I agree with the following of the Carl Sassenrath interview...
What do you think about the new Amiga NG : AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4 and Pegasos/MorphOS ? Are you interesting and do you guess they will have future ?
It is difficult to know for sure. Six months ago I attended the AmiWest show to find out more. OS4 looks very cool from the demos that I saw, but there was a lack of quality hardware to run it on. I asked many questions at the show and found that the general attitude of users was that there was no viable Amiga hardware available ! The hardware either did not work properly, could not get finished and delivered, or was too expensive. Most users were quite disappointed.
Of course, to me the hardware exception seems to be Genesi, which in fact sent me a working system that was well constructed. However, it only had Linux running, so I have never actually used MorphOS or OS4. It would be quite interesting if that hardware could run AmigaOS 4, but I do not have the time to experiment to get it running (and, I know that there are serious legal issues between the various related companies. That is too bad, but it is reality).
I have to add a personal opinion, that may not like to certain people:
Both AmigaOS4 and MorphOS aren't serious or proffesional solutions at this moment, but just two operating systems for hobbylists and nostalgic people. Both operating systems lack a lot of modern features and apps, even available for other minimalist alternative platforms.
Most important companies had done too much damage to the Amiga community, releasing poor quality products or a bad attitude. Neither Amiga, Inc, Genesi, Hyperion and Eyetech are good companies for the Amiga community. Genesi initially did some good for MorphOS, but the project still lacks any realistic future beyond being a HobbyOS. Just don't trust on those mentioned companies, after people not giving money to them they will make their products a lot better if wanting to get the bucks again.
I think people actually in the Amiga community sometimes forget the reality and has too many illusions. They can be scammed by some oportunists or pay for stuff that may be abandoned easily.
If Amiga wants to reborn in a sane and realistic way, the community must support very strongly the AROS Project. There is where innovation must go, instead two different propietary OSes that who knows if someday gets abandoned. Then those propietary OSes can get the code for improving their flavors and maybe giving something in exchange.
Just look at BeOS...
Haiku (initially named OpenBeos) was born because the desire of many BeOS devs (even some of the original BeOS ones) to avoid the death of their loved OS.
Zeta appeared in the scene, with a very gray legallity. Shortly after, Zeta was clearly an illegal product and was abandoned.
Haiku is still progressing very nicely and not suffered the problems of Zeta at all. The future of this project is becoming even more bright, with a "Zeta substitute" called Haiku Max or some other name.
Alternative platforms just can survive if becoming open-source centric, as this development model is a lot cheaper and the collaborative way makes it progress a lot better.
Here's the final words: Avoid the fanatism, avoid the hating and the splitting. This community must recover the common sense and join the forces to some viable future, instead fake promises, overpriced buggy products and scams. It's time to fix the errors from their community and companies, instead living this nightmare while seeing the Amiga community living in an agony. Who knows, maybe Amiga must die totally for reborn like a phoenix.
