03.Aug.1999
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Amiga Update Newsletter von Brad Webb #990802
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail
KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING || Newsmagazine)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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990802
A M I G A A B O U T C O R E L
C O R E L A B O U T A M I G A
G A T E W A Y A L L I E S W I T H G E C A P I T A L
A M I W E S T ' 9 9 A N D W O R L D O F A M I G A
A A A C H O S E S M A R C E L B E C K
J I M C O L L A S S O U N D S O F F
P H A S E 5 E X P L A I N S
F R O M T H E A M I G A R & D T E A M
V O T E F O R F A V O R I T E U T I L I T I E S
S A S S E N R A T H O N T E C H B R I E F ?
A M I G A F L E A M A R K E T I N T E X A S
A L L C O M P U T E R M E E T I N G I N F R A N C E
T H E L A S T P I C A S S O
E X O D U S - A M I G A N G
P H O T O G E N I C S 4 . 1
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
World of Amiga has come and gone, as has AmiWest '99. Very
interesting announcements and speculation came out of the pair of
shows. Jim Collas continues to communicate to the community like no
other CEO of any company I'm aware of. He's even starting to get testy
when appropriate. Nice to see he's become that comfortable with
Amigans and good for him for doing so.
We've got new software, a new classic OS coming - albeit probably a
bit delayed - mockups of new models, ties developing with some big
names in the larger computer world, and a plan for the future. It's an
exciting time to be following the Amiga.
Nothing created by people will ever be perfect, however. Phase 5 and
QNX have their own plans for the future, long time Amiga developers
are justifiably concerned about where they will fit in the new age -
if at all, the Amiga market continues to shrink for the present and
answers to all sorts of questions won't be available for some time to
come.
It's certainly not boring at the moment.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
Hello Brad
I was wondering if you could find out about omnipresence for me. They had a
mailing list support for Ibrowse, which I was removed from quite a while
ago. But each time I try to re-subscribe to the list, the mail always comes
back undeliverable. Plus, their web site doesn't seem to be up and running
any more. Any web site that I have been to with an Ibrowse link ( the link is
to omnipresence) doesn't work, including Hisoft!
Another problem I'm having is recently I haven't been able to get on aminet,
either through http or ftp. It says that logging on as anonymous is
forbidden! Do you know what's up with that?
Thanks for your informative newsletter, by the way! And the new Amiga's
sound like they're going to be awesome! Do you know of any websites that
have shots of the new prototypes and screenshots of the new environmennt in
action? Or will they be eventually on the Amiga website soon?
Regards
Peter
~~~~~~
Hello Peter,
You're right about the Omnipresence site. However, work seems to be
going forward on IBrowse. We honestly don't know what's going on. Any
of our readers have more information?
Your don't say how you're accessing Aminet, so I'm not entirely sure
what's happening. It sounds as if you're attempting an anonymous ftp
login. If so, that will only work with sites set up specifically for
anonymous ftp. Check your software preferences and disable anything
related to anonymous ftp and see if things improve.
You can find shots of the new Amiga mockups that were shown at World
of Amiga on the Amiga.com site at:
http://www.amiga.com/diary/1999/990728.html
I'm not aware of anyone with screen shots of the Amiga OE yet.
Brad
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A M I G A A B O U T C O R E L
Amiga announces relationship with Corel Corporation
July 22, 1999 - San Diego California - Today, Amiga announced that
they are working closely with Corel Corporation to insure that several
of Corel's award winning software applications will be supported on
Amiga's new line of products that are scheduled for release later this
year.
This announcement follows Amiga's recent announcement that they have
selected Linux as the OS kernel for the new Amiga Operating
Environment. "We are extremely excited about our relationship with
Corel and their entire product line", said Jim Collas, President and
CEO of Amiga, "This insures that our customers who purchase the new
Amiga systems will have world class personal productivity applications
such as the upcoming WordPerfect Office for Linux."
Customers have made over 1 million download attempts for Corel®
WordPerfect® 8 for Linux® since Corel made the product available on
their web site last December. "We expected the Linux version to do
well," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, Chief Executive Officer and
President of Corel, "but one million download attempts is
extraordinary. Not only does it speak volumes for WordPerfect, I think
it is somewhat indicative of the growing popularity of Linux. We
expect the release of WordPerfect Office for Linux will be an even
greater success when we release it early next year."
