In a posting at ANN.lu, ex-Amiga, Inc. employee Bolton Peck breaks his silence. He reports about his time at Amiga Inc., the court trial against his former employer and informs us who is the real CEO of Amiga. Moreover, Bolton gives a general overview into what has happened behind the scenes during the past 3 years. Where does this situation leave the upcoming AmigaOS 4.0 remains to be seen. Update: AmigaWorld.net has a thread about the situation as well.
Amiga, Inc. in Trouble?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Because of certain deals the release of OS4 is secured in the event of Amiga going belly up. However, it’s hard to push an Amiga-OS if Amiga-the-company is no more, at least market wise.
Huh? The link to AmigaWorld.net refers to an older thread which was invoked after the information of the change of CEO leaked several days ago. Doesn’t seem the Amiga-Inc-defenders there took cognizance of reality yet. (Not to mention apologizing for calling others liars when the change of CEO at AI became public the first time last week.)
It will be interesting to see which direction “the new AI” will take – maybe there’ll be finally an agreement to cooperate with Genesi. At least to make AmigaOS 4.0 one further entry in the growing list of operating systems supporting Genesi’s Pegasos PowerPC computer. Although Genesi wouldn’t need it, because they do have their own AmigaOS-successor MorphOS, it would be a step ahead to re-unite the Amiga-community (after “the old AI” had split it).
from http://www.pegasos-usa.com/ :
The Pegasos boards are no longer in stock. We have suspended taking orders until such time as boards become available. If you would like to be notified when boards are available, please send us an email at [email protected].
Thank you for your business,
Genesi Sarl.
Doesn’t look good.
I honestly don’t intend this as a flame, but I think that anyone who has been an Amigan from the beginning isn’t surprised by this. The platform is cursed.
I don’t think, despite the evangelism, that I honestly believed Amiga would come back to life with a branded computer in a branded cardboard box that I could buy at the local computer store, or at least order online. Did anyone else genuinely believe in Amiga Inc.?
No, it’s not really gone! 🙂
It will be succeeded by the Pegasos 2!
Please refer to the following article here on OSNews for the details:
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=3414&offset=33&rows=34
> Where does this situation leave the upcoming AmigaOS 4.0
> remains to be seen.
Sadly I haven’t heard anything from mr Peck in reply to my confirmation requests, that this statement is indeed from him.
Regardless Amiga Inc has made it public knowledge that they have had significant bad weather to go through financially.
However this will not effect AmigaOS4, the OS is fully protected from any financial difficulties:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/fleecymoss/index.php?cat_id=8
@Mike: and do you think Hyperion is also protected from any financial difficulties ?
Do you think Hyperion have the ressources to produce/promote/distribute OS4 if they ever manage to finish it ?
Leo.
Thanks for the hard lesson tronman.
Well hey it did say Dutch owners!
It should be mentioned that some people are very reticent to accept the bitter pill called truth. Regardless of how much undeniable evidence exists.
The truth will come out. It always does.
if this isnt mismanagement i dont know what is…
sad sad.. but hopefully the a1 mobo’s will be availible
It reminded me of the end of Be Inc. There were constant theories as to what all the truths were, lots of flames and a few roundabout denials from Be employees about this or that little element of a larger comment (but never anything substantial or official).
I hope that the BeOS user community is past all of this childishness now.
I also hope to never ever be involved in businesses like these… Oh yeah, I already was… KensingtonDaytimersACCO…
Why would you add a link to your Amiga(TM),Inc.World propaganda site where you present Fleecy Moss’ blatant and proven lies, which were made BEFORE Peck “came out”? Doesn’t look too good. Well, it didn’t before all this either, as anyone with eyes, ears and a brain knew what was going on. OK, everyone but you, Mike. Because I must assume you weren’t lying deliberately all these 3 years, right?
If this post is deleted, I URGE those who have read it and have it saved in their browser caches to PLEASE complain over Bouma’s once again repeated moderation abuse to Eugenia. I simply cannot fathom how Bouma can be allowed to moderate anywhere but on his own site.
> PLEASE complain over Bouma’s once again repeated moderation abuse to Eugenia.
If you do get a deleted comment, do email it to me. We do delete comments, but only for blatant things (e.g.: f***ck stuff, racial stuff and very very bad stuff), but when it comes to “simple” trolling or to very bad/false opinions we only moderate down.
