Amiga Inc, in 25 questions or less

[Colin_Camper]

@Oli_hd

Why would people embarrass Wayne by expecting him to ask Company Confidential stuff from Bill.M.

Bty - what a coup Wayne!  :lol:

[Oli_hd]

Why would people embarrass Wayne by expecting him to ask Company Confidential stuff from Bill.M.

Well they are interesting questions, Amiga inc dont make anything and just point you to the company thats making that item so you are rather stuck on what you can ask, its all "can you give a licence for this" "can you give a licence for that"
So we are left with "how many people are on the pay roll" and "why has your SSL cert not been renewed" and other rather personal questions.
Although I am thinking we are going to get a lot of "no comment" or "we are working on something big but cant tell you" replys... heres hoping not though.

[Ferry]

@Wayne

First of all, thanks for your initiative.

My questions to Mr. McEwen:

1. Does Amiga Inc. any plans for AmigaOS for desktop platform or will you focus only in AmigaAnywhere for portable devices? Do you still have any real interest in AmigaOS?

2. In your web page you say "Amiga, Inc. does not distribute or support AmigaOS 4.0.". Unfortunatelly, this seems to include AmigaOS 4.0 promotion... We have only seen news regarding  AmigaAnywhere, but none regarding AmigaOS 4.0. Why Amiga Inc. has remained so silent regarding AmigaOS 4.0 promotion?

3. Will there be a future convergence between current AmigaOS and AA as one product or will they remain as separated products?

4. Do you plan to support in any way current AmigaOS user base and developers?

5. It was said any further AmigaOS version was going to be developed in-house by Amiga Inc. Is this still true? If yes, developing the OS in-house means a delay: new developers have to take and understand a work made by others -Hyperion-, so why not simply allow Hyperion to continue their good work? They are doing quite well, they have even done more than initially expected.

6. If Amiga Inc. takes finally back AmigaOS development, you will have to provide support for it and the means for its promotion and distribution. Any plans on this?

7. Hyperion has stated that they will not release a final OS4 version until there's real hardware to run it on, and that depends right now on licensed HW, so how many companies/individuals have asked for an Amiga license for its HW? How many of them finally got it? How many are currently active? If possible, coud you please give its names?

8. Will Amiga Inc. keep the made-by-others, licensed HW scheme or will you make any new HW?

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

[flipp64]

Do any of AmigaIncs licensing holders have plans to build  a notebook that will run OS4?This also includes licensing that are in the works as of Sept.06.

[sdyates]

Is there a plan to have Amiga OS run on x86?

[Colin_Camper]

@Oli_hd

Well they are interesting questions

That's true!

@Wayne
Maybe you could submit the questions to Bill and then respectfully ask that if they warrant a reply along the lines of "See answer to Q5" or "Unfortunately this matter is Company Confidential" - that Bill replies with this list and asks you to submit some more.
This way we will get full answers to all 25 questions! Boy! We need these answers!
You can always append the 'failed' questions with Bills' response at the end.

@BillM
Oh and I forgot earlier - Thanks for doing this q&A session. It is very much appreciated and eagerly anticipated!

[Klatch]

Poster: weirdami  Posted: 2006/8/30 19:14:02
@McEwen

Believe it or not, I still didn't get my Club Amiga T-shirt. Do yo have any extras laying around I could have? I did pay for it after all.

I gave up on that shirt a long time ago. No one every responded to emails about it either.

[Plus4]

My Question would be: (In a popular vein)

Amiga Inc (as any well run business) must be profit focussed and customer driven.  Are they aware of the recent resurgeance in 'retro gaming', particularly in the big ecomonies of the US and Europe and therefore big dollar bills associated with this genre.

As an example; Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo together with all the major software houses are falling over themselves to re-write 80/90's games or produce retro collections (just look at the PSP's line up!)

Essentially, since you guys have one of the most sought after intangibles assets around, namely a HUGE brand, is it time to cash in, either by selling the Amiga brand to say, Commodore or partnering with another forward thinking organisation or individual, like the MiniMig creator; in a hardware sense.

[JurassicCamper]

@ Wayne great work fellar... Its brought me back to amiga.org too ;-)

Here We Go

Is Amiga willing to go public and become a PLC so that community members have the opportunity to become shareholders and have a say in the company direction ?

Is Amiga willing to have a community elected member sit on its board in an unpaid role to be the face of the community ?

Is Amiga willing to have an open day so that press staff from the likes of Amiga.org and Amigaworld.net could visit its offices meet the staff and view some developments ?

