Commodore killed the Amiga through lack of direction and bad marketing. MS and Apple just copied everything in the technology and simply hammered the last nail in the coffin.

Besides who cares now, the year is 2011 and things are looking up - being too nostaglic is bad for the health.

* Active development of the AmigaOS and Workbench to bring it closer to modern standards
* Active development port of the world's most popular Web Browser, FireFox
* Active development in the graphics department to bring OpenGL to the platform opening the flood gates for porting across quality open source software
* Active development for dual/multi-core support bringing AmigaOS much closer to the competition
* Active development for breaking the 2GB (or is it 4GB?) RAM barrier
* Real High-end desktop Amiga computer running real AmigaOS for those with deep pockets
* Real Amiga Netbook on the way running real AmigaOS for the masses

Last edited by djrikki on 02-Dec-2011 at 02:36 PM.
Last edited by djrikki on 02-Dec-2011 at 02:33 PM.

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@all


It's a long time, that we were writing about Amiga Inc. and so on.

So now the question is again: What ist Bill and co. doing all day long today?


Sitting in the office and waiting for Tablet-Orders?

Where are they and what have they in mind?


I'll write an e-mail to Bill right now - I wonder if he is willing to respond - I'm sure he won't.

_________________
Sometimes we give people a lot of credit just because they’re writing nice sentences even if it isn’t adding up to much.

Petro came to our country and I travelled 500kms (Went with Petri!) just for that and asked a question where is the new AA? "Your putting me in a corner" was the answer. No bad for the guy. Just curious Amigafan and possible business relation interest. Not very convinsing. Before got an answer from C= (199x years) not very convinced either.

Hope this year is better. Not my jobs as it seems... ;) Having fun like Petro's Amy song;)
(Beer drinking name was Pedro..;)

@Dandy

Thanks for giving us a summarized translation. Would be nice to have a fully translated transcript, but that's alot of work. Anyway, that was revealing. It would have been interesting to see what would have come to light had the Amiga stayed with Gateway, possibly a QNX-based AmigaOS on PPC system - and who knows, eventually on x86 and/or ARM - would have rekindled interest in the OS. Anyway, here is an interesting related story about the history of QNX and it's Amiga link through Gateway.

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When swimming with sharks, make sure to bring lots of band-aids...

@Birbo

Quote:

It's a long time, that we were writing about Amiga Inc. and so on. So now the question is again: What ist Bill and co. doing all day long today? Sitting in the office and waiting for Tablet-Orders?

Milking NoCoin and SinclairUK customers, if they were smart to make at least 1$ per compouter licence, just like Bill made fortune on similar licence of MS DOS for IBM PC.

Plus the tablets, they might be doing best in ages.

Only good thing with all a dem was having AmigaOS 3 ported to AmigaOS 4 and developed further, even they did poor job in supporting it.

_________________
Future Acube and MOS supporter, fi di good, nothing fi di unprofessionals. Learn it harder way!

@elatour

Very interesting story of Gateway QNX love affair. To be honest., after so many promises of different "jumps" with Amiga name (BeOS, QNX etc.) that would basicaly be different incompatibile OS`s, one has to be quite happy that original AmigaOS continued to develop and enhance to be very near to modern standards with OS 4.2, maybe way more then OS 3.5 and OS 3.9 were at the time they were released, being less "major jumps" then 4.0, 4.1 and what is expected of 4.2 and beyond. Also sad thing with divisions is again tha MOS, OS4 and AROS are not ONE: progress would be further, quicker and more obvious.

Only bad thing about article is that it doesn`t mention that AmigaOS 4 was way deep in development releases back in 2005, quite away from screenshots. And getting ready to be final 4.0, only facing the death of AmigaOne board with no hardware to go for.

Last edited by vox on 02-Dec-2011 at 05:10 PM.

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Future Acube and MOS supporter, fi di good, nothing fi di unprofessionals. Learn it harder way!

Well I have never been a fan of Petro but that does not mean anything bad, my annoyance stems mostly from a show in Stockholm in late nineties when he was telling everybody that everything was great and trying to sell Boing mouse mats as he had nothing new to offer and I told people that things were not so good and that my PCI Amiga project was a possibility for Amiga, which it was at that time.