So if you do get your comment deleted and you feel that it shouldn’t have, or that at least it should have only moderated down but not deleted, please report it to me.
This is *not* to say that Mike has deleted comments, as I don’t know. I think I only had a single email once about it complaining, many months ago. Since then, things were quiet about Amiga stuff.
http://www.ann.lu/comments2.cgi?show=1051799407&category=forum&numb…
ok then… If someone wants a hand to hold while me or rajan explains subterfuge and cloak&dagger tactics so be it but this seems -very- legit.
> This is *not* to say that Mike has deleted comments,
He did, in the other thread about AmigaInput. Search for a Don Cox’s reply to a no longer existent message, and you’ll find out.
I just checked our database, I found 5 deletions from the forums database in the last 12 hours, and all were made at the time I was sleeping. These comment IDs are missing: from the db:
96592
96598
96600
96606
96612
I will have a word with Mike.
Do you think Hyperion have the ressources to produce/promote/distribute OS4 if they ever manage to finish it ?
Yes like they do with other Software.
If a company can’t even pay its employees on time, how on earth can you expect them to keep any of its promises?
I don’t know why this guy didn’t leave after the first Christmas.
>I don’t know why this guy didn’t leave after the first Christmas.
I believe that this was his mistake, indeed.
I think this is the definition of when “the sh*t has hit the fan”
first off let’s be clear on one thing , Everyone has their own agenda with everything they do…
Bill Buck is atm catching tons of flack for being frank about this, my experience tells me he is just being the business man he was taught to be, same as everyone else trying to get by in the it sector today.
the A. inc staff are being very shifty about the whole affair.
i.e public comments and etc.
That is Understandable, they need to stop, evaluate, regroup and then answer, or that is what I would have done.
On preview: My personal opinion is that the company is being grossly mismanaged, but albetit this will be a expensive experience for the staff since frm my understanding they don’t even have the cash to settle and pay their legal mishaps. (it can happen to anyone, what makes the difference is how one learns from the experience and realise to avoid such events in the future)
A.inc has obviously neglected to pay the employees wages and have also misled (cable fraud?) people through the t-shirt issue and the coupoun dealings.
They have yet to deliver a product (no the games do not count)
Genesi has delivered a product with the os (no a.inc hasnt but the company (cant recall the name of them) that they outsourced the hardware deal to has. ) .
so whom do I trust in this matter, my money is on genesi.
—-
sad to see it happen yet again though.. lucky me , i still have my a500+ ;D
Robert Renling:
> sad sad.. but hopefully the a1 mobo’s will be availible
The Teron PX motherboards are available in sample volumes (not in quantity, as has been claimed by the usual suspects) from Mai, Inguard and Eyetech.
Terrasoft would have sold them too. They said they would devote the month of April to testing of the mobo, but after only one week of testing they discovered that it wouldn’t be “prudent” to sell them to customers.
The Terons have nothing whatsoever to do with Amiga, Inc. (apart from the licensed “AmigaOne” name when Eyetech sells them much more expensive and dongled to AmigaOS users), so there should be no reason for concern in that aspect.
does the nice gentleman have link togo also?
I was at one point impressed with DE (and Tao-Intent), ordered the development kit in August 2001, played with it til November, than said “stuff it, this isn’t leading anywhere“. I’m glad I got out before I really got in. I’ve kind of got a renewed thinggie for all things BeOS (talk about a good selection 🙂
I’d had several complaints back from Phoenix Developer Consortium members in the past about Mike Bouma deleting their posts, and these people assured me they had been posting clean, not-even-flaming-or-trolling posts, but simply ones that would challenge Mike’s views.
It’s good to see that this might never happen again.
Mike has had the habit of trying to control the truth ever since I made his aquaintance several years ago when he joined Phoenix. Unlike any other person who was in the press/web group, Mike was asked to leave for not following guidelines and ignoring peer review of drafts. I wondered how long before his habits of abuse would catch up with him here.
Anyway, it’s sad to think that Bolton’s family and others have suffered because of company mismanagement and worse, but that’s now less likely to happen. At least under the name “Amiga”.
Link to what?
