Was PCI for Amiga a good choice?

[Fizza]

people are on a mission to convince others to mistakes they have done, not to admit these for themselves.

A bit of a harsh perspective that, even if not entirely invalid, another valid perspective would be simply that some people want the Amiga to progress and again become a viable alternative system (I daresay most here, including yourself, wouldn't mind seeing it happen), so it's a case of making the best of it, supporting those who are trying to make it happen in the hope of gaining traction to bring costs down and build a real userbase.

The hardware/software approach of the Amiga is what complicates it though, AmigaOS on G4/G5 Mac hardware would have been great three to five years ago and with Apple's move to Intel making a lot of great source hardware available for very reasonable prices, it may have even been possible to convince some ex-Amiga Mac converts to not sell their system after upgrading and instead load Amiga OS 4 onto it, which very well could have gone a long way to achieving some real momentum via OS4 sales, which could have been ploughed back into development of drivers/software to fuel a cycle that may have peaked enough to be able to engineer a proper hardware project at a much more attractive price range, although what hardware is beyond a top of the range G5 Mac Pro system, I don't know - unless you start getting back into serious custom chips?

[Fizza]

sometimes i get the impression that the policy is exactly that: purposedly not to let the userbase grow beyond what it is, only just drain all the cash it is able to offer. souns weird? yeah, it does. but on the plus side you can keep your secure place locked away from the outside world and keep dreaming what could be if it would be forever.

is it my duty to support that? i woulnt like to think so. i prefer to support, what gains my interest, not what others may demand of me for the sake of their interests. especially if this must involve bashing the genuine system, we all should be actually fans of.

That depends, a more retro-centric viewpoint could be more inclined to try to get the most from the hobby sized userbase that can support it, with not much view of expansion beyond retro-enthusiasm, which is fine and is working well for the C64 scene etc.

But I would say that those trying to expand beyond retro would have to be more interested in growing the userbase beyond retro enthusiasts by default, I think to suggest all the work (with seemingly little visible reward) has been and is being done just to fleece remaining prospective (as opposed to retro.. protro?) users does not hold up in a logical sense.

Call me Captain Obvious if need be, but retro vs. protro is also the likely source of the dichotomy within the Amiga community. Appealing to both views maybe the ticket or the curse, or maybe there just needs to be an acceptance that the twain shall never (or rarely) meet and each leave the other to their own devices?

[Fizza]

beyond retro entusiasts? who would that be? regular mainstream users who want contemporary computing just dont come well along with windows, mac and linux? people who dont like multiprocessing, 3d acceleration, security, all that sort of things everybody takes for granted today, and who can resign on almost any of otherwise available software titles, just want their machine to be ppc?

People who want to live in houses would also not like to live in one that is only just been framed, so do you look at the frame only and say it's not worth bothering trying to finish the house because of that?

now you are telling it yourself, right? little reward.

In response to your suggestion that those who might want to see progression are being fleeced purposely, or words to that effect.

there is nothing opposed to retro to be found here. no neologisms and new speech is going to help explain that.

Whether that is the case at the moment or not is irrelevant and does not prove one way or another that progression isn't possible or viable. However, I applaud your use of the word neologism.

apparently it isnt as obvious as it should be. there is no complementarity here. amiga nor any of the follow up alternatíves is not going to become mainstream let alone catch up. the gap is growing every week. it is illusionary.

I never really said mainstream, that is a very distant dream. However, a viable alternative system can still be relatively popular, it wasn't that long ago that Apple was facing annihilation and MacOS, while relevant in a supportive industry, was still very marginal. But my point is that I'm not trying to convince you that you are wrong, it is your opinion and you have every right to it, but others hold differing opinions based on a different and, some would say in their opinion, more valid perspective, one viewpoint may just be pessimistic and the other optimistic. Of course, it is easier to be proven 'right' with a pessimistic viewpoint in these situations, and that's the general problem with naysaying, or naysayers - people who would rather be happy to be 'right' about something failing than be 'wrong' when something succeeds, which I find even more sad when the naysayers stand to benefit from success.