Amiga Inc answers your questions (updated)

[Tomas]

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

This was definitely a interesting read and i hope we have more communication in the future as well.

I in no way saw what was coming, nor did we foresee how many would react when things got really tough on both the personal and business levels, and I wanted to say thank you directly to those of you who reacted in kind over the death of my daughter and over the personal financial trials and tribulations that followed her death and difficulties that the Amiga situation created.

:cry: I must say i am very sorry for your loss and will offer my greatest condolences.

[Tomas]

It was nice hearing some news from Amiga Inc. but now I'm perplexed. Is there a transition plan from AmigaOS 4.0 to OS 5.0? Is it possible to see in the future a split between these two OSes? AmigaOS 4.0 to be continued by Hyperion and OS 5 being developed by Amiga Inc (btw is it the TAO OS or a different OS altogether?)

It makes no sense to call it AmigaOS 5 if all the code has been replaced. If it is just TAO, then i wont have anything to do with it.

[Tomas]

@Wayne
Thanks for clearing that up

[Tomas]

As everybody can see if they visit https://www.amiga.com/shop/, the site does indeed have a new certificate, issued by Starfield Secure Certification Authority on August 29, 2006. But... just click on the lock symbol or equivalent, depending on your browser, to see who the company that requested and obtained the certificate is! It is Amiga, Inc. (Washington), and not Amiga, Inc. (Delaware)!

It is probably something as simple as they renewing the expiring license without changing the details.

[Tomas]

Meanwhile, young people created MorphOS in less time it takes to Hyperion to port existing code to PPC!!!!!

Um.. MorphOS has been in developement for way longer than OS4. MorphOS was also ahead of it when they started the work and to me it now looks like OS4 has progressed past MorphOS in terms of both features and usability.

Though i do agree with some of your other points.

[Tomas]

If I was in position of McEwen, why I should be interested to deal with companies without substantial money/revenue? Amiga Inc is now in position to control OS4 hardware and they can ask what they want. No money, no hardware. I hate to say this but seems McEwen knows what he is doing.

And how can McEwen expect that a bigger company will invest in AmigaOS when you consider the small community and how little there is to earn. The few Amiga only companies left actually basicly only earn enough to keep the store going and some even have to have a job on side. I think most people involved in the Amiga scene today does it as a hobby and because they love the platform.

Saying that you need to earn half a million a year, is like dooming it all to death. There is no one in the amiga scene with these kinds of money today.

[Tomas]

Maybe, just maybe... and I know this will boggle the mind... Maybe Bill is aiming higher than this tiny hobbyist market which is why he's not interested in talking to a bunch of garage-level companies.

That is probably what he is doing.. But who in there right mind would invest such money into AmigaOS? There are a bunch of other platforms out there that is more up2date.

[Tomas]

I see now why AmigaINC has been silent for the last few years. As soon as they dare say anything, people jump at them without even proving them wrong first.

Not a single one of us knows what has been going on behind the scenes. For all we know, OS5 might both be built upon amigaos code and be nearly finished. I am indeed skeptical, but i still try to be open minded about it and will just wait to see what happens. The same thing about the tensions between hyperion and amiga, we just dont know the full story.

I for one look forward to see what it is about and wether OS5 has anything to do with amiga at all.

[Tomas]

And for the $500,000 revenue per year limit on businesses that can gain IP license.
That is a good move, and would even be considered standard in many businesses.

It might make sense for a big company with a very strong brand and product, but that is not the case with Amiga at the moment. You have to aim low atleast until you have built up the brand name again and have a great product that is also interesting for the non amiga hobbyists. You would have to market it alot to be able to gather any interest from outside of the community and i highly doubt that Amiga inc has the resources to do that.

Atleast you get some promotion of the OS if the amiga community gets their hands on hardware and the OS. I dont think Amiga INC would have much lose on handing out a license to for example ack other than maybe a bit of good OS reviews if the project is realized. Also we would get to build a software archive with more devs getting their hands on OS4 and having a good selection of native apps is also a good thing if they want to take it further in the future.

[Tomas]

With my deepest respect for what happened, I am not sure about how appropriate it is to mention this personal tragedy over and over again in this unrelated thread.

I actually did not hear about it until i read this Q&A session, so i strongly felt like giving a condolences even if it was late.