In the end neither of us achieved our goals so I shut up about it for years because i screwed up by allowing things to just develop. The truth is Petro likes to be loved by all hence the loyal following and I hope he is happy. Hopefully, if the movie is to inform it will explain all accurately, however, I doubt it will and really what I want is a nice story that leaves a great feeling in those who watch it that whilst the main goals were missed, there is still a great selection of viable hardware and software that you can use day to day that is worth trying out.

http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/ahistory.html#1998

This project would have meant an X86 version of AmigaOS back then which I was in favour of for those that do not know. In the end we know where it went.

Last edited by clusteruk on 02-Dec-2011 at 04:01 PM.
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Amiga 1000, 3000D Toaster, Checkmate A1500 Plus
http://www.checkmate1500plus.com/

@vox

Quote:

To be honest., afrer so many promises of different "jumps" with Amiga name (BeOS, QNX etc.) that would basicaly be different incompatibile OS`s, one has to be quite happy that original AmigaOS continued to develop

don't be ridicilous, both QNX and BeOS are/were FAR more superior OSes to any AmigaOS variant and possibly any that there ever will exist. Had Gateway gone ahead with the QNX(or BeOS or Linux) base, things could have been (very)different now. Compatibility could be easily solved.

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@Dandy

Bill Gates couldn't do it without the support and final decision of the United States Supreme Court Justices that were in his favor, plus he had high profile attorneys!
Emperor Bill Gates, One World Computer Monopoly!

@rebraist

"Amiga died because of its 80s former strength (architecture) was its main weakness in the 90s."

LOL! So untrue. There was nothing wrong with the architecture.
CBM did not support their Amiga R&D department ideas.
(+ Medhi Ali tried to make PC out of Amiga4000 etc...)

From mid 90's to late 90's we mainly had the need of official RTG system to use new GFX chips.
But as long as Amiga chips were properly developed, they were ok, while many other Amiga features (autoconfig, 32bit, etc.) were still superior.
Amigas were the best tool for many use, even on it's last CBM production year(example)
In the last year(s) of CBM R&D Amiga was heading to PCI & RISC, but it was too late, thanks to Medhi.

They made huge losses on PCs and died. The the R&D was totally suspended for years because of bankcrupt proceedings.

+ M$ managed to develop 24bit AmigaBasic for 32 bit Amiga, LOL! (they thought 640kt was suposed to last forever, so they had to try to slow down Amiga?)

M$ monopoly politics have done a lot of harm to home computers.

@Crumb

"AmigaAnywhere" was not Gateway's idea.



M$ have done everything in their power to stop competition on desktop, like busy loops in their Mac SW, 24bit addressing in AmigaBasic etc.


interesting Carl Sassenrath citation about commodore:
"At Apple, it was interesting to see what engineers thought of the Amiga. Most of them thought that the Amiga would totally destroy Apple. Technically, Amiga could have, but they did not know what I knew about Commodore marketing.

My job at Apple ATG was to design the next multitasking OS - to become the successor to the Macintosh. The overall project was quite similar to the Amiga, but with about 10 times more money for development. We were building a quad-core CPU chip that ran nearly the speed of a Cray supercomputer. Like Amiga, the hardware team was great. Unfortunately, at that time Apple was not a good place to get products finished. There were far too many meetings and not enough focus.
...
Six months later, the project was canceled, and the OS team spun off to start a new company called Taligent."


... Amiga has never had perfect management .... As a matter of fact ... to me it seems that the show is now run pretty ok, first time since 1991 or so...
- HW is done by more than one R&D team (even if with very little money)
- SW is being developed in good pace when compared to resources
- AOS stil feels like Amiga
- there exists Amigalike OS alternatives (68k compatible and/or API compatible MOS and AROS) if AOS R&D dies.

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- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
//
// Thing that I should find more time for: CC64 - 64bit Community Computer?

@WolfToTheMoon

Quote:

don't be ridicilous, both QNX and BeOS are/were FAR more superior OSes to any AmigaOS variant and possibly any that there ever will exist. Had Gateway gone ahead with the QNX(or BeOS or Linux) base, things could have been (very)different now. Compatibility could be easily solved.

Have very high opinion of both QNX and BeOS (as well as what was promised as Tao Intent component of AmigaAnywhere) but these are simply NOT evolution of AmigaOS, as CommodoreOS isn`t.

If AmigaOS had continued development, it might be match to today OSs. And can be satisfied its close to modern standard in many features OS lacked - many barriers are broken.

Surely, its easier to restart like MacOS did with MacOS X or Windows with NT / 2000 / XP / 7-8 series did, each less compatibile with Win16 API and DOS, but yet AmigaOS keeps quite good balance between compatibility and advance. Especially after legal mambo jumbo was resolved.

