So, the future of the Amiga has finally been announced. And boy, are there disappointments!
A hugely updated OS that'll be far removed from OS3.1? No backwards compatibility? No PowerPC? No option to stick a card into my A1200 to upgrade it to the new Amiga? No AGA chipsets?
Well. And this leads to all the arguments about this new machine not really being an Amiga after all. So what is an Amiga then - a machine that isn't allowed to have new processors or graphics chipsets? Look at what made the Amiga good - now a lot of people who still use the Amiga do so because of the OS, but it's more than that. There's also the freedom from PC configuration and compatibility hassles, like worrying about IRQ conflicts and so called Plug 'n' Play. A lot of people might be pleased if AmigaOS could be run on a modern day PC, but this 'Amiga' would suffer from the same problems of the PC. The Amiga always stood for buying a single machine that did all you wanted it to, without worrying about whether the printer would conflict with the sound card... and giving you decent performance and graphics capabilities at a decent price anyway.
Sadly, that is no longer the case, but compare what Amiga Inc propose to an A1200, propped up with expensive add-on bits, that still don't make it all that fast. What would you rather have? What's left of the Amiga today is going against all that the Amiga stood for in the past.
And what of the existing community? People have said things like 'If the new Amiga sells a million units in the first year, what difference do we, the existing community make?' ...if the new Amiga sells anywhere near a million, then that is GOOD. The truth may be that Amiga Inc doesn't really need 'us' so much, but in some sense, that is a good thing. Like it or not, the Amiga community is shrinking fast - magazines closing, hardware/software released cancelled, and all the time users moving to the PC simply because there's not really much choice. The fact that Amiga Inc want to succeed whatever happens to the current Amiga community is good, and relieving to hear.
Mark Harman