The main complaint from most non-X1000 owners seems to be that the X1000 is too expensive for them to afford, and the addition of Xena/Xorro has added to this already too high price tag, even if the additional cost is minimal (according to A-Eon statements). Custom hardware in low quantities will always be expensive, compared to similar performance high volume mainstream products, that is just the way it will always be.
Then there is the complaint that nothing has been done so far by any of the X1000 owners, so the Xena/Xorro must be useless. This argument does not hold water with me, as there are quite a few people using XMOS chips for hobby projects all over the world, so we know that the chip is useful in some applications.
Lastly, many people complain that having the XMOS chip on the motherboard offers no improvement than using a stand alone XMOS development board via USB connection could provide, so why include it on the motherboard? That statement may remain to be true for an unknown amount of time into the future, as we cannot predict what will be done with Xena/Xorro in the future, or if having it on the motherboard will be any different than using a stand alone development XMOS board via USB connection. So, only time will tell if that argument is valid, or not.
One argument I don't agree with is the argument that it serves no purpose, as that is highly subjective. Several X1000 owners are thinking of different ways in which to use the Xena/Xorro interface and processor, but have just not had the time to work on such projects yet, myself included. People who don't own and have no desire to purchase an X1000 can easily say how uninteresting and useless a thing is, and for them, it is true, but for us owners of X1000 systems, that statement is not true. Use and promote what you like to use, but why do a few of you who have no interest in the X1000, or X5000 feel so compelled to try to drag it down with your own opinions? Do you see other users trying to do the same to your favorite platform or hardware? I don't, or at least I don't see it very often.
I guess the main reason for this is that most people here want their own vision of a NG Amiga system, but they don't have the resources or will to make it happen, but feel entitled to criticize any other attempts for not fulfilling their standards, or dreams for the future. If you are not interested in the direction that A-Eon has taken, look elsewhere and enjoy a different path, but why spend so much time and effort trying to discredit, defame, or tear down other peoples work, when those people are not so different than yourselves, and they try to do the best they can, even though their choices may not be the same as the ones you would make in their shoes?
Criticism is not a bad thing when it is constructive and helpful, but I see little of that type of criticism going on here in this thread.
Edit: One last thing that I must comment on is the message previously in this thread that compares using Xena/Xorro on AmigaOS4.x with a slower tool set, when the same development work could be done better and faster on a PC using the free and excellent tools provided by XMOS. That argument could be applied to anything we do on any of our Amiga or Amiga inspired systems. I don't think there is one thing that can't be done better or faster on a PC, but here we all are still after all these years, using our Amiga and Amiga inspired systems. We do it because we enjoy it!