TSS suspending/postponing Teron sales (April 7, I got the note about testing via a TSS mailing list):
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/boxer/
“Terra Soft Solutions has determined that it is not, at this point in time, prudent to carry the Teron mainboards nor offer Teron-based Boxer systems.”
“We regret having launched a product initiative and built expectations prior to receiving first shipment.”
The Teron page at the designer’s site, Mai Logic:
http://mai.com/products/teron%20px.htm
(N.B. The prices listed there are for complete developer’s kits, the mobo sans CPU daughterboard weighs in at $300)
Eyetech, pretending that everything’s A-OK and selling like hotcakes:
http://eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/
I already had my post deleted earlier this year. It didn’t contain any insult or even bad word. I just wrote a message in an amiga story asking Mike why he was supporting Amiga Inc even if the company did so many wrong moves like the tshirt scam. My message got deleted and didn’t even shop up in the moderated down message.
What should we do if we want to post something in an Amiga story that isn’t supporting Amiga Inc? Do we have to save our message on harddisk and keep note the exact time it was posted?
“… assured me they had been posting clean, not-even-flaming-or-trolling posts, but simply ones that would challenge Mike’s views.”
Hey, if it challenges Mike’s views, it’s per definition flaming, trolling, or his favorite labels: “FUD” and “nonesense” (sic).
Nobody cares about what Bouma says or thinks, but when he’s acting as a moderator he should try to understand where he’s moderating: on an impartial site with a reputation to defend like OSNews, or at his own Cheerleader Pravda, Amiga(TM),IncorporatedWorld.net. A note explaining to newcomers which opinions are welcome at Amiga(TM),IncorporatedWorld.net would be nice too…
“What should we do if we want to post something in an Amiga story that isn’t supporting Amiga Inc? Do we have to save our message on harddisk and keep note the exact time it was posted?”
I wish I had done that. There was another thread here a while ago, where I mentioned Mikes “moderation” in response to a post of his on that topic (among others). Poof. Gone, not in “moderated down”.
Was it because I had this URL in it?
http://www.flyingmice.com/cgi-bin/squidcgi/mbthread.pl/amiga/expand…
Of course, if not deleted, this will be dismissed by him as a part of the vast Genesis conspiracy against his enlighted and Very Important self. *chuckle* For the record, I’ve never been contacted by Genesis or any other company about Mike. He’s not really that important. 😀
i need some time to melt this … but from the above comments from the flyingmice forum.. i’m .. very .. I’m feeling misled by the postings relating to amiga news on certain sites by a certain person…
You shouldn’t be. We have a clear policy that personal opinions of the authors either go to the comments, or to a special “our take” section, or to an editorial article. Newsbits are always pretty straight-forward, so don’t drag the issue to new lengths that doesn’t have to be.
Two words “FRAUD” and “DECEPTION”, that is the real Amiga Inc, i find it pathetic how the ignorant members of the Amiga community continue to condone and defend illegal activities and still allow a well known liar to answer questions when the website admin/s know full well the person is a exposed liar.
If you care about the Amiga then stop supporting and praising criminals.
That story was really old news for many of us…
Nobody believed me when I talked about it, they said that
I’m a troll and a liar.
Mike and Ray said that it’s “none of my business”.
Well, pandora’s box is now open… This was JUST the
beginning.
Even the change of CEO was old news to me. (and no, I didn’t hear it
from bbrv)
Amiga’s been on borrowed time since day 1, they pissed away their VC,
split the community, and generally acted like asses. If I could say
even half of the crap I know that went on…. you’d need to wrap duct
tape around your head to prevent your head from exploding!
> just checked our database, I found 5 deletions from the
> forums database
3 of them were my own. It am quite pissed how this nonsense is now spread amongst the Amiga community.
As I explained before, WE DO delete on OSNews, 1-liner brainless comments. The rest “bad” comments do get moded down. The rest, stay up.
Mike says that 3 of them were his, and the other two were trolling.
That’s fine with me. I will stop the issue just right here.
However, in the future if you find comments deleted that you think they really shouldn’t have, on any topic, by any moderator (including myself
, just email me.
My comments have been deleted in the past too, next time it happens I
will let Eugenia know.
As for Mike, the acomplishment of his agenda through different sites
is now well known in the Amiga community.
