OS 4 developers aren't able to see change

[humppa]

Amiga Inc. needs to pay $25.000 to Hyperion to transfer all source code, interest and title (property rights) in OS 4.0 to Amiga Inc.

This can be done either before OS4.0 is released or no later than 6 months after the release.

If this doesn't happen, all rights fall to Hyperion.

See the tactics here? Don't release the OS and hope that Amiga Inc. will go belly up soon.

[humppa]

why would Amiga inc. have to pay hyperion, for using their trademarks, source code and copyrights, (and some patents).

They don't "have to" pay Hyperion, they pay Hyperion either as a reward for their job on OS4 (6 months after release of OS4 final) or if they intend to regain total control over the OS (e.g. getting development in-house), or want to retire from the contract made between the AmigaOne partners.
If they don't pay Hyperion however, all rights on the OS will fall to Hyperion. That would be quite nice, unfortunately we still need to wait a long time before Amiga Inc. goes bancrupt.

if anyone expects troika etc. to be able to fork out the money hyperion demands for porting OS4 to new hardware... it ain't going to happen.... ever.

That's what everybody is wondering about. They have put a lot of BS on the website, but never answered if they have a license. I also don't know where the money for the port should come from. Hyperion has not even seen a prototype yet. Would Hyperion finance a port to the Troika? So why are they asking 20.000 EUR for the Pegasos 2 port then?

they simply state that they want it because they know it will make some people go bananas -friedens for instance-

The Friedens have said that they don't have anyting against a port for Pegasos 2. It's just a matter of who is paying for the port and if they can solve the license issue. The latter is rather unlikely.

[humppa]

I understood that Hyperion could develop and sell OS4.x exclusively under license to Amiga Inc. One of the terms of this license being that Amiga Inc can control which platforms OS4.x can be sold on.

How does this contradict with my statement?
Yes, Hyperion is a contractor of Amiga Inc. for the development of OS4.0.
Yes, Amiga Inc. controls the licensing policy for OS4.

[humppa]

It doesn't sound like a sound proposition (for Hyperion). Maybe if it was $2,500,000....

Hyperion completely underestimated the time needed for porting AmigaOS to PPC of course. This can be seen from their numerous completely false statements regarding the release date.

Of course $2.500.000 does sound more realistically for 5 years of work on the OS.
Now Hyperion's only chance to get some profit out of it is to make it "their OS" and doing whatever they intend with it. This means to delay the release of OS4 final until Amiga Inc. goes bancrupt.

[humppa]

Um, What is this final release suppost to run on?

Good question, do you refer to the terms of the contract or what is realistically to be anticipated?

Concerning the communication between between the contract partners see the IRC-chat:

[2005-12-28 20:56:50] VidarL "Are Hyperion in regular contact with Amiga.Inc?"
[2005-12-28 20:57:01] Rogue "*coughs* "
[2005-12-28 20:57:04] Rogue "Alright, about Mesa..."

[humppa]

If it had only taken 3 months, the payment might have been more-or-less reasonable, but unfortunately (or on pupose? who's to tell) it's taken them four years and it's still not 'ready' ...

Exactly. Ok, let's make a contest: Who digs out the earliest estimated release date of AmigaOS 4 will get a free non-existing Amy'05 prototype.

Let me start with a conservative release date: It says "commercial release in early 2005" on the website of Amiga Inc.
:lol:

[humppa]

Of course it's to each and every individual to determine if current version of OS4 is ready enough..

Hyperion's statements to the question wether OS4 is "ready" or not were quite contradicting recently, to say the least.

Around X-mas, when everybody was speculating for a final release and much hope was raised, they explained that OS4 final is basically ready, but won't be released due to missing hardware. At that time, also the Classic version was said to be principally "near final" and there was not much difference between the A1 and Classic version.

Nearly 4 months later, hardware is still missing. Looking at the bad sentiment at the moment and the fact that more and more users are giving up, Hyperion could finally release the Classic version to pump some fresh air into the boing ball.
But now they say that there are so many drivers missing, there is no point, they can't afford the support, etc.

Also the argument that they need to release both version (Classic and for new hw) at the same time is very weak imho: Would anybody (Slashdot, Register) notice when the Classic version get's released? I don't think so. They could still have their news when new hardware is released someday (maybe in 2007).
They just twist their arguments how they best fit with their policy. I get the feeling that they are in fact hoping for Amiga Inc. to go bancrupt soon and therefore are not interested in releasing OS4 to soon. They will only get $25.000 within 6 months after they release. That's nothing compared to the efforts and man-hours they put into it. Surely, they could earn some money from OS4 sales, but that's nothing compared to the possibility to get the rights for AmigaOS sourcecode, trademarks, simply everything.

It's a bit like gambling for "all or nothing".