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Author Topic: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC  (Read 91995 times)

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Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« on: February 06, 2011, 02:44:50 AM »
I don't care about the brand. I care about the operating system.

All these years, all these decades, all these lost battles and causes later, what we really have that's left of the Amiga is the operating system. And the variants. It's all I care about. What this man proposes does nothing to service the market or the products I care about. But I worry that it threatens them. Does it? Could it? Could AmigaOS become collateral damage? Not an intended target, but lost anyway.

Based on this new company's previous unprofessional behavior ("borrowing" intellectual property, publicly insulting whole groups of consumers), I didn't take this seriously. But now I get a little nervous. If six figures have been spent on a keyboard/case design, there's money here.

This man could have great success with the Commodore brand name. The Amiga brand name is not nearly as valuable. I wish he would leave it and us alone.

*edited slightly for clarity.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2011, 05:20:11 AM by mbrantley »
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2011, 03:24:52 AM »
Quote from: KThunder;612944
Hyperion and cusa BOTH have license


But does granting this license to this new company (having a hard time calling them Commodore, I admit) allowing a competing product (Workbench 5) violate the settlement agreement between A Inc. (having a hard time calling those shysters Amiga, I admit)? I don't know... just asking.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2011, 01:32:05 PM »
Quote from: Kronos;613040
Mmmmm let me recap the events sofar:


Won't quote the whole post, but Kronos has it straight, I think.

But I wanted to chime back in to say what I forgot to say during my angst last night: Thanks, Red, for making the effort to produce this report for us.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2011, 05:14:21 PM »
Quote from: KThunder;613154
Fine it doesn't have anything to do with Amiga, so freaking what, nothing since 1994 really has a direct link to Amiga anyway.


Not true, not even a little bit. There is the operating system.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2011, 05:27:27 PM »
Quote from: KThunder;613168
OS4 was not produced by commodore, or even AI, and it doesnt run on real 68k amigas.


Commodore doesn't exist, AI never made anything but a fuss, and 68K Amigas aren't manufactured any longer (but there is the MiniMig).

The Amiga operating system, however, is a current product in active development and runs on a variety of hardware. It's development can be traced from the earliest days that predate Commodore. See here...

http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141:twenty-five&catid=36:amigaos-4x&Itemid=18
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2011, 06:37:18 PM »
takehome,

Then you have AI, the one that didn't pay its bills and went out of business and thus losing its right to buy back the OS. Is this current AI supposed to be the same company?
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2011, 07:24:48 PM »
OK, I just spent some time reading the 43-page settlement between AI and Hyperion. It's clear to me that AI cannot market or allow a licensee to market an operating system with software architecture that is substantially similar to AmigaOS. That's why no C=USA "Amiga" running AROS. (Though certainly an end user can install AROS if it will run on the hardware.)

The settlement agreement also stipulates that neither AI nor any licensee can market a product that is billed as "an Amiga operating system."

So who here wants an "Amiga" that doesn't run an Amiga or Amiga-like operating system? And why, for goodness sake?

Does calling it an Amiga and using the name "Workbench 5" on a Linux distro that has been redressed to resemble the Amiga operating system violate the settlement agreement? I really don't know for sure, though it sure smacks of violating the spirit. My layman's opinion (that's all it is, I will admit) on the matter is that the area is a gray one.

But if Commodore itself (the one run into the ground by Mehdi Ali and associates) had survived to sell Amiga-branded computers running Windows or Linux and not "an Amiga operating system" I would howl and "harp" and keep on doing it.

"Amiga" means something.

And the Amiga operating system *IS* a continuation.

I gotta go to work. See y'all later.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2011, 07:36:40 PM by mbrantley »
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2011, 09:43:08 PM »
Quote from: dammy;613298
You missed the rest of the sentence that quote came from and it's extremely important since it a qualifier in nature.


Is it the the clause that reads "to the extent that such Software Architecture is protectable under the copyright laws of the United States..." or something else?

Forgive me for not quoting more directly. The copy of the settlement that was just sent me is a PDF in a form that doesn't allow me to easily copy and paste.

I'm a mere layman trying to understand the settlement and how it may pertain to the situation at hand. You can see where I stand on the matter :-) but in the case of reading the settlement I'm just trying to understand what the legal situation is.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2011, 03:12:03 AM »
Quote from: Belial6;613403
I am interested and clearly not insulted.  I am not the only one.


OK. You are interested in buying a PC running Linux or Windows and carrying a Commodore Amiga brand, right? Assuming you already have one of those without the Commodore Amiga brand affixed to it, what does the nameplate (let's assume it's more than a sticker) get you?

I'm asking because I just really do not understand.

And I am not at all opposed to the x86 architecture. I think that's where we should be, but if we are not running our operating system on that architecture what are we doing that's "Amiga" exactly? What's the appeal of getting on those forums and writing about and reading about Amiga if the interest is really Windows and Linux?

I'm starting to wish I had been an Atari user.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2011, 03:31:23 AM »
Quote from: desiv;613412
You might as well ask people who buy Dell or Sony or HP the same question.


But Dell and Sony and HP have always meant Windows PCs. Even Commodore on occasion (much to their fiscal regret). Amiga? No.

Quote from: desiv;613412
Wow..  People take this thing very seriously...  :)  :)


Yeah. :-) My pressure is up.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2011, 03:53:54 AM »
Quote from: runequester;613416
There's more to PC's than windows my friend.


Yes, I know. I just built an i7 quad-core that runs Snow Leopard as its main OS and also has hard drives dedicated to Ubuntu and Win7. It lacks driver support for AROS, but if there was a native version of AmigaOS for it I'd let you put an Amiga sticker on it, ;-)
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2011, 04:11:12 AM »
Quote from: runequester;613419
Failing that, I have a sharpie around here :)


Now we're on to something. :-D I just got a Sharpie that writes in silver -- great for black cases.

But in all seriousness, I just looked over this whole thread and see that I have made every point that is on my mind and have started to repeat myself. I'll let others chase this around in circles for a little while as I go enjoy my Amigas and Amiga compatibles. (Defined by me as computers that natively run the Amiga operating system -- still fun after all these years.)
« Last Edit: February 07, 2011, 04:13:23 AM by mbrantley »
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2011, 04:09:29 PM »
Quote from: kedawa;613507
I hope you appreciate the irony of an alienware customer complaining about overpriced PCs in gimmick cases.


Nah... I got the overpriced gimmick case covered, not r06ue1. I just built a PC in a Antec LanBoy air that's full of blue neon. ;-)

But my Sam440 is in something more down to earth.
 

Offline mbrantley

Re: My evening with Commodore USA, LLC
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2011, 04:13:17 PM »
Quote from: desiv;613523
Amiga was innovative..  
Commodore wasn't really.  (Not that I can think of right now..)


You have to go back to an earlier period for Commodore innovation, to the days of men like Peddle and Tramiel. Later, you are right: It was Commodore getting in the way of innovation by men like Haynie.