Well, we're getting a clearer picture of the Amiga direction now. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be in a direction that will suit me. Let me see if I can say why. Amiga has decided (so far) that PPC is the way to go. Now this in itself doesn't seem too bad, I mean Motorola has published its roadmap towards 2Ghz processors. The AmigaOne is still coming, we keep seeing incomprehensible pictures on the Website to show us, and Amiga has now announced a partnership with Sharp.
All is rosy, then? Not for me, it isn't !
Developers.......you remember them, they are the folk that actually write stuff to put on an Amiga, they don't seem too impressed. We have the likes of Greg Perry, author of THE file management system on any platform pooh poohing the idea of Directory Opus ever coming to the new format. He's just the latest to add his voice to the debate. Rumours that another Amiga Graphics card manufacturer is about to close don't help either. By the way, did I mention that Opus is coming out for Windoze soon (approx.. a few weeks, it's in final testing)
Reports are plentiful about what AmigaDE is going to do for us and how wonderful it will be. Unfortunately this is still a year away as far as I can make out.......the new versions coming out in between will be able to run DE but won't be integrated until version 5 is it? Since Amiga has published the chain that will lead to the final version of DE, why would anyone actually go out and buy the intervening versions?
Anyway, DE will sit on whatever OS you are running and will be able to use any code coming its way. Does this mean that, for instance, I was running Windoze (as at present) it would run the code but would still have to go through Windoze? Can't see a speed increase there then. I can't actually see the benefit of DE. If you can run code on whatever OS you are using, surely those OS's will have their own players? And wouldn't those be better than a decoder sitting between it and the actual code?
Anyway, what about the PPC decision? That's a really clever piece of forward thinking. The World is running Intel and AMD and we go for PPC.....yes, I know Macs use PPC. Mac has a world wide stranglehold on the market, doesn't it, or have I got it wrong. Shouldn't we be looking to increase our market share?
I've been slated by others who tell me that the future isn't computers as such but PDAs etc. Now this may be true, but as long as whatever OS I use can interface with it, does it really matter?
Another point is the "we can't compete with the likes of Micro$oft". By following this line of argument, why are we bothering at all. The new XP system has all the networking you want, the same goes for Linux. Mac has just released their new OS as well which will be able to do wonderful things and will have new audio and multimedia capabilities. Doesn't this give the lie to the above argument? We are going to compete for market share no matter what we do. Simple fact of life. As for all those Companies that are taking DE onboard.......did you notice that they are taking Linux onboard.......DE is a sideline and gets on because of Linux.
Frankly, I can't see much good news for Amiga owners that are prepared to shell out hard cash. You can go buy an AmigaOne, you can search for new software, and there's precious little of that about. There are a few new games out for PPC enhanced miggies as well as new versions of the few remaining packages that are still being developed. So, you can still at least spend some of that cash but getting a killer system with loads of software..........forget it. These new announcements have just killed my dreams of having a machine that will run Amiga software natively. But than again, maybe the bods at Amiga will change their minds!! Until they do, I foresee no future at all for Amiga developers and that's the really sad part!!
End.