Will there every be another computer like the amiga?

[persia]

Probably not.  The Amiga was able to do things in video and sound that other computers weren't even able to dream about.  

The AmigaOne has standalone microprocessors that are good for robotics permanently tied to the machine, not really an advance anywhere.  VIdeo, naw, sound, nothing to write home about, graphics, Fugetaboutit!!!  You can't even sync your music collection.

There will never be another Amiga, we are not in an industry that works that way anymore.  Everyone has a computer in their homes now.  They carry computers around with them.  It's a much more mature industry.  

Let's face it, if you are a developer with a world beating idea where are you going to go?  To a machine that number in the hundreds with an almost non-existant development environment or one that sits in everyone's home?  Or to a rich development environment like iPhone/iPad/Ipod.

Indeed the closest thing to a game changer was the iPhone.  Windows Mobile sucked, it was Windows on a small screen, hard to use, hard to understand.  Apple created a simple device that just worked.

[ElPolloDiabl]

In the 90's computer users were still enthusiasts and wanted to learn about computers. Now every Joe on the street has a computer or console. They can blurb out enough lines to communicate to sales guy what they want and they assume the computer will have Windows installed.
I imagine the enthusiasts have tinkered with Linux, but it doesn't have enough features to wow their friends.
You probably could build a better Mac-ish system, but you'd need to have something special that can turn heads. Have you seen the Asus EEpc keyboard?

[Belial6]

I'm not saying that the iPhone sucks, but to say that it was designed as a device that "Just Works" is a huge stretch.  The thing didn't even do cut and paste when it was released.  It still can't be used as a mass storage device, and if you plug it into a PC, you can't even put music on it without going online, downloading, and installing some extra software.  Sure iTunes isn't exactly a driver, but at the end of the day, it might as well be.

A better way to describe it would be, "It just works, AFTER downloading and installing the right software, as long as you don't plug it into the wrong computer, and you don't consider all of the things that it should be able to do trivially, but can't."

[AmigaHeretic]

People always think about the custom chips and how you can't do that anymore these days.  And I think they are right, but Amiga was Amiga to me for more reasons than the custom chips.  Of course at the time they were far ahead of most other things # of color wise, speed etc, but it was how they were used.


Things I would want in a "new" Amiga that MorphOS, AOS4, and AROS don't have and part of the reason a lot of people don't feel like they are the continuation of Amiga 68k.


First, ROM.  I want to be able to boot to something useful with no HD or Floppy or whatever.  
I think a "new" Amiga would be ROM based like the old ones.  The ROM how ever would be easily flashable and much much larger to hold drivers for modern hardware.

Second, support for modern advanced hardware.  By this I mean, x86, 3D card support, etc.   With such limited resources I am all for a "Spec" machine.  i.e. a we say Amiga IS a specfic CPU, a specific GPU card set, etc.  

Third, etc....

[dreamcast270mhz]

I missed out on the Amiga days, as I was growing up on the ignorant PC platform. The A-EON will be great (if it can sell) and it isn't a 74XX (G4) Chip as thats not in the POWERISA 2.04. What is are: Titan, PWRficient, 970(G5)

I think the PWRficient will be the one to be in the A-EON as it is rarely seen in the wild (Since PA Semi was snapped up).

As for the OP's question, no, the Amiga cannot exist as it did in the 80's, because of Micro$haft and Steve Jobs turning into a Pr!ck for going intel (The PA-6T outperformed the Core Duo) but I forgive him, but I won't buy a Macbook until he revives the names: PowerMac, Powerbook, iBook. Because Mac Pro, MAcbook (Pro) suck compared to it.

I also love my G4 mac because I delight in OSX 5 working so well while SpamDows CEMENT (Win CE, ME, NT) run unusably in VPC and Q. And at least Apple's minimum specs for each OS X make sure the machine can run OS X decently.