As Amiga approaches the release dates of the new Amiga Operating
Environment and the Amiga MCC (Multimedia Convergence Computer), we
will be announcing more details on these and other products and their
availability dates.
About Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized developer of
award-winning graphics and business productivity applications.
Development of market-leading products such as the CorelDRAW®line of
graphics applications and the Corel® WordPerfect® Suite of business
tools is continually evolving to meet the demands of the corporate,
retail and academic markets. Committed to value, compatibility, choice
and open standards, Corel develops products for the Windows®,
Macintosh®, UNIX®, Linux® and JavaTM platforms. For more information
about Corel, please visit their web site at www.Corel.com
Corel, WordPerfect, CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT and the Go Further
logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or
Corel Corporation Limited.
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C O R E L A B O U T A M I G A
Corel Is Pleased To Be Chosen By Amiga To Supply Linux® Applications
Corel and Amiga work closely to support new Amiga Operating Environment
Ottawa, Canada-- July 27, 1999-- Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: CORL,
TSE: COR) is pleased to announce that it has formed a new relationship
with Amiga, to ensure that Corel's award-winning software applications
will be supported on Amiga's new line of products that are scheduled
to be released later this year.
Recently, Amiga announced that it has selected Linux® as the OS
kernel for the new Amiga Operating Environment. Amiga is developing
products and technology for current and future computing devices which
are focused on making computers and the Internet a natural part of
everyday life.
``Corel is dedicating extensive resources to develop Linux, and the
feedback from our customers has been tremendous,'' said Dr. Michael
Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation.
``Since December, our customers have made over 1 million download
attempts for Corel WordPerfect 8 for Linux. We are pleased to have the
opportunity to bring our award-winning applications to an even wider
audience and to further the growing popularity of Linux.''
As Amiga approaches the release dates of the new Amiga Operating
Environment and the Amiga MCC (Multimedia Convergence Computer), it
will announce more details.
``We are extremely excited about this new relationship with Corel and
its entire product line,'' said Jim Collas, president and chief
executive officer of Amiga. ``This ensures that our customers who
purchase the new Amiga systems will have world-class personal
productivity applications such as the upcoming WordPerfect Office for
Linux.''
Corel Corporation: Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized
developer of award-winning graphics and business productivity
applications. Development of market-leading products such as the
CorelDRAW® line of graphics applications and the Corel® WordPerfect®
Suite of business tools is continually evolving to meet the demands of
the corporate, retail and academic markets. Committed to performance,
compatibility, value and open standards, Corel develops products for
the Windows®, Macintosh®, UNIX®, Linux® and JavaTM platforms. Corel's
common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol CORL
and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COR. For more
information visit Corel's Web site at www.corel.com.
Corel, WordPerfect, CorelDRAW and the Go Further logo are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation
Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a
registered trademark of The Open Group. All other product names are
trademarks of their respective companies. All other brands and
products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
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G A T E W A Y A L L I E S W I T H G E C A P I T A L
23 Jul 1999
"InformationWeek Daily" on-line newsletter for 23 July is reporting
that Gateway and GE (General Electric) Capital have formed a
partnership for enterprise system support. The short article notes
"Gateway has teamed up with services company GE Capital IT Solutions
to create a business model for the two companies sell customized
versions of their products and services to the enterprise. Under the
partnership, GE Capital IT Solutions will provide presale
infrastructure analysis, network and systems integration, and support
services. Gateway will then join GE Capital to assess the
organizations needs, from which Gateway will build to order the most
cost-effective system, customizing desktop, mobile and workstation
systems and servers to meet customer needs."
"Gateway is hoping GE Capital's focus and penetration in the
enterprise market will open doors to customers that the company's
small sales force and lack of relationships in the market has
prevented. 'In the corporate sector Gateway is only about 2 years old,
and we have about 2% market share,' says Phyllis McCullagh, Gateway's
VP of corporate and partner sales."
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A M I W E S T ' 9 9 A N D W O R L D O F A M I G A
By Brad Webb
What follows is our impressions of the recent World of Amiga and
AmiWest 99 computer shows. We were unable to attend either show, so
have scoured the net and our mail to gather information on what
happened.
First, it seems the World of Amiga was much the more important show.
This isn't too surprising. Despite the participation of Amiga in both
shows, WOA has a longer history and has been a key player in the Amiga
community for some time. We've seen almost no information from the
AmiWest show. There's been a lot from WOA. AmiWest will grow in
importance over time.
