Quick Gary Hare IRC report, no more 3rd party AmigaOS after OS4.0.

Perhaps Hyperion are going to become part of AI

I have to admit, that thought has crossed my mind.  Rogue said  something on AW.net that got me thinking, after redrumloa said amigaos was dead inhouse at a company with no programmers.

Programmers can be hired. Does that concept surprise you?

Who else could Amiga Inc hire to develop their OS in house?  Morphos Team? ;-)

[sundown]

@Wayne

"I'm not saying OS4 won't be good, but unless they're planning to do an OS4 version 1.0, 1.1, 1.xyz, the platform is dead, not that it ever had much of a life."
-----------------------------------------------------------

I joined this forum because I thought it was pro Amiga. I
realize now I was wrong. :-(

You can't seriously think that a man that's using IRC, problably for the first time, can give you detailed answers
to questions in a 1 or 2 line response!

Hyperion has stated in this tread that they would continue to develop OS4 if it was financially possible. What part of that statement didn't you understand?

In-house doesn't mean a physical move, but a logistic move to co-ordinate businesss plans & makes perfect sense to me.

If AI is destroying the Amiga, their getting plenty of help from the naysayers on this forum.

Greetings to all true Amiga lovers.

@sundown,

You're right.  I'm sorry.  I've only been dealing with this and trying to support the Amiga community for 10 years.  Five of which have been spent apparently suspended in time.  I've heard the same promises and "plans" SOOOO many times now, it's far too easy to be skeptical.

The Amiga earned my respect in 1997.  Amiga Inc (in any reiteration) has yet to do so and the game of musical chairs going on with the IP and Amiga Inc hasn't changed a single thing in five years.  

As such, I cannot hear yet another telling of the same {bleep} "plans" and vague non-responsive answers without feeling overwhelmingly -- I mean vehemently overwhelmingly -- skeptical.

Yes, I'm ranting, and yes, I've lost my damned mind, but I'm just frustrated beyond belief at the prospect of YET ANOTHER year of nothing.  While perhaps not dead, I firmly believe the AmigaOne platform is dead-ended, and everything Ben has said has only served to confirm that fact.

I will refrain from commenting further on the Amiga situation, but that really, really, really leaves me little to talk about any more.  Very sad.  Alas to say I would personally have preferred Gateway to have sat on the trademarks and done nothing with them than to see the community have to go through yet another year of this same garbage.

Wayne

[Argus]

@sundown

yeah, what you said.  I don't understand all the doom and gloom either.  Those that don't want to buy an A1 or uA1 probably aren't even using their old 68k amigas on this forum.  If Hyperion releases OS4 say... next month, full version, it will create a stir and people will buy it and the hardware to run it.  Of course sales are limited to developers and beta tester types right now but that is sure to pick up after launch.  I personally think a uA1 m/b is a lot more interesting than a lousy miniMac cube (er.....sorry Wayne). Go Hyperion & Eyetech!!!!

[SHADES]

@ Wayne
Easy now, I understand your frustrations, and rightly so, but we all are frustrated. Most of us have old AMIGA hardware that's failing and really hard to fix. Most of us don't have the knowledge or access to people that do to fix it either.
It's all really dishartening haging on to a thread that keeps seeming to get shorter and thinner.

Unfortunatly, this is the process and I have learned to accpect it. Companies are not going to disclose all of their plans and ideas for future products. Gary really has said quite a bit in his posts, yes it is just words, but it's also HIS company. He didn't have to say anything at all really.

He seems like a good person, we all have seen some of the fruits of his leadership in the form of the OS4 development continuing to press forward, new Hardware platforms etc even T-Shirts promised by former company owners.
He really hasn't let anyone down yet and he is telling people like yourself and me that it's going to continue.

It's a waiting game. I don't think anyone here is going to dissagree with you that it's frustrating because it is. That's why he jumped on IRC in the first place. To try and let everyone know, it's all still hapening, but he's not going to give the game away.
We need to have faith in him now that he's in controll untill he lets us down I guess, only if he does mind you! then we can make another choice I guess.

I for one am really glad that you and others have a site like this to get info from Gary and others

[cecilia]

Mr Hare speaks some more. without the stupid IRC bots cutting him off.

[rich]

They should have developed OS 4.0 for x86 systems, all else, in my view, is a waste of time. Since the A1 boards have no custom chips, or Amiga specific parts anyway, why not provide the ease and coolness of the workbench, to a population that makes up probably 95% of the computer users worldwide, via x86 platform? I just don't get it, especially after how well amithlon was going, UAE emulation etc....

As far as buying an A1, why would you? You can buy any micro mobo and run amithlon or windows with amiga forever or something and get a whole setup for way cheaper. I could see if A1 was revolutionary....but it isn't.

Just my 2 cents, and yes, I own an Amiga.

[Argo]

Hyperion has stated in this tread that they would continue to develop OS4 if it was financially possible. What part of that statement didn't you understand?