On a related issue: http://www.ann.lu/detail.cgi?category=news&file=1051932118.msg
I too belived in a company I was working for, trusted that my paycheques would actually clear etc etc… loyalty at the time but in retrospect I think is was foolhardyness and I suspect this poor sod probably thinks the same.
As for Amiga being Cursed… I can go with that, cursed with eternal mismanagement, and I thought the bad old days of Medi Ali were gone… This is C= all over again.
I wanted to belive in Amiga… and at one point I even thought they’d pull it off with the prototype A1 board they were showing off. But when all that disapeared a couple of days before launch with the admission that nothing had been done for months due to lack of money… I considered it a death knell, when the showed off the production A1 4 months later… I wrote them off as a bad idea. Eyetech are going into the PPC linux server market becuase Amiga can no longer (if they ever could in the first place this is) sustain them and I say good for them. I feel sorry for Hyperion, who have slogged their collective guts out to keep the Amiga dream alive, but ultamately I place the blame firmly on Amiga.Inc who have done bugger all for the market and have done some very legally dubious deals (the free T shirt thing comes to mind) which I think needs investigating.
1998 was I think the last big push for the Amiga, but this was scuppered by Gateway almost as soon as it took off. 2000 looked hopefull but by 2001 the dream was almost dead, now today we see that it is all but dead with little or no hope for a return, shame on you Amiga.inc.
I used to be a strong advocate of Amiga, I thought that there was nothing better, but even the faithfull have to really now begin to question where their loyalty is justified. I know I felt it wasn’t a while back.
Damn you, damn you all to the seven lower hells.
. We have a clear policy that personal opinions of the authors either go to the comments, or to a special “our take” section, or to an editorial article. Newsbits are always pretty straight-forward, so don’t drag the issue to new lengths that doesn’t have
One thing that amazes me on http://www.osnews.com is the right to spek what you LIKE (feel); I will think twice about it since I will believe more on users than on censorship !
(I hope i’m wrong!)
______________________________________________
Amiga could have bring us all (so many whiling to pay and have a browser like Phoenix to use) a platform to run Apple OS at the expenses of USERS but they prefer to got chicken on kit.
Can’t say about mismanagement (maybe lack of general management agressive and profitable prespective, or real point of view, both were needed).
Can’t see an “Exit” to Amiga, as a manager.
(Hope I don’t get modearted down too
“Long live to Freedom of speech as they let us contact other peoples and remain what we are in essence”.
(Luis de Camões, XVIII Century).
I really get the impression that the Amiga platform is cursed…
I am waiting for anything like the Amiga for so many years now. Not in the sense of having an Amiga logo on the case, but more in the sense of feeling…
And another bad thing(TM): ATM we’re severly stucked in x86 technology. Well, I COULD use another Cpu, but hell: It is perhaps the most abused processor design in history, but nowhere else you get so much BANG per $.
Ok, I think, I’ll put my money on Genesi now.
I suppose I’ll have to buy Amiga IP and relaunch the Amiga myself. I’ll see what what I can do after I finished with my studies and made some money 😉
I’m sad to see the propaganda from fanatic computer users have reached a well-maintaned and professional site like this.
Amiga Inc. has had problems before in every kind of matter but this time around I think it’s a bit peculiar that followers of what was presented from the start as the new Amiga, still never having the right or possessions to do that, has come up with several stories to hit Amiga Inc.
During the last days, several accomplices of the crusade have “stood up” and reported about different incidents that on their own seem harmless allegations/jokes, but added together may be interpreted by user Joe as actually having any substance. This seem awfully convenient with the fact this alternative system might be on their last legs and are doing whatever they can to hurt the main company so that they may get the chance of taking over the user base, IP and other properties. This might be a last resort due to lack of money to continue normal operation. Fortunately they didn’t count on the still as loyal users and developers and the fact that Amiga Inc is on a roll and about to fulfill the 10 year long dreams of the average Amiga user.
Of course this is only speculation, but if you take a look at the procedures and allegations they look like desperate acts and intented to harm rather than to “help” and inform the Amiga community.
I hope that people can remain patient and wait for the truth and not be affected by the rambling.
As for deleted posts, how about trying to write intelligent posts, that way the chance of being deleted decreases a lot.
You are quite offensive.
“This seem awfully convenient with the fact this alternative system might be on their last legs and are doing whatever they can to hurt the main company so that they may get the chance of taking over the user base, IP and other properties.”
if’s and but’s. Just check into the fact’s and it would help to actually look into a subject before posting.
