At the end

Was Jim Collas fired? - Some things might someone think so.

Less than two weeks ago Jim Collas announced another open letter for the end of August as well as an update of the frequently asked questions.

On August 27, (well, it was a Friday again) there was the first shock, which was triggered by a mini statement, which was published in the section 'Executive Update' and said, that the Amiga team had to concentrate on realizing their business and product plans and that during this period future decisions of the company will neither be discussed nor commented.

At the same time all texts, which could be read in that section have been removed as well as the portrait of Jim Collas. Spontanously some users guessed another change on the top of AMIGA, but because there were no changes in the Staff section and due to a statement of AMIGA Vice President Petro Tyschtschenko these fears were dispelled - wrongly as it was found out on September 1st.

Jim Collas is no longer President of AMIGA. Before August 27, nothing showed, that there could be another change on the top level of AMIGA. En contraire, in a newsgroup posting in early August he stated this:

»Executives at Gateway are wondering what I am doing disclosing as much information as I have. I have to take time to explain to them the Amiga community and how it is deserves early info. I think I have done a good job balancing company requirements with the communities desire for knowledge. I will continue to strike a reasonable balance.«

If the theory, which is the most likely one in my opinion, the responsible people of Gateway could not follow the very open information policy - according to rumours they should have been very angry about it - and now they found a very good solution - in their opinion - the change at the top of AMIGA.

There are also speculations, Collas had resigned himself, because he could not ar did not want to forefill the policy wanted by Gateway. Is this reasonable? I don't think so, because there would have been signs for that some time ago. But I was unable to find any hints/remarks for this in none of his last newsgroup postings. Especially the announcement of another Executive Update is in my opionion a clear sign against this theory.

One thing is especially bitter: How the change was done really, we will, most likely, never find out, because high management personal of large companies normally have to sign, never to reveal the reasons for leaving the company.

There is no doubt about the successes of Jim Collas. Made AMIGA President in February, more things happened within the last month as in all the years before. With a highly qualified management team on the top Jim Collas built a development department and especially presented a concept for the AmigaNG. He also was not afraid of an unpopular decision to use a Linux kernel as base for the AmigaNG.

It seems, that this disaster was made due to Jim Collas', maybe only large fault - his too open information policy. But there were many users, who wanted more - and will not get any more informations at all. Currently it looks like AMIGA president is not going to present an information policy at all. If this will also be true for the members of the Amiga Advisory Council, if this council will have a base of existence, will be found out in the future.

Jim Collas did many things while being president - we just can hope, that the product developments running will not being stopped by Tom Schmidt. We once again can wait, what future will offer. One thing is it we Amiga users must not do at all: give up the hope.

See you next month,

yours

Carsten Schroeder