Has CommodoreUSA shipped anything?

[Jan]

Hi guys 'n gals!
though I just signed up here *blush* I'm a real Amiga fanboy

Now back to the topic. I really don't get all the negativity towards Commodore USA.
These new renderings are not stolen and these guys are actually in negotiation with
the designer.

That said I don't quite get their current business model either.
Who is the target market for a PC64? Probably some nostalgic fanboys - maybe you
sell like 900 units, that's if you're lucky. I am however really interested in the
development of the new Amiga line, and I'd like to bring across my pov about what
I think a new Amiga needs… though I'm afraid it flies in the face of many Amiga
enthusiasts.

I do hope Commodore USA builds a kickass high performance workstation and does not
go the ‘low cost / low performance’ way. We already have a Mac Mini.

For me the logical thing to do is drop all lame as hell PPC stuff and go with todays
MUCH faster and much more cost effective x86 architecture. Currently Intel i7
processors are a good choice.
For the GFX card forget about these laughable Radeon R700 they want to use in the
X1000, I'd suggest nothing slower than an ATI Radeon HD 5870.

Firewire, USB and a Blu-Ray drive with a slim A1200 style keyboard would be heaven.
Let’s hope they stick to Yoz design. We can just put the stuff that gets hot in the
A3000-esque box.

So now to the thing you will hate me for The software support in MorphOS, AmigaOS
and even AROS is from the pov of a professional musican,  hobbyist video artist,
3d modeller and programmer a joke.

Logic Audio, Final Cut Pro, Maya, the whole Adobe Suite & After Effects (running on
OS X!) are essential. For Nuendo, Samplitude, AutoCAD, gaming and XBOX360 programming
a Windows 7 System does fine - no let me rephrase - is much recommended.

There is no way those other Amiga OSystems could ever catch up with the amount of
driver support currently available for Windows and OS X Systems.
So in my opinion the best and most efficient thing to do is choose all parts like
network, firewire, Bluetooth, USB and soundchip to be commodity (Mac compatible!)
PC hardware.

For a workstation a SSD or even SSD raid would be appropriate. All other parts like
power supply and GFX card should be customized to the lowest noise level achievable.
Since we are Commodore freaks the first batch of Amiga workstations comes with a  
free HardSID PCIe card included.

The user runs Linux, Mac OS X, Windows 7 or if she’s a masochist AROS x86 (that's if
the devs ever catch up with the port… ).

Since we’re helpful peeps who know what people really need, all Amigas will get a
DVD with custom OS X SATA drivers to support Read/Write on NTFS drives right from
the start. As well as some kind of Linux Mint distro for starters with no OS
whatsoever. Amigas should be fun for everyone, no?

We also do our own custom Amiga boot menu OS X / Windows / some Linux distro / AROS.
Hey we could even do a competition who comes up with the most slick boot screen.

If people want to work as professionals in the media industry they need to use the
professional software at hand. Even if there was a brandnew realtime OS with never
heard of resource and task management it would be useless from the perspective of
someone who works in such an   environment and has to exchange work with others.

Speaking of price ranges, an Amiga workstation system like the one described above,
would fall in-between a MAC Pro and one of these so called “Gamer PCs” that look
like a Walmart Halloween decoration.
There would be plenty of opportunities for the Amiga community to support the Amiga.
Like  improving the Linux Mint distro for those who prefer to go without OS X/Win,
or working on AROS drivers.

But isn’t this just a normal PC with the Amiga label attached to it?
Well, given Yoz Montana’s design and the feature list above, it’s something that
does not exist yet but is closest to what I envision a modern Amiga to be.

Just my 2 cent.  

[Karlos]

Given the thread title and general mistrust/animosity towards C=USA, I'm surprised nobody has posted this, yet:

[kolla]

@Jan
What exactly is it that doesn't exist?
So far I already have whatever CUSA is "offering", the only slightly interesting bit is the properly layed out amiga keyboard.

Btw - halfway down your post you start using "we" as if you're part of CUSA - what's that about?

[mingle]

I too can't quite figure out why C=USA are copping such a flogging...

True, they haven't shipped anything yet, but their plans, ideas and designs are quite nice.

I'd be quite willing to buy one (or more) of their boxes, assuming pricing and specs are reasonable.

Let's wait and see... They're not hurting or ripping anyone off... Relax...

Mike.

[Jan]

@Jan
What exactly is it that doesn't exist?
So far I already have whatever CUSA is "offering", the only slightly interesting bit is the properly layed out amiga keyboard.

