| From: | Aaron Ruscetta |
| Date: | 5 Aug 2000 at 09:59:47 |
| Subject: | Re: AMIOPEN: Amiwest news / new SDK / Reply to Gary |
On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Gary Peake wrote:
> Hope no one minds my follow-up here. Aaron raises some good points
> that need to be discussed even if this is a developer list. I know you
> guys are busy, so please bear with me while I answer.
Sincere thanks for responding, Gary, (to both this and my last
questions on a similar lines) but I think we can drop the implication
that any of this is "off-topic" or out of place. Concerns relevant to
Developers rather inseperably include matters of policy and practice
announced by Amiga Inc. and it's developer support organizations.
> >> A version of the SDK for Windows will be made available next month.
> >
> >I find this a most untimely and disturbing announcement.
> >... Any concession to the monopoly
> >corruptions at this stage of Amiga development seems hugely premature
> >and remains, despite all fronts and assurances, a drain on resources
> >and a serious contradiction to the alternative community commitments
> >that Amiga Inc. has so successfully stated, solicited and exploited to
> >date.
>
> There is another aspect to this that needs to be looked at. In our
> better years, some of the most prolific and ingenious developers were
> programming for the Amiga. Many no longer keep up with what is
> happening and there is no way to find them all.
>
> We decided back a few months ago to engage as many developers as
> possible in the future of the Amiga. To do so, it is necessary to go
> where they are. Once we have their interest, then we feel they will
> stay just as you have.
>
> We are not looking to develop FOR Windows, but to be able to develop
> ON Windows. There is a marked difference between the two.
The *intentions* of a windoze SDK release are not being questioned
here. The probability of those intentions ever being realized and the
likelyhood of serious damaging consequences are the issues of concern.
First major problem on the list is that the announcement itself is a
contradiction to previously stated and implied directions of Amiga
Inc., starting with the direct and repeated McEwen quote:
"Our business plan is scaled to the existing Amiga community."
Prior to the release of the Linux SDK, I can find no mention anywhere
of windoze support in any of the development and business plans.
All observable actions of AI through the Linux SDK release involved
soliciting and securing alternative partners and developers
*exclusively*. The real world effect of any windoze support now is
that it paints AI as being highly deceptive and manipulative with the
very communities that are the most central and essential to its
success.
The downsides of the proposed windoze SDK release are hardly limited
to community relations, either. The real world effect is that all
efforts directed to windoze support will directly and insidiously
usurp the resources of alternative efforts on several fronts.
(-: ...and your previous reply that doing a windoze release won't
require any of AI's limited resources is a nice thought, but I'm
afraid the Keebler Elves are already under contract at the cookie
factory. :-)
Just from the posts to this thread, the "Black Hole" syndrome that
history and I suggest is clearly exemplified. Your own short "target
markets" list shows that legacy Amiga support is totally absent from
the development plans. Support that has been promised (yet again) to
the dedicated and patient, the ones who stayed focused, the ones who
are already on board for making the Next Generation a possibility,
that support is being handed instead to those who abandoned
alternative thinking long ago, the ones whose efforts supporting new
choices like Amiga NG are the *least* likely to be enlisted.
Even among the persistent developers here, the ones who took AI at
their word and example by investing in Amiga alternatives with the
Linux SDK, the cries for side-grades prove the guaranteed exodus
away from the goals once windoze enters the mix.
Perhpas the most overlooked aspect, the well known and well publicized
element that everyone clammoring for a windows SDK is perpetually
ignoring in their arguments, is that the Tao/Amiga SDK runs MISERABLY
when it has to wade through windoze. The generalized comparisons
suggest that under Linux, the Amiga OE system runs twice as fast and
is twice as capable as it ever will be on a windoze box.
So let me get this straight: We *want* to introduce the new Amiga to
the windoze world in the worst possible light?? We *want* to encourage
development for it in the most inhibiting and crippled environment??
We believe that SDK install complications and operational bugs are
going to be magically cured by running it on top of a bloated and
unreliable OS??
(-: We think advertising sushi as cold dead fish is a good idea?? We
think Commodore was really adept at marketing??? :-)
> >The first obvious and unavoidable result of this action will be the
> >destruction of the market for the alternative Developer Systems.
>
> Our intended target market for the original SDK, as we did state, was
> Linux developers who believe in Open Source. We have a commitment to
> open source and want to open as much as we can to the open source
> developers.
We seem to have some divergent definitions for the concept of
commitment then...
> The Dev Box is targeted at Amiga developers who can not or do not want
> the problem of installing Linux on a computer. Nothing we have done
> has hurt either targeted market.
I do agree that the Linux package handling has been consistent, at
least up to the introduction of the windoze problems.
