Amiga vs. Hyperion - Any updates?

[bloodline]

Written by someone who couldn't work out what "snapshot" in the menu was for.  And he looked for a built in file manager, when anyone who's ever used an Amiga would have DOpus installed.

Which was exactly his point...

[Jose]

"It seems that Bill stopped talking to me about a year or so ago when I expressed my general disinterest at a ping he made as to using Amiga.org to support the cell-phone gaming community."

Wow, thank you for that!

[warpdesign]

Build the Amiga on a joystick, add in the top 50 games and/or a way to import them off of SD memory card and yeah, it'd sell a few hundred thousand at best, but that's still not enough, because it's sales/impact would be a short-lived event and there's not much to follow that up with...

Well, an Amiga in a joystick is a quick and cheap way to start to make some money, and show there is an Amiga company at least doing "something". The hardware has already been reimplemented with the minimig. Some companiess already released some of their game on backtoroots. So the "only" thing needed would be to make the minimig smaller and possibly within only a single ship, design a joystick, contact some companies to have a dozen of games, build, produce and distribute it.

That would be a good start... That's the first thing, with the release of 1.x roms for free, I'd do.

Since there is no money to make, nor to found the development of the OS, open sourcing what can be would be a good idea.

Whatever happens, "open" must be the word... Everything gone so bad because people and/or technology have been so closed for the last decades... no cooperation, closed source, wars,..

[Jose]

@Wayne

Well, if he was that nice he wouldn't stop talking to you because of that...

[Nostalgiac]

...
If they wanted to impress anyone, they'd have pulled an Apple and put AmigaOS on true commodity hardware, not one-offs and closed-end hardware from questionable developers/vendors.

Wayne

hear hear - I'll second that :-)

Tom UK

[Tension]

How depressing

[Nlandas]

I can't disagree with any of that.

I guess my major concern is that some folks simply cannot get past "Amiga is the next big thing and will totally pwn Microsoft". It's offputting to people interested in trying it out as a retro system.

Who said it had to "pwn" Microsoft. I still think there is room for a niche platform with an innovative that's marketed well and spans several niche areas. Yes, the current OS still needs development. Yes, it would require investment. I understand Amiga, Inc. has taken us no where. I also understand that many people don't want to develop software for free. Although, there were certainly a lot of people like that back in the day. There still are in the Open Source community - so I find it hard to "be realistic" and give up.

Hyperion has at least tried to continue developing the OS. It would be nice to not see all of the Amiga legacy be only a retro hobby computer. It would be nice to see it even as a minor Alternative platform. Do I trust Amiga, Inc. to do it - not by a long shot but it's amazing to me that so many people don't want to even dream anymore.

Is Linux(UNIX)/BSD(Mac OSX) and Windows really the best the OS world has to offer. If so, it doesn't look like I'll see an innovative OS again in my lifetime and that is truly sad.

...and how in the world does someone dreaming of seeing an AmigaOS based OS running on new hardware keep anyone from getting into retro Amiga? OI!

Oh, well - I didn't start this thread to have so many depressing discussions. I was only curious if anyone had heard any news on the lawsuit. Apparently, other than that they are in negotiations - no one has anything concrete on the subject.

[ToddH]

The thing is the Amiga doesn't have to take over the world again. Computer operating systems will matter less and less in the future as applications move to the web. Online capability is definitely an area that the Amiga needs work. Has there been any attempt to port Java?

[cicero790]

I must say, I'm incredible curious about what Hyperion keeps hidden in the sleeves.

[djbase]

The real problem for any amigalike OS is the lack of market. No serious software house will ever even consider doing any work for these platforms unless if the potential market is at least several magnitudes larger.

Thats it. And nobody gives official numbers of sales (OS4, MorphOS) so nobody knows how "big" the current market is. Everything is a secret.

