Executive Update - Amiga Status Announcement

[AmiGod]

It's April 12th, 2002, and Bill McEwen has a new Executive Update up and readable on Amiga Inc's web site.  Happy reading!

[Rodney]

Cool, but this realy isnt new - i was hoping for screen shots at the bottom of the page :}...

O well, nice to see another update from Amiga Inc. Nice to see they in someway are going to try to garentee quality.

I hope this ROM thing really works too. It sounds like their binding the OS to expensive almost-custome hardware, hopfuly not so.

[Chathurawind]

So much for an open platform and the ideals of the past Amiga heritage (hardware tinkering) if you can't get AmigaOS 4.x except by buying it through them.  I was SO hoping Wayne's idea of a 1 Ghz G4 would have been possible.  Guess they've been so lean for so long that greed has taken over.

Strike one purchase and any interest in the future Amiga off the list for me.

- Ryan

[Chathurawind]

Hello fellow anon,

I gotta say I agree here.  Sounds like they got so few orders for AmigaOne boards that they're trying to figure out a way to force everyone to upgrade so they can get rid of them.  I wouldn't buy a first gen A1 anyway because I'm sure they'll come either bare (socketed) or with the G4 in future runs.

Christophe

[JetRacer]

Before more idiots post stupidity (Rodney excluded), please note that:

This is corporate blaha, not concerning the Amiga community, it's aimed towards developers and re-sellers. Please ignore and forget.

One could question the sanity in posting this as an "Executive Update" since those are usually meant for the Amiga community.

[MasterOfReality]

Not being funny, but did you actually *read* the update.

You could never buy AmigaOS without owning one of their computers.
Amiga **are** providing a version of OS4 for the oldest miachines that
are capable of running it (that's the ones that have PPC cards).

Who's to say there won't be a 1GHz G4 board sometime soon? Elbox,
Matay and Eyetech all have PPC systems in the works. Surely one of
them will make a top line version soon enough. Besides, any of them
will be a hell of a lot faster than we're used to.

You can't seriously expect them to write a 68k OS can you? It'd be
seriously slow, and if you were running it on an A500 it'd be hard
pushed to do what 3.9 does now. If you're wanting to run it on
Amithlon, well that's a tricky one. I don't think a x86 system is a
good idea, but it's a very complicated (and contentious) issue.

[Chathurawind]

So much for an open platform and the ideals of the past Amiga heritage (hardware tinkering) if you can't get AmigaOS 4.x except by buying it through them.

Who EVER said that the AmigaOS4 would be open platform?
AmigaOS4 is a continuation of the AmigaOS hence version 4.

I think you are confusing it with AmigaDE which is already multi platform.



Valan

[Rodney]

As far as i can tell, the platform is still Open, and well documented. This is good because it'll alow Amiga Inc to control the copywrite of AmigaOS as well as let developers port their Operating Systems to the platform easily, unlike Apple hardare.

Having a custom ROM does sound as if it could just be adding custome hardware. But as i understand, this isnt a big part. It just replaced the OpenBIOS and this isnt used by the operating system. So it shouldnt have an effect on porting of OSes or anything of the kind!

So its still very open. Anyone can make an AmigaOne machine, they just have to pass Amiga Inc Quality Checks. - Kinda like an ISO Quality Audit, only an "Ami Quality Audit" .

I dont think its going to be a big deal. If it ensures quality with AmigaOS, good one em . If this improves performance of AmigaOS, good on em ...

[GadgetMaster]

There hasn't been any mention about some of the first consumers that financially assisted amiga Inc. by purchasing the party pack. We were promised either a discount on future hardware or OS4 for free. I hope the deal is still on.

[Chathurawind]

>Quality Assurance

What about ISO-900X, Sigma-Six etc?
Does AMIGA Inc follow the above standards?

[Seehund]

Bill McEwen wrote:

... the AmigaOS only being available to licensed solution providers for the shipping of combined hardware and software solutions.

Bugger.

As a result, AmigaOS4 and all future versions will ship only on those hardware products to which Amiga Inc has specifically granted a license ...

Bugger.

Currently this hardware comprises:

* Eyetech's AmigaOne series of PPC motherboards

So why don't they delete the "Amiga One" specs from their site, as this from now on seems to be merely an Eyetech trademark?

In the case of newly available hardware, including the Eyetech, Elbox and Matay products above, the licence requires that OS4-specific extensions are included in the hardware's boot ROM as an anti-piracy measure.

Bugger.

For hardware which is not capable of being used in conjunction with Amiga WB 3.1 (such as the AmigaOne) we will require, as part of the licence conditions, that a copy of Amiga OS is purchased with all boards sold that are capable of running it.

Bugger.

Bugger, crap, f*ck, $#@!, bloody hell!
I can only think monosyllabically today.

[Argo]

Looks like no Amiga OS 4.0 on Pegeasos.

[jd997uk]

This, to me, is a very straight forward press release. If you want to have Amiga approval, you have to apply for it.  
Typical really, that in 'our' community, it has to be turned into such a big issue. One minute, Amiga isn't (allegedly) interested in the desktop any more, then, as soon as they try to protect it via a minimal amount of quality control, all the ejit trolls come marching outa their caves claiming all sorts of nonsense, PAH! (if you don't know what I'm on about, go and look at the thread over at ann.lu - actually, second thoughts, don't bother).
Anyone with at least half a brain, would see that ANY company, in ANY industry, has to maintain a quality control system, whether it's through 1st party (their own), or 3rd party (anyone associated) products. Anyone in the UK or Europe who's had to suffer the ISO9002 stuff, would KNOW what approval systems are all about. This is a walk in the park in comparison.
There's no hidden agenda here, if you go to Amiga with a solid business plan, an approveable product, it ain't gonna be hard to get an 'Amiga Approved' stamped on your resume. All this is mainly about protecting YOU, the consumer.
After all, what would you prefer: buying a product from an established RELIABLE company, or an 'allegedly' compatable product, from some back street merchant? The choice is yours.

-john

[ksk]

I think there is no agreement with bplan and that's why it is not listed.

IMO, that announcement mainly says that you will need to have approved A1200/A3000/A4000/A1.5ROM/nonamePPCboardROM to be able to run the OS, just to prevent piracy. Am I mistaken?

(not sure if I can post, amiga.org sucks with Opera6 more than before)

[Chathurawind]

This  is like Apple now...