OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/18679/DiscreetFX_Partners_Want_to_Buyout_Amiga_Inc_ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:08:39 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Amiga, yet again? http://osnews.com/thread?274317 http://osnews.com/thread?274317 Just a few months ago, it seemed Amiga was about to rise like a phoenix (software and hardware "about to be" released)... and now, the next person in line is trying to buy out Amiga, attach their own jumper cables to the whole thing, and try yet again.

As long as startups are trying to ressurect dead operating systems, I wonder how much GEOS is going for these days... Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Almafeta) Comments Yay! Bring out your whips! http://osnews.com/thread?274319 http://osnews.com/thread?274319 It's time to beat our favourite dead horse again! Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DevL) Comments haha http://osnews.com/thread?274323 http://osnews.com/thread?274323 while your at it...

"dear apple,

please sell us OS9."

If you are an amiga fan look to MorphOS. though I wish DiscreetFX luck on this one. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (poundsmack) Comments This is what made open source so appealing to me http://osnews.com/thread?274324 http://osnews.com/thread?274324 I was an Amiga owner, and I loved having my smooth multitasking and multimedia and games while the rest of the world lumbered through DOS and then Windows 3.x. Then I got treated to that ride of watching Commodore management screw things up fantastically badly while the highly enthusiastic and energetic fan base could only watch.

If the Amiga had been open, those worse than useless pointyhairs could never have sunk it. Amiga enthusiasts would have had matters in their hands instead of waiting for their Godot to do things right fifteen years too late.

R.I.P. mi Amiga.Edited 2007-09-25 19:11 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Dasher42) Comments What sort of way to do business is that? http://osnews.com/thread?274327 http://osnews.com/thread?274327 So you can't get someone who doesn't want you to sell you something that is valuable to them, at a price you think is "fair". The correct response is not to whine and stamp your feet, and it is certainly not to try and get others to stamp their feet with you. What does DiscreetFX honestly expect to happen here?

Post-C= Amiga has always been a bit of a circus, but this takes it to a whole new level. Ridiculous. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Vanders) Comments Whining much? http://osnews.com/thread?274330 http://osnews.com/thread?274330 This is madness: You ask to buy a company, the company says "look, we're worth X amount of money", which is way more than you're willing to pay and... it time for the fans to give you a hand?

What kind of bussiness is DicreteFX? That attitude is like calling you mom just because you big brother doesn't want to lend you his toys... Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (merkoth) Comments RE: Whining much? http://osnews.com/thread?274332 http://osnews.com/thread?274332 http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3958&sta...

as is indicated here, what was said and done was not the intend of DescreetFX as a whole. But by one person who might have gotten a little carried away. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (poundsmack) Comments RE http://osnews.com/thread?274336 http://osnews.com/thread?274336 Bring AmigaOS to the MacMini (or any PPC hardware), and then I'll be interested Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments BEST THING TO DO http://osnews.com/thread?274337 http://osnews.com/thread?274337 Put all your Amiga stuff in a closet, stop visiting sites related to Amiga (except AROS), and forget about it. In so doing you utterly take away any power these foolish "Inc"s have. If you want to save Amiga, you have to kill her first! Think about it. As long as Amiga, Inc. has enough poor souls to feed on, it will always hold the Amiga technology captive. So give up, let Amiga Inc. fold. And then, maybe one day, Amiga can return to us.

Unfortunately, I have my doubts that most of you (you know who you are) are smart enough to do this.

In any case, if DiscreetFX doesn't plan to open source the OS, who cares anyway? It boggles my mind, but most Amiga-die hards just don't seem to get the whole open-source thing. Why is that? Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (transami) Comments RE http://osnews.com/thread?274351 http://osnews.com/thread?274351 It could be ported to any PPC hardware. Rumour has it that it already runs on the G4 Mac mini. It's just that Amiga Inc. won't give anyone a license to release it.

Amiga Inc. are either grossly incompetent, or they're actively trying to destroy everything. I'm not sure which anymore.

