CommodoreUSA CEO Interview Answers

[Digiman]

1) I think Barry has given a fair and balanced interview. He is being pretty honest here IMHO and is hiding nothing here save any legal trade agreements they have with their business partners AFAIK….

He failed to answer some key questions, and his rebuke in each case was childish and unprofessional but evasive in those instances.

2) He is being realistic about the market situation and for the company in general - that for a reborn Commodore to survive, it has to make products that are relevant to the market and on-par tech wise with the best that is out there. Being Linux and Windows-compatible is one way to secure that future (or at least the funds for that future). Though not agreeing with 'legacy Amiga purists' going the x86 route now is the most logically sound route for the company at present.

We stated the bare minimum was for something akin to the effort put into C64x. A freely engraved case purchased from Wesena China is not remotely anything Amiga related and the i7 based motherboard is AROS incompatible.

Commodore OS is a complete joke. Linux and ugly skin is nothing to do with any Amiga OS. If it can't run Amiga source code natively with zero emulation as Amithlon or AROS do on x86 hardware is certainly isn't anything remotely related to the Amiga.

3) Had made some points which are very logical from a business perspective (which again may upset some Amiga fans here) but is the truth. Computers have come a long way since the Amiga days of producing customized chips, and the parts today are pretty much commoditized. To go against what the general market wants is financial suicide.

The only thing Mr BS is doing is pointing out he has nothing more than an AROS incompatible Linux box with a licensed Amiga logo engraved for free on Wesena HTPC mini ITX cases.

We don't want to buy such a machine which has nothing to do with Amiga in any way at all from any possible perspective anyone who ever used/owned/wanted an Amiga will have.

Even MorphOS, OS4 and AROS boxes aren't technically Amiga machines just a development to allow AHI/RTG system software to run without actual UAE/WinUAE emulation.

4) interesting points have been made in regards to how 'he sees' the Amiga brand, namely that it is a performance brand, and the old ideas were simply 'a concept'. In this day and age somehow he is right about it I feel….you don't see people using customized chipsets anymore save retro sites like A.org…..

His Amiga Mini has zero expansion capabilities and very sub standard graphics horsepower. So if we are going to talk about conceptual re-imagining of a machine then this 100% reliance on the fast i7 CPU to make up for lack of graphical hardware acceleration of the low end GPU on the motherboard (and no space to add a $400 PCI-E graphics card in that case) then what he has created is a virtual Atari Mega ST at best.

Like we said HTPC forces you to use on board sub optimal GPU in the machine's casing and this leads to a PC that will be basically the same as an off the shelf $400 PC performance wise. If he had thought this out better he would have chosen AMD technology with superior GPU performance built into the CPU cores on a single chip. Or of course built an A1000/A3000 case and allowed room for people to put extremely powerful graphics cards in such machines. As it stands the technical limitations of the Amiga Mini computer make it suitable only for little teenage girls who spend all day on Windows Live Messenger or Facebook or Youtube and may run a copy of Barbie and Ken. Your Amiga Mini will not even run the 2005 game of the year Battlefield 2. Your specs, CPU aside, are actually circa 2003

ergo everything he said was a load of BS and this is because all he can afford to do is sell rubbish HTPC machines for excessively high price with a free engraving service to make the most of uncle Bill's license to use the brand!

To be fair, after looking at the answers after his reply, I think the Amiga community in general I think is being too harsh on his company, and being too pessimistic about certain things a little too early. He has said he is a small company slowly working to rebuild the Commodore and Amiga brands. As  Leo has mentioned many times before Rome wasn't built in a day…..

CUSA I believe is doing things right - it's not doing anything 'wrong' except maybe have slightly more expensive offerings in some product lines to Apple? But even then it's coming down cheap.
I just heard they launched the new Vic Mini the other day….and that's a completely new product to the last one (which I remembered was similar to the Amiga Mini)….

We are not being harsh, the only bad mouthed delusional people around this place are the secret C=USA groupies that hang round here lately.

Their cases are badly chosen, the design nothing to do with Amiga case designs any time between 1985 and 1994, the limited expandibility of chosen cases embarrassing (no chance of PCI cards in there), their motherboard choice is not even compatible with AROS.

So you tell me, how is anything he has done not anything I couldn't have done in an afternoons work? And we are supposed to be interested?

The gospel of B[ull]S[hit] is not worshipped here. And his groupies (or him in disguise) coming here and insulting people will not help his cause.

