Companies today with Amiga-like magic

[dandelion]

I know that Commodore was not without its fault (ahem!) but every time I watch Deathbed Vigil I'm struck by the dedication and sheer passion the teams had for the Amiga and Commodore. Perhaps it was a different, simpler time, where people felt a greater tribal loyalty to the company they worked at, to the point where it was a large part of their identity and gave them significant meaning in life. Perhaps today people have more individualised searches for meaning and identities are far more complex and varied - multitudes of threads combined in a multitude of ways. Are there companies today which engender the same passion from their staff to the products they create?

[duga]

Apple?
Tesla?

[ExiE_]

Apple?
Tesla?

Apple is right opposite of Commodore and Amiga. Apple has %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty overpriced products and great marketing.

Commodore used to have great product (Amiga) and %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty marketing...

[Iggy]

Apple is right opposite of Commodore and Amiga. Apple has %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty overpriced products and great marketing.

Commodore used to have great product (Amiga) and %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty marketing...

Amiga pricing wasn't that kind either.
Although you're right about Commodore marketing, it really sucked.

[tonyvdb]

Newtek, they supported the Amiga years after its production ended with hardware like The video Toaster/flyer and groundbreaking software like Lightwave 3D. They are still in business selling PC based video editing hardware and software including Lightwave 3D. They dont get nearly as much credit as they should. They even did repairs to video toaster hardware for no cost till about 5 years ago when they finally ran out of parts.

[NorthWay]

I'll go out on a limb and say that if you look at "cleverness"(which I think the Amiga had plenty of) then I'm keeping an eager eye on Mill Computing and what they (hopefully) will come up with.

Having watched all(?) their presentations it feels like one of those times when everything fits with everything else. I hope none of the big CPU companies buy them out before they bring something to market.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I would say anything Elon Musk touches. Even just reading the Wikipedia summary about him makes him sound like a gosh-darn American Hero.

Disclaimer: I own stock in Tesla, lol. :laugh1:

[HaukeVB]

Apple is right opposite of Commodore and Amiga. Apple has %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty overpriced products and great marketing.

Commodore used to have great product (Amiga) and %&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!ty marketing...

I disagree... in the sense that the question was about loyalty. So in that context, Apple certainly fits. In terms of ethics and products you are right, of course.

Also, I hate to admit it, but employees of Microsoft always make my head spin, when it comes to company loyalty...

Yet, nothing beats the Amiga comunity... Heck, Commodore has been dead for so many years and I bet most of us would jump at a chance to work for them...

[JimmiG]

Amiga was such a small team, though. I mean how many people work on the latest iPhone, compared to something like the Amiga 1000? All Amigas were designed by small, dedicated teams, mostly because Commodore didn't want to spend anything on R&D.

These days, it's not a small group of pioneers changing the world of technology. You're just another expendable worker drone in a huge mega-corporation like Google, MS or Apple. No one will ask you to put your signature inside the latest iPad or Surface or whatever. If you leave, there will be hundreds ready to take your place.

[psxphill]

Amiga was such a small team, though. I mean how many people work on the latest iPhone, compared to something like the Amiga 1000? All Amigas were designed by small, dedicated teams, mostly because Commodore didn't want to spend anything on R&D.

These days, it's not a small group of pioneers changing the world of technology. You're just another expendable worker drone in a huge mega-corporation like Google, MS or Apple. No one will ask you to put your signature inside the latest iPad or Surface or whatever. If you leave, there will be hundreds ready to take your place.

The A1000 was mostly designed before commodore bought them & so the lack of R&D money wasn't commodores fault. From listening to the stories from the people who were there, I get the impression that commodore provided them with more money than they had ever seen for R&D.

The A500 was probably the last money well spent by commodore though & it caused a permanent rift between Amiga and commodore. After that they started pouring money into AAA, which was never going to be good.

More people worked on the A1000 than we have heard from & Apple just buy in all the components anyway. So it's kinda hard to compare, but if you did try then you should include the people who worked on the 68000 and the 8520's as well.

It's not such a small team & not all of them got their signature on the case. But yeah the marketing outside the UK sucked (in the UK it was good enough for a while).

[kirk_m]

I think most of the magic from those days (regardless of what brand you had, except maybe lame IBM) was because home computing was new.  It was a novelty.  Not everyone had one.  If you had one, you were in the minority, and, thought of as maybe a little weird.  Nowadays, if you don't have a computer, you're viewed as a little weird.

[wawrzon]

Amiga pricing wasn't that kind either.
Although you're right about Commodore marketing, it really sucked.

Im not so sure. Commodore was successful in implying that amiga is something special, something for "creative minds". The release involving an appointment of andrzej warhola and deborah harry speaks lenths about it i think. Till today amiga users, or people who consider themselves to be that, think of them as being something special. Id call it deep implied indoctrination contrary to some shortsighted propaganda. It has even survived decades after the decline of the company.

[EugeneNine]

I know others have already disagreed with me in another thread but current (non-mainstream distro) Linux.  The same 'here is all the design, go hack it' is still alive.

[Jpan1]

I think back then, computing was at the beginning of it's journey and the new possibilities, with the imagination and skills of the original Commodore team made a great community project. Apart from the marketing side of things, the word caught on that the Amiga is a capable machine offering amazings spec at that time!

Computing nowadays seems to be more homogenized, with a hotch-potch of basically the same features with a few variations and advancments now and then.

[QuikSanz]

I think back then, computing was at the beginning of it's journey and the new possibilities, with the imagination and skills of the original Commodore team made a great community project. Apart from the marketing side of things, the word caught on that the Amiga is a capable machine offering amazings spec at that time!

Computing nowadays seems to be more homogenized, with a hotch-potch of basically the same features with a few variations and advancments now and then.

Your right. Back in the day the A1000 became the target of everyone, MS, Apple were gunning for the ingenuity that made it what it was.