CommodoreUSA CEO Interview Answers

[runequester]

No intent on contributing to linux, no intent in aros = no intent to buy your ****e.

[runequester]

I might have missed it, but where were the hundreds of thousands of sales to a high street retailer?

Ad company lies again?

Maybe it was the same people who sent him fake photos of a "chinese" manufacturing plant?

Its a regular conspiracy

[runequester]

Dell has done more for the amiga brand than CUSA has done, given they sell linux PC's far cheaper, provide better customer support (****ty as opposed to non-existing) and their CEO doesn't spend time insulting people on the internet.

[runequester]

You can pretend to be a big player along the lines of Commodore, Dell, Atari, Apple etc.

You can pretend to be a tiny cottage industry.

But you don't get to be both.

[runequester]

This is all sort of hypothetical, because even if they wanted to, CUSA has no development team of any sort.

[runequester]

Why stick an "Amiga" sticker on a x86 computer running Linux?  It makes no sense now and never did.

I might be tarred and feathered but here's how I'd have done it:

Develop a case that looks like either an A1200 or A1000 case (or a 2000 or whatever. Something iconic looking)

Develop a nice, high quality keyboard to go with it (no cheap boing balls here), complete with proper "amiga" keys and branding.

Develop a proper amiga mouse. I dont know if there'd be a future for a USB "tank mouse". I'd buy one but maybe I'd be the only one.

Develop a desktop environment for linux that actually feels amiga. AmiWM is not enough but it could developed more, or something could be done from scratch.


Be upfront with what it is going to be, and voila. Don't pretend to be the second coming of Commodore. You're selling a novelty case, keyboard etc, and it's a nice, consistent package.

Of course, this requires investment and money but if you were a hugely successfull business man, no problem!

[runequester]

See, I'd have done all of those things, added the old C64 graphics to the keys too, preloaded a bunch of old emulators and sold it as a "Commodore Retro 1000" or something.  Still no need to call it an Amiga.  

Right, that's the thing. Don't call it something it isn't, and don't try to pretend you are something you aren't.

[runequester]

HOW DO YOU ENJOY YOUR COMMODORE USA PRODUCTS? [/B]

Surely you just aren't a talking head, surely their offerings are swell enough for you to get out YOUR wallet, no?  I've asked this question a dozen times, and I'm willing to bet my left nut C-USA hasn't got a single dime of your hard earned money - why the press drive then?

I don't think his motivations has anything to do with actually liking their products.

[runequester]

Then why isn't it being done by yourselves?

Minimig? AROS? Morph OS? Individual Computers? The guys that make the PS2 controller adapters or Svideo adapters?

The hobby is f'ing teeming with people taking initiative and building crazy, cool things

[runequester]

and they don't ask for 500 pre-orders and cash in advance either.  

Bonus points that I doubt Jens from individual computers makes his stuff in China.

[runequester]

But if it's all big business, why bother?

Dell will sell me a much cheaper PC, I can use my employee discount with them, I can install the exact same emulator stuff there and I can install any version of linux I want anyways.
I can go to System 76 and get a pre-installed and tested linux PC, and still pay less money.

If I am a serious computer user, why on earth would I invest in "commodore" in 2012?



You can play big business or you can play hobby, but you don't get to do it both ways.

[runequester]

What did they "develop" other than a case?

[runequester]

Lets put it blunt, you wouldn't make anything custom remotely competitive in mainstream without great expense. The hw platform wars in the mainstream computer market is over. It is completely x86. Intel won. PPC, ARM, and everyone else lost. It is like the vhs winning out over beta. Intel is the ISA for mainstream computers. Apple was the last company of mainstream computers to use PPC and they dropped it. This means, intel ISA is the architecture of today and for the foreseeable future until quantum computing comes out.

PPC lost that market just as the 65xx did and 65xx uses the embedded devices market.

Lets be serious.

When it comes to mainstream computers:
You can have any flavor of cpu as long as it is x86 ISA platform.

You can love or hat x86 but that is what you got now.

I know this is probably heresy to the hardcore amiga guys, but I actually don't care about the processor other than "fast or slow". Im not a programmer at all, so I have no real idea what the differences really are.

My question was.. what did CUSA develop, that anyone else have not done?

[runequester]

Oh, yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've brought the Jews into debates where I've had to defend a guy for acting like a total pervert to a guy who just wanted to know about pricing. Happens all the time.

Wait.. would that be like a reverse Godwin ?