Oh, he understands. He just doesn't think that it is a finacially viable endevor. Sales of Amiga OS 4.0 have to pay for development of 4.1. What ever number of sales that is, he just doesn't feel that there will be enough sales to reach it. Mr. Hare did state that there needed to be about 2000 sales to finace the voucher deal. So, that sounds like a good target number as any. Will there be enough sale to continue development, I won't even hazard a guess. Mainly, because I feel the community has a rather unknown amount of dark matter.

[DonnyEMU]

Hey, just thought you all might wanna know. Mr. Hare has made some new POST IRC discussion comments on amigaworld.net.. It looks like we all have nothing to fear with OS4 or the AmigaOne after all..

Gary Hare Further Comments

[wegster]

You really should read the follow-up in AmigaWorld.net news.  IRC 'interview' sucked badly, but he's addressed most issues.

[SHADES]

I think he just siad it all over again personally.
It's a pretty good show of character on his behalf to take all this crap, shove it aside and even potentially break a NDA in some fashion.

Thanks Gary, if you take just one thing out of all of this, you could say, at least the people who await your product are really passionate about it.

Donny,

It was not my intention to promote fear regarding either OS4 or the AmigaOne.  Simply to vent my frustration at the disclosure that we're EXACTLY where we were four years ago.  I'm quite sure that both the a1 and OS4 will arrive, but... No one yet (not even Ben) can firmly state that the A1/PPC platform will carry on past 4.0.  

It's all about numbers -- as it should be -- and to be frank, the numbers simply aren't there (for many reasons including in-fighting and the fact that there is no real development base to make the A1 purchase attract ANYONE from outside this dwindling community).

Garry himself puts the number at 2000, which I'm fairly certain could be reached by a stretch, but beyond that...

I digress though, you tricked me into speaking out again.. Darn you...

Wayne

[DonnyEMU]

<--- smiles at Wayne with an EVIL GRIN >:-)

Wayne: it's great when you speak out.. It's usually needed..

-Don

 

[sundown]

I can understand the frustration, but sometimes we get to focused on what we hold dear. Understand that AI, Eyetech, & Hyperion know they could never make it producing desktops alone. Garry said that, but that's not what we wanted to hear. AI is looking at the embedded cpu control market. This was the reasoning behind the µA1 line, not desktops.
If AI can swing deals in that market, they could sell thousands of boards with the OS. This is were AA comes in & makes sense in that market setting.

Garry is a smart guy & if he is successful with his goals, the Amiga desktop will benefit as well.

[Waccoon]

klesterjr:  At that point, Hyperion can get back to porting games, where there IS potential for a small profit -- and the SAME users can be marketed to again & again.

Didn't they have to take a few breaks from working on OS4 and do other projects?

Wayne:  Why continue to screw over the loyal Commodore Amiga base with vague, non-descript, non-committal answers? You would think it's specifically just for their amusement at this point since they obviously want nothing to do with the community.

Except take whatever cash they can get.

The only thing I find more surprising than the fact they released hardware with no software, is the fact that people actually bought it.  In many ways, people in the Amiga community are begging to be misled.  Nobody with sense buys hardware before a [reasonably verifyable] release date is set for the software.

Actually, that's not quite true.  What I really find more surprising than the hardware, is that some people say they bought an AmigaOne to support the Amiga.  It is Amiga's responsibility to support themselves until they release a complete product, not a mere piece.

SHADES:  Being In House could mean ANYTHING.

Yes, but how many "in-house" products have Amiga Inc. released in the last six years?  A cheezy game pack?  That doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Also, I'm still confused about what is meant by in-house.  Here's something from the IRC chat (quoted by Elwood):

smithy:
what is the future of what we today call the AmigaOS technology? It only has a minor role on the new amiga inc website. Will there be an OS4.1, 4.2,.. etc? Will there be an OS5 based on the current amigaOS codebase (and not amigade/amigaanywhere)?

GarryH:
I think I answered this. We are interested in operating systems. We moved future product developemnt in-house last August. We do not publicly speculate on product development.

Given that the question was about future development of AmigaOS, this does seem to imply that "operating systems", and not AA, has been moved in-house, since their Tao-based platform always has been in-house.

However, in that follow-up interview, this was posted:

2. Does Hyperion (I refer to AmigaOne Partners) have the right to extend OS 4.0 to say 4.1?

Yes they do. In fact, for you conspiracy theorists, that is the wrong question. Disclosing details of exactly what this means is confidential. Bottom line - they do have that right and I hope this comment doesn't violate our NDA.

Excuse me?  Future versions of operating systems will be done in-house, but Hyperion will still do the work and they call the shots about what will and won't be done?  Does that mean Hyperion is considered in-house, or does it mean Amiga is planing to do their own OS (5.x) that isn't based on OS4?

If all of this is my mis-interpretation, what, exactly, did Garry mean with that comment that future development has been moved in-house?  Future development of what?

I didn't think these interviews were any help at all, especially since most questions ended up with (to paraphrase), "our partners are doing their work, we're doing ours, and we have NDAs over everything."

WTF?  :-?

SHADES:  To be quite blunt, he shouldn't have to, and I bet that Hyperion won't tell you either.

Yes, they both should -- if they expect people to acutally buy their products.

A company is nothing without its reputation.

[Pyromania]

@ Wayne


Have you used Amiga OS 4.0 yet? You will like it.

 :-)