What the F***!

[commodorejohn]

http://www.karmadigital.com/tf5_htpc_home_theatre_pc_case.html +
http://www.ubuntu.com =
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_Amiga.aspx

You, madam, win. Wonder how much they're going to be charging for their stylish "couldn't be bothered to render with textures, but don't worry, we'll slap a boing-ball sticker on it in production" look on generic x86 desktop hardware?

As far as the whole "at least they're doing something" line of reasoning - I'm not going to trash on the people who think that next-gen Amiga-like OSes ought to run on x86 hardware (even if I myself disagree,) but come on. All that Commodore USA has been doing thus far is slapping a brand on generic Atom hardware in an unusual form-factor - it has less to do with the Amiga (x86, PPC, or 68k flavors) than those cheapo "greatest hits as performed by some group of barely-awake session players" records you find clogging up thrift stores have to do with the band they'd like you to think you're buying a record by.

[commodorejohn]

Okay, so they're going to slap a boing-ball logo bubble and a slightly customized case on generic x86 hardware. Whoop-de-doo.

[commodorejohn]

What would you have them to do? There's nothing else anybody can do... even the mighty Apple uses "generic x86 hardware". There is simply no choice out there today, if you want to be a player, you're bound to use generic x86.  But at least they'll be using the best x86 hardware ... Intel SandyBridge

Again, I don't have a problem with Amiga-like OSes on x86 hardware - what I have a problem with is someone trying to pass off "x86 PC with a Commodore logo on it" as an actual Commodore computer. Commodore, the company, is dead. None of the people who made it what it was have anything to do with this venture - this is purely a case of a company dressing up in the trappings of a once-loved brand to hawk its own wares, which don't even bring anything special to the table.

I mean, seriously. I like Linux just fine, but Linux is not AmigaOS, never has been, and never will be. I don't care whether you're a devotee of AROS, MorphOS, ClassicWB, or even AOS4 - at least those have some basis in the Amiga architecture and design philosophy, instead of being a "well, uh, we cobbled up a desktop environment that looks like Workbench!" Linux distro. Using that on your desktop? Okay, sure. Selling it as AmigaOS? No.

(And no, you don't have to use x86. There's ARM, there's ColdFire, there's even Hitachi's SuperH architecture if you want. The domination of the Intel Hegemony isn't complete - not yet, anyway.

[commodorejohn]

Commodore sold x86 computers... and it would be doing x86 if it survived until today, including Amiga. Get over it.

That may indeed have been the case - regardless, it doesn't change the fact that this is not the product of any of the people who made Commodore's computers the classics they were. And while they did sell x86 PCs, they weren't trying to cash in on the prior success of an entirely different system in so doing - they were just selling x86 PCs because that's what people were buying.

Amiga OS architecture is a dead end. Face it. Had Commodore survived, there would be none of the original Amiga OS architecture today. End of story.

How do you figure? The Amiga software architecture is stable and expandable enough to where it's perfectly conceivable that they could have stuck with it. Heck, the Amiga had true multitasking more than a decade before Windows or MacOS did.

And no... it's not being sold as AmigaOS. The naming is not yet set in stone.

Well, they're certainly calling it "Workbench 5" at present, and I'll treat that as their claim until they change it.

Coldfire? Are you serious? Sure, ARM I can see being competitive on the desktop market in a few years maybe. The rest is a no-go for any home computer use other then a hobby.

I'm not especially serious about Coldfire or SuperH, but ARM and PPC at least are viable alternatives. My point is that no, you don't have to use x86 - there are other options than sticking a generic Atom board in a slightly customized case and calling it an Amiga.

If they substituted a flaky PPC mobo for the generic  x86, would that make things better?  Oh, triple the price as  well.

Oh, I'm nobody's A-Eon defender. The X1000 is even more inexcusable than this, but this ain't a thread about the X1000.

[commodorejohn]

In 1985, Classic OS was a marvel. In 2010, it's a laugh. By today standards and heck, even late 90s, a complete rewrite of the AmigaOS was/is far more likely to have happend then Commodore getting stuck with Classic OS.

I didn't mean using it as-is in the form of Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.1 :/ Yes, you need to upgrade an operating system as the industry evolves, but that doesn't mean you have to totally throw away something that's fundamentally solid. Even "complete rewrite" doesn't necessarily mean ditching the underlying architecture.

Yes, you do. If you want to sell, you need to use x86.