Btw - halfway down your post you start using "we" as if you're part of CUSA - what's that about?

hi kolla,
no, I'm in no way related to C=USA. Just read my post as a wishlist.
English is not my 1st language either, so forgive my laziness

As for what does not exist. Apart from the design, a computer optimized to all the features described
in my first post does not exist. It would take weeks of research.
Also, while I might be able to assemble and configure something at least close to it, many people I'm
working with won't ever. I'd expect from C=USA and the community to build up a level of support for
such a system that would simply not exist in a DIY solution.

greetz

[Iggy]

when genesi made their os they was planing to release it as amigaos, but since they didnt get the name at the time they named it morphos. genesi as a company know very well that a well known brand will sell a product more than a unknown brand. so again if you as a long time morphos user, got the news by genesi that they now have a licence for the amiga brand and was gonna change from morphos name to the amigaos name. how would that affected you as user?

As I mentioned before, I couldn't care less what Genesi does. They no longer build hardware that uses MorphOS and they don't own the rights to the OS (the developers do).
I'm not typing this on a Genesi/bPlan designed computer, I'm using OWB (under MorphOS) on a Powermac.

I wish Genesi luck in their new focus on ARM based hardware and I'm rather imbivialent about CUSA. It would be nice if only one company was marketing Amiiga computers, but in the long run I can't see a knowledgable computer user confusing a CUSA Amiga with an AmigaOne.

[the_leander]

Btw - halfway down your post you start using "we" as if you're part of CUSA - what's that about?

I smell socks.

[kolla]

hi kolla,
no, I'm in no way related to C=USA.

ok

As for what does not exist. Apart from the design, a computer optimized to all the features described in my first post does not exist. It would take weeks of research.

What, to put together a box with Intel i7 and radeon card? I don't get it.

Also, while I might be able to assemble and configure something at least close to it, many people I'm working with won't ever. I'd expect from C=USA and the community to build up a level of support for such a system that would simply not exist in a DIY solution.

greetz

I'm still pussled, you describe what sounds like an ordinary barebone PC system and then you write that it doesn't already exist?

Btw - the design there is two seperate machines, one keyboard type box and one regular box. It's like A500 and A2000, A600 and A3000, A1200 and A4000. I thought that was quite obvious. Also it seems very aimed at Natami, with Super AGA, LUA etc.

[Franko]

@ Jan

I've heard some crazy stuff in my time said about the Amiga but you sure take the biscuit...

Logic Audio, Final Cut Pro, Maya, the whole Adobe Suite & After Effects (running on
OS X!) are essential. For Nuendo, Samplitude, AutoCAD, gaming and XBOX360 programming
a Windows 7 System does fine - no let me rephrase - is much recommended.

If people want to work as professionals in the media industry they need to use the
professional software at hand. Even if there was a brandnew realtime OS with never
heard of resource and task management it would be useless from the perspective of
someone who works in such an environment and has to exchange work with others.

If you really want or need/need to use the programs you mention then use them on a PC or Mac or whatever machine they are written to run on. The Amiga has it's own software for doing such things and I don't honestly think that any Amiga user would actually even try to compare the old software they use against modern PC/Mac software. The Amiga may no longer be used by professionals anymore for such tasks but that's what a PC or Mac is for.

A PC can run emulation of an Amiga, but why on earth would someone want to emulate a modern day PC or MAC on an Amiga or run Windows or Mac software on it. The Amiga is what it is, a machine used by most of us left who still actively use it either in hardware form or emulation form for the fun, enjoyment and nostalgia of something that was and still is that wee bit different.

If someone does create and build an Amiga that does run Windows or Mac software then I for one would not be buying or using it, what's the point, if you want to use Windows software buy a PC if you want to run Mac software buy a Mac. If you simply want to run all your old Amiga software for what it does then invest in some old hardware or run an emulator.

The only thing lacking these day's with the Amiga is trying to keep things like memory cards and HDs CD/DVDs up and running but that's why their are still some folk constantly working on ingenious solutions to these problems not to mention all those who work on things like Aros or MorphOS.

The best thing to happen to the Amiga would be something like the Natami which is supposedly going to be 100% backwards compatible but running at speeds never before seen on an Amiga and hopefully the ability to be able to use things like SATA HDs & DVD drives.

I dream of such a machine, but I certainly don't want to run Final Cut Pro or Photoshop on it, I'd be perfectly happy running the likes of ImageFX at an almost realtime speed and all my other old Amiga software and either writing my own software to take advantage of it or using software that other folk would no doubt write to do the same.

The day the Amiga becomes nothing more than a machine for running Windows or Mac software will truly be the day the Amiga dies...

