Motorollin's "Future of the Amiga" thread

[Fester]

JimS,

Your quote caught my attention: "The dog at my Gerber files".

I saw a machine once at my friend's house that was about 2 feet wide and stood something like 5 to six feet tall. It had "Gerber" as a label and I always wondered if it was a computer. My friend told me it was a Gerber computer, but that's as far as it went. He had it in his basement and it didn't work. It was just a dusty old hunk of metal. Was there ever a Gerber computer?

Couldn't find that machine pictured anywhere...

Fester

[JimS]

Fester,

 That tagline is just my little dig at all the excuses for the delays showing prototype boards at the various recent Amiga events. Gerber files are what gets sent to the PCB maker after you design a board layout on your computer.
  According to Wikipedia, Gerber was a pioneer in the photoplotter industry. Your friend's relic might be one of those machines.

-Jim
 

[Fester]

Thanks for the info JimS.

That's interesting. At least I know now you weren't referring to the nutrition information on baby food bottles. :-)

Fester

[adz]

JimS wrote:
You forgot the hobbyist market. I don't think there is a chance in heck of *any* alternative machine making any sort of move onto the desktop these days. But there might be a big enough market in the "true believers" and retro fans. Ainc could pay the $$ needed to convert something like the minimig or clone-A to ASIC, and sell it to hobbyists & gamers. Heck, it might make a good little kiosk board itself.

Two problems I see with this;

1. Amiga Inc. is broke

2. Amiga Inc. shouldn't be allowed anywhere near something as great as the minimig, they will only f*** it up like everything else they've touched.


@thread

Amiga Inc. should just give up, hand the source code over to the community and let us get on with the task of getting OS4 ported and running on an availiable hardware platform. Statistically, we stand a good chance of being able to compete with Linux on the desktop front at least ;-)

[philipj]

JimS wrote:

That would have been a good plan, to bring in a bit of cash at least to carry on the future directions they have in mind. On the other hand, most of those products probably don't even need Amiga's help to bring to market. AI doesn't appear to have the financial resources, and do they have any tech people with a clue about the classics?

Like someone said, AI having anything to do with the classic market is worrying at best, but I was thinking at least license to the Amiga name and possible marketing of the product (as a true Amiga product) could have its value and worth to all beneficiaries involved.

I believe AI did want to get their hands on the minimig (Dennis didn't let them :-) ). I do have no idea though what they would have done with it in the long term.

adz
Amiga Inc. should just give up, hand the source code over to the community and let us get on with the task of getting OS4 ported and running on an availiable hardware platform. Statistically, we stand a good chance of being able to compete with Linux on the desktop front at least

I agree, sadly. Open source is the only way forward if Amiga is to stand a chance at surviving in the future.

[adz]

philipj wrote:

I agree, sadly. Open source is the only way forward if Amiga is to stand a chance at surviving in the future.

Why sadly??? Do you think Linux would have been as successful had it been closed source and limited to some obscure overpriced piece of hardware? I guarantee there isn't a developer in this forum who wouldn't jump at the chance to build on Amiga OS under an open source model.

[philipj]

I am not every person on this forum. I also didn't say I wanted it limited to overpriced hardware.

That's a big reaction for one word - I'll keep my mouth shut next time.

[JimS]

Fester wrote:
Thanks for the info JimS.

No problem, eh?

At least I know now you weren't referring to the nutrition information on baby food bottles. :-)

..... although one could speculate that some of our fellow Amigans are still eating from those bottles. :-) <--- ;-)

[JimS]

@phillipj

Well, I guess it's true that AI has little credibility in the Amiga user community But they are the folk with the name recognition in the business world. (Such as it is) I was thinking they could raise the venture capital needed to make an Amiga-in-a-stick out of the minimig or clone-a. Assuming either of those guys would allow it. ;-)

As for Ainc folding it's tent and releasing the OS to open source.... well, that sounds good, but which source would that be? 3.1? 3.9? I'd be worried about the OS fracturing into various incompatible flavors without someone to hold it together.

[adz]

philipj wrote:
I am not every person on this forum. I also didn't say I wanted it limited to overpriced hardware.

That's a big reaction for one word - I'll keep my mouth shut next time.

Big reaction??? Hmmmm.......