Amiga.org

[A6000]

We know that batteries and capacitors leak and destroy tracks on the motherboard, so we must replace them with new components, how long will equivalent parts be available?
We know integrated circuits suffer from "silicon rot" which renders chips non functional after 10 years or so, so we are lucky our custom chips still work, there is a limit to how long an amiga with original components will last.
I am now starting to hear that lead free solder has problems, products failing after 4-5 years. so repairs should use leaded solder if possible.

[pault1]

Perhaps their should be a section of the forum devoted to collectors issues. How does the use of non-original parts affect the value? What parts can be replaced without affecting the visual appearance of the machine? Etc.

I guess that there will be collectors who want a pristine computer as a thing to have, just like other antique professional tools like doctor's kits have value to specialist collectors.  I hear an Apple I or one of the other rare models is worth some coin.  I doubt it's ever switched on.  And it's not really what Amiga.org is about IMHO.

To me that's a very different market than the people who use them.  The more modded/upgraded, the better, was how we usually saw them.  A1000? OK.  Starboard 2MB?  Rockin'.  Added a SCSI interface to it?  Way out there.  Clock chip inserted into the keyboard cable?  Now we're talking!  Now, you'd get the same street cred from a towered 1200 / PPC / PCI video.  Or go stealth, like my last A1200: 68060 with 64MB on the belly card, flicker-fixing output, external SCSI CDROM, was working on PC Card Ethernet to a community WiFi when I finally gave up.  

As far as visual appearance, AmiWest 5 years ago had an A1000, but it was gutted, with a miniature PC board, running Amithlon.  They even had a small keyboard that fit in the "garage" IIRC.  THAT was cool.  But not quite as cool as an A1200 in a Commodore SX64 case, using the original video display, which was there the year before.  Hack for hack's sake!

I loved the Amiga because the environment you worked in was so customizable, long before any other handy microcomputer would let you do the same.  My 1.4 GHz macmini and 3 GHz multithreaded notebook, neither one seems as responsive and friendly as my Amigas. :-?

[persia]

There are two kinds of collectors, one's who want a pristine machine and ones that want a souped up version with all the bells and whistles.  Look at antique cars, some people want a pristine Model T, other want fancy running boards, new colours, maybe a bigger engine, etc.  

So as we go forward as a collector community we need to address those concerns.  Replacing chips that are dead, cleaning the equipment, etc.  There are old radio collectors out there that are similar.  The Amiga world isn't that unique.

[amigakid]

I still consider myself an Amiga user and even tho it is not my main machine anymore, i own more of them than anyother computer type (like a peecee and MAC) and yes i do use my Amigas often.  I use my A3000 about 5 days of the week, my A1000 about2-3 times and unfortunately until i finish restoring my A4000 I wont be using her.  I also have an A1200 in storage and when i move she will be brought out and played with.  I even bought AmigaForever from Cloanto so that i may play the Amiga on my laptop and on another PC of mine.  The fact that the Amiga hasn't had really anything new of late and that Amiga now is owned by a bunch of dumb a...butts doesn't mean the community is dead.  Without new hardware to buy I am finding it kinda fun restoring old Amigas and finding gems I missed before like the A3000 (which I picked up about 1-1/2 months ago) and I am constanly searching for new fun things to buy for them.  I don't think that being all sappy is actually gonna help the community much, you state what we already know and I DO plan on being here 5 yrs from now talking about the new item i finally found for my A500 (bodega bay:) when i finally find one working.  So lets do what Amigans have always done...Have fun with our machine just because it's fun.  Cheers!!!

[uncharted]

I must admit I have been reconsidering why I'm still about in the Amiga scene.  I've tried to leave a couple of times but I've always ended up returning after a break.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I will soon fade away from things.  Even though I log on several times a day,  I rarely get much further than looking at the latest posts list.

I once had an amazing passion for the platform.  There was a great excitement that surrounded the machine and the community.  I used to look forward to TekMage's streaming audio from the AmiWest shows.  I used to check ANN, a.org  and CAN constantly. My Amiga was my main machine. Computing was fun. (I should probably point out that I wasn't about for the "glory days", I didn't get into Amigas until the late 90's)

The brilliant mailing lists such as AFB that were once so alive and interesting now lay virtually dormant.  Most of the great folks who originally inspired me to join up here have now moved on to better things.  It's all very sad.

While I'm glad that the majority of what's left of the community have moved away from the idea that the platform will ever be resurrected, I can't help but think that it's a shame that it's now all about retro.  I'm not really that interested in playing old games.  For me, the platform was always about creativity and unabashed geeking.  Deep down I've longed for the middle ground between the two, where the future isn't completely abandoned, the past is not ignored, and the community could settle down in its place at the fringes of computing.  I feel that there have been various missed opportunities at achieving that such as Amithlon and AROS.  I don't think this could ever be done now.

I don't mean to be a downer on an otherwise positive thread, just been going through a period of personal introspection in recent weeks and have developed a need to think out load about stuff.

[0amigan0]

You're just pathetic guys!
You and the so-called amiga scene today!


And, BTW, Amiga.org should be SHUT DOWN, along with amigaworld.net, amigans.net, hyperion, amiga.inc !

[A4000_Mad]

0amigan0 wrote:
You're just pathetic guys!
You and the so-called amiga scene today!


And, BTW, Amiga.org should be SHUT DOWN, along with amigaworld.net, amigans.net, hyperion, amiga.inc !

