Why AmigaOS 4.0 is going to be successful…

[Valan]

I think the general users(the sales or office clerks, internet surfers) I know will not notice much difference between AOS4 and the desktops they currently use.

The enthasis, I feel should change from being seen as a competitor to WIndows/MacOS to more of a desktop PDA style OS.

In these systems the OS is hidden away from the user so they feel there is only them and the task they wish to do.

In a sense the OS is now getting in the way.

The idea of moving the OS to be more innaccesable to the user will upset a lot of people here. But computers are now a consumer product and should be marketed like a phone, car, tv or even an appliance like a fridge or a washer. These are all computerised yet we do not see their OS.

The Amiga 500 sold becuse it had cool games. The Amiga 2/3/4000 sold becuse it could do get great products that could be sold to clients. Not many machines were sold because of what the OS could do but what the OS helped users to do.

Valan

[Valan]

Windows is not as dominant as it was even a couple of years ago. Since the www started windows has far more competitors.

A electronic language translater today has as much computing power as the original Amiga. PDAs run CPUs of 66-400mhz, so size is not everything. Portables are both getting smaller and larger.

In short we need to change our view of what is a personal computer.

I think the days of Windows and Macos platforms are nearly over. 5 years at most since the sales of desktops are shrinking. I think that is what Dave Haynie meant. Why reproduce a dieing platform format?  

As the technology gets cheaper and the choice is more varied people will pick and choose what computing they want to do.

People do not want one great all round machine. Just take a look at the shops in the high street. People will want their machine to communicate with others easily. The platform that allows for easy communication will win out.

Today that means Apple Mac and Sony.

Valan

[Valan]

I should have added that what made the Amiga great and still worthwhile, IMHO, is that it allowed users to do what they wanted.

An over enthasised but little understood fact is that the Amiga was not a small machine playing catchup. It was cutting edge and as much power as the desktop had ever seen. This in itself was enough in its day but added to that the Amiga allowed ordinary users to reach out to the high end, to do what only highly trained proffesionals had done before. DPaint seems crude now but I canremember doing things which I had seen done only on Quantel systems on tv.
Hyperion and Eyetech seem bored by the mundane act they have no choice but to do and they are looking forward to doing the work they really wish to do.
Finaly, OS4 is only bringing the OS partially upto date, it does not and is not meant to surpass anything. It is simply a neccessary step.

My guess is that the real excitement comes beyond OS4 or even OS5.

Valan

Well, that's what drinking brandy with the inlaws does, take care.

[Valan]

We all want the Amiga to succeed in one form or another. For years it has seemed the obvious way to go and other systems are slowly getting there.

But for all the knowledge in the Amiga community we find it hard to identify what the Amiga actually is.

Sentences like 'the AmigaOne/Pegasus runs hundreds of Amiga program' are humerous bordering on sad since it defines the new Amigas as allowing users to step back at least 5 years and run old software.

Then people point to the 'killer app' as if it must appear. Well it never appeared for Atari or Segas new hardware.

We cannot take the success for the Amiga for granted no matter how well intentioned.

I think we should be talking about how we now want to use Amigas, I mean what would be your the 'killer app'?

Valan