| From: | Nick Lamburn |
| Date: | 26 Oct 2000 at 13:23:50 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga Confusion |
Hi
Over the past few months I have become all consumed in other matters outside
of the Amiga so to speak, well in so far as keeping up with what Amiga are
doing and such like. Sure I've been using my Amigas over the past few
months but I have paid very little interest in what is happening with
regards to the Amiga's future. And tbh - it looks as if over the next few
months I may be paying less attention than even now....
Therefore, not as a complete outsider, but someone now quite out of touch
with what has been happening, I will give you my view on things.
Firstly - I don't wish to offend anyone, at Amiga or on this list, but I
think this really does underline the importance of the Amiga DE (? I take
that is Elate OS thingy ;) and hardware. The fact is that the Amiga One's
hardware is nothing heart stoppingly out of this world. (compared say with
the A1000's PAD/OCS chipset in 1985) However, as Amiga Inc. have been
pushing, it's the AmigaDE that makes the new Amiga. This is what the new
Amiga concept will either succeed or break on - no whether it has a G4 or
Pentium III, or whatever - but whether the AmigaDE is actually any good, and
does what it is said to do. (The Amiverse and all that 'stuff' ;)
So, as you can imagine i read through the AmigaONE specs and was although
not disappointed, nor drooling over the specs - I wasn't even pleasantly
surprised, more of "Yep, sounds about an average computer spec".
So, the AmigaDE really has to be top class and inspiring to the wider
computing market. Secondly the point of apps, I read on CNet's comments
iirc that someone said 'where are the apps'. Fair point. They made it
clear that without serious business software, graphics etc. - the system
would fail because there weren't the pinnacle of software genre apps
available (such as Adobe's products, they even said MS Office, which in
fairness beats anything the Classic Amiga has extremely easily, though I
prefer Final Writer '97 to Word 2000.... ;) but probably 'almost as good
ones'. The point was that even with these almost as good apps, it would not
draw in the wider computing market because they can get the very best
software on another system for a similar price range, and whose future is a
lot more certain than the Amiga's DE is. (It could fail, I don't know, it'd
be nice if it did succeed, but success isn't guaranteed)
Then there was the point that OS3.9 looks like OS3.0/3.1 with a few hacks,
ok I haven't used it, but IT DOES! :( I'm not being funny, but I bet that
on my OS3.1 A1200T I could make a very similar looking environment, new set
of icons, a new backdrop, install VinceD, run MooVid, use a gfx. card
screen... That CD player does look good, but there's nothing stopping that
from being possible on OS3.0/3.1. And the fact it relies on the 1994 3.1
ROM means that it can't be all that majorly different anyway. Sure, when
I've sold my A1200TPPC, and boosted my A3000, i probabaly will buy OS3.5 and
3.9. (When I get an 060 and WORKING ;) gfx. card) But the fact is OS3.5
and 3.9 are for existing Amiga owners, addressing the shortcomings that
AmigaOS has, not what other OSs have (and that does mean Windows).
Of course the confusion over OS3.9 and the AmigaDE (is that v4.0 or the
AmigaDE, which one?!) is not a small problem, it had me confused and until
say July this year I had kept pretty up with the Amiga situation; for
someone who has been out of touch since 1994 - or 1996; whenever, it's no
wonder there's confusion! To this end, a proper press release clarifying
this mess will do the trick - and also clear up my misunderstandings. I
mean, is OS3.9 an upgrade to OS3.5, is it PPC only? Does it need the
AmigaDE to run? I don't know!! Someone tell me ;)
All in all, there's a lot of confusion that Amiga needs to clear up, and
what's this Eyetech AmigaOne 1200s and 4000s or whatever they are? Surely
we're not going to turn these old and ever ageing A1200s into 'AmigaOnes??'.
I remember reading in CU Amiga that Commodore never imagined a 68040 or
better would be seen in an A1200. We did. We saw the 68060. We saw the
PPC. But can't we see from the BPPC boards that the 1200 is being put that
bit too far now? Or am i completely wrong on this? Is the 1200 being used
as a compatibility bridge?
ARGHHHHHH! :)
All in all, a lot of confusion is beginning to cause problems....
Regards,
Quote carefully and read all ADMIN:README mails