Why AmigaOS 4.0 is going to be successful…

[nac]

And to do that effectively means tv advertising more than anything else. Unfortunately, that's the Catch 22 the Amiga faces. It's expensive. Adverts in computer mags will never get the Amiga brand where it needs to be to achieve anything like the success many people hereabouts think it deserves.

Slightly off topic but I dont actually remember there being any ads on  UK TV for the Amiga during its reign. I know there were some in the US. Were there any in the UK?

I would love the Amiga to reappear in high street shops as they once did under Escom. Sitting in the window running some killer app that grabs attention. So many times I remember seeing the boring old bog standard Workbench screen, how was that gonna generate interest.

 I doubt that this will happen though.

[mikeymike]

Slightly off topic but I dont actually remember there being any ads on UK TV for the Amiga during its reign. I know there were some in the US. Were there any in the UK?

There were, but IIRC only around the time of the release of the A500.

[Rodney]

Forgive me for replying too late to this, but i figured this topic was too stupid to give an ounce of time to. And my opinion hasnt changed, but my attitude has. Its borring, and im wasting time. Something needs to keep my occupied...

Basicly a silly comment for what you ment for it to be. If you had labeled the topic "why im going to buy AmigaOS" than i would have thought, yer, thats ok. But you've labled it "Why AmigaOS 4.0 is going to be successful…". Because of that, your comment is totaly wrong.

AmigaOS may have its good points, but Windows totaly blows it away with its avaliable software, features, hardware support, and just about every basic essential part of what an operating system is expected to have.

And most people who run windws dont want another OS. Some do, but those people are geeks like you and i. Most people arnt geeks and are completly happy with what they've got. Something easy to use, something to surf the web, do some emailing etc... Why switch to another OS if their can do that already? And on that note, theres really no decent AmigaOS browsers. There are browsers, but they're no where near what they need to be to fullfill someones every day needs. And thats only one example...

The thing is, if people that run windows, are going to swap, they're not going to go buy a ppc and buy AmigaOS on top of that. They'll stick with the hardware they have and learn linux... or buy an lindowsOS machine.

Maybe in the future AmigaOS will be very popular, but i dont see AmigaOS reaching the popularity (market share) of Apple (at its current state) for at least 5 years or more. Saying that, it may never reach it.

I like AmigaOS and i'd love to see it succeed. But both MorphOS and AmigaOS have got more chance of failing than succeeding. You may not like it, and i dont either, but its a fact. If AmigaOS has got anything go for it, its Hyperion for 1, and the increasing amount of people willing to try others OSes as 2. But still, thats not a lot, and AmigaOS is really going to have to come out with some earth shattering programs as killer apps...

I think the perfect apps could come in the form of Home appliance software and network solutions to other devices. This stuff is realitivly new and AmigaOS could make a shot at it! Inthe future maybe .

[mdwh2]

nac wrote:
Slightly off topic but I dont actually remember there being any ads on  UK TV for the Amiga during its reign. I know there were some in the US. Were there any in the UK?

I remember seeing ads for the CD32. Which I guess is a typical example of the way Commodore only seemed to market the Amiga as a low end games console.

I would love the Amiga to reappear in high street shops as they once did under Escom. Sitting in the window running some killer app that grabs attention.

Just so long as it isn't an old model at an expensive price, as was the case with the A1200/A4000 when Escom took over..

[JaXanim]

You also have to realise that this is 2003 and not 1987. Those hordes of people Amiga needs to attract to be successful spend most of their spare time watching tv or playing video games.

If it ain't on tv, it don't exist for a large proportion of our society.

Cheers,

JaX

[mikeymike]

If it ain't on tv, it don't exist for a large proportion of our society.

True, but for the audience you suggested (playing video games), computer mags would help.

[Plaz]

@Rodney

Something easy to use, something to surf the web, do some emailing etc...

I agree with your basic conclusion, but because I'm bored this eve I have time to point out a flaw in your data. I could spend the next 3 days typing stories of how easy it is for the average joe to get their windows system trashed by virus, poor MS software or just stupidity. Windows might be easy to use, but not to maintain. It keeps an entire IT industry in business to keep it repaired and running. The old saying "It's great.... when it's working" I think applies. But then again that could be said about any OS. Cept for maybe my C64. Peeks and Pokes rule. :-)

Plaz

[Druideck]

Morphos here is stable, fast, smooth and
runs tons of Amiga software fast.
All it needs is more good new software and lots
of positive users. Cmon PEG2!

