Amiga's strategy has always been to provide a complete solution, the Amiga Digital Environment which provides a seamless environment for content, data, applications and users on any device and across any network. In effect, the technology becomes invisible.
In working hard with Tao, and our other partners, such as Sharp, and others, still be announced, and in talking and listening to the Amiga community, we have enhanced our strategy to provide a better, complete solution for all parties.
The AmigaDE itself is progressing rapidly, as will soon be seen with the Sharp product releases. In the past we have targeted the AmigaDE as being both a hardware host and a software host product from cell phone to server.
The home server is a key part of our Domestic Digital Habitat (TM) concept, providing a communications gateway, digital content storage facility and QoS router around the Domestic Digital Habitat.
Since we already have the AmigaOS, are moving forwards with AmigaOS compatible new hardware, and have a vast legion of people who still want to use, develop for and purchase, the AmigaOS, we have decided that instead of bringing out a standalone AmigaDE for this market, we will take the best of the new and integrate it with the best of the old.
In other words, Amiga will offer as the home server solution, a product that is a newly revitalised and expanded AmigaOS, with the AmigaDE tightly integrated into it. Users can thus continue to use the best of the AmigaOS, can work within the AmigaDE, or can work in both of them, transparently using the other as the user environment becomes one. Developers can now stay with the AmigaOS and develop for the AmigaDE on one machine, getting the best of both worlds.
For PDA, Cellphone, STB, Console and Digital Appliance companies, they can run the AmigaDE native, or hosted on their devices, and have access to all of the AmigaDE content and device set. Familes and businesses can buy Amiga Digital Repositories that provides a single universal layer. Disenchanted Windows, Linux and Apple users and developers now have a new, modern, exciting product and Amigans get to keep maintain their march into the future on the platform that they chose.
Once again, Amiga has tried to bend over backwards to show its commitment to the Amiga ideals and community. We have been worked ferociously behind the scenes with users and developers to create a single, harmonious product concept that has only a single target, the future.
Amiga Inc will bring management and control of the AmigaOS back inhouse. Haage and Partner have done a great job with OS3.5 and OS3.9, and will continue to work, with other contractors to help develop OS4 as we move it forwards, but as owner, Amiga Inc will now set the direction and agenda for our entire product set.
What does this mean for Amigans wanting to buy the AmigaOne? It means that the OS that will run on the AmigaOne is AmigaOS4, a PPC OS that takes full advantage of the new hardware, and that will come, (in OS4.2) with a fully integrated AmigaDE layer. With the clever design of the Eyetech AmigaOne, getting access to the classic Amiga (think of the classic as just another hardware card attached to the AmigaOne), there should be full compatibility for older apps whilst getting the full benefit of the new AmigaOS4 (no more crippled emulators or context switching solutions) and the AmigaDE (binary portability, a massive content pool for both developers and users alike) and Java.