“This might be a last resort due to lack of money to continue normal operation. Fortunately they didn’t count on the still as loyal users and developers and the fact that Amiga Inc is on a roll and about to fulfill the 10 year long dreams of the average Amiga user.”
There is a difference between loyal users and blind fanatic’s that can’t see the difference between fact and fiction, and maybe the fact that there are a lot of people out their that seem to be running their own version of a “reality distortion field”
Bernard
Being that OS4 (as i know it) is actualy Hyperions product, not Amiga Incs (Amiga have a buy back option of amogaos if they ever feel they need to), i’d say OS4 is very safe
> Mike says that 3 of them were his, and the other two were
> trolling.
Fact is, that they were NOT. Mike has an higly biased way to determine whether a comment is “trolling” or not. I’m surprised you put so much trust in him… just look at the “update” of this news: that thread linked in the news item is NOT about this issue at ALL, it just serves to mislead people even more.
Hgm, it was me who moded-down your comment (NOT deleted), not Mike. I moded down your new comment as well. Your comments were way off the scale, they were worthy of moderation. The fact that there might have been a problem with an editor (and Mike actually explained himself) does not give you the right to talk like that for any editor or fellow reader over here. Read our posting rules before you post here again and restrain yourself from being a jerk to anyone.
I’ve never had any respect for Gateway or Amiga, Inc. They were Silicon valley drop-outs with their heads in the clouds. Therefore, I was very relieved to see that they relegated the development work to those with a bit of sense of the market and the platforms’s history. And I think that the Hyperion (OS4 contractors) boss has had his feet firmly planted on the ground, not placing his company’s or his platform’s future in the hands of Amiga, Inc. If Amiga, Inc. turn out to go bankrupt or leave the market, I couldn’t care less. With their leaving, we could even have the AmigaDE debacle off our backs.
Still, it certainly hurts the public image of the Amiga name, whatever is left thereof, and perhaps this was why Mike Bouma did remove some articles before the fire would spread outside the Amiga world. Not that I particularly support such actions, but it could be a comprehensible motive.
P.S. While I won’t question Eugenia’s personnel policies, Mike Bouma is one of the least liked figures in the Amiga world, and a great part of the community would prefer not to see him as our representative on a high-profile news site like OSNews. D.S.
[quote]P.S. While I won’t question Eugenia’s personnel policies, Mike Bouma is one of the least liked figures in the Amiga world, and a great part of the community would prefer not to see him as our representative on a high-profile news site like OSNews. D.S.[/quote]
Not true most in the amiga community like Mike Bouma.
Mos ppl in the Peggaos/MOS community dont.
Most of the ppl in this thread posting are from the pegasos/mos community.
I certainly don’t belong to any Pegasos/MorphOS community. If anything, that community is a subset of the Amiga community. That is one reason why Bouma isn’t all that popular, since he (and the last two posters as well, evidently), like to artificially split the community into two fractions with different motives, something which I wouldn’t even attribute Alkis with.
Neither Amiga nor Gateway, nor Commodore before them, have now or have ever had any significant presence in Silicon Valley. The current iteration of Amiga, Inc., may indeed be a canonical “dot.bomb,” since that concept is hardly local to the SF Bay area. Gateway isn’t. Gateway started in 1985, which in fact makes them about the same age as the Amiga, and while their hardware certainly isn’t particularly innovative, their business models were.
I had the most hope for the Amiga actually pulling off a miracle and reviving when they were a division of Gateway; the CEO of the division then seemed genuinely interested in the technology of the Amiga. Bill McEwen has certainly made a great effort to stay in touch with the existing Amiga community and to (somewhat haphazardly) lurch toward satisfying their needs, but when push comes to shove, McEwen only wanted the Amiga name–and more than likely, wanted it chiefly for the fanaticism that it still inspires. What better thing for a shoestring-budget dotcom to start with than a “fan base” of thousands desperate to believe that you’ll save their beloved languishing platform–even though your plans have very little to do with their platform at all? (The DE was clearly where all the internal effort was directed.)
Things are still happening, and I among lots of other talented people am an eye-witness. Of course facts like these are hard to swallow for individuals with profane agendas.
