Posts by Mikey C

Son of Transputer powers new Amiga box

Always someone trying to steal the limelight.

Sorry Frank Diangro, your reply is typical of the cancer that has spread through the Amiga Community for years.

Folks, During the 90's and mid noughties, Amiga was owned by one numpty company after another, the only one of any note was Escom (remember them?) who restarted production of A1200's - Sadly Escom went bankrupt the patents got bought out by Gateway for peanuts, who went on to set up an Amiga division led by Jim Collas. Everything was positive until the accountants got involved and the Plug was pulled. The rights were then Acquired for $5m by Amino, who didn't have a penny, to take the brand forward for the next 8 or so years. They hang onto the name in the hope that their "Amiga Anywhere" would make them some money. it didn't. For all extent and purposes the Amiga over those years was lost and rudderless.

Which brings me to the following point about Morphos and AROS.

These Alternatives sprung up as a result of the Amiga being rudderless, or if you prefer up the creek without a puddle.

Morphos is a very nice OS and will run on old Mac PPC hardware (check which one first) but its not THE Amiga.

AROS is the open source re-implementation of Amiga OS for x86. This in my opinion is the favoured option for those who spent all their time in the school playground swapping disk copies or are too tight put their hands in their pockets and buy some actual Amiga hardware.

- That's not to say that AROS hasn't got its good points, it has so if you want an Amiga like experience, without actually using the real thing - then this is for you.

The problem with the people who prefer the alternative solutions is that they are only too happy to slag off Hyperion, AmigaOS and indeed the real Amiga community, but are only too happy to come into forums like this and ride on AmigaOS's coat tails, because they can't gain the attention of their chosen platform by themselves, preferring instead to spread FUD in the hope of getting people away from "The real thing" and into their alternative choice.

Make no Mistake AmigaOS4.1 is the natural and continued successor to the Original AmigaOS/Workbench that we all grew up with. None of the Alternatives will run AmigaOS4.1x they are their own separate operating system.

At the end of the day, Amiga is the one grabbing the headlines, not MorphOS nor AROS.

As the old saying goes, you pays your money, you take your choices (or words to that effect)

There is a lower end model already!

"welcome another platform. However, I do agree that GBP1500 is very steep to most. Especially if the platform cannot garner widespread support (I hope it does though). Maybe the X1000 will serve as a top-of-the-range totem, and lower spec'd, more affordable beasts will emerge."

There is a lower end model available, its called a SAM Flex. its by ACUBE Systems SRL it will run the same AmigaOS that the X1000 runs, the only difference is the speed. (Which to be honest is bloody fast anyway) In September ACUBE will be releasing their next model up, which is the SAM460 and was on display alongside the X1000.

However if anyone here doesn't want to wait, the SAM Flex is available from Amigakit right now (http://www.amigakit.co.uk)

Not the Real AmigaOS?

Er yes it does.

The source code for the earlier AmigaOS4 (now 4.1) is taken from the last OS available to Hyperion Entertainment, namely AmigaOS3.1 it is built on that.

Perhaps you mean Amiga OS 1.2? or 1.3? When it was just blue and white with the odd bit of amber thrown in? or maybe you really mean OS3.0 which was black and white and to be honest quite ugly too.

Any mac users out there who wish to argue that MacOSX is not really MacOS5, 6, 7, 8 or 9?

- I didn't think so.

The elephant in the room is waving frantically.

Couple of points regarding your post.

"Other than allowing excentric hobbyists with a spare £1500 to benchmark how many copies of 25 year old games they can open and run at the same time (Look it's multitasking! Apples & PCs didnt use to be able to do that!), what is a modern Amiga for?"

You don't have to spend £1500 to run Amiga OS4.1. The lower spec SAM boards are capable to give you a good Amiga experience, for around half that. Indeed, If you go for the now defunct earlier AmigaOne models (by Eyetech), a complete AmigaOne XE system (G4) just sold on ebay for £350.

"what is a modern Amiga for? I'm sure the Firefox & Openoffice ports are super, but what can it do so much better than any other current platform that it would make it a rational commercial decision to buy or even to have developed in the first place?"

That depends on your perspective. At the end of the day, Web Browsing or writing a letter is the pretty much the same on one computer as it is on another. Again, I come back to my earlier point. What's the point of buying a Vauxhall or an Audi when a Ford will do exactly the same? Or indeed, what's the point in buying a Toshiba TV when you can get a Sony or Panasonic which will do the same job?

- It comes down to a matter of taste or preference. Each platform has its own unique way of doing things. Its down to the experience for the user. There is no commercial rational behind it.

Amiga X1000 and Amiga OS4.1 in general.

I would like to make an open invitation to anyone who wants to try/see AmigaOS4.1 Update 2 to Attend the next Amiga North Thames Usergroup Meeting (Held in Enfield UK) Anyone with an open mind is welcome (Our website http://www.amiganorththames.co.uk)

To answer a couple of points raised, The Amiga was in the doldrums thanks to decades of mis-management. Since Hyperion won the court case against Amiga inc, the developments have been coming through at a very fast pace. We now have 3 proper web browsers, Java is on the way as is Open office, Flash is not available, and unlikely to mature, but given the fact that HTML 5 is on its way, it may not be that necessary.

Why use AmigaOS4 against, say Windows or Mac? I can't answer that, other than perhaps, its a different, unique experience to the other two. At the end of the day Choice is always good. It helps promote innovation etc. If you are happy with Windows or Mac OSX or Linux, that's fine. No need to knock someone else's hobby. Imagine if the world only had 3 car manufacturers? i.e. Ford, Nissan or VW? Not that there is anything wrong with them, but surely choice is a good thing and I am sure, always welcome.

I hope to see some of you at our next meeting (We don't bite and don't wear anoraks!, on July 11th)

Thank you.

Michael Carrillo

Amiga North Thames Chairman

Organiser "Amiga Area" at VCF 2010