Thoughts
by Ron Schwartz
from the AmiTech-Dayton Gazette, February 2003
As usual, news for the Amiga Community over the last month is mixed, some good and some bad. The good part is that we seem to be reaching a point where the good news seems to outweigh the bad. The updating of most Amiga software packages continues. The biggest impetus, however is the fact that the new Amiga-like systems have finally reached the market, just before the first of the year, and their availability is improving.
I have recently gotten a little insight into the current status of the Amiga One motherboards. This was courtesy of an article in the Sacramento Amiga Group's newsletter, AmigaZette. Apparently the club has purchased one as has their President. They are beginning to document what they are going through to assemble a computer. From their account, all is not all sweetness and light. The boards were received just wrapped in electrostatic wrap and provided with two CDs that were obviously burned from the dealer's master copy. They implied that the assembly instructions provided left something to be desired. The OS provided was SuSE Linux and the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator (UAE). UAE gives them the capability to run current Amiga software. This all for a cost of $585.00 for an Amiga One G3-SE. Of course, someday, OS-4 will finally be available to make the system complete, assuming they get everything all assembled and running. Apparently the contractual issues between GPSoftware and Hyperion have been resolved, insuring Directory Opus will be included in 0S-4. The availability of the G3 or G4 XE Amiga One is promised soon, but still appears to be an unknown.
While the MorphOS and Pegasos combination also began delivering last month, they have had their problems too. One of the chips on the motherboard has been causing problems. They have selected an alternative chip to replace the troublemaker, but have found adequate supplies of the current chip to insure that they can find enough good chips to support the completed units, and continue production until the new units are available. The Pegasos motherboard is being advertised for sale on their USA web site for a price of $499 for the basic unit, including MorphOS and a PPC version of Linux. They are available with CPUs ranging from one 600 Mhz G3 to dual G4s. Their web sites also show a growing number of applications being ported to MorphOS. One other item of interest: Amiga, Inc. was making threats that they would proceed with legal action against anyone and everyone they felt were infringing on their Intellectual Properties (patents), before the first of the year. They seem to have forgotten or they are having the same kind of schedule slippage with that as they are getting their products on the market. To make the situation even stranger, however, apparently Genesi has initiated a lawsuit against Amiga, Inc. for breach of contract. The explanation I read centered around their not infringing on Amiga Inc. Intellectual Properties, so it is not at all clear what contract has been breached.
The situation with Amithlon is also somewhat confusing. Last month I stated that Amithlon was dead. Bernd Meyer, the person responsible for developing Amithlon, has closed his web site and stopped any further development of it. What is confusing is that as near as I can tell, H&P is continuing to market their AmigaOS XL package which includes Amithlon and their Amiga emulator. What makes this all so strange is that, if H&P are still marketing it, a number of updates, including an updated kernal, that were available at no cost through Bernd's web site, are no longer available. So anyone buying it currently will not have access to the latest version. As I understand the situation, H&P sells an unlicensed version of Amithlon. They have threatened legal action against Bernd or Amiga Inc. if they try to market a legal/licensed version. Consequently, Amithlon is dead unless you are willing to buy an illegal version. Quite a quandary, especially since I have an interest in getting it, since some of my other activities are putting increased pressure on me to have a PC to utilize be able to access materials from most organizations and businesses I deal with.
There are a lot of updates for Amiga software that have just recently become available. Cloanto has released version 5.1 of Amiga Forever, the official Amiga emulation and connectivity package for PCs. Pagestream 4.1.5 was released just before Christmas and is a free update for owners of 4.1. Perfect Paint V2.9 is now available. The new version includes some new drawing effects and can now read TrueType fonts and a number of other new features. Nova design is having a sale of all of their products. Image FX, Aladdin 4D for Amiga and Millennium for the Amiga Toaster/Flyer are available at special prices. However, the article I saw didn't specify how long this sale would last. So, if you are interested I would check right away.
So, the Amiga world is never static but, right now, it seems to be beginning to shed the inertia that has gripped it for some time. There is definite positive movement and the new generation machines are beginning to reach the hands of the Amiga Community. The major question now is, are there enough of us left to make a viable market and keep the supporters of that market alive? A second major question is, is the Amiga market large enough to support the two major competing systems that are emerging. We hope that Amiga Inc. will not stick with their decision to encode the OS-4 so it will not run on an unlicensed system (Pegasos). While most of us lean towards one system or the other, many of us would purchase both OSs so we can try them both to determine which we like best. Many of us would decide each does some things better than the other and would continue to use both and purchase updates as they become available. The Pegasos people will not be able to run both 0Ss, which may cost sales on the Amiga side, while the Amiga One people could run MorphOS which will give them extra sales. The fact that the Pegasos motherboard is nearly $100 cheaper may also be an important factor. Only time will tell if both or either, for that matter, can survive in this environment. We will be keeping our fingers crossed, although after nearly ten years they are getting a bit sore.