Will you be buying an AmigaOne X1000 ?

[the_leander]

Why do all futuristic renderings of Amiga's look like all in one PCs? That form factor is not really that popular with PC users.

Actually, all in ones, or so called lifestyle PCs are one of the few growth areas for desktop systems. The only other area where growth is occurring is laptops, which as another poster pointed out, is little more than an all in one.

Truth is, there isn't the need to have a honking great tower, and unless you're a geek, chances are even with one the only upgrade it'll receive in it's lifetime will be its immediate successor given the power offered by most systems.

Even in the workplace micro towers and all in ones are where its all going. Space = money.

[the_leander]

Now that sir, is a thing of beauty.

I <3 steampunk,  I was on that site earlier today as it happens.

There is actually a company that makes those keyboards to order I found out.

[the_leander]

Nevertheless your point is still valid, I just don't think there is sufficient momentum behind it yet do you?

I suspect that as the recession lifts and hardware naturally gets replaced old tower systems will get replaced more often with all in ones, because there is little to no justification for having a full tower unless you're a gamer or specifically need an addon card to do your work. The PC market is saturated, so you won't get a huge jump in sales because of a new form factor, but you will see trends develop thanks to natural wastage.

Someone on another site I frequent pointed out that hardware made in 2001 was still more than adequate for most day to day tasks, a point backed up by the fact that Atom based systems can hold their own. Consider that for a moment and think back to 2001, from that point in time could anyone seriously say the same of 1992 hardware?

[the_leander]

I think the timeframe of the recession lifting as you put it, seems to be getting further and further away

No it's about the same distance as it always was - about a generation away to fix all the damage. Only difference is now that people are waking up to this fact.

Other than that yeah I agree with your post.

[the_leander]

I bet these are the "good" kind of all in ones, though, system in the monitor like the iMac and Dell all in ones, and not the silly "super heavy keyboard I spilled my soda on and now my PC is dead" variety.

You would be quids in with that guess.

[the_leander]

Personally, I despise non stand form factors. I'm a chronic tinkerer and if I can't alter it I don't want it.

Thing is, you're a dying breed, unfortunately.

But an all in one system? What if the keyboard goes bad?

Err, by all in one, I was talking iMac or similar - where the computer is built into the screen, not the keyboard. So in the case of "what if the keyboard goes bad", the answer is "buy a new one".

Having the computer built into the keyboard might be kinda cool and quirky in the retro sense, but it is a form factor that comes with too many compromises, even against iMac style systems.

What about the other parts? I may have a choice of hard drives and the amount of installed memory, but everything else is built in.
So, no choice of video or sound cards. No expansion bus to add accessory cards.
Basically, once its obsolete I throw it  out.

Unless you're a gamer, or someone who has a specific need for a particular addon card, or in your case, a tinkerer, there really isn't the need for a honking great tower system, the vast majority of computers sold to consumers come with integrated everything and never get upgraded anyway, hell a good few of them will get dumped simply because of virus infestation rather than anything being wrong with the hardware...

That might work for business. They rarely upgrade rather then replace.
An all in one computer doesn't suit me and never will.

You != Average computer user.

Micro ATX is beginning to make sense as many of the components that had to be added by cards are now commonly integrated into motherboards.

The vast majority of systems sold in towers these days are MATX. They're cheap to produce, offer good enough graphics and sound, but again, unless the owner is like you or has specific need for a specific addon card or is a gamer, chances are that board will never, ever see an upgrade. Then again if you're a gamer chances are you're not going to be buying an entry level system which make up the majority of all PC sales.

But I really don't believe that the keyboard computer will ever dominate.

It won't, but all in ones of the type the rest of us are talking about - IE where it's built into the screen - the so called "lifestyle PC" probably will.

The netbook market has pretty much dried up as the emphasis on small cheap computers has moved to price ranges above entry level laptops, at which point it gets harder to justify the costs.

[the_leander]

I am not talking about troops, but maybe one or two old veterans. It is the individual that counts.

Thing is, that's all you're going to really get, one or two people more.

There is a video editor in Blender. I haven´t really done anything with it, but it looked rather promising. I got the impression that it was even workable on my SAMs 800MHz CPU, so it should fly on an X1000.

Blender is a 3d rendering package, iirc the editor within it is suited solely for setting up scenes within the 3d environment. It's not a video editor in the sense that avidmux or cinerella or windows movie editor is.

Eh ?

"anything useful" is pretty broad. 99% of the crap normal people use computers for can be done on a far more modest machine than what the hardcore geeks think it "needed"

The X1000/SAM doesn't even offer that though. Not because of hardware limitations, but because there simply isn't the software.

Couple that with the fact that a huge chunk of the Amiga's back catalogue is only available through UAE and you're left with the question "why the hell did I pay $2-3k for something that could be outdone by a machine costing a 5th of that?"

[the_leander]

Yeah, the app limitations is the thing that is crushing the "next gen" amiga options.

Indeed. Although the hardware options themselves aren't all that attractive even from the context of running Linux on them.

But both poor software support and overpriced hardware... Yeah that'll go down well in the wider market...

[the_leander]

I still think the Pegasos ones seem to have been the best bet for a "modern amiga".

As far as I can tell, they weren't monster expensive. Of course things hadn't moved as far either at that point.

Tbh Peg2 was a much better all round system. It didn't have the issues that came with the Articia S chipset. It was also fairly inexpensive.

But Peg 1 and 2 were both cheaper than the AmigaOne. Peg2 was, iirc cheaper than the Sam as well.

These days, I think we're safely in "hobby only" territory.

It's a shame apparently so few people in the community realise this.

[the_leander]

It is definitely much more than this. There are tutorials on how to cut footage using Blender. It is powerful, yet somewhat unintuitive.

2.43 and above only, and then only if you have a compatible version of ffmpeg installed.

Well there already is software to do e-mail, web surfing, irc, 3d rendering & movie editing, photo-management, word processing, retouche, painting, spreadsheets, dtp, games and software development. This is more than the original Amiga had in 1985. It might be enough for some people.

Try that on an iPad!

From the top, web surfing, so long as you don't mind not having java or flash, or indeed a usable browser, sure, you can browse. 3d rendering.. great, I can render like it's 1999!, photo management... Everything from feature phones upwards can do this, this isn't a feature, this is a baseline requirement to being taken seriously. Word Processing, so you can read and write to modern versions of Word documents, right? What's that, you cant? Then cross off that from the list. Painting, again, baseline, even my Tocco Lite has some basic retouching facilities. Spreadsheets, ok, great, again, can you read/write to excell or even OO.orgs file formats? DTP, heh... When I was big into the BeOS scene a few years back a friend of mine, someone who uses DTP professionally asked about Amiga DTP software and I pointed them to Pagestream, the comment I got back was "wait, people actually pay for this?".  Software development? Hah, you'll be damned hard pressed to find a more spartan environment for development than the Amiga.

Also, trying to compare a web pad to an alleged desktop computer? LOL!