POLL: What is the most viable Amiga platform for *you*?

[amigadave]

@ Dammy

Fair enough about the 7 Million figure I wont dispute that (as I can't be bothered checking)...

But as for how many active users there still are, no-one can put a figure on that or even supply a reasonable guess as to how many active users may still be out there...

Take me for example, been using nothing but Amigas since 86. In all that time until June last year I'd never been on the net let alone a member of a forum. So the way I see it I would be very surprised if I as the only one who had gone all this time without being on the net or joining a forum.

So if folk are basing their guesses at the amount of active Amiga users just by how many folk use the various forums or appear to be on the net, then it would seem to me these figures would be way out and be totally pointless in using them to claim that there are only X amount of active Amiga users left...

Franko, you really believe that there are more out in the world like you? :roflmao: You are unique!

Okay, maybe there are another 50 to 100 Amiga users in the world that have never used a Windows, or MacOS or Linux computer and maybe there are 300 to 800 Amiga users that have never joined any Amiga forum site.  Or if you want to be an unrealistic fanatic, say there are 1,000 to 2,000 such users (but I really doubt that).  Bottom line is that the number of active Amiga users left in the world is just not a huge number of people in excess of 10,000.  I personally would guess that the real number is closer to 6,000, but won't get into any argument trying to justify that number.  They have mostly all moved on and left the Amiga behind and it only remains as a fond memory for 90% of the millions of Amiga users that once were exclusive users of only Amiga computers.

Basing a rough guess of how many remaining (active) Amiga users there are in the world on the activity on all the Amiga related forum sites IS a very accurate way to get close to the actual number of remaining active Amiga users.  Thinking that there are thousands of Amiga users still out there that don't use the Internet, or that have never become members of any Amiga forum site is just unrealistic, wishful thinking.

[amigadave]

I voted AmigaOS 4 without any reason at all.

You are so funny!  Thanks for making me laugh today.

As for my post about number of users, I did not say all of them post on forums, I stated that most of them have become members of at least one Amiga related forum site at one time or another.  Also, I was referring to ACTIVE Amiga users, not just anyone that owned one some time in the past, or has one in the closet.

[amigadave]

well said Cammy and I can confirm that I know of many current amiga users that will only visit Amiga sites for current news but refuse to post here due to the constant trolling/flaming...sad but true

I agree, there are many users that visit forum sites for news and do not post messages due to the constant trolling and flaming, but I think that most of those have at least registered as a member of at least one forum site and posted at least one or more messages over the years.  The trolls and flaming has caused me to post much less often than I once did here.  

And yes Franko, I know that it is all guess work and no one has the answer of how many active Amiga users are left in the world, but common sense and using rational thought to make estimates is the best way to make any kind of an estimate, when no other evidence is available, wouldn't you agree?  Since there is no other evidence to suggest that there are thousands of unknown Amiga users above and beyond the few thousands that ARE active, or have at one time or another, signed up as members on any Amiga related forum site, it makes sense that an estimate be based on the only information we do have would be more accurate than any estimate based only on the number of original sales and a hunch about how many of those are still actively using their Amigas.  

Since most computer users use the Internet to gather news or post comments about things they are interested in, most Amiga users would do the same and the number of active Amiga users that have at one time or another, signed up as members of an Amiga related forum site, is much greater than the number of active Amiga users that have not signed up as members of any Amiga related forum site.  If that does not seem logical and reasonable to you, then I can't argue any further with you about how any estimate could be made.

If there are some other reasons, or evidence that anyone has to suggest that there are vast numbers of active Amiga users in excess of 10,000 worldwide, I would be glad to see such reasons or evidence, but to simply make claims that there are more users with no reasons or evidence makes no sense to me.

I am not trying to be negative, I wish there were 20,000 to 50,000 or more active Amiga users left and I also hope that we (what ever is left of the Amiga community) can slow or stop the decline of active Amiga users, or even start to increase the number of active users again some day.

[amigadave]

"custom chipset" has become a buzzword people like to toss out as part of some sort of explanation why the amiga died, that doesn't rely on Commodore being idiots.
PC graphics chips were "custom" chipsets just the same as the amiga's were.

I agree that it was not the "custom chipsets" in the Amiga that doomed Commodore to bankruptcy.  It was the continued mis-management of Commodore and the lack of vision and money put into development which was needed to keep the Amiga ahead of the competition.  Plus the lack of marketing which should have educated the growing number of computer users about the advantages the Amiga had in the beginning over all other computers when the A1000 was released.  The Amiga should never have been relegated to being just a "Games" computer and should have had development and research money spent on it to keep it faster and better than the PC's and Mac's.  In short, Commodore should have competed with MS & Apple from day one when they had an advantage, but they instead wasted money trying to compete in the PC clone hardware market.

Although the AmigaOS was elegant and far ahead of all the competition in many ways for a long time, the degree of that lead over competitors was quickly diminished as the Amiga was stagnant or little improved between the release of the A1000 and the release of the A3000 and the improvements introduced with AGA and the A1200/A4000 was far too little, too late.  Even the introduction of the A3000 and AmigaOS2.0 was a disappointment to most Amiga users, who saw it as too little, too late as well.