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[System]

Amigaworld has posted their 20 questions with Alan Redhouse on the subject of the future of the AmigaOne motherboard. Fairly straight-forward.

You can read it here

[System]

First and foremost, thanks to the guys at Amigaworld and Alan himself for taking the time to assemble the questions and responses.

Personally speaking though, I don't see anything that's surprising. It can (for me) be summed up as follows;

1) The AmigaOne has no future as there's no one left to buy the product. There will be no more new AmigaOne designs.
2) Alan and crew wish they'd never taken the project in the first place. (as stated by the comment that they'd have been better off to pay the A1 owners $500 each than to create the mobo)
3) They are only building motherboards when they want because everything has devolved to "a hobby" and they have no ability to make money from it.
4) Alan apparently blames the dealers for a great deal of the current situation, per the numerous references to "not being paid by the dealers".
5) There are no plans to support the repair issues, as Alan doesn't really (apparently) accept that there ARE any hardware repair issues. The famous UDMA bug isn't a problem, it's your fault for not running "a $3 USB hub".

Curiously missing is any real confirmation of what we all already know (the apparent death of MAI). I know these questions were written months ago, but now, even more questions exist.

In the end, with a great amount of respect and thanks for "sticking it out", it just sounds like they jumped naked into cold deep water (well over their heads) and just couldn't get their business-related ducks in a row fast enough to stop the shrinking Amiga market from falling out from under their feet.

In short -- and strictly in my personal interpretation of this interview -- the days of Eyetech are coming to an end, and the only way that OS4 will survive is to be ported to a supported hardware platform (such as the Mac) the way that Yellow Dog Linux was. I'm all for it.

Wayne

[moood]

@wayne
How can you be so sure that MAI is dead?

And how can Hyperion/Amiga Inc. support OS4 on a platform (Mac) when they'd have to hack it to make it work?

[System]

I'm not "sure" of anything. As you conveniently fail to realize, I did say "apparent death", because by all appearances, MAI is dead.

And how can Hyperion/Amiga Inc. support OS4 on a platform (Mac) when they'd have to hack it to make it work?

How does Yellow Dog Linux support their product on a Mac, when they had to hack it to make it work?

It wasn't until after YDL was working that it gained ANY measure of acceptance by Apple themselves. Likewise, if porting AmigaOS4 to the Mac were done and Apple saw that they could sell 2000 additional devices, they'd be ok with that. Hyperion simply couldn't expect Apple's blessing until after they can prove the concept.

Wayne

[Magic-Merl]

I think Wayne has stated the obvious.

We are "Amiga Enthusiasts" nothing more, not now - not ever will we be a thriving market place and more importantly a healthy community.

If this is the negativity from one of the few men that could truly turn around the Amiga spirit then frankly we are doomed to Spectrum/C64 status. Actually I take that back - at least the C64 has new hardware out there at the mo!

I think some of Amiga.org's dedicated viewers will turn off with these answers. In fact with our market dwindling so much I am suprised Alan was even bothered to answer any of the question let alone demonstrate that he see's OS4 as an alternative OS for developing corporate entities.

Roll on AROS. Seems this is the way to go. How can anyone justify purchasing OS4 based on this information.

Good luck Alan. I truly hope your company goes from strength to strength - I mean that. It's just a shame that, maybe un-intentionally, you have driven another nail into the Amiga coffin.

Shame.

[System]

Of course all of this about the Mac is subject to the pending expected announcement today that Apple is going with Intel.

Please note that no one has said that Apple is going x86. Intel might simply start building PPC chips as well, since there is a hell of a lot of competition in the x86 world.

Wayne

[System]

@merl,

Thank you.

We are "Amiga Enthusiasts" nothing more, not now - not ever will we be a thriving market place and more importantly a healthy community.

That's fine, and dandy even. The problem is that there are those who want to demand to treat the AmigaOne (and the Pegasos) as "the potential savior of the universe". If it's a hobby, and if everyone will simply compromise and treat it as such, the idea of getting so upset over things would become much much less prevalent.

It's been confirmed folks, the Amiga is just a hobby. Now that the AmigaOne issue has been officially settled (with Alan's interview) can we please get back to just enjoying the Amigas we have (the classics as well as the AmigaOnes and Pegasos boxes) rather than pretending that everything new is so critically important to the success of the platform?

