Hi all.
As a paying OS4 customer (been using OS4 on and off since the very first release for Amigaone XE G4), I just wanted to raise the issue of the new pricing policy regarding "OS4.1 FE", which in practice will be the seventh update of OS4.1.
I must say I feel more than a little tricked by this strange and sudden move.
I once paid 138,85 EUR (incl vat and shipment) for OS 4.1 (the Pegasos version) and had to wait 2 weeks for a worthless CD I never had any use for (it has never even entered my CD-ROM, not once), since you have to download the "4.1 update 1" ISO the first thing you do anyway, and install the OS from there. All the 4.1 updates were supposed to be included, that was always "the deal", right? But now rules have changed, and as reported in this thread I now obviously have to spend *even more* money on *another* worthless physical "OS4.1" CD if I want to be able to download further 4.1 updates from the Internet.
Also, the second hand market for OS4.1 disappeared in one blow by this. It will be impossible for me to sell "OS4.1.6", no matter the price, since it suddenly was rendered utterly worthless. Of course I knew that "OS4.2" would once again mean a new purchase (as has been communicated all along), but since I (and I'm not the only one) looks at "4.2" as some kind of utopia (with a promised feature set that is quite impossible in an *Amiga compatible* environment) I was - and still am - quite convinced that it will never actually happen, or at least take a *very* long time. So while I of course bought OS4.1 to use it, I still kind of presumed that there would be an option open to sell it as second hand to someone else down the road as long as "4.2" hadn't been released.
But this obviously changed with this sudden and unexpected decision to charge money once again for an OS4.1 update already!
I feel double-tricked, there is no way to move either forwards or backwards without either losing money already spent, or spend even more money. And remaining passive is not really an option either, since all upcoming OS4.1 updates will require "OS4.1.7"/"FE". I feel that this was never the deal. OS4.2 was to be the next paid update.
I think this really sucks.
You don't have to buy FE if you don't want to. As for resale of your original 4.1 license, was that a factor in your decision to buy it in the first place? How long ago did you buy 4.1 anyway?
Planned features for 4.2 are multicore support and Gallium 3D so not so useful for a Peg2 unless you can somehow get an updated BIOS that recognises PCIe cards.