Compatibility via emulation is just emulation.

In those terms only OS`s that have progressed and stayed loyal to the original concepts are AmigaOS and Linux.

To be honest would love if some of the Linux / BeOS / QNX features were introduced in AmigaOS

And once again, no AmigaOS didn`t go x86 (yet) with exception of AROS.
Don`t be ridicilous.

Last edited by vox on 02-Dec-2011 at 05:09 PM.
Last edited by vox on 02-Dec-2011 at 05:08 PM.

_________________
Future Acube and MOS supporter, fi di good, nothing fi di unprofessionals. Learn it harder way!

@vox


Quote:

Have very high opinion of both QNX and BeOS (as well as what was promised as Tao Intent component of AmigaAnywhere) but these are simply NOT evolution of AmigaOS, as CommodoreOS isn`t.

The evolution of AmigaOS ended with OS3.x and now with 4.x. Going forward means introducing new concepts that will change the OS forever and it will simply not be an evolution of the original. It will be a new OS, with an old name.
The old architecture is incompatible with most modern features. Else why do you think BeOS, QNX and Linux were considered, and not an evolution of the classic AmigaOS?

Even McBill saw it, he contracted Hyperion only to port OS3.x on PPC, OS5 was to be a new OS not related to 4.x or 3.x.

Quote:

Compatibility via emulation is just emulation.

Yeah, it's better. UAE and other emulatos are still way better in emulating classic apps and games than any of the new Amigaoids OSes.

Quote:

Surely, its easier to restart like MacOS did with MacOS X or Windows with NT / 2000 / XP / 7-8 series did, each less compatibile with Win16 API and DOS, but yet AmigaOS keeps quite good balance between compatibility and advance. Especially after legal mambo jumbo was resolved.

It isn't just easier, but also VASTLY better. You can put a lipstick on an pig, but it's still a pig afterall. Or do you think Win8 should be based on a modified Win 3.x architecture?

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@

Quote:

M$ managed to develop 24bit AmigaBasic for 32 bit Amiga, LOL! (they thought 640kt was suposed to last forever, so they had to try to slow down Amiga?) M$ monopoly politics have done a lot of harm to home computers.

Microsoft has contracts with hardware makers that state basically,
'any computer going out will have the windows OS on it.'

If the makers want to be able to compete in the windows world they
either bow to microsoft or sell their equipment NOS. Gateway was in
such a position at the time and chose (what they thought at the time)
to be the path of secure profits. Now they are gone, Acer bought them.

Also, at that time, gateway had a good pool of talent that was no longer
of any use as the far east was taking over hardware.

Money and fear is what the gateway saga was in relation to Amiga. They
hungered for the money, and gave into their fears. No BALLS, no glory.
They died in obscurity, and rightly so.

@WolfToTheMoon

Quote:

The evolution of AmigaOS ended with OS3.x and now with 4.x. Going forward means introducing new concepts that will change the OS forever and it will simply not be an evolution of the original. It will be a new OS, with an old name. The old architecture is incompatible with most modern features. Else why do you think BeOS, QNX and Linux were considered, and not an evolution of the classic AmigaOS? Even McBill saw it, he contracted Hyperion only to port OS3.x on PPC, OS5 was to be a new OS not related to 4.x or 3.x.

That is revolution, not evolution. Yes, evolution means going forward too, but leaving what is good. These OS candidates were considered because Amiga Inc, CUSA, ESCOM were not software developers and wanted something modern for cheap cash instead of investing time, patience and effort to bring new out of old. Way more respectfull.

Yes, OS4 was supposed to be something to play meanwhile, just a simple port,
as seen even in original Hyperion manual

However, it was developed further, even in years of no hardware, and it became significantly more while OS 5 turned out to be big fluffy cloud. Same way COS is no OS evolution or revolution, just renamed distro = big fluffy cloud.

Quote:

Yeah, it's better. UAE and other emulatos are still way better in emulating classic apps and games than any of the new Amigaoids OSes.

Which can use the same UAE ... no point there. Just because AGA chipset was not properly emulated. Otherwize song would be different. But idea was UAE for games, OS that can ran apps faster then emulated, and they did it. And you know it, but you laugh to it.

Quote:

Or do you think Win8 should be based on a modified Win 3.x architecture?

