AMIGA NEEDS YOUR HELP

[quenthal]

I don't know what is wrong with me, but it is sometimes refreshing to see new users like Starke. Like it is already said, many here have had the same feeling to use common sense and solve things once and for all during late-Commodore/post-Commodore era, being it talks about discussions about potential buyers of Amiga, cpu-architecture after m68k (alpha, ppc, etc.), P5/warpos, P5/P96, pci-busboards, Amiga MMC etc.

Once in a while there are someone like Starke, being it here at a.org or other forums etc., full of energy, maybe not so much knowledge what has happened in the past 10-15 years with Amiga, but still having so fond memories of this platform - this in itself shows something about Amiga (Classic Amiga). Same of course can be seen in other old platforms too.

Same feeling may no longer be possible to achieve for everyone with "modern" Amiga (AOS4, MOS) with current alternatives (Linux, MacOS, even Windows XP/Vista). I'm not sure, but I think that MOS/AOS4 mainly rekindles the old feeling, but not necessarely bring anything new, but I hope I'm wrong. Anyway, I'm more than anxious to get hold of OS4 for my A4000. And this is the only realistic market I see currently for Amiga/amiga-like systems - new hw/sw once in a while to keep us busy fiddling with our Amigas and something cheap/free, nice stuff (being it something like Minimig, PPC-mb with AmigaOS/MOS with clear roots without being just a base for ports from *nix, AmigaForever) for future Starkes to give them that feeling back.

[quenthal]

@wayne:

Please don't misunderstand.  I have nothing against Starke or anyone else for their enthusiasm.  It is rather refreshing (though some might think it amusing) but it's rather hard to share in the enthusiasm for a lot of us.  Where I believe he's going wrong is the "cheerleader approach" (not meant derogatorily) and the lack of proper perspective of history

Even if they had hardware, and software which wasn't simply a port of a 1994 level OS, there is no third-party software development, there is no market to buy it. Those three things (product, development, market) are crucial and even if Amiga Inc/Hyperion had two out of those three, it just doesn't stand a chance against Apple or Microsoft.

Yes, you put it out much clearer, just what I tried to say :-). I couldn't agree more in every point you made.  

I mean it's not like ALL of us at one point weren't just as enthusiastic, but how many shards can a dream be broken into before it's just a memory?

Good and valid question (has been infact quite long now... :-( ). Those, who still have some shards left to be broken, are probably hobbyists like me who wan't new upgrades, maybe even with "Amiga" logo on it (like OS4) for old machines and those who bought Pegasos/A1. Maybe it is no longer possible to break that to smaller shards if you belong to that first group, since it is neither dream or memory - more like a hobby. For the other part of this group, I don't know. Those, who belong to that "memory group", either by changing platform in early 90s or later while waiting, could probably get intrested in some nice C64DTV-like product, being it either software-pack or small periphral to connect existing PC/console/tv.

There probably is some intrested in completely new hardware too in every group, but I don't think the reason for them to get that new hardware&os or even AmigaOS for x86 could be anything else that some memery/feeling they have towards (classic) Amiga. Anything else, and they probably ain't realistic - atleast for now.

For me, my A4000 currently is something that I spend time fixing/tweaking out just like playing some new PC/Wii-game, or making my htpc/ht better. I'm not trying to replace any of my "serious" laptops/desktop with it, it just is something that gives pleasure as it is. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't buy OS4 for it the day it is on sale, even now I'm hungry for every demoscene release, 3rd party patch & new utilities released for 3.x