I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed with the "ground- breaking" announcements coming out of the Amiga22001 show in St. Louis, Missouri. With all of the hype, I was expecting to see the AmigaDE (Digital Environment), a new, updated, SDK (Software Developers Kit) that offered sound and 3-D graphics card support, or actual AmigaOne computers available for sale. There was none of those at the show.
Instead we got a lot more conceptualizing; even some drastic hard right turns from what was announced at the AmiWest22000 show (just nine months earlier). There were some new partnership announcements and even an AmigaOne concept board. However, we've had partnering and hardware announcements before that never went anywhere.
The announcements and directions seemed necessary. The reasoning that Amiga, Inc. gave us was very understandable. Amiga, Inc. is abandoning the X86 target and going with the PowerPC processor instead. As a Wintel- bigoted Amigan that has used Motorola computers for 15 years and feels that Intel (like Micro$oft) is the enemy, I can't help liking that idea. The existing Amiga software seems more naturally inclined towards the Motorola processors even though I know that there's a big difference between the 68K and the PPC processors.
However, my unbigoted side is telling me that Amiga, Inc.'s original idea; that by developing for a hardware-centric system that the average Amigan can buy cheap, off-the-shelf computer components and place the AmigaDE onto it was also a sound idea. This may, or may not be still be the ultimate goal. They just need to do it.
Oh well. There's always the Amiga Research OS (AROS) and the Universal Amiga Emulator (UAE) I guess.
Right now, the only PowerPC-processored computer is the Apple PowerMacintosh, unless you count the AS-400 mainframe hardware. IBM sort of gave up on the PowerPC, so the opportunity for buying cheap, off- the-shelf computer components is kind of mute; for now anyway. Hopefully this AmigaOne will change that situation.
On top of that, the AmigaSDK is only on X86 hardware, not PPC. Yes, I know the story line that it's just like Nintendo, where you develop from a PC and then port it over. However, most people can't afford to buy two computers all at once. Although you can conceivably add a PowerPC Linux OS and put the AmigaSDK on top of that (but then, that's another one of those concept things, isn't it?).
Another radical departure from Amiga, Inc., is it's new plan to develop the AmigaDE ONLY for smaller devices like PDAs and cell phones instead of for any-kind-of-hardware. Amiga, Inc. announced their partnership with Sharp to add the AmigaDE on their new brand of PDAs. Amiga, Inc. will be developing an Amiga OS 4.0 for the AmigaOne hardware with the hope that by the time Amiga OS 5.0 shows up, that the Amiga OS and the AmigaDE will converge.
This sort of makes sense too. Right now, what little exists of an AmigaDE, using the TAO Group's "elate" technology, doesn't offer any Memory Protection. This feature, although not necessary for small computer devices and cell phones, is an essential feature for desktop computers, all the way up to the big network servers. Amiga, Inc. feels that they can develop an Amiga OS that offers these features and when the AmigaDE and OS 5.0 converge, those features will converge with it. The result is the best of both worlds. It just needs to be done.
I guess that I've grown increasingly tired of the shotgun concepts that comes from Amiga, Inc. It's really time to start seeing product. Amiga Inc. shouldn't be a concept company. They are here to lead us, not stick ideas into our heads and hope that we'll go in their approved directions. This is why Amiga, Inc. has been all over the map unlike a company that actually develops their ideas and have committed money and time into these goals. What I don't understand is that they do this but at the same time are down on the Phoenix Consortium, QNX, and others that seem to have "stayed the course" with a direction that wasn't originally Amiga, Inc.-approved.
Amiga, Inc. shouldn't be just a licensing company either. This has been my biggest gripe about Amiga, Inc. is that they don't do this stuff themselves but depend upon third-party developers and licensees to do all of the research and development, all of the investments, taking all of the chances; and when they fail, Amiga, Inc. is left with nothing. They're not out any money, but they still don't have anything to show for it either. I think that everyone agrees that Amiga, Inc. has control over the OS, so they need to develop their OS and not hope that somebody else does that for them. This also forces Amiga, Inc. to be committed towards a certain goal instead of moving in one direction and then going into a completely different direction six months later.
I have this on-going nightmare. Yes, sometimes I dream about Amigas. :-) I dream that Amiga, Inc. is just waiting for the AROS group to finally come up with a working OS 3.X-like Operating System. Then they'll sick their lawyers on them and take control of this technology and boast to the Amiga community that the Amiga is now able to run on X86 PCs. Just like they said they'd do (only the AROS group did all of the work).
Another suggestion I have is about the Amiga Software Developers Kit. Amiga, Inc. released an unfinished SDK and the Amiga community quickly got to work developing software with it. Amiga, Inc. should be putting a lot of their efforts in getting a completed SDK out with sound and graphics support. We all know that sound and video card technology is a moving target. I understand that Amiga, Inc. doesn't want to dedicate all of their technology in one basket, but one basket is a good start until you can weave up another brand of basket. They should finish one basket before they move onto weaving a different one. Otherwise you have a room-full of empty, unusable baskets lying around.
They really need to start delivering actual product. Every time Amiga, Inc. comes out with something, the Amiga community buys it up. I think that we'll see even more great development once a finished SDK or Amiga (anything) comes out. We just need a finished product instead of just talking about going into yet another direction. This isn't meant as a put-down to Amigans but personally, I think that Amiga, Inc. could come out with an Amiga brand of Snot-On-A-Stick and Amigans would buy it up (especially if they offered a users group discount). :-) If Amiga, Inc. will make it, we will come.
In the meantime, we Amigans are still here, quietly sitting on the fence, waiting to see what will really, actually happen. Unfortunately, we're also looking at what Amiga, Inc.'s competition is coming out with. The Amigans that waited instead of rushing out to buy the d2Amiga and the early PPC boards were pretty smart, weren't they? I suspect that the AmigaOne (although it sounds impressive) will also have to prove itself.