Time to Move On

[blobrana]

Hum,
These are not the computers you are looking for...

[TheMagicM]

I think too many people are expecting a new piece of hardware to come out and then the "Amiga" will enjoy some sort of rebirth or out-of-the-dead experience.  Its not going to happen.  Just enjoy retro computing for what its worth...dont put too much stock into vapourware..enjoy what you have..that way if you're not expecting anything you dont get all depressed because nothing new is out.  

[redrumloa]

neofree wrote:
Honestly I am getting bored of Retro Computing as a whole.
 

Seriously, get a Commodore 8 bit! I'd suggest a clean 128D, but even an old breadbox C64 would do the trick. Never get bored of retro computing on a C= 8bit.

[redrumloa]

Mac is a good choice, IMO. Bought an Intel based Mac Mini for the old lady and she's quite fond of it. I'll probably get a PowerMac once they convert to Intel too.

BTW just a little nitpick. You say you are tired of retro computing, because they (AOS and clones) don't have modern apps? Me thinks you miss the point of "retro computing". Either you are looking for a modern AOS(clone), or a retro system. Modern AOS(clones) are quite lacking, retro systems (1000 - 4000 etc) are still out there and as retro as you get.

[spihunter]

You dont have to leave the Amiga when you switch to another platform?. You can use whatever computer you like to get the job done.

I use a Mac mini for browsing/email and multitrack recording
an A1200/030 for 8 bit record sampling and sample tracking and a PC for Video editing.

If they ever release some kind of modern upgrade for my A1200 to run OS4 then I'll probably buy it. I might even buy a new motherboard for OS4 if it doesnt cost $1000

[neofree]

spihunter:

I am curious why you chose the PC for video editing, I thought Mac's were best for that stuff...?

[spihunter]

Because thats the computer in my colection that has the best video card and the most Ram. I only have a fresh install of Windows XP and my editing software on the machine. It also is never connected to the internet :lol:

[neofree]

My interest in Mac lately is you cant browse the net without getting clobbered with spyware or viruses..  I guess Linux is a choice too but it would seem the Mac is better commercially supported and a little easier.

Thanks,

Neofree

[motorollin]

MacOS rocks. Get a Mac. Immediately.

--
moto

[spihunter]

I've never had a complaint about my Mac Mini since I bought it a year and half ago. I ended up putting a gig of ram in it and getting an external firewire drive for it to speed things up a bit.

I wouldnt use it as a video editing or a gaming machine but as a multitrack sound recording machine it preforms pretty well.

[motorollin]

:-)
AInc/Hyperion/whoever he hell is developing AOS now are fools to be holding on to OS4. OS4 with a nice installer to allow it to run on a Mac would sell tonnes of copies. All the money they make could be reinvested in an "Amiga" hardware solution if they really must.

But then, what do I know. I'm just an end user :roll:

--
moto

[spihunter]

@motorollin,

I started asking for that as soon as the Mac Mini came out. I didnt seem like a bad idea to me. You know, making money for your company and stuff to develop the OS further :roll:

I know, its more complex then that :crazy:

[motorollin]

spihunter wrote:
I know, its more complex then that :crazy:

Why? :-?

--
moto

--EDIT
Correct smiley this time!

[spihunter]

Why?  

You know, because of licencing issues, no available tech docs , politics, and all the other crap that keeps the flames going around here.

[Lando]

maffoo wrote:

neofree wrote:

Looking at Macs under $100 on eBay. Most are G3 300-400Mhz.  Are these worth anything?  Could I convert an AVI to DVD with it?

Yep, they're worth somewhere between $0 and $100  :-D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Those Macs should be able to convert AVI to DVD with something like FFMpegX, as long as they run OS X 10.3 or higher (I think G3s can, can't be bothered to look it up though.)

Yes, a G3 is still supported under OS X 10.4.x.  However it runs really poorly.   I'm currently using an iBook G3 500Mhz while my MacBookPro is away with Apple being serviced and it is barely usable.  It can't play DivX full-speed and you can forget about multitasking.  Just about gets by as a web browsing machine using Safari (Camino and Firefox are too slow).  You could use it to convert video but it would have to be left overnight.

If you're getting an old G3 Mac and intend running OS X, make sure that  the graphics card is supported by Quartz Extreme (16MB ATI Radeon minimum) and that you have at least 512MB RAM.  If you actually intend doing anything useful with it, though, IMO a G4-500 with 32MB graphics is absolute minimum.

[irishmike]

Ahhh, but lets not forget that there was a complete rethink to MacOS in the 1990's (exact date of switch from OS 9 to 10 as a whole evades me currently).   Now MacOS X is really just a pretty face on top of good old FreeBSD!   I always liked the stability of the *nix boxes I worked with.

I am currently going to be re-acquiring my Mac Mini (PPC) back very soon and I am more than happy to be using AmigaOS (soon to be 3.9) and MacOS X 10.4.6 for my day to day operations.

The whole Amiga experience for me is to be able to play some games that I liked when I had DOS 6.22 running.   The Miggie just actually runs them better.

Although it is my dream to see Amiga make a comeback as a modern OS, it would (as MacOS X did) loose some of the charm that makes it what it is.  While MacOS X is by far superior to any previous MacOS, it is not the same.  I think that if Amiga does make a comeback, it will need to make the hard decision to be "modern" as well.  That means you'll have two camps:  classic Amiga and the new AmigaOS.  (This is compared to those who run classic MacOS (9.1 or earlier) and those who run MacOS X.

Having been the president of my local Macintosh User Group, I can say that there are indeed fierce supporters of pre-MacOS X operating systems.  The applications that they can not live without did not make it into OS X.  I think we would definitely see the same thing here.

But I agree that we should enjoy retro computing and actually should make sure that as my generation moves forward, that "the kids" know what was so that they may appreciate what is.   This is my whole motivation for the projects I am working on involving Amigas.

plus, the whole idea of "Remember when computing was fun?" is why we still use our machines.  

My final thought for this posting is:  What makes a computer usable is subjective.  It depends on what the owner of the machine wants to accomplish and his or her needs.  If the Amiga fills the needs of the owner, why not use it as your primary machine.  If it can not fulfill your needs, then consider another platform.  I like Macintosh very much, but it will not (without an emulator anyhow) do what my Amiga can do for me, Hence the Amiga fulfills my need for playing my retro games and probably could fulfill most of my other needs for Word Processing, etc... but what it does not do (to my satisfaction) is handle my music (there is no match to iTunes anywhere IMHO!).   SO I will always need my Macintosh as well.

Point condensed:  If your computer works for you the way you need it to, then why stop using it?