Dudes, I was at Amiwest, and I think there was a lot of discussion that was not recorded between the audience and Garry.
I just woke up after getting home from my 11 hour trip from Sacramento. Arrgh Madness. Never EVER go Greyhound. Lost my baggage and all. Had to ride next to fat snoring Bubba for most of the trip too in a rickety old bus with kiddy size seats. I shoulda flown. I don't know what posessed me. Anyhoooo.
Garry wants to use A1s in the set-top boxes obviously, and these will act as conduits for wireless content (EXACTLY LIKE I"VE BEEN SAYING FOR THE LAST MONTH) to any devices, be they PCs or PDAs. The initial plan was obviously to leverage OS4 to deliver content that would take the form of movies, thus Garry talking to Hollywood production companies and telcos. He told them how his new technology aids them in terms of speeding up broadband delivery via the internet. Now, as I pointed out in MY numerous posts over the last month, he obviously saw (LIKE ME) that movies and video are not enough, and he wanted to deliver software to a variety of plaforms wirelessly as well, but with the compatability problems that would be difficult. In that regard, when he said in an earlier interview that AmigaDE was not required to deliver his solution to a customer, he was right. AmigaDE is the icing on the cake.
It was obvious(TO ME AT LEAST) that AmigaDE would solve that software compability dilemma. As we all know, if you write AmigaDE software it will be compatable with every platform, it will gain developers, and therefore we will have more software available for the OS4 platform. It is no different from porting, except it is much easier. Apps and Games written in AmigaDE will scale between PDAs, set-top boxes, consoles and Desktops!!!! More platforms, means more opportunities for developers to make money.
We simply can't get huge game releases the like of consoles, unless they're ports, so something, no matter how simple, is better than nothing, and things can only improve, as they do for any software platform. Hyperion and others will still produce OS4 native games that will blow us away. In fact Ben(Hyperion) hinted they were working on something special that will rejuvinate the platform, and give the Amiga community a bout of confidence and that we'd be cheering. Wouldn't it be lovely, if they ported the latest Halo. Hmmmm.
I asked Garry about making the AmigaDE player free and he said that Tao wouldn't allow it although he thought it was in their best interests. He said there was some way of getting around it, but didn't care to comment. The only way I can see around it is to precompile for the target platform on the server and then deliver it over the internet.
On top of this, the Amiga set-top boxes will act as wireless routers and automatically save and secure(encrypt?) data that doesn't fit on your desktop hard disk. Amigas will become synonymous with speedy content delivery, to a variety of platforms wirelessly, and network data security for the home initially, and perhaps later for Small to Medium businesses.
Garry most certainly wants to port OS4 to other platforms apart from the A1. He sees that portability and small footprint as key and the reason he bought the OS in the first place. Apparently there are many PPC enabled devices out there that could be targetted at the right time. He did not say he was porting AOS4 to AmigaDE. He was reluctant to say that he was locked into only keeping OS4 on A1 as though it was not politically correct and he did not want to emphasise it. He kinda dodged the question and said all current agreements would be honoured and that he would not announce anything else at this time. I think he commented that he wanted OS4 ported to a PDA AND SOON!!!! I think a console port would be tremendous and I predict it will happen (I've been right so far). HE ALSO SAID THAT ALL DEVICES THAT RUN AMIGAOS4 CAN BE BADGED AS AN AMIGA!!!!
GARY ALSO SAID THAT THE NEW AMIGA DE VERSION WILL BE AVAILABLE IN WEEKS AND THAT WE WILL BE BLOWN AWAY AT THE IMPROVEMENTS. I am soooooo going to puchase the new SDK. I'll have written an Amiga compatable app BEFORE I even have OS4. Now, how is this a bad thing? It is unrealistic to believe that your average joe is going to be attracted to the Amiga because of the apps, but rather the way OS4 operates and its other benefits. If software is ubiquitous it aids AmigaOS4. Thus writing AmigaDE apps does not in any way hurt the Amiga platform, and in fact leverages all existing platforms as targets, thus attracting developers who have always complained that the Amiga market is not big enough. Compatability between platforms is the holy grail. Hopefully, AmigaDE wont fail in compatability and performance the way Java is perceived to.
What else did he say? Ah, I asked Garry about porting OpenOffice and he kinda bauked, until I mentioned a browser in the same sentence, and he went off on how a world class browser was of great importance and how it is likely that he will pay for a port. Of course, he wont get the Amizilla bounty, because it'll be OS4 only!!!!
What else?? Errr... Oh, he has no plans right now to change the KMOS name to Amiga Inc, especially as the obscurity kinda assists in the licensing of further technology or the aquisition of other companies. (My vote is for renaming KMOS as Commodore but I doubt it will happen, but then who guessed KMOS would buy AmigaInc? Oh, and stop being pessimistic about the Commodore name!!! It'd be GREAT. The family reunited. If people don't remember the Amiga they sure as hell remember the C64, the best selling microcomputer of all time. The name Commodore, has far from a negative connotation in the mainstream audience)
When asked about purchasing Tao he said they had been in discussions for a week and that the best he could do is get them to agree to forging a stategic alliance that does not have either of them stepping on eachother's toes(my words).
What else? Oh, I asked Ben(Hyperion) about an OS4 port to the Transmeta devices, that could theorietically be modified to function as PPCs. He said it was not the way to go. Not sure I agree, but OK. Those Crusoe devices are getting incredibly small, powerful and SLICK.
Hey, did any of you know that Hyperion worked on the 3d routines for Intent? Ben told me.
I think it was mentioned at the Banquet, but if not, here it is,
OS4 being a closed source platform is actually more appealing to companies. This may be due to security concerns(Security through Obscurity as Ben put it), and ALSO Garry said that companies practically always mentioned how worried they were over the SCO litigation with Linux.
Hmmm. Any questions? After the show, I felt confident in Amiga's future and Amiga Inc's direction. I felt like it was soooo clear, but maybe I heard something you guys did not. So shoot me a question, and I'll let you know if it was discussed off the recording.