AmiWest was clearly the smaller show, with most vendors concentrating
on the show in London. The folks at AmiWest were able to hear the
presentations from WOA, including the video presentation and speaches
by Amiga President Jim Collas, Dr. Rick LeFaivre, CTO and Dr. Allan
Havemose, VP, Engineering - after some initial technical difficulties.
Reports from the show indicated Mr. Collas's passion for the Amiga
came across clearly despite the round the world link. There were some
Amiga notables at the AmiWest, including Miami's Holger Kruse and Harv
Laser of the Amiga Zone.
Over in London, the show seemed smaller than previous ones according
to many reports. Jace Hayman of Pagan Games had an interesting take on
that however:
"I've heard people complaining a lot this year that it only took them
20 minutes to walk around the stands before they had covered the lot.
Well I've been to quite a few 'high profile' PC shows in recent months
and they were smaller and I walked around them in 10 minutes!"
This is a quote from his show report, available on the Pagan Games
web site at www.pagan-games.com.
If all you wanted to do was view the vendors and their booths, an
hour or less would have sufficed. Also, the "CyberCafe" wasn't, as the
needed parts and bits weren't delivered as promised. But there was
still a lot to see, including the presentations mentioned. The video
which preceeded the speeches included slides showing the logos of
Amiga partners. Companies mentined in the video or at the show as
working with Amiga included Corel, Sun and Pentagram, the folks
designing the new computers. The presentation slide that got the most
attention was the one with the logo of mysterious chip maker
TransMeta, employer of Linus Torvalds, the author of Linux. This has
led to much speculation that TransMeta will be the processor of choice
for the next generation, but that has not been confirmed by Amiga, and
probably cannot be confirmed by them at this point.
Here's an interesting quote from the online site "The Register" for
July 27, commenting about Amiga and the TransMeta chip. It might be of
special interest to the Power PC fans among our readers:
"It will be fabbed by IBM Microelectronics.
"The IBM connection is particularly intriguing since many of
Transmeta's designers hailed from IBM's PowerPC development team, and
worked on a PowerPC chip, the 615, which had a bolt-on x86
compatibility module."
Little that would be new to readers of "Amiga Update" was presented
at the shows, but the important thing was to hear the executives of
Amiga saying it with your own ears. For those who attended, that must
have been a stirring experience.
The hoped for updates of IBrowse 2 and Voyager 3 were there only in
beta form. On the positive side, there were finished looking mockups
of the next Amiga itself and its monitor. Photos are available on
Amiga's web site (www.amiga.com). Interestingly, there was no keyboard
anywhere in sight, as nearly as we can determine.
Good shows, good fun, good Amiga companionship. What more do you
need in life?
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A A A C H O S E S M A R C E L B E C K
London, UK. Saturday July 24, 1999.
Marcel Beck, creator of well-known Amiga e-mail software "YAM",
received today the AAA Award International 1998. The award
presentation was held at the World of Amiga show in London, UK!
THE AWARD
The AAA Award International 1998 consists of a custom designed
crystal glass Boing ball and a fine diploma. It was awarded through a
voting with Amiga users worl-wide. The AAA Award International is a
recognition from the Amiga Community of Mr. Beck's great software and
support.
The winner was announced at the World of Amiga show in London, by
Petro Tyschtschenko, MD of Amiga International, Inc. Marcel Beck, who
unfortunately could not come to the show, stated in a previous phone
recording that he felt very honored to receive this award, and thanked
all YAM users around the world.
MOTIVATION
The motivation, for which Mr. Beck received the AAA Award
International 1998: "For his creation of and continuing devotion to
YAM, Yet Another Mailer. Its many features, ease of use, stylish GUI
and stability make it an unparalleled e-mail client, which also is
completely free!"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The AAA Awards Committee wishes to thank all Amiga users who voted,
its Associates and Partners, and the World of Amiga management for
their support.
CONTACTS
AAA Awards, homepage www.aaa-awards.org
AAA Awards, phone hotline +46-90-71 00 20 (24 hours)
AAA Awards, fax +46-90-71 01 46
Marcel Beck, e-mail mbeck@access.ch
Martin Sahlén, e-mail director@aaa-awards.org
Petro Tyschtschenko, e-mail ptysch@amiga.de
The AAA Awards 1998 are presented in association with AMIGA and
Cloanto
The AAA Awards are copyright (c) 1997-99 Amiga Computer Group.