No, you don't. ARM has already been used in tons of mobile computing devices (most of which sell just fine) and is beginning to work its way into the laptop market. All of the current-gen game consoles are based on the POWER architecture in one form or another. The only place the x86 is ubiquitous is in the desktop PC market, and that's only because it provides compatibility with Windows application binaries from previous generations. Linux is a fundamentally source-based operating system anyway - there's no reason this project has to use x86, other than that Atom boards are cheap and easy to throw into a prefab case before branding it and selling it to someone claiming it's an Amiga.

[commodorejohn]

Amigas will not run Atoms. They will only run high-end Intel x86 stuff with high-end nVidia GPUs, possibly even with water cooling as standard in some models. Also expect 3D gaming nVidia support, Video Toaster editions(RealTek is one of their partners), possible Tesla GPU home supercomputers and so on... .

All in all, I look forward to it. I wanna have fun... I also plan to contribute some software. They may be even an Amiga app market by CUSA.

Okay, my mistake on the Atom thing. That doesn't change the fact that they're slapping a completely unrelated brand on generic x86 hardware that you can assemble from NewEgg for likely a whole lot less than you'll pay to get it with the brand slapped on.

Also, there's a perfectly nice app market already in place. It's called the Internet.

[commodorejohn]

There is no claiming, C=USA has the license from Amiga Inc for the name, "Amiga."  After Eyetech dragged the name through the cesspools, there is very little damage C= USA could ever do to it. If anything, they are using well known models that won't have significant hardware bugs which is a perk the Amiga community is not use to.

I don't really care whether they have the legal rights to the name or not - they're still trying to sell a standard x86 PC as somehow being a "new Amiga." If that's the case, the genericlone Pentium 4 workstation I'm typing on is as much an Amiga as what they're selling, and I didn't have to sit around looking at terrible POV-ray renders and wondering how much the distributor was going to charge me for it.

[commodorejohn]

That's tue for the most part. The Amigas, Ataris, Commodores, Aplles... of the 80s are long gone and will never return.

Well, you go ahead and give up hope, and I'll just keep cautiously holding out for NatAmi.

[commodorejohn]

Dosn't anyone else find it funny that anytime someone comes on this forum heavily hyping or defending cusa that they have 50 or less posts?
 
Sending shills on to defend your company because you don't have the balls to come on here yourself and do it... Well that just speaks volumes about them.

Nah, shills have that corporate forced-smile uncanny-valley touch to their posts. Wolfofthemoon might be inexplicably excited about something he could purchase, assemble, and use right this very minute if he wasn't waiting for the Official C-USA Stamp of Sanction, but he doesn't come off like the Executive Cheer Officer, Grassroots Marketing Division type.

[commodorejohn]

If CUSA would to become wildly popular, and I mean WILDLY, the best thing one could expect is a slightly custom x86 motherboard and/or an ARM license to develop their own cores. But this is pure science fiction, really. Beyond Sci-Fi, really...

Pure science fiction.

X86 IS GOD! ALL PRAISE TO INTEL! DEATH TO THE DISSENTERS!

[commodorejohn]

custom cases
custom packaging(thread over at C-A.org)
custom Linux distro(with a possibility of becoming a custom OS in the future)
possible app market

sure seems like a lot of sticker slapping, doesn't it?

Right, so slapping a new bezel on some manufacturer's stock case, putting it in a pretty box, and skinning Linux with something that looks like Workbench makes it a completely different thing than an equivalent-spec PC assembled from components off NewEgg or TigerDirect.

"For my next trick, I'm going to turn this Honda into a Ferrari Testarossa using only a label printer and an airbrush!"

(P.S. how, exactly, are they planning to turn Linux into a "custom OS?")

[commodorejohn]

excellent analogy! in the early 90's there used to be a guy I know that drove a 'kit car' Fiero to make it look like a 3x8 Ferrari (alla Magnum PI)....sad eh

Actually, now that I think about it, I shoulda said a Karmann Ghia - pretty skin, same old Volkswagen innards

Instead, one should go in a adventure of a completely new platform and/or OS just for the sake of being completely different.

Good... good. Go ahead and try, put your money where your mouth is :lol:

You are aware that there are multiple groups doing exactly that, right? And every last one of them has shown as much or more progress as C-USA.

[commodorejohn]

Hey! Nothing wrong with either Karmann Ghia or VW innards! But that is drifting way ot...:lol:

No, not at all, but if you were trying to claim that having a sports-car shell on compact-sedan guts made it a completely different thing...uh, right, back on topic...

[commodorejohn]

What progress? Show me progress! Show me a AOS4, MOS or AROS machine that can replace my current Win or Linux machine for work and fun or even simple web browsing?

Show me a C-USA "Amiga" that isn't just a picture of a case without even a pasteboard photo of a potential motherboard in it.

[commodorejohn]

For someone in the know

Hee! Good one.