Given x1000 news is everywhere.....but nonchalance prevails

[TheBilgeRat]

Honestly?  For games I would want a console that was silent yet outperformed any desktop gaming machine in the graphics department and was hardware upgradeable.  dual axis analog joystics are really the pinnacle, so stick with it.  For word processing, who cares?  Final Writer and my A2000, or any free comp with linux on it.  Everything else my phone can do.

[TheBilgeRat]

As much as I love to hate Apple, perhaps the iPad is this generations version of that paradigm??  Yes, the iPad isn't perfect, but neither was the Amiga 1000.. :-)

desiv

This is what I think as well.  Heck- I even liked System 7 back in the day.  Most people don't need anything more than a Web interface with a few games to tide them over on the bus, plane, toilet, etc.  With Google Docs you can do easily 80-90 percent of your word processing needs, and then take them to kinkos to print or send them to internet capable printer.  All it has to do is stream A/V content, play A/V content locally stored, and update twitter/faceyspace/etc and its a win.

[TheBilgeRat]

Sigh-this is sadly true.  I mentioned in the OS4 thread the cost of a branded workstation from HP in the two grand region with 12GB ram standard and 192Gb potential DDR3 ram.  That is absolutely insane power.

[TheBilgeRat]

When I say it, I get flamed, but you're right. However, there's one part in which you are wrong.

There *IS* a chance, albeit an *EXTREMELY* small one, for the Amiga to once again hit the "mainstream" and I'll tell you why.

Google Chrome.

Microsoft is no longer the "end all, be all" of the desktop market. Apple is making small bites at the market (which is something I've been saying Amiga should have been doing for years). Steve Jobs was smart. He created the Iphone and the Ipod, which after years of effort, has become the "staple" of what consumers consider "mainstream". Seriously. Everyone I know wants an Iphone and or wants/has an Ipod. Since the migration to X86, Apple is slowly encroaching into the PC marketplace, because people are tired of Windows. Linux is also becoming a contender due to Ubuntu, as well as increasing software support. I know *TONS* of people that are anxiously waiting for Google Chrome. This is no longer a Windows Market.

Amiga could make a dent in this market, simply by name only, due to the fact that a *LOT* of IT guys, Animators, Game Developers, etc. *REMEMBER* the name. They may not remember the Amiga in its heyday, but they remember the name. Why else would Bill McEwen be interested in it? He knew that for all the Amiga IPs, it was the *NAME* that was most important. The problem is, he knew next to nothing about marketing, economics or running a business. Here's the problem, however.

There's no market base and there's no reason for anyone who's *NOT* an "Amigan" (a term I now use apathetically) to even bother with AROS, OS4 or MorphOS, due to the simple fact that there's nothing the Amiga "flavors" can do that Windows, OSX or Linux cannot do cheaper and more effectively. There is *ZERO* incentive for anyone to use any of the said "flavors", other than nostalgia. Even if one were interested in using one of the Amiga "alternatives" all it would take is a single *LOOK* at any of the current Amiga Forums to have them walk away in disgust, due to the infighting amongst the "community".

There's AROS.exec for the AROS fans. MorphZone is for the MorphOS fans. AmigaWorld.net is for the OS4 fans and Amigans.net is for the over-zealous OS4 fans who took it to an extreme. Amiga.org, which to my knowledge, is the *OLDEST* Amiga Forum on the interwebs still in existence is supportive of all three "next gen" Amiga operating systems as well as Classic 3.9, but there seems to be more fighting here, than anywhere else and it's not surprising. Amiga.org is the most *LIBERAL* of all Amiga sites and once someone gets banned elsewhere, they come here.

The *ONLY* way that the Amiga is going to survive in any shape or form, beyond being classified as a "hobby OS" and to not be ridiculed on just about every site I visit (Slashdot is a good example) is once *ALL* the camps begin working together and the developers begin coding or porting all the essential applications that *EVERY* modern OS provides. Whichever Amiga "flavor" has a working, modern browser, with flash support, a fully working Java port, Email clients, etc. *FIRST* is the "chosen successor" of Classic 3.1 and *NOT* who had "access to the original code". We're not going to go anywhere, until all the petty bickering stops completely.

I sincerely wish that I had the power within me to end this infighting, once and for all. Had I the money, I would have purchased the licenses to the Amiga IPs *years* ago and worked with *ALL* the Amiga camps to provide the most robust Amiga operating system the world has ever seen. AROS would have been the X86 version and both MorphOS *AND* OS4 would have survived as PPC operating systems, with each version having the *SAME* API, using the *SAME* GUI overlay, providing the *SAME* user experience, just on different platforms. I wouldn't have been in it for the money, 'cos right now, there just *ISN'T* any......

My concern was to get the name recognized again, to pass developer systems (for free, mind you) to companies like Autodesk, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Corel, Fractal Designs, etc. in the hopes that they would port their products to the Amiga operating systems and to get the game support that the Windows, OSX and Linux operating systems appreciate. If I had the money, I would have *EATEN* the cost to provide this, not because I wanted to make money, but because I *LOVE* the Workbench (YES, that's what I believe it should be called, period) *MORE* than any operating system I have ever used and *BELIEVE* that it could still make an impact. All of you need to pray that I win the lottery one day, because if I ever did, *THIS* is what the money would be spent on.

So yes, I too, am a "zealot", but for the *SPIRIT* of the Amiga and what it could once do, instead of the various camps so many of you have chosen. I care not of your camp, I only care that you wish to see the Amiga survive and to see it flourish.

So many of you, however, seem to have lost your way.......

Quoted for +a billion awesome.