AmigaOS 4.0 makes Wired News!

[mikeymike]

Genesi did not, an individual did.

The CEO of Genesi has been here slagging off on various subjects before.

If you work at McDonald's, are you not allowed to have an opinion on the whopper in a public forum?

If McDonalds and Burger King were two small companies, whose reputations could be easily damaged by irresponsible employee comments, I would say no.

I have never even dreamed of publicly slating a competitor of any company that I have ever worked for.

[redrumloa]

It is not even fact! AmigaOS4 was never promised for 2003 afaik....

The world outside of the Amiga community doesn't know the internal politics and dates promised. It was promised originally for release in 2001 by Amiga Inc IIRC.

[alx]

I hope this doesn't digress into a nasty thread

Trust me, it will :roll:  And if it didn't, someone's posted it as "news" anyway ;-)

But hey, it's your first post - welcome to A.org :pint:

[redrumloa]

The CEO of Genesi has been in here slagging this that and the other off before.

And Fleecy/Bill have done the exact same thing, slagging their competitor. My point is Nate is no high level employee, and it's pure coincidence that his feedback was chosen for the article.

I have never even dreamed of publicly slating a competitor of any company that I have ever worked for.

Again, he wasn't speaking as a Genesi rep but as a user. Why can't he speak as a user? That same argument has used against the moderating crew here at Amiga.org. You work for a site names "Amiga.org", how dare you speak a personal opinion that does not bow only to Amiga Inc?

[Targhan]

Okay, I work for Genesi, and I learned of this from Nate, who was
rather upset that they had quoted his email (out of the number they
recieved).  He didn't twist their arm to quote him, he only told his
personal opinion, and was not writing that email on the behalf of
Genesi.

If the bag-boy at Safeway says that Winn-Dixie's store-brand soda
sucks does it mean very much?  We aren't talking about Genesi's
president, COO, or spokesperson.  He happens to work with us.  It is
not a requirement at Genesi to "check your opinion at the door."  He
has his opinion, and is entitled to it.  Genesi didn't get this thing
published, Wired did.  Do I think he made a mistake in judgement?  Of
coarse I do.  Do I think he should be nailed to the proverbial cross?
No, but I'm betting someone from Genesi will be all in his face
anyway....


@Nate
No, I don't consider you our bag boy.  I was just making a point that
you aren't the CEO or the company spokesperson.

[returning to lurk mode]

[KennyR]

Tomas wrote:
I never heard about that, but indeed this is wrong too, if this is infact true. I really still doubt that Alan posted this to a public news site, as Genesi here did...

He said it, in person, and it was recorded into mpg for everyone to watch and listen.

And Genesi did not post this. Nate Downes did. There is a world of difference.

And you can't hurt Amiga by posting the truth. If the truth hurts Amiga, then hurting it is unavoidable except by lying.

It is not even fact! AmigaOS4 was never promised for 2003 afaik....

It was. Several times.

[JoannaK]

What I consider a**-backward is that all these people seem to forget that OS4 was having same spot on the same vaporware list year ago. So this has nothing to do with any comment Downix has made. Blame Vired-site people for considering it waporware, if you'll can't take it as it is.

IMHO it's still a somewhat comforting to see it on list of Wapor .... At least some people still do care about OS4 and it's potelntial delivery.

[mikeymike]

And Fleecy/Bill have done the exact same thing, slagging their competitor.

See my first post to this thread.  I criticised all the major players in the Amiga business for doing that.

Again, he wasn't speaking as a Genesi rep but as a user. Why can't he speak as a user?

See what I wrote about your McDonalds example.  If he wants to speak out about a competitor, he should go with some level of anonymity, so his comments can't possibly be associated with the company he works for.

Why do you suppose a lot of companies nowadays have 2KB sigs with legal notices in, along the lines of seperating the company from the employee in case he says anything stupid?

That same argument has used against the moderating crew here at Amiga.org.

Can if you like.  Have you heard me publicly slate Amigaworld.net before?  (I don't think I've slated them in private either, but anyway :-))

You work for a site names "Amiga.org", how dare you speak a personal opinion that does not bow only to Amiga Inc?

I think that's a bit of an apples and oranges example, but the long and short of it is, we're not affiated with Amiga Inc.

[redrumloa]

Can if you like. Have you heard me publicly slate Amigaworld.net before?

I didn't say you had, but I know moderators and other staff members have posted personal opinions on many occasions, myself included when I was a mod. Quite a few times the offending person was nailed to the cross by the foaming at the mouth masses.

