Amiga lore is full of exciting tales. Many of them are retold to demonstrate how the incompetence of Commodore’s management destroyed a platform that, by rights, was destined for success. Coulda, shoulda, and the Amiga woulda risen as rightful ruler of all other computer platforms, forever and ever. Amen.
One of those stories is about how Sun Microsystems allegedly showed interest in the Amiga 3000 during the early 1990s. It’s a classic Amiga anecdote, usually recounted without much reflection, and one I’ve certainly helped perpetuate.
Alas, the more I think about it, the less it adds up. Fact or factoid? Let’s speculate!
↫ Carl Svensson
Great speculation with some solid reasoning and sourcing. Considering that had been some minor joint marketing between Sun and Commodore, my money is on the talks around that deal birthing rumours about more extensive Sun involvement in the Amiga 3000. At this point in time, however, decades after the fact and with several conflicting account, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get a solid answer.
Siggraph in Dallas in 1990. Amiga was there. And I swear it was a 4000 tower running Amiga/UX, their Sys V.4 variant.
Anyway, people tell me I was mistaken, but that’s how I remember it.
Actually, it was earlier that year at Uniforum. It was a tower unit.
There was a tower version of the A3000, so maybe that was it?
I never understood that rumor. SUN had their own Motorola-based unix, and arguably better than the basic port of Commodore did of Unix on the Amiga.