First Contact : AmigaOne X1000 Limited Edition

[HammerD]

Are you sure it won't work? Looks like all of the iBook G4 line have Radeon chipsets, and I thought that was the primary barrier with the 12" Powerbooks.

MorphOS won't work on any macbook/powerbook/ibook.  They have said a future release will work on some powerbooks but it's not out yet.

[HammerD]

Hello All,

What can the X1000 offer me that my $400 G5 Powermac Quad Core can't? It looks like I would be sticking to my G4 Amiga One for a while yet!

Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent

Isn't it quite obvious? The AmigaONE X1000 is designed to run AmigaOS 4.1 as fast as possible.  

The G5 Powermac is designed to run MacOS X.  That's it. OK, maybe it can run linux too, but it wasn't designed for that.

[HammerD]

Are you high, lol?  You would seriously pay that kind of money to fix what is inoperable at ship date on the mainboard that you have already paid for?  What if it turns out the MB stuff just doesn't work at a HW level, EVER?  What if the board is chock full of bad traces?  

I suppose we should wait for a reply out of them as to why the tacked on cards are needed, but seems to me if I'm shelling out nearly 3 grand for a computer I shouldn't have to buy twice for the functionality of one system.

I'm a SAM user.  I'm fine with overpaying for underpowered HW.  But the thought that people aren't questioning the reasons behind this, or worse yet - justifying it...  Wow.

Explain to me sanely why this thing has tacked on ethernet and sound cards when it has them onboard.  Wait!  I'll answer that!

1 - the drivers aren't done.  Sorry, don't release it then.  All due respect, if the drivers are not there for the baseboard, you dropped the ball already bringing this to market.  Would you buy a PC from a store if it had a sticker saying "MB NIC will work  in 2-4 months, buy a PCIe card if you want to use the Internet!".  Fair enough if the drivers are not there, don't put a band aid on a bullet wound and sell a kludge of a product.  If you are not ready, you aren't ready.

2 - the HW is hosed and they are circumventing it with add on cards.

I wish Hyperion would just quit dicking around with this cobbled together newfangled/embedded HW lock in crap and just roll out OS 4 for the PPC Mac's.  Pains me to see them try and maintain some silly exclusivity nonsense with "built for OS 4" hardware that sees its' way into the hands of hundreds at best, not thousands.

The drivers are in development and will come shortly.   It's common industry practice to release hardware with beta or unfinished software and/or drivers.

There are many examples out there just to name a couple: MorphOS, no WIFI driver.  ACube SAM, no audio driver initially.  Apple Siri AI software - beta, Blackberry Playbook, basically unfinished OS, missing key functionality (email/pim).  

The list goes on and on and on, and it's quite normal in the tech world.  I'm not saying this is the "right" thing to do, but don't harp on A-EON more than you would harp on any other company that does the same thing.

[HammerD]

...meanwhile if you buy it... and want to have networking and sound... you need to spend some more cash... Just like if it wasn't enough expense already..

You can pick up a realtek 8139 or 8029 PCI nic for a few dollars at most flea markets, used computer shops.  Same with PCI sound cards.  Not a big deal IMHO.  

Ok, you will have to wait a bit until the on-board drivers are finished, but at least you can get your machine sooner rather than later then just take the PCI cards out when the drivers get released.

Or just wait and purchase your system later.

[HammerD]

Well, the point is.. you would spend over US$2,600 for the X1000 at least and that cannot get you any audio nor networking capabilities on it ... whether is lack of drivers (or updated drivers) or whatever, it's a total shame...
 
I'm wondering if there's an option not to buy the huge case and extras for overseas buyers to save on import fees+shipping... didn't anyone at Hyperion mention that possibility?
 
Cheers,
 
Dragster

Well  no one is forcing you to buy it.  Being an Amiga user has never been cheap.   Yes, under Commodore times we had lower prices (on some models), but we also had 10x the volume.  Volume manufacturing brings down price.  We don't have that any more.  Batches of production today are probably in the 10's, 50's and 100's at best, which makes component costs per unit much higher and obviously drives the overall cost up.   It's been a fact of life for years in the Amiga market for true AmigaOS machines.