I think that's a bit of an apples and oranges example, but the long and short of it is, we're not affiated with Amiga Inc.

It's comparing green apples to red apples. As far as many are concerned you should not be allowed to have a personal opinion because this is an "Amiga" fan site. I can point to plenty of examples from the recent past.

[Troels_E]

Nate's opinion or company smear? Who cares, his statements are _not correct_ anyway.

Anyway if he's still working at Genesi I must say he fits perfectly to the style BB had (on ANN) earlier on.

[mikeymike]

redrumloa wrote:

Can if you like. Have you heard me publicly slate Amigaworld.net before?

I didn't say you had, but I know moderators and other staff members have posted personal opinions on many occasions, myself included when I was a mod. Quite a few times the offending person was nailed to the cross by the foaming at the mouth masses.

I post my personal opinions here more often than not as well, but I don't see what this has to do with what we're talking about.  The only fair comparison would be "AO and AW.NET", and I certainly haven't indulged, because I don't think it's the right thing to do.

I think that's a bit of an apples and oranges example, but the long and short of it is, we're not affiated with Amiga Inc.

It's comparing green apples to red apples. As far as many are concerned you should not be allowed to have a personal opinion because this is an "Amiga" fan site. I can point to plenty of examples from the recent past.

Adding to your hypothetical situation (because otherwise I don't think the compliant is in the slightest bit valid), say for example if Amiga Inc were providing the resources to host this site, then I wouldn't think it would be the right thing to do to be slating them publicly, unless I had got an agreement from them that anyone involved in the running of the site can express their opinions no matter what, and also to have a notice saying that the people who maintain the website are not affiliated with Amiga Inc.  Though if it were me responsible for such a potential situation, I think I'd decline anyway, because seperation from any potentially conflicting elements should be crystal clear.

[bloodline]

Troels_E wrote:
Nate's opinion or company smear? Who cares, his statements are _not correct_ anyway.

Anyway if he's still working at Genesi I must say he fits perfectly to the style BB had (on ANN) earlier on.

Then why not point out the "wrong" parts of Nate's comments to redress the balance?

PS I know this is a trick question :-)

[DanDude]

That's something I REALLY didn't want to see.  I'm afraid that I have to update my address book to reduce one entry.  *shakes head*

[Troels_E]

"pre-alpha".. No, actually Beta versions have been shown and are distributed to the beta testers a long time ago.

"Mai reference motherboard" In my opinion what is sold is not the Mai reference board, it is the same design but produced elsewhere thus not a Mai board.
Same goes for (example) videocards based on same reference design but produced at diffrent factories, they are not sold as ATI reference cards but as Sapphire, Club-3D, Asus,GeCube and other brand names.

[Ilwrath]

Hmm.... I shouldn't get into this.  Ah well... what the heck?

Basically, the comments were correct, if a little exaggerated.

Pre-alpha vs. Beta versions.... What's in a name?  Technically, of course, you're right.  They're Beta versions, because that is what the official Amiga reps are calling them.  What makes a Beta over a Alpha or even a Pre-Alpha, though?  Well, that depends on who you ask.  There hasn't been a demo of OS4 close enough to my location for me to visit and make a determination of how far along they are to chime in my 2c worth.  Suffice it to say AmigaOS 4 is not in a shippable state, though.  Hence, calling it a Pre-Alpha may be an exaggeration, but not wholly inaccurate, either.

Mai reference board.  I think there is a translation issue here.  What is being sold is EXACTLY a Mai reference board, afaik.  What a REFERENCE BOARD means is that it is produced exactly to the OEM REFERENCE DESIGN.  My GeForce4Ti by Chaintech is a REFERENCE nVidia GeForce4Ti board, because Chaintech made no modifications of their own to the nVidia design before they manufactured it.  They simply manufacture copies of nVidia's base design.  It is sold as a Chaintech, because they manufactured it, but it is still properly referred to as an nVidia reference board.

As for the rest of it.... Really, Amiga has degraded into a running joke, like Duke Nukem Forever.  This marks at least the third time Amiga has made the list.  It was #2 in 1999, and #9 in both 2002 and 2003.  

1999 awards

2002 awards

[Warface]

No, actually Beta versions have been shown and are distributed to the beta testers a long time ago.

Not that it matters, but out of curiosity, how can you tell apart a demoed alpha or beta version?

Learning from past threads, it seems OS4 betatester team has a pretty much different definition of "beta" than the rest of the world.