Those A-Z drivers where A; and B: are reserved for floppies, BSODs, constant swapping with a lot of RAM avail etc. remind me that Win7 somehow is. And it is truly sad how M$ is abandoning perfectly usable XP, disabling older Photoshop, Offices and other perefectly useful software (32-bit) to be run on Win7 and Win8, making people buy newer software even if they don`t need it. That is just their money progress as well as no OS optimization - check Win7 Ultimate and Office 2010 on Atom based CUSA C64x. Bet it is on the edge of usability since its (when few apps loaded) its no blaze on AMD X2. There is a reason why there is a Linux - to get more out of the same.

Clearly advancements has to be made, but OS4 proves it is not needed by having completely different OS with Amiga name. As well as AROS and MOS with many AmigaOS features prove it. Laugh to human creativity, being a creative person is sad.

Thanks to all 3 Amiga(OS) never died, like CUSA claims it its Amiga history (Commodore died, now we came back). And that is a faker and exploit just because of that, even with highest grade and cheapest x86 products.

Wish you that your culture, creativity or personal heritage is one day abused and marketed that way in name of progress.

Last edited by vox on 02-Dec-2011 at 05:47 PM.
Last edited by vox on 02-Dec-2011 at 05:45 PM.

_________________
Future Acube and MOS supporter, fi di good, nothing fi di unprofessionals. Learn it harder way!

@Birbo

Quote:

It's a long time, that we were writing about Amiga Inc. and so on. So now the question is again: What ist Bill and co. doing all day long today?

Why are you asking about Amiga Inc? They have had nothing to do with active Amiga development for years! Amiga Anywhere and Snowman maker not withstanding They outsourced OS4.x to Hyperion and the Amiga brand name to CUSA and rebadge cheap generic Chinese tablets! What's to talk about?

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"Art challenges technology. Technology inspires the art."
John Lasseter, Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studios

@vox

Quote:

These OS candidates were considered because Amiga Inc, CUSA, ESCOM were not software developers and wanted something modern for cheap cash instead of investing time, patience and effort to bring new out of old

No, actually, they were smart. They knew they had nowhere to go with the classic OS. It's one thing to be idealistic or romantic, other to realize that negatives outweigh the positives.
Probably the only reason why Hyperion still develops OS4 is that it's the only thing they've got going. MOS was supposed to break out of Amiga API with qBox, that was the plan. They never even considered modernizing the original OS.

Quote:

But idea was UAE for games, OS that can ran apps faster then emulated, and they did it. And you know it, but you laugh to it.

It's was a valid approach in the 90s, when there was still somewhat of a living software ecosystem in amigaland and CPUs were not fast enough to emulate everything. Today emulation is faster and cheaper way of getting things done.

_________________

@thread

I am sick of people blaming Medhi Ali - it was not just him !

all Commodore execs are to be blamed, they didnt know what to do with Amiga, they didnt understand Amiga technology.

Its the core Hi-Toro investor/ owners that had the creative freedom and vision of creating Amiga.

Commodore tried to understand Amiga but couldnt.

Classic Amiga had its own peripherals, its own buses and standards, they were not held hostage into creating high layer, expensive motherboards.

Bill G has nothing to do with it. Is he putting a gun to someones head for opening an Amiga shop ? So why no Amiga shop ?

We FINALLY have a dedicated AmigaOS website, how many years did that take ?

Petro got fired for selling Amigas below cost price - geez.

Hyperion / Amiga retailers just need to maintain or increase steady stream of sales.

Amiga needs a new GFX api for classic and NG systems thats compatible.

Why no Assembler suite for NG systems ?

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Download 499.26 Mbps, 659.94 Mbps Upload :)

@asymetrix

Quote:

asymetrix wrote: @thread I am sick of people blaming Medhi Ali - it was not just him !

Mehdi Ali and the band of "yes men" & crooks he surrounded himself with were the main cause of Commodores downfall as they lined their own pockets by shutting down projects and syphoning the money into their own falsely inflated salaries and "benefits"...

Very easy to find on the internet just how much that nasty little con man robbed Commodore of...

_________________

Wasn't there a law so that McBill couldn't buy Amiga and kill it? (we lost hope after Gateway sold Amiga didn't we?)

I mean is it possible to buy for example "PC computers or whatever they are" or "Apple" and announce that you no longer allow people to build them or allow people to build them only if they use a CPU that is no longer produced?

Last edited by Ancalimon on 02-Dec-2011 at 06:48 PM.

Quote:

Petro confirmed the old rumor that Bill Gates didn't want a new Amiga system to compete with his PCs and so put pressure on the Gateway CEO.

Serously: who would believe that ? At that time the Amiga was already long dead...

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http://www.warpdesign.fr/