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