1. Amigans wouldn't use the Amiga Mini for a doorstop.
2. Regular Joe Public would not pay the price for that, rather an ASUS EEE PC

My take on this is that the C64x was a commercial disaster for him due to the bespoke case and custom keyboard and now his anger and lack of available cash has forced him to selotape an Amiga logo on an unsuitable chinese HTPC computer and he is angry this will also be a failure.

Had he bothered to make even just an A500/1200 style case and use a standard PC full size keyboard in there and sold those two parts together at a reasonable price he may have a viable business. As it stands OTHER people will do a better job than him of this and it may be that this is all people are interested in due to the need to have suitable business contacts to produce such esoteric items today in a world of Dell/ASUS PCs for peanuts at PC World.

Amiga Mini is neither

1. Unique looking.
2. Unique in hardware under the case.
3. Unique in ability to run Amiga related OS like AROS
4. Keenly priced
5. Anything that people who have two hands couldn't build for half the price identically

RIP C=USA. I give them 12 months before the whole thing shuts down due to bad management and product selection giving rise to death of his business.

My advice to them, and this is coming from someone who has sold over 2000 computers to earn my living before I have any more business lessons lol, is to discount the C64x and start promoting it.

Lack of 9 pin joystick to USB adaptors aside it is the only product they have which is remotely saleable and the only issue potentially interested parties have is the price. So drop the price by 40% and they might stave off bankruptcy.

[Darrin]

@ Wildstar128

In summary:

How C-USA views the Amiga community:


How the Amiga community views C-USA and its henchmen:

[WotTheFook]

@ Wildstar / Middleman and all of the other "CUSA Defence League" members...

(I'd love to see a film made with that title LOL)

Have you tried introducing Barry to a Market Research course? If not, some of his cash that is going down the gurgler at a rate of knots may be well spent in hiring some market researchers before it's too late....

Here's a hint for free; Eskimoes don't need freezers.....

[Wildstar128]

Thank you for this pearl.

First you state you have no connection to C-USA.  Then you admit you met Barry and now you try and tell us that you have detailed information regarding their sales.

So, are you lying that you have a business (or soon to be) business connection with C-USA?

Are you lying when you say you are certain they sold all 10,000 units (unlike teh 100,000 figure they had thrown around)?

Let me give you the benefit of the doubt here.  I think you're lying on both account.  I believe you are hoping to open a Commodore franchise and I believe you have no proof whatsoever that 10,000 C64x computers were sold.

In short, you, Middleman and Dammy are here under orders to try and do some damage repair and you're urinating into the wind.

Still, at least you're entertaining.  Every post you guys make just opens up more and more holes in the C-USA sage of lies.  Keep it up.  Everything you say will be taken down and used in evidence against you.  

How about actually read what I said instead of changing it. Quote exactly what I said.

I do not work for them. What does that say? I am not an employee of CommodoreUSA. I said I talked to Barry. Talked can mean over the phone. I talked to him because of 1) curiosity, 2) get an idea of how things are going, 3) as it maybe, I may endeavor to do business with. NOTE: Don't make assumptions as nothing is decided on and additionally, Don't assume what that maybe.

For me, this is not about me making money or being paid. There has never been a paycheck of any kind.  I simply don't support the ignorant, distorted statements from this forum.

The fact is, you distrorted what I said. You made claims out of what I said that is not what I said.

I have challenged you guys to make a serious proposal that makes sense business wise to support Commodore and Amiga users that can answer concerns of bank lenders and the likes. Do any of you ever done that? I am pretty sure the banks aren't just going to willy nilly give you $10k, $100k, $1 million, or $10 Million for R&D research unless you answer some serious questions on a financial level. This is what is known as speculative. Your investing someone elses money in hopes of more but at least break even. Doing this is akin very much to speculative housing development. Some of the same financial framework is involved. Certainly there are differences in the technical aspects but on the overall framework, it is a gamble. What do you have as equity to offset if you fall short. These are big deals and this is also where the lawsuits comes into play.

If you understand that, then I would expect there to be some sort of real, serious and professional proposal documents with cited research.

[WotTheFook]

How C-USA sees The Amiga Community, versus how we see CUSA; can you work out which is which...??

[commodorejohn]

This is what is known as speculative.

Coming from you, of all people, this is pretty hilarious. Got any numbers to back up your guesses yet?