Edit: Pretty much all the work is done. The OS is finished, and the hardware is ready. All we need is for someone to remove Amiga Inc. from the equation.Edited 2007-09-25 20:11 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gleng) Comments RE: BEST THING TO DO http://osnews.com/thread?274358 http://osnews.com/thread?274358 The problem is, how do you boycott someone that doesn't sell anything? Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gleng) Comments Wow http://osnews.com/thread?274362 http://osnews.com/thread?274362 You couldn't make up a better story than this. Amiga just won't die... Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AndrewZ) Comments How are they an Inc? http://osnews.com/thread?274367 http://osnews.com/thread?274367 What do people buy from them? Is it just lingering clients from the 90's that are hoping that they will do something eventually?

"transami" is write...they need to open-source it. they should open source, support it, sell hardware that runs it. at least that way they would have a product that you can purchase. ;)

is their new OS vaporware? Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (areimann) Comments Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274370 http://osnews.com/thread?274370 Amiga is (unfortunately) a thing of past. After 10+ years it's resurrection is still only a myth.

Simply, the whole platform has been stagnating, dead for a decade, while others made remarkable progress and hardware changed in ways that not many could predict.

Even today Amiga doesn't have a chance if it isn't an ordinary PC with a general purpose processor (IBM, Intel or AMD), with a graphic card made by AMD/Intel/Nvidia, so forget about all fancy 2D acceleration capabilities that Amiga was capable of. Retro look also won't cut it, it's not enough. Nor will the OS which resembles AmigaOS be fancy enough to compete in niche that is currently held by Apple (and yet, they also make x86 PCs). Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (siki_miki) Comments stupid http://osnews.com/thread?274377 http://osnews.com/thread?274377 I have $100 to spare.
And i want to buy Amiga,Inc.
Is this price fair enough?
;) Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (viton) Comments RE: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274381 http://osnews.com/thread?274381
(and yet, they also make x86 PCs).


Your sister makes x86 PCs!!!
Apple makes ONLY Macs, the processor isn't relevant. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JohnOne) Comments Interview http://osnews.com/thread?274400 http://osnews.com/thread?274400 Here is an interview with the CEO of DiscreetFX a few months back.

http://arosshow.blogspot.com/2007/05/bill-panagouleas-interview-wha... Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (novaburst) Comments Gotta wonder what their offer was... http://osnews.com/thread?274408 http://osnews.com/thread?274408 Be Inc., wanted at least $100 Million and people whined that NeXT's value at $400 Million was a ripoff. Shows how much people knew about what NeXT had in the safe.

Amiga is no NeXT.

Amiga is no Be Inc.

If Amiga wants more than Be Inc., did back in 1997 then they truly are living in an alternative universe. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tyrione) Comments On a slightly-related note http://osnews.com/thread?274415 http://osnews.com/thread?274415 Is it possible to use AROS as a server OS yet?

I remember a few months ago when one of the Haiku devs was able to use Haiku to host a webpage. To me, that was a breakthrough, since that showed that Haiku is on its way to becoming a network-ready OS like Windows NT or BSD/Linux.

So it would be awesome to see AROS or MorphOS demonstrate its network-readiness by hosting a demo webpage.

Amiga server? That sounds awesome.
http://www.amigau.com/c-networking/webservers.htm Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (raynevandunem) Comments RE[2]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274442 http://osnews.com/thread?274442 if the thing runs Windows, it's a frigging PC. It's got SATA and PATA interfaces, DDR2 Ram, Core 2 processors, a PCI Express Bus, standard Harddrives, standard Nvidia or ATI cards, sounds like a PC to me, whatever pretty case you put it in. Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BluenoseJake) Comments hmm http://osnews.com/thread?274448 http://osnews.com/thread?274448 I have to admit, that after all these years I still don't get what the big deal is. I understand that 20 years ago the amiga was the best thing since sliced bread, but after watching a video on youtube and seeing how amazingly fast it runs on old hardware I still don't get it. I wasn't really that impressed by what I saw. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (broken_symlink) Comments RE: Wow http://osnews.com/thread?274455 http://osnews.com/thread?274455 It won't live either. Seriously, what is it about the Amiga that's attracted so many companies that don't actually want to sell a product?