It is beyond me why we have the discussion about price every single time a new piece of hardware, or OS release (be it MorphOS or AmigaOS4) is released.   The answer and reasoning hasn't changed.  Do people just not get it? Low volumes + niche product = higher price.

There are cheaper alternatives, such as AROS and MorphOS on old PowerPC macs, or WinUAE/Amiga Forever.  Pick one and be my guest.

As for the motherboard being separate vs. a complete system, that is a business decision made by A-EON.  There was a strong desire to ship a complete computer system fully working, with AmigaOS4 pre-installed.  Unless AmigaKit makes arrangement for local distributors to re-sell the X1000 then you'd have to pay shipping costs for the system, yes.  This is no different than ordering anything else online, except that this is a probably a fairly heavy package, thus probably higher shipping cost.

[HammerD]

Bullcrap.



Oh, I see, you didn't mean common industry practice, you meant common industry failure. (Sorry, MorphOS.)

It might be bullcrap but that's the way it is.  I don't necessarily agree with it.

Software development is *never* complete, it's an on-going evolving process.  At a certain point you have to make the decision to ship something - fully completed or not.   As a business you eventually have to sell *something* to make some return on your investment.  If every company held out until everything was completely done then many companies probably wouldn't make it, or they would go deeper into debt and dig themselves into a hole that would be very difficult to get out of.

BTW, this is the same for hardware as it is software.  Ever seen an errata list for CPU's?  It's a nightmare.

[HammerD]

Oddly, no.
It should be faster then a system from Acube, but that hardly justifies this much of a premium.
 
Should MorphOS ever be ported to the Mac G5, comparison benchmarks would make this investment look appallingly foolish.

I think it would make more sense to compare it with another AmigaOS 4.1 machine, and not a system running a different operating system.

[HammerD]

Sorry to enter the discussion this way, however no. He (she, me... maybe it's better saying "we"). We don't have to spend additional €5 to buy a PCI network card for a system thats costs over € 2000. It's who builds the machine who asks me to spend over € 2000 for his product, that should do that, silently, without pretending anything in exchange, but simply telling us "you know, we were a little late with the onboard drivers, but since we care for our beloved customers (we really SHOULD care about our customers, since they LOVE us enough to spend so much money for our system), we've added a € 5 network card you can use from day 1. We're sorry for that. The day we'll release the driver, you can free up a PCI slot to use it they way you like".

Some times ago Stephen Jones sold his iMica systems, whose mainboard was only partially supported by the OS (sound and some other stuff didn't work with AROS). Well, he replaced the missing features with proper PCI cards until the mainboard got fully supported. Then he even cut the price. And he didn't sell them for € 2000. Nor for € 1000, but less, much less money.

Hard core amigans won't ever stop astonishing me, when it has to do with protecting people who charge them with oversized prices for underwpowered systems, but please, please go on. I can't live without the poor excuses they use to do that.

I'll have to respectfully disagree with you.  And BTW, in order for me to get AROS to work I had to buy such a RTL 8139 card and Sound card.  AROS doesn't support my on-board NIC.  But I am not complaining about it.  It's a requirement if I want to run AROS.

On-board drivers for _all_ hardware on the X1000 will come, the drivers are in development.  The motherboard, however, is ready, has been vetted on Linux, all the on-board stuff works.

So you can now buy the X1000 system and add your own Network card and Sound card.  Or wait until the drivers are done.

Also, did you not read my post about low volumes + niche market? High prices are nothing new, you should know that by now.  This is not commodity hardware, but brand new system, built for OS4 specifically and it is low volume, high cost.  Yes, that is a fact.

The entire idea is to garner excitement about AmigaOS 4, get people and companies interested again by releasing a steady stream of new hardware.  Maybe everyone can't afford the X1000 - you can buy a SAM - it's cheaper.  

Certainly any company considering to purchase an AmigaOS4 system will want to buy a complete system, not a used PowerMac, for example.

Anyway, if anyone thinks A-EON is getting rich by the X1000 then I'm sure you are totally wrong.  I bet there is minimal if any profit, just enough to keep going and hopefully develop follow on products. A-EON was started by Trevor who is a true Amiga fan and has a passion for this and truly wants to see the Amiga rise again.

Everyone should be happy A-EON is taking a big risk and shelling out the money to try to get this market going again.

You may not ever by this system but you should be encouraging this and not be against it.