@yester64
Can't really agree with your take on the need for Amiga hardware development, in order for it to be an Amiga. The old hardware, in most facets, has been superceded many times over, and what people seem to miss most is a damn good operating system. Needs for specialised harwdare can always be met with periferals, when the core architecture is sufficient.
The OS was fast and efficient. It was simple for normal users, and also allowed advanced users to take a hands on approach. It was not overloaded with vast amounts of code to autoconfig and auto cache your machine to death.
The old Amiga hardware provided performance and features which were unseen at that time. Furthermore, there was a lot of competition in the hardware and OS markets at that time. That level of competition doesn't exist at the moment. As the x86 hardware has had so much development, it would be foolish not to leverage that. I spoke with a microelectronics researcher, who worked for Intel last year, who said something equivalent, in regard to transistor technology. SiCMOS is not the most advanced transistor technology around, but when so much investment and development has gone into it, it just makes sound commercial sense to keep using and developing it to its limits. This is done to great success, regardless of SiCMOS not having the greatest potential of all transistor technology, but just because its so well established. Same thing applies to other technologies. If there is good hardware available, that already has a lion's share of the market, then it makes commercial sense to leverage it. o/w it's just too hard to compete. To develop a complete platform of custom hardware to compete with highly specialised multibillion dollar industries just isn't feasible. As there is currently powerful hardware available, which is so widely used, there just isn't the need (or the opportunity) for a custom hardware platform.
Furthermore, users demand compatibility as much as anything else. This is most easily and cheaply achieved by using a common basis for a new platform.
Plenty of people dislike windows, and personally I know a lot of ex-amigans who were interested in the idea of a modern amiga, but just couldn't justify the investment in specialised architecture. Just like Haynie said with his argument of a threshold for investment. If I could run a well developed and commercially supported Amiga OS on my windows box, absolutely I would, and I know a large number of others who would too (maybe around a hundred friends/aquaintances have said as much to me). Custom hardware just doesn't come into it. I don't care if it's 68k, AGA, Zorrow or whatever: I use the OS and apps, I look at the screen, listen to the speakers, and touch the keyboard and mouse. To my thinking, the experience of the OS is probably the most critical factor in making a computer an Amiga.
If an OS seriously outperforms others on the same architecture, with a good set of features, it could really generate interest.
Well, I know this has all been said before. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Actually, this is what I thought years ago, before the AOne was ever made. From what has been said on this forum, the AOne seems to be a reasonable platform in its own right, but one can not possibly say its a commercial success. I also seriously doubt that 'Amiga anywhere' will be raking in the cash either, and certainly doesn't do anything great for technology or users.
