In respect to all of this, I guess I had just hoped, since AmigaOne was always touted as an "Open Architecture so that anyone can build an Amiga their way" that Amiga Inc had a clue that to succeed and get more than this little community interested in it, the Amiga had to move beyond proprietary, closed-minded systems.
I guess what I mean is that I would like to have seen eventually "100" manufacturers making "200" different boards, all to the Amiga baseline architecture (much like Mobos of the PC world).
- Want a RAID capable Amiga? Buy board x.
- Want a dual CPU Amiga? Buy board Y.
- Want a basic level student or kid's computer? Buy board Z.
That sort of thing. That cannot happen if, in Microsoft fashion, they force you to bundle their OS.
A couple of things I don't understand here, and I sincerely don't agree with the marketing on it.
1) The AmigaOne has been touted as being able to have the capability of running G4's, but Alan straps us down to running a soldered G3/600. First production run? Fine. I've talked to a LOT of the community however who would rather have the ability to buy a bare $350 socketed board, then a $500 G4 from an Amiga dealer than to buy a $550 soldered, G3/600 motherboard with no hopes of ever being able to upgrade it.
2) The move to bundle AmigaOS to the hardware doesn't make sense to me. Does this mean that you can only buy 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, etc if you buy a new motherboard? Or.... does this mean that in Microsoft Gestapo fashion, you can only have the opportunity to purchase an upgrade of the OS if you are a registered user of their software? What if you don't WANT to give them your name and information? So much for a right to privacy. If this is the case, I truly fear that AI has been infected by their northern cousin. Oh... wait... I forgot, a lot of AI's management are Microsoft refugees (I would bet that they are still with Microsoft and that AI has become a silent Microsoft corporation).
Enough X-files conspiracy theory here.... Amiga Inc can do what they want. It just doesn't seem to me that they have any idea of what the big picture should look like to be a successful company.
While I have openly supported Amiga Inc since the beginning, I have to agree here with "Ryan" and "Christophe" that this latest press release seems more of a way to protect their money flow and to force manufacturers to pay them (ala Microsoft) than about any imaginary "Quality Control".
After all, if I wanted to build a company to make Amiga compatible motherboards, it's none of Amiga Inc's damned business what my business plan is, how many boards I sell, or anything else I do. That is, of course outside of saying "I'd like to buy 500 licenses/ROMs and I'll be back when those are gone".
Such information would be priviledged info to my company which could make, or break my ability to exist and I certainly wouldn't appreciate the thought of Amiga Inc having the power to play favorites with the companies and telling "Alan" (for example) that "hey, according to what Wayne tells me in their latest licensing report, they're about to build a socketed dual motherboard, you had better get ready for that".
I find it interesting that this release making sure that we know if we want to build Amiga compatible motherboards, we have to go through them (and pay them) came out days after my thought to socket the AmigaOne motherboard.
Nothing they said stops me however (except maybe Alan) from buying a bunch of A1/AOS bundles, then socketing them, assembling them into a computer setup on my own, then selling them as a reseller.