As for Dammy, the PPC platform has just as much potential as the day the 601 was unveiled, but the higher cost and x86 BS being spread ruined its chances, the new i7 still can't do what a 603 can (Run in Big Endian, produce good Power-to-watt ratios)

If the PS3 was turned into a home computer with a custom Linux running windows under an emu layer, people wouldn't know its PPC and stuff. Also, tell me when an x86 can run an x64 application, because PPCs can run 64bits if needed (at a slight drop in performance.)

[tone007]

The PPC was always behind in speed.  Cheaper PCs could just do more calculations than the PPCs available at the time.  Finally Apple realized their salesmanship wouldn't make up for the fact the machines weren't as powerful as the competition and quit using them.

I've got some G4's here, they work.  That's about all I can say about them.  Need speed? G4's not your man.

[dreamcast270mhz]

Maybe on speed, but FP and clock for clock made up for it, I have to say if PPC got the same support as x86, it would've been great. It still has potential to surpass x86, as long as development continues.

[Tension]

First, ROM.  I want to be able to boot to something useful with no HD or Floppy or whatever.  
I think a "new" Amiga would be ROM based like the old ones.  The ROM how ever would be easily flashable and much much larger to hold drivers for modern hardware.

... Or you could just install a Flash drive instead of a Hard drive.

[persia]

Isn't it a bit ironic that the Apple haters are going to end up with a machine most likely powered by an Apple (PA Semi) chip?

Seriously, Apple lied about "military spec" G5 chips and didn't even flinch when it turned out that core2duos ran rings around them even when running the Rosetta PPC emulation layer...

[coldfish]

Will there every be another computer like the amiga?

Depends what you want?  If you want an expensive proprietary platform that is straddled with legacy compatability issues, I hope not.

I much prefer today's computing world of inexpensive and plentiful hardware and a choice of powerful Os's (some of which are free) to that of the late 80's.  My memory of the past when I had to save for months and months to get my first Amiga.  Now you can have a powerful system for next to nothing if you know where to look.

Custom chips are very overrated, take current gen' consoles as an example;  Questionable performance lead for the first 3 months of their lives then quickly surpassed by "off the shelf" components.  Later in it's life, the Amiga was "stuck" with it's custom architecture while inexpensive mass-marketed open-platform technology left it in the dust.

No-one "bangs the metal" anymore, it's too complex.  When Sony developed the PS3's cell architecture they were thinking about the "potential" of low level coding, but all that got them is massively longer software development times for marginal performance improvements.  Ultra optimising code is like tail chasing in the modern computing age, when the same performance gains got from months of code optimisation can be delivered on newer hardware sooner for less money and effort.

[BigBenAussie]

Will, there ever be another computer like the Amiga?

I translate this to, will there ever be another computer that is so technologically superior and jaw-dropping at its time of release that it will maintain a legion(figuratively speaking) of fans 25 years later?
I think not. And if there is, it still isn't an Amiga, which is why we're on this forum.

What I would like to emphasise, perhaps at the risk of going off topic, is that it doesn't matter to me if a new Amiga isn't as technologically superior and jaw-dropping as the original.

We are living in an era of good enough computing. To me at least, everything I could think of doing is possible using, what many would call, mediocre hardware.
I have 5 computers around the house and I am still using PC hardware from 10 years ago that is still up to the task.

My two unexpanded P4 1gig PCs (circa 2000) are now used for web surfing, DVD burning, playing video on both my living room LCD TV and my theatre room projector, as well as hosting content over my wireless network. Probably not 1080p capable but I don't care.
I daily use my 1 year old netbook(1gig RAM) routinely to develop web apps, running 2 instances of VS2008, SQLServer2008, Firefox, IE and Lunascape(for webkit rendering) simultaneously. I wouldn't do that if the performance sucked.
My relatively recent PC desktop tower does the least demanding task of the lot by connecting to my my two 21 inch monitors and looking powerful. I pretty much use it to remote desktop to my other machines anyway. My wife is totally happy surfing the web on her old Celeron laptop.

Even if the X1000 provides the computing performance of a 5 year old computer or even a netbook I probably wouldn't realistically notice, as for me at least, it would be good enough. Maybe even a SAM would be acceptable, but I won't comment on that.