(-: Though you might be doing better with the current SDK if you
started refering to Linux installation as an "opportunity" instead of
a "problem". ;-) I saw it as an opportunity, and am therefore enjoying
exploring and learning a huge amount of relevant information that will
not only make me a much better AmigaNG developer, but is significantly
adding to my store of marketable I.T. skills.
> The third leg is to involve some ex_Amiga (now Windows) developers in
> the process by offering an SDK that works on top of Windows...
...with the worst possible performance. That will grab 'em! ;-)
> The Fourth stage is a free standing SDK.
...which will show the New Amiga product at its best. Until then, of
couse, it's the Linux environment that does this.
> Four targets, four separate markets, four separate products.
All these plans would be sensible and the various contradictions
defensible if, indeed, the markets were so clearly delineated.
The reality is that there are a limited number of trees in the forest,
and the ones that have succumbed to the fire aren't likely to be any
use for builiding. Until you can put out the flames and make a
clearing for new growth, there is absolutely no point in watering
charcoal, let alone burning any of the trees behind the fire
break.
> As Bill stated at AmiWest, we are NOT going to be charging for SDK
> upgrades that come through this process. We are going to make them
> available to everyone who has purchased any of the target SDK's.
A very fair and constructive policy. I'm ready for my Linux based
Amiga emulator any time. I would love to be integrating all my
familiar Amiga development tools and showing the emulator off to my
many friends in the legacy community that have been waiting for
something/anything exciting for so very many years.
> >Again in the Amiga marketing tradition, the first ones left slashed
> >and bleeding from a premature windows releases will be that tenacious
> >but waivering handful of remaining Amiga dealers;
>
> Why would they be slashed and burned?
Because there is a tremendous amount of overlap in the markets you are
you have outlined. The proposed windoze SDK, thanks to monopoly
pervasiveness, will appear to most as the easiest solution and all but
eliminate incentive to obtain one of the Linux DevBox Systems. The
(*late*) addition of including Trailblazer developer registration in
the deal may salvage some sales, but the majority will be lost in the
black hole.
> We are working closely with the
> few remaining dealers and developmental companies. I talk to them as
> does Randy and Bill on a weekly basis. They are going to have a
> chance to finally expand their markets rather than watching as their
> markets shrink to nothing.
The continued vacuum in legacy support is up to AI to address now.
If these dealers have invested in stocking Developer systems, the
evidence indicates that they will be badly burned by a windoze based
SDK release. To salvage what they can from the loss, they will
probably feel forced to re-package the systems as windoze boxes and
put still more money and users in Black Billy's pocket.
> >Of course, once you point the sword the wrong direction, you have to
> >start applying bandages, with the common result of adding more gashes
> >in the process.
> >Perhaps an attempt to patch the critical wound from a windows
> >SDK release would exlain why such a nasty cut was delivered to all the
> >committed developers who had already invested in the Linux SDK release
> >and/or compatible systems to run it on.
>
> Why not offer a value add so that Dealers CAN improve their market
> positions? You can't argue on one point that we are killing them and
> on another that we are favoring them?
I was arguing that the Trailblazer addition can be readily perceived
as a "fix" attempt, anticipating the market erosion that would come
with windoze support. The fix may help DevBox Dealers, but present
early adopters may feel a little slighted that this $1000 value was
not on the table when they made decisions for when/how to get on
board.
> >The only thin ray of light that has escaped the black hole so far is
> >Gary Peake's follow up announcement that a Stand Alone SDK is close to
> >release as well. Of course, any windows release within 6 months of
> >this will overshadow that pretty completely. Why the stand alone SDK
> >and OE releases aren't the ONLY focus of AI at present is beyond me.
>
> Because some developers want to be a part of the beginning, want the
> fame or glory of having produced a part of what we are doing.
Good. Bring them on. With the Linux DevBox and the inclusion of
Trailblazer status in the price tag, AI has gone to great lengths to
make being part of the beginning as simple, practical, constructive
and affordable as possible.
If these developers are at all consistent and sincere to the goal of
building a New Amiga, then they will want to develop for it in its
most efficient run time environment and introduce the New Amiga to
others in its best possible form. Until the stand-alone OE, that "best
possible" scenario can only be achieved via Linux, so these commited
developers will be inviting the opportunity of exploring, learning and
using that well supported, marketable and extremely relevant
alternative.
By my dictionary, THAT is commitment. If AI was living up to the
definition, then the current Linux SDK offerings, Legacy Emulation and
Stand-alone SDK / OE releases would be the exclusive priorities and
directions that they would be pursuing. Anything else is a distraction
and a detraction from their commitment.
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