I mean, seriously. One could argue that Gateway probably had no intention of doing anything with the Amiga, the present Amiga Inc. made the mistake of writing it for custom hardware... but really, how many times and for how long are people going to do nothing? The latest Commodore hardware I know of is the C64 DTV.

Then again, BeOS had similar problems with Zeta. Fortunately there's Haiku, just like there's AROS for Amiga.

I guess RiscOS benefits from this by still having the original companies around, sort of... Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DigitalAxis) Comments RE[2]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274477 http://osnews.com/thread?274477 Apple make PC's. It's a term, not a brand name. You do know that PC means "Personal Computer", right? Last time I checked Apple made personal computers. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments If more people ask for it... http://osnews.com/thread?274494 http://osnews.com/thread?274494 ... Amiga Inc will probably just raise the price even more.

Just ignore the f--kers and use MorphOS instead. Sure there was the incident with the developers for morphos, but except that Genesi have behaved very nice. Something which can not be said about Amiga Inc.

Amiga has always been screwed, I think they said it best themself:
http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/messages.html
"We made Amiga, They f--ked it up"

Thought that was before my Amiga days, and I enjoyed my Amiga a lot even after that. I wouldn't have thought a second if I had the choice to replace my 3 week old macbook pro with a modern version of the Amiga (No, not an AmigaOne with AmigaOS 4... An Amiga how it would had been 15 years after 92 if they had survived, or even better if there never where a Commodore.) Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments RE: Amiga, yet again? http://osnews.com/thread?274495 http://osnews.com/thread?274495 But I think DiscreetFX does render or video software for Amiga so they are a decent buyer atleast, I seriously doubt they would screw anyone, they are just a real business working with Amiga customers. Not these other kind of weird name owners... Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments RE: stupid http://osnews.com/thread?274496 http://osnews.com/thread?274496 "yes" ;D Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments RE: Gotta wonder what their offer was... http://osnews.com/thread?274497 http://osnews.com/thread?274497 I think Amiga was sold to Bill & co for 7 million dollars last time. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments RE: hmm http://osnews.com/thread?274498 http://osnews.com/thread?274498 If nothing else the fact that "everything works" ;D and all the small hacks and utilities made it so much FUN to use.

The very strong scene culture helped aswell.

Cheap, powerful, innovative, lots of games, lots of hacks, lots of free software (aminet), lots of demos, lots of modules, good software for doing all those kinds of stuff.

It was built to be a great powerful hobby machine with "multimedia support", it wasn't just your generic PC.Edited 2007-09-26 05:50 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments RE[3]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274499 http://osnews.com/thread?274499 Last time I checked Apple INVENTED the personal computer. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (aliquis) Comments Correction http://osnews.com/thread?274506 http://osnews.com/thread?274506 "Buyout" is a noun, "buy out" is a verb (phrase).

"I intend to buy out that company, resulting in a buyout." Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Spellcheck) Comments RE[4]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274507 http://osnews.com/thread?274507 yeah, Well, Apple invented your mum! ;) Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE[4]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274526 http://osnews.com/thread?274526 You might want to check again... Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (wakeupneo) Comments RE[2]: Gotta wonder what their offer was... http://osnews.com/thread?274540 http://osnews.com/thread?274540 was is mentioned yet somewhere, what they've asked for it now? Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kamil_chatrnuch) Comments RE[5]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274547 http://osnews.com/thread?274547
yeah, Well, Apple invented your mum! ;)


"Personal Computer" is a term invented by Apple for the Apple ][, if I remember well. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JohnOne) Comments RE[3]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274549 http://osnews.com/thread?274549
standard Nvidia or ATI cards


Nvidia and Ati cards for Macs are "Mac Edition" ones, not standard ones. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JohnOne) Comments RE[2]: hmm http://osnews.com/thread?274557 http://osnews.com/thread?274557 Everything you've said is in the past tense, which totally sums the situation up.

