Francis Charig responds to Opinion Article

[bhoggett]

@Ben

Not true. The terms quite clearly state that if your product doesn't pass Amiga QA testing or they don't want it or for any other reason decide it's not for them, you're free to do what you like with it. Amiga have "first dibs" on marketing/selling/producing your program, but in the end it is still YOUR program. Obviously, if it contains Amiga proprietary code obtained through your agreement with Amiga then you can't release the source code (or at least, not ALL of it), but you're free to market/sell/produce/distribute it however else you like if Amiga don't want it.

"...if Amiga don't want it"

Otherwise Kronos is quite right, you have no control over what happens to your software at all. You can't decide when it goes on sale, you can't decide what licensing to release it under, you can't decide how it should be sold, you can't even realistically decide how much money you'd like to make out of it. If you don't like what Amiga decide to do with your software... - and they are entitled to hold your software back indefinitely until they feel it would be a good time to release it, even if that means years - ...well, if you don't like the deal they are offering you, there is nothing you can do about it. You are NOT free to seek another publisher, you are NOT free to release the product yourself, and you are NOT free to insist on your own terms and conditions.

Now, if I was going to give someone so much power under a carte blanche agreement, you'd think I'd have a right to know what I was going to get in exchange for all this? But no, the only way to find out what you are getting is to sign the NDA & SDA first. Talk about leaping blindly into the void and relying on faith to bring you to a safe landing...

The Amiga NDA and SDA cover Amiga's IP and technologies (which are much more substantial than some people make out). If you want to code for AmigaDE and want the latest and greatest tools available, sign an NDA and SDA with Amiga.

On what basis? What "latest and greatest tools"? Where are the products that demonstrate what has been achieved with these great tools? Surely you must see why it is imperative that any prospective serious developer would want to see exactly what it is that he's getting in exchange for handing out practically all the important rights to his work to a company with no track record worth mentioning?

AmigaDE is all hype, hype, hype. No results, just hype. I don't care what those under the SDA have seen. To everyone else it's all vapour.

I'm quite sure intent has an interesting future - though it is impossible to say at this stage whether it will be successful one too - and I am quite as convinced that AmigaDE has no future of any significance, though I expect in 10 years time people will still be telling us about the "latest and greatest" tools available to those under SDA, and there will still be no released software to demonstrate these great tools.

My only message to Amiga Inc and anyone else singing the praises of vapour technology is this: "Put up or shut up. Show us the results of your work or stop talking about it."

 :-(

The chances of any quality software being released gratis on AmigaDE? Nil.

The chances of any full size GPL apps or games being developed or ported for AmigaDE? Nil.

The chances of AmigaDE being anything more than a toy for a tiny cabal of geeky programmers? Nil.

Disclaimer: this little rant belongs in the thread about AmigaDE really, not in this one. None of this has anything to do with intent or intent 2.

[bhoggett]

@Ohno

Amiga Inc. is doing quite a good job at shutting up until they have something to show these days, so you don't have to target them. Since I'm one of those developers under NDA/SDA and I've been praising the Amiga-Anywhere environment I think you're attacking me among others?

Anyone singing the praises of vapour, yes.

You want us to shut up? So we cannot respond to people attacking something without even trying it, while we actually know at least a little bit what we are talking about? I expected a bit more constructive critisism from you.

The point is that nothing of what you say is verifiable. In order to veryfy it, one has to sign and NDA and SDA, and if they find out you were telling porkies the NDA prevents them from revealing it.

There are a few early examples of Amiga-Anywhere content available (gamecards) so it is not vapourware anymore.

Aren't those game cards about two years old? What proof do they contain of Amiga Inc's contribution?

I think the lack of any product for the last two years says a lot more than those gamecards do.

The chances of any quality software being released gratis on AmigaDE? Nil.

Not true.

You're not thinking straight. If the software is of any quality, Amiga Inc will assume they can make money out of it and will not release distribution rights back to the author. The only way for this to change would be if there was so much software being developed, that Amiga Inc. would only cream off the best 5% of titles and reject the rest, therefore leaving lots of other software of quality for alternative distribution. But it takes quite a leap of imagination to see that happening any time in the forseable future.

Not true. (doom and quake were ported pretty quickly).

Yes, they were. So quickly that I believe they were ported before the SDA was even introduced.

So, which parts of Amiga Inc's proprietary contribution do the Doom and Quake ports make use of, and how do they get around including proprietary code into a GPL release?

At least those geeky programmers are having fun.

Yes, you said so before. In fact that was the only thing you could come up with when I asked what made AmigaDE so special. That and the way TAO implemented something, which has nothing to do with Amiga Inc's contribution at all. Well, programmers having fun is very nice, but it's hardly enough to make a platform successful.

Besides.. Linux started out as a platform for geeky programmers too and today it is becoming more and more of a threat to Microsoft Windows in the corporate world and will get better in the years to come. When the Mozilla team got together it started out as a team of geeky programmers to. They now have a very good browser which will get even better in the years to come.

Neither Linux nor Mozilla had to put up with the restrictions and secrecy surrounding AmigaDE. It's not the technology that sucks, it's the approach.

You wanted quality apps on DE. Well quality takes time. It took Linux years to get where it is today and Mozilla took years as well.

So? Both rapidly acquired veritable armies of developers, and it still took them ages. Where will AmigaDE get with the few people prepared to put up with Amiga Inc's demands?  Not to mention that for every Linux or Mozilla there are twenty other projects that vanished without a trace.

Now seriously.. Your message was only posted to start a flamewar, wasn't it?

No, it wasn't, and I'm getting pretty sick of people always making the same accusation when they don't want to answer my question.

What is it that makes AmigaDE special? Why will it attract people from alternative solutions? What makes it superior? What have Amiga Inc's added to intent to make it worth signing their draconian SDA agreement?

Isn't anyone capable of coming up with concrete factual and verifiable answers rather than just bombarding us with fluff?