What is Amiga's Purpose currently???

[Edpon]

Yes, I'm asking this tough question.  I mean, back in "classic" Amiga days is was a clear cut answer; because of the great graphics, games, and many features it had over the PC.  Nowadays, that's not the case.  The motherboards are ridiculous in price, and I don't really see to much software support for it.  So the question stands; What is Amiga's current role in the world of today's high powered, vastly faster and much more graphical computer systems?  ( Mind you, I'm NOT blasting the Amiga at all, I still like it a lot, I'm just wonder what's the deal with it lately )
Thanks.

[x56h34]

In my case, hobby. It's fun to tinker and play around with hardware, different Amiga models and accelerator/expansion cards, and configuring all of that within the OS. Classic gaming is also a big part of the overall fun factor.

As far as competing with the current standards and generally the technology that's available out there...Amiga is far behind and overpriced, but it's still fun to use it and play around with, if anything just for sheer kicks, no matter what.

My 2 cents. :-)

EDIT: The biggest problem with modern Amiga is the lack of software however. It lacks applications that we all require for daily use. A good example of a lacking application would be a decent web-browser.

[Cyberus]

[odin]

There's only one 80s wedge worth mentioning:

In the most base sense, even if the AmigaOne had succeeded and OS4 had already been released, the Amiga today would be merely relegated to "hobby" machine due to it's dependence on outdated, underpowered, and overpriced hardware.  In the blitz of Dell $199 Pentium IV PC's (which by the way are still faster), there is simply no remaining market for a $500+ motherboard with a 1 Ghz CPU.

Even Jobs sees this to a certain extent, though it remains to be seen how reasonable his new PC Macs will be priced.  If I were to have one regret, it is that I'm able to say "told ya so" to TPTB almost 4 years ago.

Wayne

[dillinger]

Pure retro-PASSION...that's what "purpose" my A1200 with 68060 accelerator has. Nothing more nothing less. I could quite easily live without it and simply run an Amiga emulator on my Dell Duel CPU Xeon 2.5GHz Workstation. My Amiga is a luxury retro leisure system and my PC is a practical workhorse for getting things done.  :-)

As for the "new generation" of Amigas, well they hold no interest for me. I've never been tempted by Amiga Tech's overpriced IBM Clone systems just because they have an ugly "AMIGA TECH" sticker pinned to them. Amiga to me is COMMODORE not AmigaOne, Pegasos, or even PPC.

[x56h34]

@dillinger:

"Amiga Tech" still produced classic Amigas, such as the A1200 Magic Pack and A4000T systems. Well...maybe not so much produced as re-used Commodore leftover stock.

"Amiga Inc." is the current official owner of the trademark(s). They sold a license to a 3rd party company called Eyetech which is responsible for the new AmigaOne units.

[dillinger]

Yes, i owned one of those rebadged AmigaTech A1200s with the converted PC drive installed. It still wasn't enough to convince me that AmigaTech had anything to do with the *real* development of the classic Amiga. That was all done duering the Commodore period.

[x56h34]

No doubt about it that Amiga Tech didn't bring anything new to the users other than continue releasing old stuff, however, bless them for re-releasing the A4000T, as C= only managed to sell/manufacture about 300 complete systems before going bankrupt.

[flashback]

hello from amigaimpact: you must translate it :


bonsoir a tous , je suis nouveau sur le forum mais j'ai connus l'amiga durant 8 ans et c vrai que ca fais mal de savoir que cette machine ne donne plus d'interet au grand public

moi perso le truc que je trouvé genial sur l'amiga n'etait pas la machine en elle meme, qui certe ne faisait aucun bruit ne planté rarement lors de chargement et n'etait pas a m'etre a jour toute les 5 minutes ... mais plutot la qualité et l'imagination des createurs de jeux video de l'epoque.

les jeux etaient vraiment innovant et excellent, tous les styles acuels (rps fps shot ...) viennent de ces machines.

actuellement ce qui me surprant le plus, c le nombre d'emulateur amiga present sur terre. j'ai l'impression que c l'emu qui marche le mieux sur toutes machines confondue ou presque ( cf pspuae) . C cela que je trouve etrange et ca veux bien dire que ce sont les programmes edités a l'epoque qui vallaient la peine et non pas uniquement le hardware amiga je pense...

actuellement plus aucune société a part nintendo et peut être gizmondo arrive a innover au niveau jeux et moi je pense que c ce qui manque a l'amiga tout simplement...

car c une machine pas cher a l'achat , fiable , performante (autant qu'un mac) et tj d'actualité mais il faut innover. et si personne si bouge le cul pour sortir des jeux (mm en 2D) ou applications (comme la eye toy ou de 3D) personne ne voudra plus s'y interresser.

en tout cas c mon avis, car c pas maintenant que je reprendrais un amiga malgré mon reel engouement et ma nostalgie (lorsque je joue au emu) que j'ai pour cette becane. (cf apple avec son ipod , sans lui apple serait mort aujourd'hui ou a petit feu)

l'amiga a besoin de nouvelles applications innovantes ou d'un hardware accessible a tous comme un PMP, qui serait une premiere etape ,et faire comme pour l'ipod .

voila, desolé pour les puriste mais je pense pas etre dans le faux avec ma reponse

[reflect]