[cecilia]

That's the problem isn't it "anyone who's ever used an Amiga". It's the same attitude that keeps Linux from being usable by anyone on the desktop, the developers and existing user are all used too it's fault and "know" what they need to do already.

New users are scorned and told to read the forums etc. It takes someone techy enough to get past all of that and start using it, by the time you've done so, you're one of those who already knows what extras you need.

i don't know where you are looking but I use Ubuntu and have been very well treated in the Ubuntu forums. and I don't have problems using it.

and, yes, it's WAAAAAAY more fun than windos

[Trev]

I still think there is room for a niche platform with an innovative that's marketed well and spans several niche areas. Yes, the current OS still needs development.

That's the problem, though. AmigaOS hasn't been innovative since the early 90's. Even then, the platform was struggling to keep up with advancements in mainstream personal computer hardware and software.

The folks at Hypersion are doing an admirable job of keeping AmigaOS alive, but in my opinion, that's all they're doing. They need to produce more than just another target for emulating OS-friendly m68k applications and compiling portable open source software.

[amigadave]

That's the problem, though. AmigaOS hasn't been innovative since the early 90's. Even then, the platform was struggling to keep up with advancements in mainstream personal computer hardware and software.

The folks at Hypersion are doing an admirable job of keeping AmigaOS alive, but in my opinion, that's all they're doing. They need to produce more than just another target for emulating OS-friendly m68k applications and compiling portable open source software.

Why?  Why do they need to do more, to compete against other more mainstream OSes?  Can't and won't happen because it is not profitable and they are a business, not a charitable organization.

Hyperion is trying to make a buck from what is left of a group that won't let go of the past and is slowly dying.  Anyone who thinks they are trying to do more than that needs a reality check, IMHO.

If the tiny group of developers and OS coders that still have any interest in the Amiga community have some kind of miraculous revelation some night in their dreams and awaken to invent a new way for humans to interact and interface with computers that will make all of our lives easier, AND it has not already been thought of by someone, or some group from the other OS camps, OR it can somehow miraculously only be done, or be done better on some kind of next generation Amiga system, then maybe there will be some kind of change in our situation.  The reality is that nothing is likely to change and we will be forced to accept that we are just part of a hobby OS and niche market that is extremely small and NOT profitable for most manufacturers and even most dealers.

Enjoy what we had, what he still have, and what is left of what we will have, or move on to something newer that suits your needs and mood better.  (not specifically aimed at Trev, just ranting here)

[Trev]

@amigadave

That was my point, really. :-) There's an odd, almost delusional disconnect in the Amiga community between what people think the Amiga represents (innovation in personal computing) and what it actually is (a quaint platform representative of personal computing in the 1980's).

[nyteschayde]

You know it's funny; of course, you cannot compete with modern OSes in most cases with the Amiga. That being said, if you can provide Firefox you've met 40-50% of the US users internet requirements. Add the ability to watch any type of movie and play MP3s easily and intuitively and you've captured another 20%. Finally add flash support (I know I know) and you're competing with modern OSes for 90% of non-game playing people on the market.

Many people, sadly enough, are very happy if their computer provides music capability, and modern internet connectivity. You want OS 4.x to be popular and well reviewed, provide the 3 tools above and you've got a big audience.

You'll need to have a decent word processor at some point but music and internet is key. After that you can win more support by simply adding basic apps. Backward compatible Amiga support is needed (either in emulation or native support [not likely]) for retro-enthusiasts to go and enjoy it.

[Trev]

On a side note, I really wish people hadn't been duped into believing MP3 is a good thing. That one little extension to MPEG-1 has all but killed innovation in digital audio formats. Better formats exist, certainly, but the perception that MP3 is "better" than even the lowly PCM used by CD-Audio has done almost irreparable damage. :-/ (EDIT: I'll concede that it beats lugging around a box of tapes with a Walkman, but that's about it. The tapes--with the hiss filtered out--do sound better, though.)

The good news is that modern music is rarely worth listening to, so we're not really missing anything. ;-)