[DethKnight]

Okay my turn to waste some time on a thread out of boredom.

 reading thru these posts, I have humored myself with an anecdotal (sp.) thought
If I had the resources, I'd have mated this AmigaLite thing with a VIA C3 or sum such nanoITX into one (set-top-appliance) looking thing. Called it the 'parasite' , load it with winXp & AOS4, (refer to 'siamese' operation)
All in hopes of gradually and secretly shifting joe-end users softwares to the parasite half (by marketing the program specifically for the parasite half)...... but as Hogget says "I woke up"

parasite moniker alludes to the piggy-back nature of foreign object on/in mass-standard-oject (refer to movie ALIEN)

[Valan]

We all want the Amiga to succeed in one form or another. For years it has seemed the obvious way to go and other systems are slowly getting there.

But for all the knowledge in the Amiga community we find it hard to identify what the Amiga actually is.

Sentences like 'the AmigaOne/Pegasus runs hundreds of Amiga program' are humerous bordering on sad since it defines the new Amigas as allowing users to step back at least 5 years and run old software.

Then people point to the 'killer app' as if it must appear. Well it never appeared for Atari or Segas new hardware.

We cannot take the success for the Amiga for granted no matter how well intentioned.

I think we should be talking about how we now want to use Amigas, I mean what would be your the 'killer app'?

Valan

[Rodney]

I could spend the next 3 days typing stories of how easy it is for the average joe to get their windows system trashed by virus, poor MS software or just stupidity.

AmigaOS is just an vunerable as Windows in terms of OS security. Maybe theres been between design decision that can prevent vertain attacks, but general i see no difference between the two.

AmigaOS doesnt get the severity of attackes that Windows based OSes do, but thats because of the small  user base.

Also, Windows takes so much to maintaine because of its large software base. AmigaOS not got the amount of features windows has and it'll be a long time before it has.

And btw the reason i switched to x86 is because AmigaOS would constantly crash, and i'll admit, my win98 machine hardly ever crashes. Its solid.

Like everyone used to say, AmigaOS really insnt going to make it into our homes and offices. Its gunna need a killer app, like i talked about before.

Sure it could get a geek userbase, and eventualy over time it may pick up the odd newbie and grow and grow. Thats a slow process, and its likly to die before that happens.

And if your gunna start talking about viruses. If someone is that concerned about them, that they'd switch Oses, they'd go for linux because its much more secure. Basicly because of its user access. Viruses cant do a lot of damage unless their run by root. And since you should always be running in user mode unless you got something important to do, viruses wont take over your system.

the only virus on linux i've heard about have been only a little annoying! Linux and Windows beat AmigaOS in every direction, except maybe responsivness, but normal users dont even care about that, although it does make using a computer a lot easier. But all my family of novices know is that they like to use the software and only windows has what they wont! (that they know of) they're happy with what they've got!

[Robbie]

@fatman2021

lol! Windows isn't as bad as you make it out to be. Windows 95, 98 etc yes ok, they were really really rubbish and they did crash a lot of the time, I believe AmigaOS 3.1 is still better than those versions!! but have you used XP? It's actually quite good! and I still use my Amiga though, because it's fun.

But it is actually possible to really like using Amigas, and not hate windows (XP) at the same time :-)

[that_punk_guy]

Phew!

I thought someone had bumped this thread up to troll. :-)

[Robbie]

:-) oops, I just realised how old this thread was. 2003/10/5 was the last post?? I'm sure I'd seen it in the 'recent topics' list. oh well

[T3000]

LOL
This is the same thread from so many many years ago, I have to laff again.

Since I built my AMD Athlon 500 and started using W98, I have been a very happy computer user.  Sure, there have been virus problems on occasion but, I have yet to loose any data. Unlike my Amiga, which lost years of artwork several times.

3.5 was suppose to be an improvement over 3.1. I gladly paid the price for roms ,OS and a new 4.3 harddrive, only to be completely frustrated with the constant HD checksum errors. Spent more time backing up data on a weekly basis than I did actually using the computer. Maybe I didn't do something proper during the OS installation. I still don't know. I'm sometimes afraid to fire up the 3000. Every time I expect partitions to disappear or that checksum error.

I'm sure that once I get the wrinkles ironed out I'll have "fun" with my Amigas again. Until then Windows has been very very good to me.

What would make AMiga os4 successful is if it were free.

Just my two cents.

[that_punk_guy]

Maybe your HD was DOA. Did you check it in other machines?