Edited By Kyle Webb, Assistant Editor, See staff list for e-mail address
Editor's Note: The following text has been left largely unedited.
Subj: FAQ
Date: 98-06-15 14:19:10 EDT
From: Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)
To: [recipient list deleted]
A little FAQ with a personal point of view concerning the
announced new Amiga system.
--------------------
One man's thoughts about the NG Amiga
a small FAQ by A.R.K.
Q: Do you think, that this new machine will be successful ?
A: Perhaps. Most likely the same way as e.g. current
console machines are or the A500 was, back in the 80's.
Q: Do you think, that many of the current Amiga developers
will make the jump to the new platform ?
A: Depends on which migration paths AInc will supply for
these. If it gets too expensive or difficult, one
perhaps can be happy if 30 percent of the current
hobbyist and shareware developers will be able to stay
(means: go for the 4.0 system). Could be more of the
commercial developers (if they do survive the next 17
months or so).
Q: Why ?
A: One perhaps can expect, that it does not suffice to buy a
PC and the Siamese-alike card.
One needs to buy development tools, which usually
are quite expensive. Most freeware/shareware developers
didn't even buy a PPC card (which isn't as expensive).
The NG machine perhaps may get a growing shareware
scene once the proposed $500 machine is out, though.
Q: What do you think will the majority of the
existing PD/shareware scene do, then ?
A: A guess is, that they will continue to support existing
68k and/or PPC machines (and further developments for
these, as maybe a newer OS 3.x or any new PPC OS
developments) and look for alternatives at the same
time. Promising alternatives could be BeOS, Linux,
MacOS X or even WindowsNT (a jump to a standard platform
may justify or even help to avoid higher costs - depends).
Q: So you think that they won't leave the Amiga as such,
but maybe will avoid the NG Amiga, since one may
consider it not to be an Amiga as such any longer
(unless reducing it to a trademark or a "spirit") ?
A: Yes and no. If a migration to the new system isn't
possible in a smooth way, but only a "preparation"
through OS 4.0, this may mean that they won't
go for it.
Q: No chance for a comeback ?
A: As I said, this is the wrong term. Since no one
actually will LEAVE - it's just, that many perhaps
won't ENTER the new system, unless it's end of
1999 and a cheap starters machine might be
available.
Q: Why do you think, that such a starters machine
may again attract hobbyist developers, students
and so on ?
A: If its cheap and again sets milestones as the
A500 did, it may do that job as well.
Q: If it's such a good concept, why wouldn't it
attract current Amiga developers as well ?
A: Take a look, how many people did not make
the transition from C64 to Amiga - and how
many people did leave the Amiga since 1994.
"End of 1999" is still 17 months away.
Q: So you think, that it's basically a good
and promising approach but that it's maybe
too early to cancel the Classic Amiga ?
A: Absolutely. Since there's almost two years
until the release of the new machine, one
can't leave that classic one completely in
the dark.
Q: Another two years with OS 3.1 ?
A: Of course not. There should be an OS 3.5
with RTG and AHI, plus the ability to
simply recompile programs designed for
it under the new OS 4.0/5.0.
Q: Simple recompilation ? Wouldn't that
restrict the new OS in some ways ? I mean,
current AmigaOS doesn't even have memory
protection...
A: Not at all. Take a look, how AROS
currently does interface with Linux,
see http://aros.fh-konstanz.de/aros/
Replace Linux with Amiga OS 5.0 and
that's it...
Disclaimer: personal points of view. Author may
refuse any comments on the FAQ, will even deny
to ever have said things like that...
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