Interesting Things
by Ron Schwartz
from the AmiTech-Dayton Gazette, May 2003
Well, for a change I am not having to scrape around to find anything worth talking about this month. There have been some interesting things happening.
Does anyone know the real story regarding the current situation at Amiga Inc.? I first became aware of the situation when I read an item on the Amiga.org web site when Bill Buck from Genesi made a statement in which he indicated that he had held conversations with Gary Hare, the new CEO of Amiga Inc., with regard the lawsuit. This brought immediate statements from both Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss that there had been no change and McEwen was, indeed, still the CEO at Amiga Inc. Within a couple days, however, someone else added an item that they had found a site somewhere on the web that supposedly had copies of court documents in which McEwen stated, in sworn testimony, that he was no longer the CEO of Amiga Inc. I tried to find that item again, just to recheck the information, but couldn't find it. However, in all this, I also remember seeing the implication somewhere, that a Dutch company had brought additional money into Amiga Inc. and may own as much as half of it. This may also be the source of Mr. Hare. The other thing that resurfaced in these articles was the recurrent rumor that the Amiga Inc. offices at Snoquaime no longer exist.
Some of the other good news is that both the Amiga One and Pegasos motherboards seem to be getting out in rather substantial numbers. So far, the only thing limiting sales of either unit appears to be the rate they are being manufactured. Many of the forums and discussion groups have been dealing with reports from people who have taken delivery on them and the majority of reports on both units have been good. About the only problems I have seen has been people having some problems in assembling them or asking about specifics of which accessories should be used with them. For the most part people seem to be happy with them both, although I note more comments regarding satisfaction with the OS from the Pegasos people since they receive their new Morph OS with it, while the Amiga One purchasers are faced with learning a different OS --- the version of Linux supplied with it so they can use their new machine --- until OS4 is finally available. One saving grace, however, is that the UAE Amiga emulator is also supplied with the Amiga One, so the new owners can run most of their Amiga programs.
Another interesting thing is the number of different OSs that are being ported to the Pegasos. Just about all the Amiga-like OSs that appeared in the early years after Commodore's demise are now being ported to the Pegasos, including some that were considered extinct, like BeOS. It also seems that nearly every time I get on one of the Amiga web sites, I see a notice about another program or game that is being ported to the Pegasos. I am sure that sort of thing will also increase significantly for the Amiga One when OS4 reaches a more nearly complete form.
Probably the biggest indication that the new systems have really arrived was the fact that an Amiga One has been advertised for sale on the Amiga.org classified adds.
The revised Pegasos II boards are being promised to begin delivery in September this year. The big question is when OS4 will become generally available? Once both of these next generation Amiga replacement systems are readily available, it will be very interesting to see just where things go from there. Will one of the systems become dominant? If so, will the dominant one wipe the other one out? For that matter, will either one be a commercial success in the long run? All of these things only time will tell what the final results will be. Personally, I am pretty neutral. I am not rooting for either side. It would be nice to see both successful. Someday, however, I hope to be able to make a valid choice and be able to afford it.