Does Amiga still plan to take AmigaOS4 back in house after Hyperion's final release ?

Without breaking NDA's can Amiga comment on how many licences have been issued for OS4 compatible hardware ?

Does Amiga own any AmigaOnes and is there any OS4 development going on in house ?

Are the $50 coupons ever going to be refunded ?

Its now six years since Amino bought the Amiga assets from Gateway. From an Amiga Inc point of view not a lot has been done to raise the profile of the platform. As a once quoted "Amiga Evangalist" surely you are saddened by Amiga's place in the market. Are there any initatives planned for raising the profile of the platform beyond the retro hobby niche market ?

Would Amiga Inc be willing to fund the development of much need applications to the plaftorm, EG: a browser and office suite ?

What is Amiga Inc's plans for OS4 and OS5 ?

Recently we at 3CAG contacted Amiga regarding attending a UK Amiga show (Big Bash 4). However, all correspondence has gone unanswered. Even if using the offical method laid out on the Amiga Inc website. Would you be willing to send a representative ? (www.amigabigbash.net)

Are Amiga trying to distance themselves from the legacy platform and OS ?

[TheMagicM]

I can see some questions that wont make it to AInc.. but I myself would have liked to see them answered.


Good job Wayne.. looking forward to the final list.

I myself dont have any..you guys covered them all.

[MichaelMerkel]

1. in what way are you supporting the os4.0 (and os4.x) development and/or team?

2. do you still have plans to do an "amiga os 5" as announced long time ago?
if yes, are you already/still working on it and what is it status and what does it feature?
if no, why have these plans been canceled?

thank you very much!

byebye...

[irishmike]

Comment:  I would like to see OS4 developed for Intel based HW.  In fact, I would like to help in the development of software for the platform in some way.

Question:  Would it possible for Ainc to allow open development on the platform (in a model like Apple has)?  

Strategic suggestion:  Please develop a port of OS4 beta for Intel and make it available for us to begin developing on as soon as possible :-)

[allhail]

@McEwens's
1/ There is an IDE called RealBasic that does cross platform compilation (window/mac/linux from ppc to x86 hardware). Is there any plans to make RealBasic allow us to create code for the OS4 platform? My idea here is that this would help a lot new software to come on OS4 platforms.

@McEwens's
2/ What is Amiga Inc doing nowadays?

@McEwen's
3/ What efforts are done by Amiga Inc to help manufacturers coming out with new PPC Hardware?

@McEwens's
4/ Is there any real plan to bring Os4 to x86 platform (since PPC one is too exenpensive, and will disapear in years to come).

@McEwen's
/5 Why an AmigaDE game bought for ie windows platform must be bought again (along with a new player) to play it ie on my brand new ipaq? Is that a way to create Anywhere content? Does that mean buying things twice...or more?

@McEwen's
/6 How many Cell phones are currently supported by the AmigaAnywhere player?

@McEwen's
/7 Can you explain us Amiga Inc strategy for the three years to come?

[billt]

I'm stuck with Verizon wireless, due to signal/tower availability in some areas I find myself. (ironic though, as it gets a very very poor signal at home so I still require a landline phone there) Their CDMA phones seem to lack a lot of features available for GSM phones. Is AmigaAmywhere available for Verizon phones, or are Verizon customers compelely removed from your market? I have an LG VX9800 (AKA "The V") phone.

OT:
I'd love to dump Verizon, but I'm stuck... I don't like my phone, but I'm stuck... I envy the cool things my friends' GSM phones can do, but I can't have them. Why oh why do the phone makers not do exactly the same thing with a CDMA connection, why do the phones have to feel so limited and primitive compared to GSM stuff? Doesn't it sound shady that Verizon cashed the cable TV check (written payable to Comcast, not to Verizon, I have the carbon copy to prove it) I accidentally put in the wrong envelope and sent to them? I really wish I wasn't stuck...

[billt]

Are the $50 coupons ever going to be refunded ?

For that matter, what about the discounts for those buying the Party Packs? I bought both a Windows and a Linux party pack in addition to my $50 coupon...

@all:
Wasn't the Party Pack discount for AmigaOne or OS4 about US$100 each? I may not remember this exactly right, someone please correct me if needed...

[ssolie]

@Missing t-shirt people
HMetal (Amiga Inc's webmaster) came on IRC (#amigaworld) last night and said if you are still missing your t-shirt to please email him at webmaster@amiga.com to resolve the issue.

@Wayne and staff
Don't bother asking Bill about t-shirts please. It's been done to death and back again. There are far more important questions.