Time for everyone to move on. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PJBonoVox) Comments RE[4]: Bah http://osnews.com/thread?274558 http://osnews.com/thread?274558 As I understand it, the main differences between MAC and PC Video cards is just the firmware. You can change the card back and forth by changing the firmware. I may be wrong, but that means in my mind that they are the same cards Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BluenoseJake) Comments RE[2]: Wow http://osnews.com/thread?274565 http://osnews.com/thread?274565 "the present Amiga Inc. made the mistake of writing it for custom hardware"

It must be clarified that Amiga Inc. have done precisely nothing for Amiga OS 4 apart from allow its creation in the first place.

They allowed its creation, but they will not allow it to be sold. The current court documents even claim that Eyetech's AmigaOnes were illegal.

Hardware has never, ever been a problem. Prying a license out of Amiga Inc. has.

They are a blight on the Amiga platform and it's communities. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gleng) Comments RE: How are they an Inc? http://osnews.com/thread?274567 http://osnews.com/thread?274567
What do people buy from them?


Well, apart from a few mobile phone games, they don't make or sell anything. It must be said that the current company that calls itself Amiga Inc. has no relation to Commodore or Amiga Technologies. If I'm correct, it seems that they don't even technically own the old Amiga IP. I recall that Gateway, who are now part of Acer, are the owners, and that Amiga Inc. are just perpetual licensees.

"transami" is write...they need to open-source it. they should open source, support it, sell hardware that runs it. at least that way they would have a product that you can purchase.


They have nothing to open source. The only power they have is to license the trademarks and IP. Or not.

is their new OS vaporware?


Amiga OS 4 was written (with initial permission from Amiga Inc.) by Hyperion Entertainment. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but the people lucky enough to have obtained AmigaOne motherboards are running it today. Hyperion are still actively working on it, and it has been shown off at many Amiga shows.

It's not vapourware. It's just not allowed to be sold.

If the current court battle is won by Hyperion, then I expect we will see OS 4 running on pretty much anything with a PowerPC processor. ;) Edited 2007-09-26 12:29 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gleng) Comments RE: Amiga, yet again? http://osnews.com/thread?274589 http://osnews.com/thread?274589 "I wonder how much GEOS is going for these days..."

$99.95 USD, now called "Breadbox Ensemble" (the OS itself is an OEM product) - here is the web site of the current owners: http://www.breadbox.com/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (John Bayko) Comments Hyperion Sucks! http://osnews.com/thread?274596 http://osnews.com/thread?274596 I think all current Amiga companies suck (I don't include Genesi in this as they are fantastic!).

http://zhulien.kicks-ass.net/hyperionsucks.htm Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zhulien) Comments RE: Hyperion Sucks! http://osnews.com/thread?274597 http://osnews.com/thread?274597 fanboy++ ;) Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (makc) Comments RE[2]: Amiga, yet again? http://osnews.com/thread?274600 http://osnews.com/thread?274600
"I wonder how much GEOS is going for these days..." $99.95 USD, now called "Breadbox Ensemble" (the OS itself is an OEM product) - here is the web site of the current owners: http://www.breadbox.com/


Yeah, but I can't buy a copy, that website hasn't been updated in 2 years, and the links to their flagship GEOS product, the geobook, is a dead link... GEOS is about as dead as Amiga now. Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Almafeta) Comments RE[2]: How are they an Inc? http://osnews.com/thread?274642 http://osnews.com/thread?274642 Nice response. You seem very informed on it. Good to get some insights on who is Amiga and what they own.

thanks! Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (areimann) Comments list of companies http://osnews.com/thread?274647 http://osnews.com/thread?274647 Can somebody provide a list of name of the companies using Amiga OS? I just wonder who uses Amiga OS because for me they are not making any money. I have no hope for Amiga anymore.
-2501 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (2501) Comments RE[3]: How are they an Inc? http://osnews.com/thread?274668 http://osnews.com/thread?274668 No worries!

Amiga users tend to spend most of their time watching and waiting at the moment. ;) Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gleng) Comments Let it R.I.P. http://osnews.com/thread?274677 http://osnews.com/thread?274677 'nuff said. Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (falemagn) Comments AROS + MiniMig FTW http://osnews.com/thread?274681 http://osnews.com/thread?274681 Forget AInc. I am focused on the open-sourced OS AROS and open-sourced Amiga clone hardware MiniMig. I see the future there for the Amiga, a niche fun little toy. Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Downix) Comments