No really, I do support commodore usa.

[haywirepc]

If my previous posts about CUSA were rather mean spirited and harsh (yes they were) then I officially apologise.
 
I suppose I'm rather passionate about the legacy of commodore and amiga after all these are/were my favorite computers of all time and I'm a huge fan of them.
 
We've all also been through how many hucksters, con artists, scammers and people looking to make a quick buck off the corpse of amiga. (Some asshole still owes me a t-shirt!) I always called them amiga's grave robbers. When this all came about, it seemed like just another scammer.
Part of that perception was their own fault. They made some really bad decisions early on, but I forgive them, its not worth the energy to hold a grudge. I hope they will much more carefully consider the words they choose and the actions they take going forward.
 
Why the change of attitude?
 
I was reminded by someone kind of on their side how passionate he too is about amiga. With that huge passion for amiga in common, why wouldn't I also support their efforts? Even if they fail horribly, at least they are trying to do something. No matter what you think of their plans, at least they are going in a different route than every other camp. It may succeed, it may fail, but at least its their own choice. (Like it or not as their CTO says)
 
There is also the issue of the continual lag that all amiga flavors have. (5+ years behind other modern OS)
 
Os3.1 api compattible? Thats great but there are 2,4,6,8,12,16 even 32 core processors on the market or about to be. What should I do just ignore all but one core because people want to remain using an api that is how old now?
 
Something like gobolinux stripped down, optimized and a new amiga like gui placed on top? Thats has a much better chance of suiting all my computing needs. I basically am running something similar to what CUSA plans for my daily computing needs. Its very stripped down and slick and fast, has drivers for EVERYTHING, looks like amiga, and feels more responsive than most any linux out there. I'm just one nerd, so if I can do that and make something really decent, why couldn't someone with the time, money and resources making something like that but ALOT better?
 
So I say I support their efforts, so long as they play nice with everyone in amiga land who is trying to keep the amiga alive. I will reserve all my comments until they ship something worth talking about. If its bad, I'll tell you what I think for sure, but no more slamming them for stupid mistakes they have made. I'm pretty sure they mean well...
 
I would encourage them to offer their "workbench" as a seperate product and not force people to buy their hardware just to get it. If they do that, which I think they may be forced to by gpl, then I'm all for it.
 
Even if amigans don't like most of what they do with that, perhaps someone else can use parts of it to make something better?
 
 
Steven

[gazgod]

**Applause**

Well said.

Gaz

[XDelusion]

Ya, I love the new C64 casing, it's awesome! It's the WorkBench 5, and the "Finally Amiga is doing something" rhetoric that I find unsettling.

As for the past, creating generic pages, ripped material from other pages, using non-existent mock ups and listing them as products to be....

...it's like something I would have done in my excitement as an 8 year old, dreaming of owning my own computer production company some day. (well I was more of a nature/native American, skater kid, but you get the idea).

It's that stuff that makes me iffy about this whole deal, but Red's recent adventure does show at least that something is going on that an 8 year old kids does not have the resources or know how to pull off, so to that I give applause, but only a light applause. I'll be more excited when I see a cost effective, solid, working unit for sale.

[SysAdmin]

@haywirepc
 
See, they knew you would have to fall asleep sooner or later and were ready for you.
 

 
Just kidding

[haywirepc]

haha maybe I just drank they cool aid they gave me...

[CSixx]

54% of the people on this site do not care...

[XDelusion]

Well if I'd known they were passing out Electric Kool-Aid...

[haywirepc]

Sorry this post is for the other 46% then. You other 54% well move along, nothing that interests you here.

[RepoOne]

I understand your point of view, but there are some arguments to be made against C-USA. I mean, sure, they are "bringing the Commodore/Amiga back", but are they, really?

From some perspectives, all they are really doing is taking standard x86 PCs and putting a Commodore logo and case around them with a special suite of emulation software pre-installed. Workbench 5.0 sounds interesting, yes, but the question remains of if it will remain true to the old Amiga Workbench.