From the perspective of an Amiga user, the last two Amiga regimes have been exactly that – Silicon valley drop-outs. Big pies in the skies, lots of talk about connected this and environment that, whereas we Amiga users wanted a new Amiga. I remember how the GW2000 people talked a whole lot about the Amiga concept or the Amiga vision. Well, we Amiga users didn’t get our computers because we shared some kind of vision which was only formulated twelve years after the Amiga’s entry on the market. We got our computers because we liked them as computers, and for all Gateway’s and McEwen’s talk about visions, they couldn’t give us something more concrete, like a computer or an operating system or something like that.
That’s why I’d call them Silicon valley types. Intoxicated by venture capital, wasting their time on concepts alien both to the Amiga and industry reality, giving the actual users of the platform to fend for themselves.
I didn’t give Amiga, Inc. $50. I didn’t fall for the “send $50 and get a FREE T-Shirt and $50 off coupon towards the new AmigaOne!”
Why?
Anyone with even an ounce of common sense could EASILY see that this was a hype tactic! There was nothing but PROMISES (and we all know how reliable those have been for the Amiga “Splat!”form (falling flat (Splat!) on it’s face over and over again).
And, so I waited for the T-shirts and coupons and motherboard to be mentioned. Of course, the MAIN reason I was holding out was because AmigaOS4 wasn’t yet available. I was NOT about to get into Amiga *anything* without being able to get the “holy grail” AmigaOS!
Only recently have the A1 motherboard even been mentioned as available (with Linux) by Eyetech (or has no one gotten those yet either?) And this is… what… a few months prior to Christmas of ’02? And STILL we wait for AmigaOS4 in May of ’03!.
I am, yes… saddened by the recent findings/reports, but at least I’m not out anything financially. But I fell for the hope and dreams. I bit it, thinking that maybe, just MAYBE, this time they’d make it happen. Even the NAME was there! Amiga, Inc.! They wouldn’t screw up with THE name on the line!
But it’s happened again… CEO’s and company execs just in it to fill their pockets as much as they can and then skip away. But looks like a certain CEO isn’t gonna be “skipping” away quite so easily.
We must all come to the realization that the ONLY way a company/platform we love (such as Atari or Amiga) will EVER be the way WE end-users want is to be RUN by we end users!
All the “business savvy” types are too “business minded” to care about us… we’re just numbers to them. We’re just dollars in the bank. WE DON’T MATTER TO THEM ONE IOTA!!! They figure, if they can suck $50 more out of us, based on a hollow promise, who the (!!!) cares if they actually make good on their “promises”!
And some of us fall for it… one… more… time.
When will it end? It won’t… until we get someone from OUR ranks in position to run the business. Someone who knows what it feels like to be stepped on over and over again. To be let down by empty promises over and over again. To be TAKEN for $50 and, no doubt, privately laughed at…
I’m selling my A1200. I had gotten it recently and was keeping it to “prepare me” for AmigaOS4, but since that dream isn’t gonna happen, no use keeping it now.
Who wants it?
Email me.
Luposian
[nly recently have the A1 motherboard even been mentioned as available (with Linux) by Eyetech (or has no one gotten those yet either?) And this is… what… a few months prior to Christmas of ’02? And STILL we wait for AmigaOS4 in May of ’03!.]
Yes many have gotten their AmigaOne systems now.
Head over to http://www.amigaworld.net and find out.
“We must all come to the realization that the ONLY way a company/platform we love (such as Atari or Amiga) will EVER be the way WE end-users want is to be RUN by we end users!”
fleecy was an end user, and so are most of the people who have worked for Amiga Inc, such as Gary Peake.
“All the “business savvy” types are too “business minded” to care about us… we’re just numbers to them. We’re just dollars in the bank. WE DON’T MATTER TO THEM ONE IOTA!!! They figure, if they can suck $50 more out of us, based on a hollow promise, who the (!!!) cares if they actually make good on their “promises”!”
I think the problem at Amiga Inc has been that they were not businesslike enough, but lived in a dream world of Amiga spirits and digital environments. In contrast, Eyetech is run by a rather hard headed businessman who thinks about how the company is going to _earn_ money rather than borrow it.
While I won’t question Eugenia’s personnel policies, Mike Bouma is one of the least liked figures in the Amiga world, and a great part of the community would prefer not to see him as our representative on a high-profile news site like OSNews.