[Wildstar128]

i7 is just x86-64. How is AROS incompatible to the i7.

AROS already has drivers that runs on every video card since 2000 at least and when standardize 16 Million color video modes at every standard SVGA video modes vs. Wide screen which needs adjustments.

Basically, you will simply get un-optimized video output. I wouldn't call it incompatible but then AROS is barely PC compatible to begin with given the lack of drivers and slow development which isn't bad for a small group but you don't have the resource and drivers.

In fact, I booted AROS within the windows computer at the college computers here and I believe they are i7 but maybe just the dual core models.

He failed to answer some key questions, and his rebuke in each case was childish and unprofessional but evasive in those instances.

We stated the bare minimum was for something akin to the effort put into C64x. A freely engraved case purchased from Wesena China is not remotely anything Amiga related and the i7 based motherboard is AROS incompatible.

Commodore OS is a complete joke. Linux and ugly skin is nothing to do with any Amiga OS. If it can't run Amiga source code natively with zero emulation as Amithlon or AROS do on x86 hardware is certainly isn't anything remotely related to the Amiga.

The only thing Mr BS is doing is pointing out he has nothing more than an AROS incompatible Linux box with a licensed Amiga logo engraved for free on Wesena HTPC mini ITX cases.

We don't want to buy such a machine which has nothing to do with Amiga in any way at all from any possible perspective anyone who ever used/owned/wanted an Amiga will have.

Even MorphOS, OS4 and AROS boxes aren't technically Amiga machines just a development to allow AHI/RTG system software to run without actual UAE/WinUAE emulation.

His Amiga Mini has zero expansion capabilities and very sub standard graphics horsepower. So if we are going to talk about conceptual re-imagining of a machine then this 100% reliance on the fast i7 CPU to make up for lack of graphical hardware acceleration of the low end GPU on the motherboard (and no space to add a $400 PCI-E graphics card in that case) then what he has created is a virtual Atari Mega ST at best.

Like we said HTPC forces you to use on board sub optimal GPU in the machine's casing and this leads to a PC that will be basically the same as an off the shelf $400 PC performance wise. If he had thought this out better he would have chosen AMD technology with superior GPU performance built into the CPU cores on a single chip. Or of course built an A1000/A3000 case and allowed room for people to put extremely powerful graphics cards in such machines. As it stands the technical limitations of the Amiga Mini computer make it suitable only for little teenage girls who spend all day on Windows Live Messenger or Facebook or Youtube and may run a copy of Barbie and Ken. Your Amiga Mini will not even run the 2005 game of the year Battlefield 2. Your specs, CPU aside, are actually circa 2003
(-- snip --)
We are not being harsh, the only bad mouthed delusional people around this place are the secret C=USA groupies that hang round here lately.

Lack of 9 pin joystick to USB adaptors aside it is the only product they have which is remotely saleable and the only issue potentially interested parties have is the price. So drop the price by 40% and they might stave off bankruptcy.

[Darrin]

How about actually read what I said instead of changing it. Quote exactly what I said.

I do not work for them. What does that say? I am not an employee of CommodoreUSA. I said I talked to Barry. Talked can mean over the phone. I talked to him because of 1) curiosity, 2) get an idea of how things are going, 3) as it maybe, I may endeavor to do business with. NOTE: Don't make assumptions as nothing is decided on and additionally, Don't assume what that maybe.

For me, this is not about me making money or being paid. There has never been a paycheck of any kind.  I simply don't support the ignorant, distorted statements from this forum.

The fact is, you distrorted what I said. You made claims out of what I said that is not what I said.

I have challenged you guys to make a serious proposal that makes sense business wise to support Commodore and Amiga users that can answer concerns of bank lenders and the likes. Do any of you ever done that? I am pretty sure the banks aren't just going to willy nilly give you $10k, $100k, $1 million, or $10 Million for R&D research unless you answer some serious questions on a financial level. This is what is known as speculative. Your investing someone elses money in hopes of more but at least break even. Doing this is akin very much to speculative housing development. Some of the same financial framework is involved. Certainly there are differences in the technical aspects but on the overall framework, it is a gamble. What do you have as equity to offset if you fall short. These are big deals and this is also where the lawsuits comes into play.

If you understand that, then I would expect there to be some sort of real, serious and professional proposal documents with cited research.

