Good review, I think, as it highlights challenges in getting the Amiga to appeal to new users. The statement that the community is insular and unwelcoming was a real shocker, though. It doesn't matter if any of us think that's untrue - if any potential new users think that to be the case, it's a serious problem we need to work on collectively.
The ClickToFront, snapshotting, and file management issues raised in the article are indicative as well. I suspect most of us who've been using the Amiga for ages probably learned about those things from manuals, magazines, and through osmosis at user groups - resources that are (with rare exceptions on the magazine front) pretty much no longer available. Yes, such questions are easily answered by users here, but it's an impediment to usability if one needs to go directly to the internet to answer questions that should be (and used to be) addressed in documentation. OS4's online help is a big improvement in that it exists, but how will a new user know how to invoke it? There's no Help key on the PC keyboards we use now that would invite anyone to press it and see the result. And the Quickstart guide is lacking in detail.
There's really no substitute for a reference manual. the Commodore OS manuals were digitized and slightly updated for OS3.5. They should be updated again for inclusion on the OS4 CD.
