Optimism and the Amiga Community

[jarrody2k]

bhoggett wrote:
AROS is slightly different in that it was not really part of the above scenario, but it too cannot balance the userbase/developer equation. At the moment AROS is only used by its developers, and because the developers don't acknowledge the needs of potential ordinary users, this is unlikely to ever change - in turn resulting in the fact that the developer base cannot increase to make more software available for it, which in turn would attract users. Catch 22.

I guess returning to our original theme: Would you say AROS increasing its user base is either optimistic or unrealistic (or somewhere inbetween)?

You say that currently they are on the wrong course, but given better direction is it still possible for AROS to claw back more users?

Jarrod.

[jarrody2k]

dammy wrote:

You keep saying AROS is nothing but developers, yet I am not a developer.  I also know of others who are clearly not developers either.   So clearly, we *users* of AROS do exist within the AROS community.

Hey Dammy,

A survey would be something ideal for the AROS website.  Some quantative results on the make-up of the AROS community would be useful.

In fact, being an open source project, it would be possible for a vote-driven wish-list to be established.  Sure free workers aren't going to always be told what to work on, and there may be some more lower-level stuff that needs to be made first... but it would give the AROS developers at large an idea of what is wanted by the users.

Perhaps then more people and perhaps commercial enterprise (which needs to happen) may start using the platform?

Jarrod.

[jarrody2k]

cybernoid wrote:
I'll buy AForever 2006 this month. Why? because it runs on my x86 pc and it's not expensive.
Amiga Os 4.0 for ppc??? why not intel? Why not the best n'cheap processor, the processor of the ppl?

It almost feels like AROS is the answer to everything.

Jarrod.

[jarrody2k]

justthatgood wrote:
Realism. It's that really bitter, hard pill to swallow.  It's the one that makes people wonder if Elvis is still alive and stuff. So many people want to believe, they shut out anything that will distract them from inevitable.

Optimistic thinking is certainly a road to disappointments.  Amiga has had its fair share, and then some.  But has optimism has any benefit for the community... if only to maintain interest?

Jarrod.

[huronking]

Is the Amiga really dead for all but a few hundred users?

When decade old hardware brings in the money it does on eBay its hard to call it dead. But as I sift through old
SCSI drives and see amigaguide newsletters from the paast
15 years raving of the salvation around the corner- or
ascii buffers of me making an ass of myself on fidonet only to be corrected by Asha- right up to buying my stupid
$50 coupon and t-shirt I think maybe its time to say "It is what it is".

The pessimists and optimists are both wrong.

There's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but
why be miserable over a platform in a world where
all but one exist in relative obscurity?

It is what it is.

[bhoggett]

jarrody2k wrote:
A survey would be something ideal for the AROS website.  Some quantative results on the make-up of the AROS community would be useful.

In fact I think this would be a very good idea. A survey to see how many regular AROS users there are, how many of them are developers, what those who are not developers use AROS for, and perhaps also a survey to see what would make the 10-minuters* become actual users.

I think the results would be quite enlightening. I think AROS is probably the only OS which supports more architectures than it has users. :-D


* - the people who try AROS for 10 minutes, then find it doesn't do much and put it away for several months before they repeat the process

[Gojirax]

I haven't entirely returned to the Amiga scene after leaving it in 2001-ish. I've got a few Amigas, but I'm waiting on some parts to repair/upgrade them before I dig in.

I've seen enough activity in the community/platform to spark a genuine interest again.

I'm sure there are more like me, and more that would return even if as a hobby as soon as it delivers on a few features like OS4 (For more than AmigaOne, or a moderately reasonably priced AmigaOne) and JAmiga/AmiZilla etc...

I'm not in a huge hurry, my 10 prior years as an Amiga user taught me that, so it's still fun to tinker with and see just how much of my computing I CAN do on the Miggy.

[jarrody2k]

bhoggett wrote:
* - the people who try AROS for 10 minutes, then find it doesn't do much and put it away for several months before they repeat the process

I think I might give AROS a try when UAE is patched to use the AROS calls.  Having UAE run smoother would at least give me cause to run it.

Jarrod

[J-Golden]

On the optimism side and not in the OS4 camp, I LOVE MY A4000T!!!!!  Every time I look at it, it inspires me.  Why?  Be cause I'm never done with it.

I'm a hack, plan and simple.  I've dremmeled, hot glued, ROMed and heh, velcroed so many things in an Amiga that I always say, "What can I do next?"

If it weren't for that, I'd never make my external HD chassis for my XBox (Chex-Box or Boing-Box cause it has UAE-X on it, he he) FROM scratch and so many other projects.

I got so into it that I formed and kept an Amiga Hardware SIG until I left my home state.

Amiga has always been a symbol to me of self expression and expansion, not an OS or a box.  It has been the Box and OS and what we could do with it compared to other platforms that has made it the physical icon of that concept...

So, try it.  Try to think how creative you would have been WITHOUT owning an Amiga...  ME?  I'm building a 1/2 terrabyte NAS server off of a Linux platform specifically for Samba, which I only learned about thanks to my Amiga.

"Think out side the Boing Ball."

J-Golden

[jarrody2k]

J-Golden wrote:
Amiga has always been a symbol to me of self expression and expansion, not an OS or a box.  It has been the Box and OS and what we could do with it compared to other platforms that has made it the physical icon of that concept...

[...]

"Think out side the Boing Ball."

J-Golden

Hey J,

It's a good point.  People (including myself) have been fixated with how current Amiga technology can relate with today.  We are finding more and more that what made Amiga great, was not a bunch of custom chips with particular ingenuity, it was culture of innovation and flexibility in design.

The fact that Amiga and its OS to this very day can be bent and warped to all different tasks is testament to the power of creative design.

But in this form, Amiga is already out there!  Much like your XBox which is now an arcarde machine, a home theatre and boundless other things... like Nintendo DS (and Wii) with its crazy new controllers... PSP/PS2 and its ever vigilant community of hackers, making demos etcs.   There are a number of 'games machines' being used beyond their original purpose.

Amiga may have preceded all of them... the platform may be dead, but the desire to innovate is still there.

Jarrod.

[Gojirax]

Nice post J-Golden You hit on a lot of my fun with the Amiga as well.