I mean, really, the whole thing comes down to one's personal opinion of what makes an Amiga an Amiga. Is PowerPC Amiga? Is AROS Amiga? Or is Amiga simply 68k with the custom chipset?

[XDelusion]

Sorry this post is for the other 46% then. You other 54% well move along, nothing that interests you here.

It's a good post really, I'm just trying to be fair. Trust me, if one of those C64 PC's came out, and it was cheap and well built, you bet I'd buy one!!!

[amigasociety]

I understand your point of view, but there are some arguments to be made against C-USA. I mean, sure, they are "bringing the Commodore/Amiga back", but are they, really?

From some perspectives, all they are really doing is taking standard x86 PCs and putting a Commodore logo and case around them with a special suite of emulation software pre-installed. Workbench 5.0 sounds interesting, yes, but the question remains of if it will remain true to the old Amiga Workbench.

I mean, really, the whole thing comes down to one's personal opinion of what makes an Amiga an Amiga. Is PowerPC Amiga? Is AROS Amiga? Or is Amiga simply 68k with the custom chipset?

I have no issue with the direction they are going with this.  In the end, if they actually ship something will tell us all something.  Hope they do.

I slightly compare this to Apple.  OS 9 was getting rEAL old and they needed to do something. Apple purchased NeXT (Or NeXT gobbled up Apple ) and Apple switched to a Unix based OS rather than continue on with OS 9.  I think Apple did a nice job making the switch.  OS 9 was still available for a good amount of time for people to slowly make the change.  Linux could be that simular answer the Amiga platform needs.  Sure Amiga OS 4.x has some cool stuff but at the same time, the OS is real old tech.  I would think they could move some of what makes AmigaOS so nice over into the Linux world and the new AmigaOS"x" could become the power-horse it needs to become to keep the platform growing and moving forward.

Apple did a nice job making OS X for the average joe and maybe someone can make the new Amiga OS that lives on Linux the same.

I mean I would love Amiga OS 4.x on PPC to thrive but from what I have seen in the short time tinkering with Amiga that may not happen.  I am an avid old PPC person since that is what I had on Atari and Mac but even my Macs now are Intel based, Unix based, and they sure work well.  Whether it be on my desktop of my iPad or iPhone.  Similar OS on all it is becoming.

I like some of the CUSA designs and would not mind they do well.

tj

[ElPolloDiabl]

You don't have to support them or not support them. Either you are interested or not.

I'll wait to see if it is a temporary fad or a new Amiga-like/Amiga-inspired branch. The retro case is the only thing that interests me, I doubt anything will come of workbench 5.

If you are thinking long term (including multi-core), stick with AROS. I don't think anybody will invest serious money into Amiga with the current state of computing/consoles/smartphones/tablets.

Of course if something with Amiga printed on it does sell well, maybe some serious investors will become interested.

[danwood]

Amigasociety, I think the big difference between Apple circa-1997 and the Commodore/Amiga brands today, is that Apple didn't have enough to time to be seen as retro or fall out of vogue.

Commodore/Amiga have been out of the public consciousness now for 16 years! A 20-25 year old today has probably never heard of them.  Too much time has passed for these brands to be seen as anything more than a "retro" product, I mention Amiga to any of my friends or on forums and the usual response is laughter, "lol I remember those machines! Lemmings, sensible soccer etc", but they're not taken seriously.

It's a product from an era-gone by, but relaunching Commodore/Amiga is akin to a boy band from the 80s getting back together and trying to be current, it's seen as a bit of a sad joke to most people, they flop and they're back to doing 80s revival gigs in their 40s/50s in nightclubs again within a few months.

Simple fact is, Commodore/Amiga are not cool marketable brands in 2011.

[XDelusion]

Eghh...

I must admit, if they made a Linux distro that booted into an Amiga like environment, and could pretty well self configure itself using and Amiga Forever CD, I'd prolly use it...

...assuming AROS was not an option and that this distro was REALLY resource friendly.

[orb85750]

But CUSA apparently has not heard this cliche quite often enough: Actions speak louder than words.  I'm not sure I've ever heard so much hype related to Amiga -- they've even surpassed Amiga Inc. in a very short time (well, maybe).