[Tension]

Besides increasing the perceived value of the assets, there is one additional thing that the "Scamiga" people might have in mind: as their trademarks are being cancelled one after the other, they desperately need to show that they are using them. But, as this thread accurately says in the title, Commodore USA is pure vaporware so far, and that doesn't count much, does it?
 
To recap:
 
- Amiga Delaware has no patents (because they expired, and never even left Gateway)
- Amiga Delaware has no copyrights (because what the German notary public used to transfer the copyrights was a trademark/patent contract, not a copyright contract)
- If challenged, Amiga Delaware has no trademarks (because it failed to use them and to defend them)
- Amiga Washington and Amiga Delaware have lots of creditors, overdue taxes and court judgements, I would say for at least half a million dollars (from public sources), maybe more
- Amiga Delaware has (unless challenged by some of the Amiga Washington creditors/partners/employees, because it changed from the Washington company to the Delaware company defrauding the creditors of the Washington company) an interesting Spanish (and Portuguese) domain name: amiga.com
 
But is the amiga.com domain name worth more than the debts?
 
Am I missing something?

What an interesting first post.

You seem very well informed, Sir!

[A1260]

[smerf]

Has CommodoreUSA shipped anything to anyone?

They have product in their store available to order.

I suspect noone has bought anything at all or received anything at all.

Which means......... I suspect

That this is just Scamiga Inc up to it's old tricks, trying to sell itself for an inflated amount.

Remember the last time Amiga Inc 'woke up'?
It updated it's website. It entered into a partnership with ACK.
It fooled a whole town with a multimillion $ sponsorship scam,
All the while it was trying to sell itself.

Now, the great CommodoreUSA comes along with it's $30million marketing budget, a deal with Amiga Inc. Then Amiga Inc invests $70 on a hosting package and ressurects the old website to pretend that it is a real company.
Then, suprise, suprise we hear that Amiga Inc is up for sale.

So, out of curiosity - has ANYONE received ANYTHING from CommodoreUSA or are they just another of BillyBoys elaborate scams?

Hi,

I certinlly hopes nots

Look at the stuff they are selling and then look at the price and the OS, those boys have a couple of screws loose. For the amount they are selling their stuff for, you could buy a good PC gamming rig with a 6 core AMD.

But

I do like the looks of their keyboard computers. Pretty nice style. Worth $1500, not.
They better put better electronics inside for the price they are asking.

smerf {:+(

[runequester]

Hi,

I certinlly hopes nots

Look at the stuff they are selling and then look at the price and the OS, those boys have a couple of screws loose. For the amount they are selling their stuff for, you could buy a good PC gamming rig with a 6 core AMD.

But

I do like the looks of their keyboard computers. Pretty nice style. Worth $1500, not.
They better put better electronics inside for the price they are asking.

smerf {:+(

1500 ? as in.. 1500 dollars ?

[smerf]

Hi,

@runequester,

Yes, for their top of the line model, which is equal to a computer I wouldn't even waste money on today.

Heck they want $495 just for a board in one of them fancy keyboards. No CPU, no nothing, just a board in a box.

smerf

[smerf]

Hi,

@Franko,

""The Amiga may no longer be used by professionals anymore for such tasks but that's what a PC or Mac is for.""

Oh come on now, do you really think MAC people are professional, they only know how to punch keys. The other day I took on some kid that knew how to use those MAC programs for Desktop Publishing, he does it for his livelihood. I blew him out of the door by using some of those so called old Amiga programs, like imagefx, dpaint, ppaint etc. so much for a MAC pro, he lost against 20 year un upgraded software.

""A PC can run emulation of an Amiga, but why on earth would someone want to emulate a modern day PC or MAC on an Amiga or run Windows or Mac software on it.""

I don't know, I would really hate to downgrade my Amiga and make it suffer by doing so.

""The only thing lacking these day's with the Amiga is trying to keep things like memory cards and HDs CD/DVDs up and running but that's why their are still some folk constantly working on ingenious solutions to these problems not to mention all those who work on things like Aros or MorphOS.""

Franko old friend, you really have to start looking at Amigakit, you fell behind by a couple of years. By the way I don't consider Aros or MorphOS as real Amiga systems as of yet, but I have to admit I visit their sites once a month just to see if they accomplished anything of great value.

"The best thing to happen to the Amiga would be something like the Natami"

The thing wrong with Natami, is that by the time they solve something they are 5 years behind the curve, and the thing they just solved is obsolete. They have to learn how to solve the problems of the newer hardware, which is advancing faster then most PC people could keep up with.