How about you listen to us instead.  95% of what you type is irrelevant and you've now passed the point where we don't believe a word you say.

[WotTheFook]

@ WildSpeculation128

Do you work in CUSA's Marketing or Accounting departments, by any chance...??

The crucial bit that Barry is missing is his Business Plan. "This time next year, we'll all be millionaires" isn't a business plan. Neither is charging $$$$ for overpriced rebranded stuff that you can get via eBay.

When you can get CUSA to come back from Fantasy Island, maybe you can get Barry to move beyond his 'concept' and 'vision' and get him to explain his business plan to us. You know, the plan that got him the funding to try and sell what he's done so far?

We don't need to explain it - CUSA does, though....

Other than that, GTFO.

[Wildstar128]

@ WildSpeculation128

Do you work in CUSA's Marketing or Accounting departments, by any chance...??

The crucial bit that Barry is missing is his Business Plan. "This time next year, we'll all be millionaires" isn't a business plan. Neither is charging $$$$ for overpriced rebranded stuff that you can get via eBay.

When you can get CUSA to come back from Fantasy Island, maybe you can get Barry to move beyond his 'concept' and 'vision' and get him to explain his business plan to us.

Other than that, GTFO.

I am not leaving this forum because you guys distort everything everyone says.

I have listen to you guys bull**** since 2003 since Tulip, Yeahronimo, and all the other guys. You guys can't ever be happy unless you owned the brand yourselves and will be literally killing each other. Grow up you sweaty, buttcrack showing, eating cold pizza and drinking jolt with your 1980s punk hair do while growing a beard techno-washouts.

I know you are tired of companies using the brand. If you want it... Buy it and do as you wish. Until then, play with your toys and be content. This forum and the whole Amiga community doesn't need anymore bull**** rants about Commodore USA.

Mods lock this thread. Lets agree to have no more inverviews on this forum about CommodoreUSA. No more discussing them exceptmfor within the designated subforums.
Ok.

Again Mods, lock this thread.





Either support CUSA or don't. Just stop being *******s to them.

[Darrin]

I am not leaving this forum because you guys distort everything everyone says.

I have listen to you guys bull**** since 2003 since Tulip, Yeahronimo, and all the other guys. You guys can't ever be happy unless you owned the brand yourselves and will be literally killing each other. Grow up you sweaty, buttcrack showing, eating cold pizza and drinking jolt with your 1980s punk hair do while growing a beard techno-washouts.

I know you are tired of companies using the brand. If you want it... Buy it and do as you wish. Until then, play with your toys and be content. This forum and the whole Amiga community doesn't need anymore bull**** rants about Commodore USA.

Mods lock this thread. Lets agree to have no more inverviews on this forum about CommodoreUSA. No more discussing them exceptmfor within the designated subforums.
Ok.

Again Mods, lock this thread.

Either support CUSA or don't. Just stop being *******s to them.

LOL.  Is it 3am again?

I think you mean that we've caught you out (just like the rest of the C-USA drones) and now your teddie is being thrown into the corner.

Thanks for coming.

Thanks for trying to insult us.

Thanks for putting C-USA deeper into the poop.

[Duce]

Enough of the personal insults.  Just enough.  If you want to view a differing viewpoint, do it in a civil fashion.  You aren't going to "convert the heathens" here.  The "Heathens" are quite happy with their little retro hobby, cold pizza and Jolt.

It's beyond me why a mod hasn't banned your account for the personal insults/abuse factors.

Laughable really.  At least when Franko was going off the rails and being abusive, he was factual and funny.  You are just being an abusive bore.

[Wildstar128]

The rest of the Amiga community that is doing something other then making b.s. Noise, congrats to you for keeping out of the noise and actually doing stuff.

[Darrin]

The rest of the Amiga community that is doing something other then making b.s. Noise, congrats to you for keeping out of the noise and actually doing stuff.

I thought you had gone.

[number6]

Mods lock this thread. Lets agree to have no more inverviews on this forum about CommodoreUSA. No more discussing them exceptmfor within the designated subforums.
Ok.

Again Mods, lock this thread.

see the problem?

Apparently, BillP, TeddG, and Karlos all have differing ideas on how to administer this topic.


#6

[WotTheFook]

I am not leaving this forum because you guys distort everything everyone says.

I mean this is a constructive way, believe me.

CUSA have not been without their own share of distortions and truth-bending. The question that needs answering is this one; who distorted the truth first...??