POLL: Which word, in your opinion, best describes AMIGA today?

[orb85750]

By my estimation, demand for new and old Amiga equipment has actually increased in the past couple of years.  By that measure, I will have to say ALIVE.  (Atari ST is a good example of DEAD?)

[orb85750]

For those voting DEAD who ALSO are heavy users of Amiga.org, can you provide a justification?  Why devote so much time here?  

[orb85750]

mingle wrote:
@bloodline,

You're spot on...

It's been and gone. It was certainly great while it lasted...

In the same was as my C64 will never be mainstream and is 'dead' as a viable system, so has passed the Amiga.

I still love playing the games and tinkering with DPaint, but that's as 'alive' as the Amiga will ever be for me...

The advantage we have over these youngsters, is that we were there to bask in the light of the heyday of the Amiga...

Cheers,

Mike.

[edited]

You guys are both confusing NICHE with DEAD.  We have a trademark holder that is completely useless, yet progress on Amiga continues as the users (e.g. enthusiasts, fanatics, whatever, etc.) take matters into their own hands.  Really, how can you call AMIGA dead when so much good new development is going on *despite* the best efforts of Amiga Inc. to completely destroy the once-glowing Amiga name?  

Does it not seem strange that AmigaKit has 882 different Amiga product lines available if Amiga is indeed dead?  

[orb85750]

HenryCase wrote:

bloodline wrote:
No, the Amiga is a dead platform. There is no more development. It is technically static. Individual Computers make hardware that allws us to use the existing platform with modern technologies as the older ones disapear... This is just, for want of a better word, life-support... It is not driving the platform forward.

No more development? OS4, MOS2, AROS, Anubis, Natami, Minimig, OWB, Hollywood, Cinammon Writer, etc...

I'm simply in disbelief that this point even needed to be made -- but apparently it did (thanks).

[orb85750]

It would be difficult to argue that OS4.0 or 4.1 (both of which have been released) is "life support," but I'm willing to listen to your otherworldly wisdom.

[orb85750]

smerf wrote:
Hi,

Amiga = Alive

Amiga Inc. = Dead
 

Well, Pentti Kouri = Dead so it seems that the main funding source for Amiga Inc. may be gone.  But is anyone here privy to the Amiga Inc. financial situation?  I've been looking for the big AMIGA.com auction on eBay.

[orb85750]

Sorry the_leander, but it's absurd to argue that OS4 or MOS is life support (and you still have not done so).  Despite your impressive pessimism, there is much excitement and demand within the Amiga community.  Have you not noticed?

[orb85750]

Karlos wrote:

orb85750 wrote:
Sorry the_leander, but it's absurd to argue that OS4 or MOS is life support (and you still have not done so).  Despite your impressive pessimism, there is much excitement and demand within the Amiga community.  Have you not noticed?

Yep, all 15 of us...

Hey, you have to be off by a factor of at *least* ...Ummm... 10 or 20. ;-)

[orb85750]

amigadave wrote:
It's all semantics.

Different definitions for what constitutes an "Alive", or "Dead" computer platform.  Certainly no one thinks the Amiga is anywhere close to what it once was and I think The_Leander was being way too generous with his estimation of Amiga users today.  I would be pleasantly surprised if there were half that many and suspect that the actual number is closer to 20% of his estimate, or about 2,000 people worldwide that actually still turn on and use an Amiga computer, another 450 to 500 that use MorphOS and I don't have an educated guess of how many people out there use AmigaOS4.x, but I also suspect that almost all of the AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS users are included in the number of Amiga users anyway.

So, even though I voted that the Amiga is "Alive", due to recent activity and just because there are ANY of us left using Amigas and writing programs for Amigas, I can see how my definition does not apply to the many people that have replied that the Amiga is "Dead".  I don't agree, but I understand their definition and reasoning.

I am not saying you're wrong or right.  But can you provide some information concerning how you arrived at these numbers?  For starters, it would be nice to know how many unique visitors Amiga.org gets per month?  Does a moderator have access to any such stats?

[orb85750]

persia wrote:
Hold a door open!  The Aspire is terrible as a doorstop compared to an Amiga.

the_leander wrote:

KimmoK wrote:
Alive.

It can be used professionally again.

Care to cite a situation where an Amiga could do a job at least as well as even a £160(Comet) Aspire A1 netbook?

I disagree, a partially open netbook forms an excellent wedge shape -- perfect to slide under the door as a door stop.  

Can you do heavy nonlinear video editing with a netbook?
And what if you have hands larger than those of a 10 year old girl?  How's the build quality of your typical Chinese/Vietnamese not-living-wage-made netbook?  Will it last far beyond its 1-year warranty?  (or is it 90 days)

[orb85750]

persia wrote:
Yep, the Aspire runs leopard like a champ and Final Cut Express runs fine on it.  

You're running Final Cut on an Aspire *ONE*? (re: original question)  What type of pro hacking was required to get Leopard up and running on it?  Easy enough?  Total cost of system with above software and any required hardware upgrades?

[orb85750]

orb85750 wrote:

persia wrote:
Yep, the Aspire runs leopard like a champ and Final Cut Express runs fine on it.  

You're running Final Cut on an Aspire *ONE*? (re: original question)  What type of pro hacking was required to get Leopard up and running on it?  Easy enough?  Total cost of system with above software and any required hardware upgrades?

Persia, can you show us Final Cut on the entry-level Aspire, or are you guessing that it works properly?  

[orb85750]

bloodline wrote:
@amigadave

I find it hard to take anything personal on something as impersonal as an Internet forum!

I sound repetitive because people don't seem to understand what I am saying!

Progress would be an Amiga platform that is twice as powerful as that £199 PC but at the same price or cheaper! At the moment we are playing catch up... And catch up that is one 8th the performance at three times the price!

We will only ever play catch up now... We can't compete with the mega-budgets... :-)

This thread is full of semantics problems.  I think bloodline is speaking of "Progress" (with a capital P), while many of us were referring to the progress on the Amiga platform specifically, which for obvious reasons has been much slower over the past 15 years than PC or mac progress.

[orb85750]

Now, where are these magical AmigaOS improvements that have escaped all my senses ?  :shrug:

For starters, have you read the complete ars technica review of OS4?

http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2007/01/amigaos4.ars

[orb85750]

@Einstein,
You can lead a horse to water, but....