One of the three main German languaged Amiga print magazines has made available an AmigaOS4 preview article which includes many AmigaOS4 screenshots. Also Q&A session 26 with Amiga’s CTO is now available and it was announced that IBM will hold a seminar at the upcoming AmiGBG Amiga fair in Gothenburg, Sweden.
if you would reduce the size of hardware to fit in the size of a SonyP2, and make it around $600 i would consider it. Amiga would only win if it comes up with a usefull personel computer as it was when it released amiga500. A compacy machine full of miracles, so far beyond any hardware existed and any OS was capable at that time.
> if you would reduce the size of hardware to fit in the
> size of a SonyP2
The Mini-ITX AmigaOne board of which a working prototypes have been demonstrated would fit inside a PS2 (or similar small) casing.
http://webring.amigaworld.net/bath2003/bath18.jpg
http://webring.amigaworld.net/bath2003/bath19.jpg
Complete article:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=1&rev_…
> and make it around $600 i would consider it.
Only if enough baords can be produced to cover the development costs. Eyetech will be trying to work with much larger companies to make such low prices become a possibility.
> A compacy machine full of miracles, so far beyond any
> hardware existed and any OS was capable at that time.
IMO not possible nowadays, at least not for the many small Amiga companies involved in this project. The mainstream chip manufacturers would never release something that innovative solely to one solution provider.
And I believe to do something like that all by yourself is not any option neither considering we are talking about highly specialized companies spending hundred of millions on research and development. IMO to try to compete instead of partner with such companies would mean corporate suicide.
You know, I look at these compact Amiga’s with some interest. Of course, I’m biased, as I was an Amiga owner and fan many years ago. But the truth is, I currently have a HushPC (small, quiet (fanless)) machine and love it. When you make a computer fanless and small, you have to sacrifice some speed or the CPU and other components will be too hot to run in such a configuration. And, fast CPU’s, large memory pools and big HD’s are expensive. So I do believe that the world needs a small, cheap (which I know the Amiga will not be) quiet machine, which is both simple and powerful. Right now I run Gentoo on my Hush, and optimize it as much as possible. But even with some work, it’s still not sufficiently “smooth” enough at some points — there are rough points. And it’s not simple. I agree with the above poster (alan) about having a small, cheap machine “full of miracles”, but I believe that most of the miracles could be done in software, with existing hardware. From the perspective of the 80’s, even the most braindead modern hardware is miraculously fast and powerful. I know that the HushPC that I have is truly fast — in the sense that it is capable, from a hardware perspective, of providing a smooth, efficient experience. I know this, if for no other reason, than UAE, running on that machine, can do so. I think a carefully stripped down version of Linux might be able to give me what I’m looking for — a carefully configured Gentoo has come closer than any other setup for me. Not quite there yet, however.
Erik
I really like the looks of the screenshots. I think they look very clean and crisp. Amiga OS looks good to the eye, IMHO.
I agree – lately I’m so fed up with these big noisy machines, I would really go for something of the ‘all-in-one’ type like the old A500/600/1200.
I think the time is ripe for such a machine, for a while there with the introduction of the pentium your machine would be obsolete within a couple of months, now upgrading seems less imperative even with new hardware coming out because the ‘old’ systems don’t get really challenged by the software available now.
On a related note, Amiga OS4 came in 9th place for Wired Magazine’s vaporware awards for the second year in a row! Here’s the link, enjoy!
http://hb.lycos.com/header?Z=561288&VID=5102&LHM=1&m_PR=49&m_APPID=…
This is not a troll, it’s a fact.
Some weird URL got into my clipboard on that last post, blame Opera. Here’s the real link:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61935-2,00.html?tw=wn_s…
This is off-topic and trollbait. You want to discuss the wired article, make a news column to discuss it.
amiga is dead. stop trying to bring it back /w these half ass attempts
So I do believe that the world needs a small, cheap (which I know the Amiga will not be) quiet machine, which is both simple and powerful.
How about terrasoft’s Briq:
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/briQ/
?
@ Nate Downes
> trollbait
As you can judge from various websites any kind of news or coverage, positive or negative, false or true can be trollbait.
But please stop spreading such false information and flamebait with regard to projects competing with your employer (like you were quoted by Wired), you not just concentrate on your own products instead? IMO this does the potential market for *both* products more bad than good.
Uhm, it’s very cool but costs at least $1300. You can get a lot of PC for that kind of money.
This is not meant as flamebait, just an opinion. Feel free to mod it down if you like Eugenia
Mike said:
“The mainstream chip manufacturers would never release something that innovative solely to one solution provider.”
A more correct way of putting it would be:
The mainstream chip manufacturers would never release something that innovative solely to a market with 500 people.
