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[SysAdmin]

Please note the CEO of CommodoreUSA sent us the answers to the interview @ 11:51 PM EST. The amount of text was too large to post as a news item so I had to get help posting this. Link to full interview listed below.

http://www.discreetfx.com/CEOCommodoreUSAInterview.pdf

[partycentralpartygirl]

Thank you for posting this.

[commodorejohn]

Hey, Transition, mind posting this in a format conducive to copy/paste? It'd make further discussion a million times easier.

Anyway, my question was not answered, so I'll just re-post it in case Barry is lurking about: If a single Amiga fan (i.e. Trevor) can, with his own money, fund the design and production of a whole custom PowerPC board and distribute systems based around it, why can't CUSA accomplish more than selling equally expensive computers made out of commodity PC parts?

[mihcael]

Very long, so i only glanced over a few questions. Seemed to be pretty well written and thought out responses. Doesn't change anything for me though.

[vox]

Originally Posted by Transition

Please note the CEO of CommodoreUSA sent us the answers to the interview @ 11:51 PM EST. The amount of text was too large to post as a news item so I had to get help posting this. Link to full interview listed below.

http://www.discreetfx.com/CEOCommodoreUSAInterview.pdf

Don’t ever assume anything. (Barry)

Its evangelistic, love affair (yet calling critics on virge of psychotic) and no, no, no we`ll do it as we plan thing.
At least NO answers are short and straight. And like every good fairy tale, ends with much love.
Story about Commodore always having its own software is the best.

Only surprise is why discreetfx would be hosting such non-sense

Or the best quote to use back is

I see you are under certain delusions and will leave it at that.

and

The 30 million dollar budget was an invention of the advertising
agency we are no longer affiliated with.

[spirantho]

Originally Posted by mihcael

Very long, so i only glanced over a few questions. Seemed to be pretty well written and thought out responses. Doesn't change anything for me though.

It starts off talking about how he bought more 64s than anyone else, and then quickly descends into marketing speak about how great it is that Commodore and Amiga brands are reunited.
I just read 32 pages of marketing and don't know anything I didn't already.

Nothing to see here, move along please....

p.s. have the servers gone down yet?

[Duce]

A waste of time, as expected. Just more horn tooting, veiled insulting comments about the community, and marketing mumbo jumbo.

Credit where credit is due, at least their word was kept and some questions were answered. Shame the PDF format makes any discussion of individual topics quite difficult, but running it through an online PDF to Text converter yields:

http://pastebin.com/kt9Z6chh

Any formatting errors are due to the PDF to Text converter, so don't blame me - it is a verbatim batch process.

[J-Golden]

Read through most of it and found it to be quite enlightening. I don't think I'd be getting one any time soon, but I now at least understand where CommodoreUSA is coming from, their mind set and what they are trying to achieve.

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by commodorejohn

Hey, Transition, mind posting this in a format conducive to copy/paste? It'd make further discussion a million times easier.

What do you mean? I had no problems doing copy/paste, but if *you* have it, I think it may be *a good thing* for the upcoming discussion!

[Manu]

It was a good read, I have nothing against them/him. I still think a C64X would be cool on my desk, but I'm not that rich so I could buy another computer just for the coolness factor.

[Lurch]

Originally Posted by commodorejohn

Hey, Transition, mind posting this in a format conducive to copy/paste? It'd make further discussion a million times easier.

Puzzled by this, can easily copy and paste from a PDF.

[Duce]

Not all PDF readers copy and paste well.

[OlafS3]

+1

In my views he has clearly stated that he has no interest in the community, has not invested in any camp and will not invest because it is "wasting money". So we now know about their attitudes. Nothing that would make change my mind. Aros is already getting combined with Linux and that is much more amiga and much cheaper than any of their solutions...

[takemehomegrandma]

Thank you for making this effort, Barry!

A long, very enlightening post with lots of info. I believe *all* my questions were answered, and probably all the rest as well (perhaps similar questions may have been grouped together and slightly rephrased).

Anyway, I now know a lot more about you, how you are thinking, your ambitions, etc. This should clear out some misconceptions (and some others won't, since there are a handful of people with an agenda of *inventing* misconceptions and lies surrounding this issue, for some reason). As you said, you hare never taken anything away from anyone, people not interested aren't affected. But still they hate. Strange, perhaps, but we have seen it a lot of times during the last 1.5 decade. We call them "BAF's" (meaning Blind Amiga Followers); people who have an overly emotional relationship to the Amiga(TM) trade mark, way beyond what's healthy, even of a religious proportion some times, where things like rational thinking and common sanity left the building shortly after Commodore (the original one ) went bust.

We hold the AMIGA line with the utmost respect and dignity ... the model’s looks and the famous Commodore and Amiga brands give us some slight advantage in the marketplace ... We are re-releasing computers bearing the famous Commodore and AMIGA brands that many people cut-their-teeth with and loved. Whether you find it interesting is really up to you ... The Commodore and AMIGA brands obviously have the most appeal to those that grew up with those computers, and want something a little different, but not so different so as to be a nuisance.

It will be interesting to see whether you succeed in this. I fear however, that the "brand values" of the Amiga brand is

1) Completely forgotten by most people by now (there hasn't been any viable mainstream products for more than 1.5 decades)
2) More in line with this Dilbert strip for most of the the remaining:



That strip pretty much sums up everything Amiga(TM) stands for today, after the past 1.5 decade of mismanagement. Spot on (you got to love Dilbert)!

I wish you the best of luck in your Amiga(tm) endeavors, but mind you that many of those people responsible for putting the Amiga(tm) in its current position described by Dilbert above, are at large still here and still somewhat operational. So just be aware that the brand your products are being built upon, may risk being negatively influenced by these other people's moronic decisions, and their BAF's praising them on their Internet crusades. What I'm trying to say is that you seem to be about to make *real* products for *real* markets, using a brand name whose values and development/management you cannot control entirely yourself, and some of the people that *can* aren't exactly known for making rational decisions. You have been warned!

[vox]

Originally Posted by J-Golden

Read through most of it and found it to be quite enlightening. I don't think I'd be getting one any time soon, but I now at least understand where CommodoreUSA is coming from, their mind set and what they are trying to achieve.

Most of what was already known to the public. Beside known mindset and strategy that is just clearer now, insulting thing to me is "observation that Amiga is neither software or hardware, but (barry`s) project and vision" and thus that "CUSA is taking Amiga forward". Amiga is Classic machines and machines that can run AmigaOS natively, just like for example its such case with Mac. Target CPU and arhitecture can change (like x86 with AROS, or PPC with MOS/OS4) but that is the feeling and spirit. Even if its obsolete in modern terms, there would be a real project and real vision to bring it further, instead of just dismissing it.

OK, the right of CUSA is to have such nonsense as CommodoreOS as OS for Amigas, labels "All Commodore and Amigas are Windows compatibile" and other things that confuse past and their present en devour, but maybe it is the only way for mainstream profit and licence pay-off.

In that task, they should be less high profit to remain on x86 market, more presenting themselves as CUSA and not CBM, and much more professional, not the 11:59 bulk PR company, as once again demonstrated.

Q&A session has revealed no new plan, no new strategy or product as they announced just more ... not 30 mill $ advertising.