Honestly, if an app or a web page takes 2 seconds rather than 1 second to come up I don't care. If some CD or DVD takes twice as long to rip I probably don't care because I'll probably have that going on in the background anyway. But maybe I am the odd one out. I would say netbooks sales kinda back this proposition, and I don't think all netbook buyers are morons that don't know what they are purchasing. I'm happy with mine, and I would regard myself as a power user.

[stefcep2]

What i miss most is the feel of a responsive GUI, and the fact that I could dig into the OS file structure and have a fairly good idea of what did what.

[tone007]

Maybe on speed, but FP and clock for clock made up for it

No, it really doesn't.  Try converting a DVD to DiVX.  Get back to me tomorrow.

[bloodline]

It's laughable to hear people still living in the SJ reality distortion field! I'm a big fan of what Steve Jobs has done, but have PPC Macs and intel Macs... And regular PCs, and at no point did the PPC ever run faster than an equivilent priced x86... And certianly not a power efficient... The ISA is relatively unimportant, what matters is the implemention... And unless you have the sort of money intel, AMD or ARM has you will not out compete them.

[_ThEcRoW]

The day shops begin to ditch physical format for the games, i will begin to not buy them. I like to have the box and manual. Would anyone pay 60 eur for a game that only exists in virtual form?. I of course not.

Well, while there won't be an Amiga again... there is something else starting to take hold.  Yes, Linux has not won the desktop - but the desktop is slowing becoming less of a factor.  Most people I know now put more money into their Cell Phone/PDA - like iPhone or other Smartphones - than they do their pc.  I am still using the same PC I built 3 years ago - but I just got an iPhone and over the next 2 years will put more money into it than I have spent on PC hardware over the last 3 years.

The next generation of users will not care about powerful boxes at home - it will be mobile with digital distribution.  If you own stock in Gamestop - sell it now - the day of buying anything in a store that is digital content is coming to an end very soon.  Who buys CDs, DVDs, etc?  People who want to waste money.  Music is cheaper on iTunes.  Netflix makes movies way cheaper to rent/stream and most TV content can be found legally free to view on the net (So who even needs cable TV?)

Microsoft has just released a new Xbox Elite with 250GB drive- why? Because they realize there is more profit to be made with digital distribution. Download Content (DLC) is where the real profit is for Microsoft and game developers.  It cuts out the cost of physical media creation/distribution, it cuts out dealing with companies like Wal-mart... and it kills the hated (and non royalty paying) used game market.  I remember an article by the people who made Left 4 Dead - there where upset that there where over 2x the number of unique Xbox Live accounts played their game than bought it new - used sells was huge for this game and it hurt there market potential cause people like me always wait for a used copy.

If I can get it cheaper used, I always do, but under Digital distribution that is not even an option so I will have to buy it new or skip it - and most games won't skip sequels to their favorite titles.  Plus, its harder to pirate cause they have to hack the distribution source - not just the install program.

If there is to be another Amiga - it will be a media intense, gaming, mobile device that has great connectivity to web based applications.  Microsoft has been reporting working on a web-based office - they see the writing on the wall - so they can sell service - not media/install/support headaches.

 The war for the desktop is moot since the real money will be in other places.  Don't believe me, get an iPhone and see how much you really need your desktop.  You could argue the iPhone is the spirit of the Amiga. It went against conventional wisdom and showed much larger phone makers like Nokia and Motorola that there was more to a phone than talking and text.

Amiga showed me there was more to computing than a command line and poorly written dos programs.  If you want to see another Amiga - get the guys trying to make a desktop OS - like AROS - make an OS for a smartphone.  Then the Amiga could be truly reborn.

[bloodline]

iPhone*games*only*come*in*download*form,*they*only*cost*£5...*I've*bought*4*in*the*last*month...*Before*that,*I*used*to*buy*about*2*games*a*year...***

The software houses have learned that passing the savings of the download (and virtually unpiratable) formats on to the consumer results in more sales! Win *****