Amiga products have a tiny market and there’s no way that large companies would put massive amounts of R&D time and money into developing products for a tiny market. Without large amounts of R&D money you are stuck with either a) rebadging someone else’s stuff (AmigaONE), or duplicating existing designs with slight modifications (most/all of the PPC boards seem to follow PC-style mobo designs rather than taking advantage of the PPC’s uniqueness).
For _any_ Amiga-related company to survive longer than the next 6-12 months on its own steam (ie not using Windows-related sales to fund the work), something extremely unique needs to be developed that can catch the general public’s attention and make them _crave_ it, or forget the general public and create something sufficiently unique (either features, price or both) for the OEM market.
Then, once you have the hardware you need the killer app, eg Halo for the XBox, the Video Toaster for the old Amigas, etc. Without this, the Superdeduper Whizbang Turbo Machine will become a nice paperweight, like the Atari Lynx.
Its going to be an uphill struggle all the way. People need to stop thinking “we can’t do that, we’re too small” – the original Amiga founder didn’t have hundreds of people working on their hardware and OS (ok, the original AmigaOS was actually licensed from someone else..), so it _is_ possible to do amazing things with limited resources.
In summary, forget making some wonder deal with the big companies, take what you have and do something _unique_ with it. Or give up. I don’t see any other way out of it.
Damien
Alan said:
“if you would reduce the size of hardware to fit in the size of a SonyP2, and make it around $600 i would consider it. Amiga would only win if it comes up with a usefull personel computer as it was when it released amiga500. A compacy machine full of miracles, so far beyond any hardware existed and any OS was capable at that time.”
That’s what I said to Genesi last year, and to Phoenix the year before (as others had done so years earlier too).
Now, a year later, we have the PS/2 home entertainment center (PSX), the PS3 due within about 18 months, nevermind Microsoft’s continued push on their Xbox home computing system (its not just a games console, they’re finally starting to show the world that with their xbox+webtv device, nevermind what the xbox2 will do).
People don’t want to spend $1000+ on a new PC that isn’t a PC (ie any new Amigas), they want a $200-300 console device which you could then start selling productivity packs for.
BTW, ever consider that:
a) Longhorn will be out around about the same time as the xbox2,
b) Longhorn will have a completely new 3d UI,
c) that’s also the same time that Microsoft will be launching their Trusted Computing stuff,
d) they’ve been making inroads into controlling the movie (WMV on DVDs and theatre/cinema) and music (WMA on CDs) industries.
Microsoft is intending doing away with the PC market and using the xbox2 to do so.
Damien
@ Damien McKenna
> This is not meant as flamebait, just an opinion. Feel
> free to mod it down if you like Eugenia
I don’t see you flame-baiting?
> The mainstream chip manufacturers would never release
> something that innovative solely to a market with 500
> people.
Although I agree the Amiga market is small, IMO you are exaggerating a bit. For instance even without AmigaOS4 available AmigaOne sales are already *way* beyond this figure.
The German Amiga Magazine “AmigaPlus” alone has more than 4000 readers and then we have Amiga-Magazin and Amiga Future publishing in Germany as well.
http://www.amigaplus.de/
http://www.amigafuture.de/
Actually I have seen more Amigans than that figure myself last year!
> Amiga products have a tiny market and there’s no way
> that large companies would put massive amounts of R&D
> time and money into developing products for a tiny
> market.
Agreed, at least not exclusively.
> Without large amounts of R&D money you are stuck with
> either a) rebadging someone else’s stuff (AmigaONE)
Creating solid but still flexable and non-exclusive partnerships are IMO the best way forward for the entire Tech industry. IMO the worst thing to do against a healthy Tech market is to try to offer everything under one roof. (Like Microsoft)
So far Mai Logic has been a valuable partner for the many *co-operating* Amiga companies which are trying to pull off this project.
> or duplicating existing designs with slight
> modifications (most/all of the PPC boards seem to follow
> PC-style mobo designs rather than taking advantage of
> the PPC’s uniqueness).
Mirco-ATX casing would fit into almost anything. What kind of advantages other than a higher energy efficiency/less heat production are you pointing at with regard to PPC chip based hardware designs?
> something extremely unique needs to be developed that
> can catch the general public’s attention and make them
> _crave_ it, or forget the general public and create
> something sufficiently unique (either features, price or
> both) for the OEM market.
AmigaOS4 will be this unique feature/app itself at first. Of course realisticly this will first be of interest mainly to people familiar with AmigaOS and should later on become more attractive for ordinary consumers as well. (Better responsiveness, simple on/off approach, customizability, flexibility, transparency, modularity and features like Screens).
But IMO, you are too soon to give up on the bigger companies. 🙂