? Take Genesi out of the equation and is it so bad? Take the Amiga Vs MorphOS out of the picture and are the communities so different? MorphOS community came from the Amiga community so surely they are both wanting the same thing deep down.

Let the people be united. Step away from the PowerPC chips unless you want to compete with the consoles or industry machines. And make something that everyone can use, regardless of what machine sits on their desk.

 

[mantisspider]

take the good features of Windows Vista and Mac OS, but throw out all the crap. DMR and cpu hogging fancy stuff.

with windows Vista coming out, more people will be looking to an alternative, that doesnt need a 2Gb ram and 3Ghz Dual Processor PC.

[mantisspider]

by TheWizard on 2007/1/30 15:46:02

You make it sound like PCs are expensive. People buy them precisely because they are cheap, and people do as they are told via mass marketing.

Hmm sorry if i do. I have been saying the new Amiga has to be cheap to compete with the PCs because PCs are so cheap.

Also I said the AmigaOne failed so spectacularly in sales because it was so expensive. It had nothing to do with the OS. Being bundled with Linux originally also wasnt a problem, a low power consuming power PC linux platform had a lot of interest, but that price tag drove people away.

But those days are gone, and as a consumer product, the Amiga has to compete not with the hardware (it will lose) it has to compete with the software. It wont win, never will win. The point isnt about winning, its about getting a market share and surviving. Offering something new to the table and being able to maintain its development and support.

CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, whats better than Free? How about backing a current horse in the race and seeing if it can implement some of the Amiga identity.

Im still waiting to see if someone can post their views on what the Amiga has to offer the current generation of computer users.