[google translation]
good evening has all, I am new on the forum but I knew Amiga during 8 years and C true that Ca hurt knowledge that this machine does not give any more interest to general public: (  me perso the trick that I found genial on Amiga was not the machine in it same, which certe did not make any noise seldom planted during loading and was not has to be up to date for me every 5 minutes... but rather the quality and the imagination of the createurs of video plays of the time.  the plays were really innovating and excellent, all the styles acuels (rps fps shot...) come from these machines.  currently what surprant me more, C the number of Amiga emulator present on ground I have the impression that C moved which goes best on all machines confused or almost (cf pspuae).  C that which I find strange and Ca please say well that in fact the published programs has the time vallaient the sorrow and not only the Amiga hardware I think...  currently more no company has share nintendo and can be gizmondo arrives has to innovate on the level plays and me I think that C what misses has Amiga quite simply...  because C a machine not expensive has the purchase, reliable, powerful (as much as mac) and tj of topicality but it is necessary to innovate.  and if nobody if the bottom moves to leave the plays (mm in 2d) or applications (like the eye toy or of 3d) nobody will want y interresser any more.  in any case C my opinion, because C not now that I would take again Amiga in spite of my reel passion and my nostalgia (when I play moved) that I have for this becane.  (cf APPLE with its ipod, without him APPLE would have died today or has small fire) Amiga needs new innovating applications or of an accessible hardware has all like a PMP, which would be a premiere stage,et to make as for the ipod.  veiled, desolé for the purist but I do not think of being in the forgery with my answer
[/google translation]

Anyone that actually knows french, please do correct the horrible grammar of google

[flashback]

i don't think amiga is dead because they make software for mobile phone or pda ....

but for a real revival of amiga they must make biggest effort , on simple hardware : make a PMP (portable media player) as ipod but with other function and the workbench too in this machine.

the amiga hole is the software, the best is the hardware so amiga must make new game software in 2D for multi
-platform and for a futur amiga pmp. in 90's all game are excellent but now on pc and console ,all is the same. the only innovating is the Nintendo DS and perhaps Gizmondo


excuse me reflect for my post message

[flashback]

good evening has all, I am new on the forum but I knew Amiga during 8 years. and it's true that this machine does not give any more interest to general public.

me personaly, the trick that I found genial on Amiga was not the machine in it (hgardware), which did not make any noise, seldom planted during loading, and was not has to be up to date every 5 minutes... but rather the quality and the imagination of the createurs of video game of the time.

the gameplay were really innovating and excellent, all the styles used now (rpg fps shot...) come from these machines. currently what surprise me more, is the number of Amiga emulator present on informatic system.

 I have the impression that all people play emu game than machine game (cf pspuae). is that which I find strange and say well that in fact the published programs from past been sorrow and not only the Amiga hardware I think... currently more no company has share nintendo and can be gizmondo arrives has to innovate on the gameplays and me I think that 's what i misses has Amiga quite simply...

because this machine is not expensive to purchase, reliable, powerful (as much as mac) and always of topicality but it is necessary to innovate. and if nobody moves to make new gameplay (mm in 2d) or applications (like the eye toy or of 3d) nobody will want interrest it any more.

it's my opinion, because it's not now that I would take again Amiga in spite of my reel passion and my nostalgia (when I play emu) that I have for this machine. (cf APPLE with its ipod, without him APPLE would have died today) Amiga needs new innovating applications or of an accessible hardware, like a PMP, which would be a first stage, and to make as for the ipod. I do not think of being in the forgery with my answer
[/FLASHBACK translation]

[billt]

It's a fun hobby.

Childhood curiosity of how things worked in my C=64 and Amiga 500 lead me into the engineering field. I wanted to be a systems designer, but have been content as a chip designer by day, and still fiddle with Amiga things in what free time I have. Amigas had plenty of hacks on aminet to tinker around with and learn from and have fun building. PCs didn't. On PCs, everything is already done, there's really nothing for a hobbyist to do there. Nothing to tinker with. No missing features to add. No drivers to write. No hacks to do. Heck, you really can't even swap out a dead chip to repair a bad board anymore on PCs. What's the fun in that?

I enjoy coming up with ideas for hardware designs for Amiga things, though I haven't actually built any of them. Solving problems that don't exist in the PC market, which can take systems design beyond what PCs are or do, in terms of how the things are built.

There's not much that's "realistic" about using an Amiga today, though I do enjoy the fact that I can't get any of them email viruses constantly going around in PC land. I do the occasional image format conversion or resize using ImageFX. Other than that I honestly don't use my Amiga for much these days. I still have never played any of the PPC/Warpup games I bought as they were released, I eventually will enjoy these as soon as I get my A3000d towerized and CSPPC card installed there, as I finally got the PPC card recently. Heck, by now my AmigaOne/OS4 probably plays many of them, I just need to find time to try them out. While I'm in the OS4 private beta group, I somehow ended up without an OS4 registration, so I can't download the OS4-native updates to anything from Hyperion, but some may work as shipped.

But for any real-life day to day work, Amiga is showing its age. Hopefully things will turn around a bit if Mozilla and OpenOffice ever get ported. Papyrus has potential since it's Word compatible too.

But I can't use it for PCB design. I can't conveniently carry it with me when I go out of town. You can't play the first-run games on it, and there's some PC games today that the current hardware is not capable of playing. While we once had Maple, there's no up to date math software. No educational software such as for learning a foreign language. I can't use it to do my income tax return. My PC does all of those things now. I mostly use Firefox for web browsing as many web sites I do to don't work in Ibrowse anymore.

But I still use it for fun. I don't get along with Windows well. Linux is hard to get things working in, but I do like it after that part. I hope to get MythTV running someday on my Linux box. I'd love to see Amiga do all these things so I don't need so many computers laying around taking up space anymore, but it will be some time before this happens.

[flashback]

 :-(  :-(  .oh {bleep} .

not good thing for us