Just a reminder that the classic Amigas are still here folks. They've just been shoved into the corner by the zealots clamoring for something new. Let's take a step back, get our breath, then get back to what matters, and that is enjoying whatever we've got without all the political stupidity.

Wayne

[MarkTime]

its true the main cnet story doesn't say x86...but it has come down since then that it is in fact x86-64, by that I mean, generally reliable sources on the mac sites....

of course, we'll know in a few hours, so no need to jump the gun.

it took me all weekend to grasp that this is probably x86-64, but then again....

upon further examination, this is good news for apple...apple runs on a BSD core, BSD already runs linux apps natively, and os x already supports x server...

in other words, apple is moving in to co-opt the linux market...its not a leap, you have the real linux...and then yuo have this unix variant that can also run linux, and has microsoft office and adobe photoshop and thousands of other programs...one linux having trouble getting to consumers, another company that already sells millions of units per year to consumers....

its not impossible to think that linux and mac os x keep their momentum going (and now combined)...to both's advantage.

where does that leave amiga? no where.

[x56h34]

It's been confirmed folks, the Amiga is just a hobby. Now that the AmigaOne issue has been officially settled (with Alan's interview) can we please get back to just enjoying the Amigas we have (the classics as well as the AmigaOnes and Pegasos boxes) rather than pretending that everything new is so critically important to the success of the platform?

You've basically put it all in perspective with the above part. Amiga is a nice little (and expensive) hobby nowadays, whether it be the AmigaOne, Pegasos, Emulation, or the classic side...and there's nothing wrong with that, of course. :-) It's still very fun. No reason to get worked up over it. Just enjoy it for what it is.

[Magic-Merl]

Granted it is easier, much easier, to finally rest and say we are hobbyist'.

This is not so much of an issue for most - lets be honest most of us gave up waiting for that new piece of hardware a long long time ago.

But I can see why people are going to be upset. They want to invest their money into something other than Windoze. Lets be honest - this is mainly the reason why alot of us here tend to use AROS/Linux/BSD/MacOS. (Not that I have any figures to corrobarate this)

From the inception of the A1 to the Beta's of OS4 I have been waiting for nigh on a decade for something new and truly wish there was something. But alas no. I think the best we can hope for is the Amiga in a joystick where we can play Kick Off and 1000 other games 'till our hearts content.

I do feel sorry for all of those people who believed that there was a saviour for our platform and I really wished that Alan would be the man but following his comments my heart grows weary knowing full well that the man never had any intention of delivering on his promises. On further inspection - the man invested, financially, into OS4 so why would he now insist that it's a hobbyist OS. Has he given up? I think he has. But atleast we know that yet another man whose company promised us the world has let the community down - and no doubt profitted - yet again.

Wayne - we are hobbyists - Alan we are enthusiasts and until something better comes along we will stay that way it's just a shame you missed the boat. Lets hope something as positive as the original Amiga lies waiting sometime in the years to come and we embrace it never to let it die and go to computer heaven.

To Amiga. The first truly amazing desktop computer. Long may you live in emulation purgatory.

Long live Amiga.org

[itix]

4) Alan apparently blames the dealers for a great deal of the current situation, per the numerous references to "not being paid by the dealers".

What amazes me is that some users seems to think this is news.

the days of Eyetech are coming to an end, and the only way that OS4 will survive is to be ported to a supported hardware platform (such as the Mac) the way that Yellow Dog Linux was.

It seems Apple is abandonding PPC so...

[HopperJF]

@all

I think we all knew deep down that the AmigaOne wasn't going to turn everything around. It is an Amiga yes, it runs OS4 yes, but it is also expensive and specs are outdated. Unfortunately to casual users this is all that matters. I think AmigaOne is basically dead as a dodo, but I hope that OS4 can survive on another platform instead.

[Delta]

We have to find a "recipe or a special feature" that a future amiga can do and no one else can. The old Amiga was cheap and easy to use as the C=64 before it.

The A1 cost 4 times more than a stupid PC to do the same thing. Its up to the guys with contacts, trademarks and some money to invest to figure out something....

Keep on smiling :-D

[Unisys]

[edit by admin : reason - personal attack]

I will remember the proper days (1987 - 1992) :-)

[Magic-Merl]

In this day and age what spec will catch the eye of the user.

State of the art video capture out of the box with something like fruity loops as standard to write soundtracks.

full 3D sprites and ituitive development environment.

That would take years to develop. I agree with you that this is what is needed. But there is never going to be a chance of this happening.