I guess the poor guy flipped his lid after getting no replies to his threads HERE and HERE

I would have helped you if I could mate :bigcry:

[bloodline]

A4000_Mad wrote:
I guess the poor guy flipped his lid after getting no replies to his threads HERE and HERE

I would have helped you if I could mate :bigcry:

Well I don't use AREXX or IBrowse so I couldn't help the guy... :-)

[motorollin]

I bet rants like that will do wonders for encouraging people to help him.

--
moto

[Tenacious]

This thread brings up a lot of interesting points, some of it fits my view and some doesn't.

The Amiga is my main machine because I'm a dinosaur (grin, I guess).  In the world of the current big 3 OSes, Amiga is truely unique and different.  There was a recent article in one of the PC mags comparing Vista, OS X, UBuntu, and XP.  It was like comparing different flavors of dry white wine.  These OSes largely represent only 1 model of UI and architecture and they are merging into the same thing! (There does seem to be some original thinking in Ubuntu.) If these are not the computing world a user want to live in, what choices are left?

(Removed pointless ranting. I seem to do too much of this.)

I could abandon my Amiga in protest of the fool (Amiga Inc) in Washington, but no one would notice.  I would be limiting my otions and fun and only hurting myself.  And then I would have to buy it all back at inflated prices.

While I miss the excitement of people discovering the Amiga and contributing software as they did in the 80s and 90s, I'm very grateful to have computing variety.

[amigadave]

0amigan0 wrote:
You're just pathetic guys!
You and the so-called amiga scene today!


And, BTW, Amiga.org should be SHUT DOWN, along with amigaworld.net, amigans.net, hyperion, amiga.inc !

Who let Doomy sign up with another user name?!?

 :lol:

[swift240]

@0amigan0

Ohhhh dear are we having a bad day are we?

Never mind, its going to be all right, so don't worry, there there there.

No Amiga.org will not be shut down just because you say so.
You whining little man.

Now go back to bed with your bed time book, I am sure it will all be good in the end for you.
Don't worry now, its going to be Ok.

Ok every one has any one at all seen 0amigan0's dummy only he has thrown it out the pram.

Mike. :lol:

[amigadave]

This is an interesting thread to see the many different opinions, ideas and how other members see the Amiga community and how they see themselves fitting into one or another part of it.

For me, I first learned about the Amiga from a magazine article in Popular Electronics (or was it Popular Mechanics) around the time either just before, or right after the release of the A1000.  I had been interested in getting a personal computer for a while, but had not taken any steps toward seriously buying one.  When I read about the capabilities of the Amiga in contrast to what an IBM compatible PC could do at the time, I was amazed and my interest in getting a computer was tripled.  Due to my financial circumstances at the time, I was forced to focus on work and my family instead of pursuing any computer interests.  About a year later I changed jobs and started working with PCs and about 3 months after that I met a coworker who owned an Amiga.  He worked part time, went to college and was majoring in computer science.  He had spent all his money to upgrade to the newly released A2000 and also had the incredibly slow first bridgeboard (XT8086 I think at 4mHz).  He brought it to work one day to show me after he found out how interested in it I was.  After seeing it, I had to have one and he found me a used A1000 with a monitor, extra floppy drive and several games and programs included, or I could spend about the same amount on a new A500.  I went with the A1000, and as I have said many times before on these forums, buying and learning to use my Amiga had a profound positive effect on the rest of my career and allowed me to advance much faster than my peers in a field that is not generally thought to have anything to do with computers.  

The astounding hardware capabilities of the Amiga are what got me interested in the first place, but the amazing people that the Amiga brought together as a community are what keep me here.  The community has shrunk greatly over the years, but for the most part the spirit and passion of those who remain is still very strong.

I see the future as a continuing development of projects like the Minimig and Clone-A to feed the retro scene and I am sorry to say that in my mind OS4.x and AROS don't seem to me to be going anywhere.  My hope is that someone will take the core philosophy or spirit of what the Amiga was in its first incarnation and create something brand new and revolutionary and inspiring.  Throw away all the old technologies that limit current designs and come up with something completely new and original that is not shackled by the past.  No, it won't be backward compatible with the Amiga or any other system, but it will be so much better than anything currently available that it will be a "no brainer" to switch to and develop on for the future.

With that wish for the future, the Amiga community in my mind will continue as just a hobby for those that enjoy the old classic Amiga way of doing things.  I love this place and will be around for a long time to come.

[freqmax]

DaBest wrote:
Well......I still use my Amiga. I do all my writing on Finalwriter, collect my mail, use DPaint 4 and many more things. I reacently took it to work and people we absolutly amazed of what could be done.

It could do Norton Antivirus.. ?, :-D
I mean what's the use of fast computer otherwise .. :crazy:

@amigadave: What career have been advanced by your Amiga use..?

[amigadave]

@freqmax,

Believe it or not, my career at the time I first acquired an Amiga was that of a Building Inspector for a City Government.  As part of my job, I was required to write official "Notice & Orders" to owners of abandoned, run down properties that were a hazard to the small community I lived in.  Working in the office half the time at a time when all the secretarial staff were just learning to switch from typewriters to word processors, I was constantly asked to help with problems.  Because of my experience with my Amiga, I learned how computers worked and knew about directory organization, so I could help other coworkers.  Later in my career, because of my computer aptitude, I was recruited to move from the field, into the office full time, which led to further promotion through plans examiner, senior plans examiner/plan check coordinator, assistant building official, chief building official and finally director of bldg & safety, from which I retired last year.  From Carpenter/General Contractor to Director of Bldg. & Safety all without any college degree and in record time, and I give all the credit to my learning on that old trusty A1000 just 20 years ago.  Now I am ready for my second career, so where is the next inspiring thing that will educate me to a higher level? :-D