I'm probably the wrong person to weigh in on the topic of the death of the Amiga, but....
I don't think the Amiga is dead. At least no moreso than it's been since 1994. For those who own and enjoy them, the Amiga is, and can be a fun and interesting hobby. That in itself has never changed.
The problem has always been "how do you maintain that level of interest in a platform which currently has -- or has vision of -- no future commercial growth or change?" It took me about 10 years to get over my rabid enthusiasm for the Amiga, and there are literally hundreds of dormant members online here from years ago who've also moved on to different hobbies.
Nothing wrong with that, it's perfectly natural.
As for me and computers, for years I saw the Amiga as potentially THE biggest step towards truly personal computing. In the 80's and early 90's, it was THE only machine which truly promoted personal creativity. The PC's were still 8 to 256 colors and kludgy as hell. Macs were still black and white.
Once Windows and the PC "caught up" in the mid 90's through 2000 or so, they became the mass definition of "personal computing". In 2001 however, (IMNSHO) the paradigm of creativity shifted to the Mac with Apple's move towards Intel and the OS X platform.
Try as I might, I could never get Bill McEwen (and the zombie PPC apocolytes) to understand that PPC was simply a complete dead-end and the wrong way to go. Not saying I'm a hero or even a good guy (I'm really not). I'm simply pointing out that for once in my sorry-assed life, I saw clearly the writing on the wall where others wanted to simply shut their eyes and chant "Amiga! Amiga! Amiga!".
Now going on 10 years later, I'm afraid it's simply too late for the Amiga platform to be commercially revived. Even if the "mother company" had unlimited funds, genius programmers, and the willingness to reboot the platform onto realistic commodity hardware (like Apple did when they moved to Intel), the question would still remain...
What would the perfect modern Amiga be able to offer the world that Apple (or anyone else) hasn't already come out with? Where's that one single huge niche market that Apple isn't already aiming for?
Computers? Tablets? Phones? Kiosks? TVs? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. And... nope.
Don't get me wrong. I truly and honestly wish that the Amiga could have "risen from the ashes", but as long as everyone is so damned set on grasping ahold of the past (and even if they aren't), it's just not possible.
That being said, stop worrying about what's "dead" and just enjoy your Amiga for what it is. A fun little retro platform that you still dig and learn with.
Regards, and yeah, surprise!
Wayne
