Much as I love Cammy for her Don-Quixote-like quest to help Amiga, it's self-interested people that made the Amiga what it was.
Maybe it's just me, but from various interviews of Amiga people from back in the Commodore days as well as the "Deathbed Vigil" video, I rather get the picture of idealism; some very dedicated people working day and night (some times literally), sleeping under their desk in their office, working *way* beyond their *paid* office hours, just to create and develop the Amiga technology and making it what it became, *despite* those corporate guys in the management that only had money on their mind.
And the picture I get in my head when thinking about Amiga Inc (Fleecy and McEwen), Hyperion (Ben Hermans) and Eyetech (Alan Redhouse) is "self-interested" people *destroying* everything what Amiga once was, in their "self-interested" quest for milking the last drops out of the Amiga(TM) cow. But again, maybe that's just me?
IMHO *it wasn't* Carl Sassenrath, Dave Haynie, etc (that is: the first group I mentioned above) who killed the Commodore Amiga, it was the "money-guys". And also IMHO, the responsibility for the wrecking of whatever survived from Commodore falls heavy on the second group (Fleecy, McEwen, Ben Hermans, Alan Redhouse, etc, etc). And in my books, also the "second generation" of Amigaone (the "X1000") falls under the "wreck" label, and few blows to whatever future "Amiga(TM)" could have had, has been as devastating as the "X1000".
Also, I have very difficult to understand this "but they are doing the Amiga(TM) such a favor" attitude that some people have towards those "second group" of people. What favors really? Where have they taken the Amiga(TM) exactly, if not down in the ditch? And despite what many people seems to believe, they haven't done it out of charity. The dollar sign was the driving force, the "Amiga" was merely a means to an end. The "X1000" was no charity project either.
And speaking of that last one, and the one behind it (Matthew Leaman); it's rather interesting to see how he gradually has been involving in and gaining control over some key OS4 parts (drivers) in the absence of the unpaid Hyperion OS4 developers, he has gained control over the HW part ("A-eon"), he has control over the sales and distribution (Amigakit), recently he gained control over a major community site (Amiga.org, and control over the information/community sites has been essential in the past in selling OS4), and with his "app store" he is trying to get a cut on all the SW sales as well (not that there are any to mention, but anyway). Matthew Leaman/"AeonKit" is *becoming* Amiga(TM), a monopoly "from farm to the fork". Minus the (TM) part, but maybe that's just a question of time?
So I definitely understands Cammy's POV.
But at least there are alternatives. These days, the (TM) option isn't even the best option! If what you want is the blended "68k"/PPC option then MorphOS on Mac is a much better option than OS4/X1000/SAM with faster, cheaper HW that comes in all kinds of flavors from tiny footprint Mac Mini's to laptops, via full-blown desktop systems. And you don't even have to stick to PPC; if you are prepared to drop the special kind of Amiga compatibility that only OS4/MorphOS can bring to the "NG" world, then various of AROS flavors are an option as well. So you don't *have to* spend $3,000+ on special PPC locked-in stuff, just because that's what AeonKit has chosen to offer!
Jay Miner did want to create one of the best personal computers of it's time, but he didn't do it for the "community." He did it because -->he<-- wanted to do it and because he would earn money by doing so.
There are many driving forces behind entrepreneurs and engineers going outside the box. Getting rich could be one, but it's probably less common than you believe, many studies on this subject suggest that this usually comes quite far down the list of motivating factors.
Do you have some kind of reference supporting your statement that Jay Miner's only (or at least primary) interest in his work on the Amiga was to get rich?
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NOTE: I'm *not* against making profits, I'm not even against *profiteering*. I'm all for free market economy, all the way. I'm a capitalist at heart, not a communist. But try to look at things for what they are, don't try to twist things to yourself or others. Don't tell yourself that people are "being kind", "doing us a favor" or charity etc when they are in fact profiteering. Those things don't match. Besides, free market economy requires many options as well as transparency to work. Monopoly on all parts of the value-chain (as well as control over the information channels) looks more like communism than free market economy, *especially* when involving stupid decisions! :p
