Passing of CUSA Founder Barry Altman

[Kremlar]

Say $1000 a month for the office, next to nothing for staff as they don't have any worth mentioning, a low six figure salary for Ben...

FYI I doubt that salary is accurate. Unless Barry has/had a lot of money kicking around, and wanted to spend it, it's more likely Ben was receiving some kind of payment via shares, perhaps with some $ kicked in to pay the bills. The payoff would have been if the company eventually took off, became valuable, went public, etc...
 
I've been involved with a few startups and in most cases someone like Ben was in it for shares, not pure $. He probably was still working a full time job, just burning the midnight oil with C= USA hoping to strike it rich.

[Kremlar]

Agreed.  Good for Ben if he did get that $$$.

[Kremlar]

I've only been following this half-heartedly, but I feel like Ben was still in Australia - I don't think he moved.
 
I feel like Barry was doing most of what I would consider the real work, wheeling and dealing with his contacts in China regarding hardware and getting it built, probably traveling back and forth anyway for his furniture business.  
 
Ben was probably the dreamer, spending his time on skinning Linux and googling for different cases and ideas to differentiate and somehow attract the nostalgic crowd, perhaps picking and choosing specs (CPU, RAM, etc.), but probably butting heads with Barry on most of the stuff he wanted.

[Kremlar]

You are absolutely right. Some of the behavoir of people here and elsewhere in the amiga world has been down right embarassing in regards to commodore and Barry. Imagine this poor guy trying to do something he though was cool or fun, and to get abused and ridiculed by losers on the internet doing nothing. I mean the poor guy was probably sick with cancer and still getting abused at every turn. The rabid fanboyism has to stop. Alot of posters here need a REAL LIFE OFF OF THE INTERNET.  

I agree.

Even in this thread it seems people care more about trademarks and business than wishing the man a peaceful rest. Amazing.  

I don't agree.  I could post "my condolences to his family", but I think it would be meaningless and stupid.  I didn't know him or his family, nor did he or his family know me.  They don't care if I post "my condolences" on some obscure message board that they'll never read.
 
It's horrible when someone dies, especially for those around them who need to continue on afterwards.
 
On this message board, however, I'd rather discuss the business aspect in relation to the Commodore and Amiga names, and what his death might mean to his business's future.