Iyonix PC

[bhoggett]

A very similar situation to the AmigaOne really. An interesting OS, but the price of the system required to run it makes it a total non-starter.

As it happens, I do have £1,000+ to spend on a new system soon, as it's time to upgrade from my rather tired Athlon 1400MHz system. However, with that sort of money I can buy a very neat AMD64 system, complete with expensive case, fans, PSU, top-of-the-range gfx card etc. Comparatively priced AmigaOnes or Iyonix systems look like an old Lada by comparison (to use the age-old car analogy). Even the cheaper Pegasos looks poor and expensive when taken feature for feature.

Until these unconventional systems drop the "niche" mentality and realise that they DO compete against the mainstream, whether they want to or not, they'll remain  the exclusive domain for a handful of fanatical geeks for ever.

Still, I expect that me saying this here is about as effective as talking to a tree.  :-(

[bhoggett]

@odin

Agreed. It's perverse and educational at the same time. We can look at the Acorn RISC OS scene an laugh at them and "new" systems like the IYONIX PCs, the ridiculous software prices and the contrived excuses for the silly pricing. What too many of us don't realise is that this mirrors what most people think of the "new" Amiga scene with the AmigaOne and Pegasos. We see all those posts about huge interest in the AmigaOne and Pegasos boards, but no one wants to acknowledge what the vast majority of people really think about such systems.

We'll never stop being a joke until the head-honchos of our private little Disneyland realise that exclusivity and quality are not synonymous, and that exclusivity has no intrinsic value whatsoever in this industry.

[bhoggett]

Robert17 wrote:
How come Pegasos is cheaper than the A1 then? To me (the onlooker) The pegasos seems like better value for money... plus it uses DDR :p

Fewer cooks. It's that simple. There are less people taking a cut of the profit, so a smaller profit margin is enough to satisfy them.

Technically, the Peg looks like a better engineered piece of it. Outside the Amiga scene, it still doesn't rate above distinctly mediocre, but it does look better (at the momemnt) than the A1, even if you don't factor in the price differential.

The trouble is neither side is all that bothered about selling you their kit because it's the best quality you can buy. They want to make you choose an OS (AOS or MOS) and then buy their kit because you simply don't have any option.

Actually we do have an option, and that is to say "No". Of course, when we are forecd to take that option, nobody wins.

[bhoggett]

@Coder

I agree about the legal stuff. It's just a pile of rubbish which has no possible positive outcome for the overall scene. This doesn't just apply to the legal actions, but to the threats and insinuations too.

The time for legal action is past, and even then it should have been channelled into constructive purposes (like saving Amithlon) rather than the destructive ones that are either happening or being threatened - where the only aim is to prevent a rival from releasing a competing product.

But I don't absolve Hyperion and Eyetech from the accusation of bad leadership of the Amiga scene. Like Genesi and Amiga Inc, their leaders are also motivated by ego, desire to control or higher profit margins to various degrees. Note I exclude "love of the Amiga" from that list, and I do so advisedly. Not one of them would put the future of the platform above their own private ambitions.

I've long advocated co-operation - not just between the Amiga platforms, but to bring those platforms into the greater fold as well - yet that is the one thing all these self proclaimed leaders absolutely do not want because they believe it would erode their own position. They'd rather see their product destroyed than give up some of their control for the sake of co-operation.

[bhoggett]

@Coder

We're getting off-topic, and you really don't want to start me on the subject of Amiga Inc and AmigaDE. Amiga Inc was (is?) the perfect example of a parasite company. It had a whole bunch of executives, directors, liaison personnel and web designers, but no one actually contributing to a product. They were experts at talking and spending money, and pretty useless at everything else. While not the least enthusiastic Amiga owners of all time, they rank right up there with the most incompetent.

I agree with you completely about AmigaDE. Like you I bought it with certain expectations, not least those based on the promises Amiga Inc made as part of their sales pitch. They've not kept a single promise, or produced anything at all beyond a manual. That is their sole contribution to the whole AmigaDE thing. Let's face it: AmigaDE is DEad. It has been for years, and the stuff about Amiga Inc concentrating on it now is pure BS. There are no employees and no developers. There is no schedule, no plan, no design. I even doubt if anyone from Amiga Inc has spoken to anyone from TAO for the last year or two. Sure, there are few enthusiasts hacking at AmigaDE related projects, be they apps, games or additions to the environment, but none of that is co-ordinated or done according to a plan. It's just ad-hoc coding.

Fortunately Amiga Inc and AmigaDE don't count for anything any more. Unfortunately, the remaining parties don't want to work with each other under any circumstances, with the exception of AROS, but they don't have the resources or the vision to turn things round or provide compelling reason for the others to work with them as opposed to tolerating them as one would tolerate a very noisy but very small dog.

There you go: you did start me off after all.  :-D

Even though Amiga Inc have been removed from the picture, there is no real change to anything. This is not surprising, as Amiga Inc have been irrelevant in every way bar the noise for many years now.