""The day the Amiga becomes nothing more than a machine for running Windows or Mac software will truly be the day the Amiga dies...""

Never happen, who in the Amiga Circle would do this, we want to run everything on our machines. Look at my Quad core, it runs Amiga, Linux, Ubuntu (ok another Linux) NES, Windows 95, Window Visita and Windows 7. Could run MAC, but why waste a good machine.

I still use my Amiga for all my important stuff that I do not want to lose. My Amiga 4000 sits on my desk protecting my valuable data every day for the last 18 years. I can't recall ever having a PC for more than 7 years, and a no crash on any PC for more than 7 months (which means that about every 7 - 12 months I have to wipe out my PC and reload. Now the reload time for a PC is about 3 days, with all the updates, the reload time for an Amiga with OS 3.1 is about 20 minutes (got to stop for coffee don't you know) then another 45 -- 90 minutes for OS 3.5 and 3.9. How do I know this since I haven't reloaded my Amiga 4000 since 1992 (remember I said reloaded not updated) is because I just put in a compact flash (CF) drive in my PPC running A1200 tower, and once again thank you Amigakit for all the parts, I like advertising for a good quality company. (now about OS 4.0 hint hint). Now another thing I like about the Amiga is that if I don't like the first OS bench I made, it doesn't take me 3 days to reload.

As far as the Amiga kicking the bucket, you need to watch Erics new Amiga movie on you tube, because all I know is that my Amiga has outlasted approximately 17 PC's that I sent to the grave yard, but to be fair I have thrown out one Amiga by accident, when we moved from Florida to Pennsylvania, my wife asked what to do with the computers I had out in my garage, I said throw them out since they where all old Gateways and Packard Bells. Then when she got up to Pennsylvania, I asked if she packed up my Amiga 1000, she said where was it, and then I said it was in the (U guessed it), I then remembered, I had put it in the garage along with my C64 and C128 so the kids wouldn't touch them, (yes, Franko & Karlos) there are some computers I won't allow them to touch. Closest I have been to divorce in all my life and I keep telling myself it isn't her fault, but how could anyone not know what a A1000 looks like? or was she just jealous because I paid more attention to that A1000 then I did to her or was it just because when she sat naked in front of my monitor and asked what do you think, and I said I think your blocking my monitor.

Oh their I go babbling on.

smerf

[Jan]

Oh come on now, do you really think MAC people are professional, they only know how to punch keys.

Huh, I for one quite like the score to Inception and Gladiator. This guy knows how to punch keys for sure

I figured the Amiga emulation for the iPhone was developed on a MAC,  probably by a n00b

By the way, developing iPhone/iPad apps is one fine way to earn money these day,
especially for programmers just starting out. As well as for people who like to
design little retro style games with a small team. Not unlike Amiga development back then.

There's still stuff like XNA development for Xbox360 that you definitely need a
fast PC for. For e.g. to run a windows emulation under a LinuX system equals way
too much hassle and speed loss. Also I still do my online gaming on Windows
machines.

The Amiga may no longer be used by professionals anymore for such tasks but that's what a PC or Mac is for.

I dream about changing this, I really do

I'm still pussled, you describe what sounds like an ordinary barebone PC system and then you write that it doesn't already exist?

Well, you are most welcome to show me a silent high end PC System in a design that somehow resembles Yoz ones :knuddel:
and is compatible to my specs (including a custom boot loader and supporting community) and runs OS X
'out of the box'. (read without fiddeling kexts and in auto update mode).

What most folks at sites like OSx86 build is all too often a neverending re-configuration marathon.
Personally I need both Windows 7 as well as OS X. I would probably enjoy working every now and then
on some Linux distro that aims specifically at the Amiga community.

One big advantage for a 'chameleon system' as described would be the user base and the knowledge transfer
as many people would have the same initial configuration. Hmmmm, chameleon sounds like an excellent name btw

The one proposed OS X driver disk for not so computer savvy people, would make some people I work with order
an Amiga today. Sometimes it is those little things that make all the difference.

Yeah, the backbone of an Amiga would be a hand-selected collection of commodity hardware parts coupled with
excellent design. It would not be about custom chips like Xena or fancy exotic processors, nor about one specific OS.
Though Aros could become a viable alternative to the Linux distro one day.

Speaking of design, some people buy Kenwood others buy Bang & Olufsen. Some buy Alienware towers,
some buy Amigas There is a proven market for people who value good design.
Maybe it's time for C=USA to think about a different business model approach.
Ferrari wouldn't sell you a chassis without an engine either.