From AW, about community & KMOS:
"…The community has long been assured that Eyetech, Hyperion and Amiga Inc. are working together in this venture, now that KMOS is involved has anything substantially changed?
Garry: No. Nothing should change. Eyetech, Hyperion and KMOS have a common interest. We'd like to build an attractive market for current, and likely, future products. Alan and Ben know that, within limits, I will help in any way I can. …
Question 4.6: How long have you been using Amiga Computers and do you plan to participate in the Amiga Community?
Garry: ¨…
Everyone at KMOS wants an AmigaOne running 4.0. I'm trying for a "partners" discount through Alan. Negotiations continue.
Through my recent addition to public boards I've noticed that a few people demand that I explain myself. Others expect me to engage the rumour, speculation and childish behaviour in some of the discussions. I've never published to a public board and I don't have any plans to start now. …
But, aside from the prospects for the future of the OS, we were attracted to Amiga for a few other reasons. The name is not as valuable as it used to be but it is a known brand and, unless I mess it up, could come back. We know there is a worldwide user base, perhaps 10,000 or so strong. And maybe 1,000 very supportive and vocal enthusiasts. We'd like to set up an early adopter program, initially between 100 and 500 users. Nokia does much the same thing with the entire population of Finland, with great success. As we bring new products to market these early adopters can purchase them at a reduced price in exchange for feedback on everything from ease of use to the quality of applications. We will have a restricted access site to make participation very easy. This should gives us a lot of flexibility. If we launched a product, say in Italy, we could draw upon our Italian early adopters, etc. We are already designing this program but there are two little problems. We don't have the web site up and we don't have a new product quite yet. We will. There could be t-shirts involved. Wait... I didn't say that.
More important, I've never felt developer support programs do a very good job of supporting developers. I'd like to change that. I am contracting with the best information management firm I know to help set a structure for information and retrieval over a restricted access site. Once we have a handle on what can be done, I'll invite more than a few developers to tell us what they would like to see. I have a few ideas but they will have many more. We have access to all the web design talent that anyone could ever ask for. I will ask our partners if they would like to be involved but, either way, it will be done. In fact, one of our customers requires it. And I certainly agree. I know many of you reading this might consider buying a computer due to the operating system installed. Most people don't know or care. They care about applications and nothing more.
It becomes simple. If the developers are successful, KMOS will be successful. If they can't survive, we won't either. One developer asked if he will have direct access to me. Of course, although anyone relying on me for technical information has completely lost their mind. Professionals will be involved. I will, however, be pretty active and open on market information and product strategy. All confidential, of course.
Since the emergency launch of Information@KMOS.com , we've received thousands of hits. Many seem to be from the same handful of people. They contain threats, name calling and such nonsense. I don't see any of them, they're simply deleted. We do track them as I don't want any of these people involved in the future of this Company. Except regarding children, I don't suffer childish behavior particularly well.
If the above is your idea of "community", I will be very involved. If its something else - count me out."