I think a more accurate phrase is that Mike has become one of the more polarizing figures in the Amiga world: people seem either to adore his work as “getting the ‘real’ truth out,” or to loathe his work as “cheerleading those who betrayed our trust.”
There are a lot of loyal, prominent Amiga users who have vocally expressed their intense reservations with Mike Bouma’s work; the administrator of amiga.org comes to mind, and that’s probably an understatement. There are also a lot of others who appreciate it. The other administrators of amigaworld.net don’t seem to dislike him.
Barring some sort of scientific survey, I think it’s a bit much to call Mike one of the most disliked figures in the Amiga world.
“Yes many have gotten their AmigaOne systems now.
Head over to http://www.amigaworld.net and find out.”
Eyetech are shipping about 40 boards per day. There is a steady stream of posts on http://amiga.org/ from new users who are getting Linux running. (And from angry users whose boards have not yet arrived.)
As for the OS, it really does seem to be in the home straight. The Hyperion team are determined to get it fully working and largely bug free before demonstrating it, on the arguments that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and that hostile critics will be looking for holes to pick.
@ Jack Perry
I have many friends and many foes. If you read the comments in reply to my past feature articles you will notice that a vast majority of the reactions are very positive. And before any claims are made up that I have moderated all the negative ones out
=> No I did not moderate any comment in reply to my feature articles.
The group of people who seem to dislike me with passion and accuse me of many things are mostly a certain group of people generally with an very negative attitude towards Amiga companies and a very positive one towards a certain competitor. All I can say is that I will not review AROS/MorphOS, mostly due to all this hatred.
Regarding moderations, I guess I am happy with around 95% of the moderations I have done so far. I may have made some misjudgements regarding some borderline comments, but generally I would act the same.
So to summ up there is a group of people who dislike me and there is a group of people I like to write articles for, the Amiga user community. Will I moderate off-topic personal attacks or insults in the future in reply to my articles or news items? Most certainly.
“The group of people who seem to dislike me with passion and accuse me of many things are mostly a certain group of people generally with an very negative attitude towards Amiga companies and a very positive one towards a certain competitor.”
Also people who object strongly to censorship on general discussion boards, especially censorship to suit the narrow views of one evangelist.
“Regarding moderations, I guess I am happy with around 95% of the moderations I have done so far. I may have made some misjudgements regarding some borderline comments, but generally I would act the same.”
I’m sure you would.
@ Don Cox
I do not censor anything. I do want the news to be as accurate and verified as possible. For instance I had my doubts with regard to this nesw posting, as Peck’s views were already widely known amongst the Amiga community for months, anyone could have written this forum message. However I have done some research which indeed makes me believe this message was genuinely originating from Mr Peck.
Regarding that 5% I am not that happy about one comment I moderated originating from you, it was a message in response to a troll of my previous article. After I explained why the troll message was removed in reply to your message I thought these messages had no more value.
I did not moderate 1 posting regarding this news item. And with regard to my moderation @ AmigaWorld I only ever had to moderate 3 messages, for which the authors have received extensive information on why those were removed.
I do not moderate based on opinions or views different from my own, but I moderate based on trolling, insults or personal attacks.
Well, I’m back again. Heard that Mike is now being monitored for his deletions of post/replies he doesn’t like, figure I may come back and take a look around.
> @ Jack Perry
> I have many friends and many foes. If you read the
> comments in reply to my past feature articles you will
> notice that a vast majority of the reactions are very
> positive. And before any claims are made up that I have
> moderated all the negative ones out
=> No I did not
> moderate any comment in reply to my feature articles.
How about posts that are negative that were not from your feature articles?
> The group of people who seem to dislike me with passion
It’s not a group mike, it’s a community effort.
> and accuse me of many things are mostly a certain group
> of people generally with an very negative attitude towards > Amiga companies and a very positive one towards a certain > competitor. All I can say is that I will not review
> AROS/MorphOS, mostly due to all this hatred.
Question comes up, is their (and mine too) distrust of you and your constant fluff pieces unwarranted? Is it fair of you to lump those of us are willing to question any company that is lieing to their customers and willing to do shady things for money? Those of us, and I dare say a significant number of us, have long ago realize that your just pretending to be a journalist and have your agenda which is clearly seen by the spin you post. Some can accept it with a chuckle and move along while others have a more physical reaction when our BS meters peak.
