What are the advantages of the present/future Amiga?

[cicero790]

downix wrote:

cicero790 wrote:

Nobody is debating if a Mac is a Mac because of the Intel chips. Why should Amiga be any different?

This was one of the few things AInc did hit right on the head, make the CPU irrelevent to the equasion by simply emulating it from the get-go.  Their issue was that they began re-inventing the horse, new OS.  If they'd taken Tao's system and simply ported the AmigaOS to it, who knows what could have been accomplished.  Add in a fast emulation for the classic hardware, and then we'd be talking a solid, powerful and flexible platform that would scale down or up as needed with a solid knowledge base.  Heck, could still do this with an optimized 68k emulation system, as shown with Amithlon.  Then wouldn't matter what CPU you ran on, would it?

But AInc's focus on a CPU agnostic system that only runs on one CPU and with little legacy support... just not worth it to me.  

There have been many mistakes, so many that the chance of getting it right have increased exponentially it seems.

I just have a feeling that there will be a hole in one next time, that there will be new Amiga's with enough power to match PC and MAC. How these are done with Intel or in a another fashion I do not care. I just want a new super Amiga and a PDA Amiga.   :-)

[freqmax]

If it's going to fly. It better be something that knocks your socks off.

What Amiga had going for it was superior Video/Sound capability and hardware accelerated subsystems. And smart designs like seperate cpu/io bus with it's own memory.
And a price that was small enough to be overcome by a generation of college students.

One trend that could be exploited is the open source and going  small (asus eee). Make something with complete and open documention like the IBM PC had in the 80s. Make it small like the eee. Use efficient hardware. And low memory and cpu footprint software.
Fit it with a killer price.

Also when I used AmigaOS applications easily crashed the entire system with bad memory access. This won't do. The OS will have to do memory protection, virtual memory (swap), preemptive multitasking etc.

[A4000_Mad]

So many threads about what the Amiga should have been and still could be. If only Stark was here to see this. He would be so proud of you guys :bigcry:

[cicero790]

A4000_Mad wrote:
So many threads about what the Amiga should have been and still could be. If only Stark was here to see this. He would be so proud of you guys :bigcry:

Hi A4000_Mad

I do not know Stark, to newly arrived here, but this is the time for speculations like these. The trial is soon over and the machine will start to run in some direction, hopefully the best this time. No more desolate wastelands :-D

Think of having an Amiga that was the envy of PC and MAC owners. Wouldn't that be great. :-D

[alexh]

cicero790 wrote:
Do you know what vision is?
It is something that you force upon reality by strength of will. If the will fail, the intention fails.

Do you know what reality is?
It is something that is true from a certain  point of view at a certain time. it is no categorical imperative.

Do you know what insanity is? I think so ;-)

cicero790 wrote:
Tell me about the impossibility to create a highly innovative motherboard with Intel's chips and stamp the Amiga logo on it??

Impossibility, nothing. Improbability, well there is the mess which is who owns Amiga and its IP.

Plus have you never heard of AROS? The free x86 compatible OS in the Amiga style for generic (i.e. cheaper) PC's?

[cicero790]

Hi alexh

I just believe that if who ever wins sets the bold single overall goal to be better than PC and MAC and build a welcoming design that makes the porting of the best SW titles easy. If this happens everything that is Amiga would benefit. Vintage, emulated, vintage advancements. Special projects and of course AROS.

I think it could be an interesting time to come  :-)

[countzero]

somebody give 2 mins of my life back ... :crazy:

[cicero790]

countzero wrote:
somebody give 2 mins of my life back ... :crazy:

Oh sorry, there will be no more Amiga. Feeling better? :-D

[sim085]

there is the mess which is who owns Amiga and its IP.

But the lawsuit is not on the 'Amiga' name but rather on the OS source code (who owns the code). Personally (and this is just a personal opinion) I can't understand why Amiga Inc. is trying to stick with amiga workbench or any derivation of it. Linux/BSD/Windows have all the market. So why not they concentrate on building an apple like computer, brand is 'Amiga' and install some modified version of BSD!! This would also solve the 'there is no software for amiga' problem.

I know I over simplify thing ... but can't really understand the business strategy of Amiga Inc.

[DigitalQ]

I consider that all modern computers running a modern OS (ie; Linux, Vista) contain all the best elements that made the Amiga special in its day.  In this light, I see the Amiga as being a contributor to the computer I'm using right now; which means that, in a sense, I am using a modern variation of the Amiga.

[freqmax]

The USB protocol is not within the Amiga way. Nor is the code bloat that plagues Microsoft products, but also Linux to some extent (stay away from C++ ). OS + GUI within a 512kB ROM & 880kB floppy.
But in many other ways you'r right.

[melgross]

Truthfully?

It's a dream world. I would pick up a new Amiga to go with my other old systems. It's a fun hobby to be sure. But, really, look at where the state of things are. How many years now has it been since a "real" new machine, with upgraded OS was supposed to be here?

Even Vista came out early compared to this!

Sadly, at this point in time, I don't see much hope for anything significant. Some rewarmed, almost obsolete thing may show, but for those who think that Amiga will be back in the thick of it, think again.

The longer things go on, the more people get disgusted, and move on, never to return. Today, it takes a large number of machine sales to make a profit. If they can't get that, then either they won't try, or prices will reflect the low numbers.

Despite some thinking here that a Mac is just a warmed over PC, well, it is not. Either that or some Linux distro will be the closest one can get these days to what the old days were.

Look at all the members here. Why is it such a struggle to get a few bucks out of them for this useful site? Think they will all run out to buy a new Amiga? Nope!

[murple]

This topic seems to come up constantly. Search old posts, youll probably find hundreds of opinions on new Amigas.

Personally I think its kind of a silly conversation. Without some continuity from the Commodore Amigas either in technology or engineers... I think it'd be an Amiga in name only. Things like the Minimig and AOne are cool, but I cant really consider them Amigas.

[amigaksi]

by cicero790 on 2008/8/29 7:30:44

>Nobody is debating if a Mac is a Mac because of the Intel chips. Why should Amiga be any different?

Because Amiga IS better than a Mac, and a new "Mac" is NOT a Mac because of Intel chips.  If hardware can be completely different and name remain the same, then the Commodore PC (especially an upgraded one) can be relabeled as an Amiga as well, right?  They are just using the name to draw loyal fans and for marketing purposes.  I would state that if the hardware is backward compatible, then you can use the same name.

>Amiga is a powerful brand name not some small orphan OS that never had a platform of its own. I was forced to leave Amiga in the 90’s because the stopped development of hardware. I loved my A1200.
>Millions upon millions of people were like me, force to leave a platform we liked for PC or Mac.

Well, if Motorola kept advancing their processors and keeping them backward compatible, you could have had a more powerful Amiga more easily today.

[Piru]

@amigaksi

a new "Mac" is NOT a Mac because of Intel chips

Why not?

I have both PPC and Intel Macs. There is no difference between them, except that the Intel Mac is much faster.

[persia]

Exactly right, only a couple people here would even *like* a new Amiga, because it would be so different from what they use.  Forget it, the Amiga is part of the retro world, that's where it'll stay, maybe some will make retro-clones, but it will never again be modern, never again be state of the art.  The Amiga is 1989!