amiga-news.de - Fortnightly Q&A's mit Fleecy Moss

10.Okt.2003
AmigaWorld (Website) Fortnightly Q&A's mit Fleecy Moss - Runde 20
Das englischsprachige Online-Magazin AmigaWorld hat die Folge 20 der zweiwöchentlichen Fragen und Antworten an und von Fleecy Moss, CTO bei AMIGA, Inc., veröffentlicht (Update, 15.03.2012, cg: Meldung um das eigentliche Interview ergänzt, da das ursprüngliche Dokument nicht mehr verfügbar ist):

1) Crumb: Many users also own a PC. Do you plan to include as contribution VNC and Windows Terminal Server clients?

Fleecy: We understand that AmigaOS4.0 will almost always require the capability to be part of a heterogenous network, whether that be just for data, for hardware or for the services that can be provided by other operating systems. This fits in with our whole 'digital living' concept of your content world being stored on a device set that could be using many different OSs on many different device classes from many different vendors.

To that end, we are designing AG2 service that will offer this.

In the meantime, the usual aspects will be available.

2) RockTillDeth: Will AOS5 be also targeted to the users of AmigaOS (Amiga community), or that is AOS4, and AOS5 is more like an AInc. product targeted more to mainstream? If not I don't get very well why both exist, and the differences could you explain that?

Fleecy: AmigaOS5 is the natural successor to AmigaOS4 in the same way that AmigaOS4 is to AmigaOS3 and so on. It will have a lot more features and run on a lot more devices whilst providing new services that are required in order to provide a compelling product in the new environment of digital devices, as opposed to the desktop computer being the 'Dreadnought' of computing.

They are not competing products.

3) Serpi: I've heard that the development package for OS4 (with cross compiler) might be available even before the launch of OS4, anything about this (details, date)?

Fleecy: This is already available and includes many tools, including several cross compilers. Currently this programme is restricted to those who are committed to producing new products for the release of AmigaOS4.0, since it is being supported directly by the AmigaOS4.0 development team itself but as resources free up and the bugs are ironed out, this will be widened. Since AmigaOS4.0 offers a new library model and a slightly different way of doing things, we want to get as much feedback as possible from a small group in order to write betters docs before the doors are thrown open.

4) alx: In the 2nd Q&A (released on the 23rd March) you said that "The new Amiga Power Platform website is currently under development and will be launched in the near future" - when will this launch happen?

Fleecy: It will happen when it is finished. There is a lot of work going into it and it also has to slot into the whole AmigaOS4.0 marketing campaign for maximum effect.

5) MichaelMerkel: Is it true that the os4 version now is about to be released before or at least at the same as the cyberstorm version?

Fleecy: Announcements about the release of both versions will be made when the products gold disks are in our hands. We have been caught out many times before with making announcements that have then slipped and damaged both our credibility and the community, whether the fault has been ours or not. We are not doing that again.

6) Asemoon: Seeing that mini ITX boards are now housed by people in PSX, Dreamcast and even C64 cases & also that AmigaOS4 can be put in ROM, I believe it should not be difficult for companies to produce custom AmigaOS based games consoles. Considering that the XBOX is not much different from a normal PC housed in a bulky console case, do you believe an AmigaOne/AmigaOS4 based console could be viable? (Smaller, better expandable to a full desktop computer, more quiet, etc)

Fleecy: Very much so and we are talking with a few customers about this and many other such opportunities. The power, flexibility and low resource footprint of the AmigaOS makes it perfect for embedded roles as well as for desktop duty.

7) Crumb: Do you plan to include SDL.library as standard? It's used by quite a lot of programs/games now and it would be nice to have an OS4 optimized version... The WarpSDL.library would be a great starting point.

Fleecy: It is on the 'to do' list.

8) CanGuy: You mentioned in the last Q/A that AG2 would have the capabilities to be a server, would this include some higher-level functions for building different kinds of networks such as P2P or other types of networks?

Fleecy: The service based design of AG2 means that a deployer can pick and mix from a growing set of services as they wish. For example a single user can just make use of a simple but very fast single user file system whereas a small office or studio may decide to use a journaling, multi-user, RAID supportive filing system. As everything is service based, this doesn't affect any other product, since they simple ask for a list of the file storage services and get back the resources implementing those services, whether they be local on that machine or remote.

9) AmigaOneProductions: How many copies of OS4 have been sold/pre-ordered so far, or what the expectations are? This piece of information is needed by developers to decide how much time and effort should go into supporting the Amiga/OS4 platform. I would not expect a precise figure (that would be confidential) but a ballpark figure would be more than helpful. A favourable figure might encourage more people such as myself to get coding.

Fleecy: I wasn't aware that anyone had pre-ordered AmigaOS4.0. I know Eyetech have an 'early bird' offer which comes with AmigaOS4.0 when it is released but apart from that we are trying to avoid such practices. AmigaOS4.0 can be be purchased either shrink wrapped for CSPPC or else as part of an AmigaOne. Full details on this, and how to redeem the 'voucher' that came with Club Amiga and Party Pack promotions will be made public as we get nearer to the AmigaOS4.0 public launch.

We are focusing on the marketing strategy for the launch at the moment. We are already drawing up plans to seed AmigaOne and AmigaOS4.0, not just in the developer community to drive applications but also in the media world, including journalists, artists, businesses and even rock bands. It all helps in getting the message out, that the AmigaOS is back in business.

As said a few weeks ago, we are also looking in detail at some interesting launch events. Going back over the past, Apple, Be and others all had events to show off their system, new games playing, spinning parallel MPEG decodes and of course that old favourite, the live streamed event, whether it be a conference, celebrity endorsements from the other side of the globe or music concerts. Such things have been done to death though and we really want to do something different, to show that the AmigaOS is just different but that it thinks different. We haven't put all this effort in just to be imitators.

We shall see though.

As for the developers, the programme mentioned above, of new tools, documentation and support will be roled into a set of services that will be made available to the developers. In the end we can only provide a compelling product and development set and evangelise and promote the market. The developers have to decide whether they want to develop products for it. Alan did mention 5-10k AmigaOnes in the first stage, and there are numbers out there for the CSPPC market, but as with everything, it is dynamic and we certainly aren't going to 'stop for tea' once the first stage targets are reached. There are also other, more interesting devices on the cards and we hope to provide details of those in the near future.

10) Timo: Will there be a OS4 native CAMD library or a new MIDI driver system?

Fleecy: CAMD already works fine under emulation. There will be a new MIDI system as part of the new AG2 audio service set but I can't give you any more information at this time.

(Copyright © 2003 Amigaworld.net. All rights reserved.
Originally available at http://amigaworld.net/modules/fleecymoss/index.php?cat_id=21
You may freely redistribute this article, providing that a URL is provided to the original source,
and the copyright notices remain intact) (nba)

[Meldung: 10. Okt. 2003, 04:04] [Kommentare: 0]
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