Before you start on your demonizing on me, let me first say, of the Amiga related companies, the are several I have zero ill will against and one of those is Tao Group. They are pretty decent bunch of guys who deserve alot of creidt for their hard work. The other is Bernie and Cloanto.
The other that is connected to Amiga Inc is Net Ventures. I have zero ill will and I’m very happy to see them stepping into this ugly mess and straighten things out, hopefully by terminating the majority of who is left at Amiga Inc as a clean sweep prior to restarting of Amiga Inc.
> Regarding moderations, I guess I am happy with around 95%
> of the moderations I have done so far. I may have made
> some misjudgements regarding some borderline comments, but > generally I would act the same.
Abuse of your moderation powers was what drove me away from here. I clearly remember you claiming on another board that you wish I was posting on OSNews so you could delete my post. I took that as you would do it out of malice which is apparently happening to others on here.
> So to summ up there is a group of people who dislike me
> and there is a group of people I like to write articles
> for, the Amiga user community. Will I moderate off-topic
> personal attacks or insults in the future in reply to my
> articles or news items? Most certainly.
That’s the reason why I seldom read here or can recommend this site. If anything, you should let the moderation of comments to your articles and post left to your fellow moderators. Other wise, your simply pushing OSNews into your own personal (highly) bias direction.
Hopefully the owner of OSNews can keep you under control.
damocles
> Abuse of your moderation powers was what drove me away
> from here. I clearly remember you claiming on another
> board that you wish I was posting on OSNews so you could
> delete my post.
Uh huh, so if that is true it would not be hard to back up your wild claims or would it? Or did I delete our postings at those other boards as well?
I’d like to say I’ve been a long time community member and I supported Amiga.inc for a while and I also supported the AmigaOne for a while… I’ve since changed my mind on them… I sincerely wish Mr. Bouma would take an unbiased view of Amiga.inc and their products… aswell as others products… in my opinon when I percieve obviouse bias along with his inclusion on this site it serves only to discredit the site in my eyes and this is the last time I visit this site if I can help it… I have alot of respect for the others writers here you write some very unbiased articles and report good news… but Mr. Bouma has demonstrated his bias in my opinon without a doubt and therefore I cannot trust the content of a site that he writes for… Amiga.inc has more rumors (possible very true rumors) of misdeeds,fraud, and lawsuits floating around about it that if even a small ammount turns out to be the truth I will not trust them again(your own OSnews website reported the latest I’ve heard!!!)… so in the end I feel pretty bad to have to leave but while Mr. Bouma among others try to fan the flames of devideing this community and apperantly delete honest forum posts (not only here mind you) along with writing biased reviews and voiceing negative non-corroborated (at least not publicly) stories about amiga.inc competitors I cannot feel anything but sadness and mistrust toward this and other sites where he plays a key role…
sorry guys but thats my opinon about your site and this situation for now…note:opinon I’m not stating or trying to convey any of the above as truth… it’s true to me only as it is my opinon and I think others may share my opinon on this aswell.
@Mike Bouma
I have many friends and many foes. If you read the comments in reply to my past feature articles you will notice that a vast majority of the reactions are very positive.
I removed this statement before submitting my last post: “Apparently I am one of the few people who is neutral on Mike’s work.” To me this is the only healthy position to take on anyone who calls himself a journalist (which you have done on numerous occasions). I read what you write, and generally I find it interesting and informative. However, I am aware that quite a few people whom I respected once, and I’m not sure I shouldn’t respect now, claim that you are either credulous, or a wilful participant in disinformation. So, I try to keep a healthy skepticism. Personally, I’m pulling for you, and hoping you’re right.
I do however take issue with something you wrote:
The group of people who seem to dislike me with passion and accuse me of many things are mostly a certain group of people generally with an very negative attitude towards Amiga companies and a very positive one towards a certain competitor…. So to summ up there is a group of people who dislike me and there is a group of people I like to write articles for, the Amiga user community.
My point was, and remains, a lot of people in the Amiga community, who own and operate real Amigas, dislike your work, and possibly dislike you personally. I am not one of them. But I don’t think it’s good practice to imply, as your statement can, that the people who dislike you are not part of the Amiga community, but part of a competitor community.