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J I M C O L L A S S O U N D S O F F
20 Jul 1999
Warning! I deserve to right to rant once in a while also so here I go:
I know that we still have to improve communication but visibly
communicating with a large community is difficult. I expend a
significant amount of effort listening to and understanding the Amiga
community. I have spent 100s of hours in the last several months
listening to and corresponding with the Amiga community. Here are some
of the activities:
1) I met with over 100 Amigans in multiple groups in St. Louis to
listen to input.
2) I have met with multiple groups around the U.S. to get input. I
have held several press conferences to get input.
3) I flew to Germany and the U.K. in May specifically to meet with 60
to 70 prominent Amigans and listen to input. Multiple feedback session
of several hours.
4) I met with key Amiga developers in U.K. and Germany.
5) I read the most popular Amiga newsgroups daily.
6) We have started Amiga sponsored forums to get input.
7) I read over 100 emails a day from the Amiga community and reply to
many of them.
8) I talk to people in the Amiga community many times a week.
9) Bill McEwen and Darreck Lisle read 100s of email a day and compile
the common inputs and questions fo me and other executives.
10) We are establishing an Amiga Advisory Council consisting of
prominant Amigans that were nominated by the community.
11) etc ...
As you can see I have had 1000s of interactions with the Amiga
community. I wonder if anyone realizes how much effort this is on top
of running the company. I wonder if anyone realizes how much travel
this is away from my family. I do this because I care about what you
think. I listen to the community and think deeply about the input as I
set the plans. In order to better understand our plans, there are a
few things people should consider:
1) There are many differing opinions in the community about what to
do. Many times people are pulling in opposite directions.
2) There isn't a single consistent set of requirements from the
community.
3) I am trying to make up for several years of flawed decisions. This
has made the situation very difficult. Because of the delay we can't
just evolve a product line like most companies would. This also means
I inherited a community with little patience (understandable).
4) There are a significant number of variables to consider and its
impossible to communicate them all publicly.
5) There are many things that the community doesn't know relative to
new technology advancements.
6) We can't share all of our strategic plans publicly.
7) This is an extremely difficult industry to compete in. There are
many big players with deep pockets. Microsoft just passed the $500B
value mark. We can't just waltz in with a "me too" strategy.
8) We are basically building company from scratch, not just a
product. Do people realize how difficult this is to do quickly.
9) There are constraints on budget and resources. We are working as
effectively and diligently as we can. 1 0) There are people that will
blast whatever we do. No matter what we do. It's unfortunate for me
but they are understandably fed up because of the past.
I know it's frustrating but don't judge me on the last several years.
These were screwed up and I didn't have anything to do with it. Judge
me on the last 5 months. I am driving Amiga in a way that it hasn't
been driven in a long time. As an aggressive, independent, and
visionary company. I am balancing technology, business, marketing, and
industry dynamics to come up with a plan that gives us a great chance
at being a driving force in the computer industry again. We are in a
very difficult predicament and I am defining a very strong plan to get
us out. It is not easy to understand all of the variables that go into
this plan. It's even more difficult to communicate it publicly. This
plan requires complex compromises and prioritization and not everyone
will understand or agree. Also remember, the first product out is not
the end of our roadmap. The only thing I can assure you is that I do
care about the community and I listen. I will drive relentlessly and
aggressively to bring back Amiga as a driving force. There is 101
things I can do with my career but this is what I have passion for. I
need the Amiga community behind me on this or we will fail. We have
one last shot. We can't afford to be diverted or distracted. We MUST
stand united to succeed.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Jim
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P H A S E 5 E X P L A I N S
23 Jul 1999
Dear Amiga friends,
in addition to our recent announcement about a cooperation with QNX
Software Systems Ltd. and our new AMIRAGE K2 project, this Open Letter
shall address some of the controversy questions that many of you are
asking these days. It contains my frank personal analysis and view of
the state of the Amiga market, the goals of AI and the general
situation, which are the reasons for our decision to take the chance
for the cooperation with QNX and to provide alternative solutions in
the future. If you are interested in these statements, I encourage you
to read and - especially if you are a developer - consider it
carefully.
First of all, there is the question "why did they do that, why do
they split the Amiga market" in all of it's incarnations - often
combined with the assumption that we want to "steal away the Amiga" or
become the Amiga ourselves. The answers to that are fairly simple:
1.We want to design a superior technology, which we believe is in the
spirit of the original Amiga, or, in different words, a technology
that many creative users would like to see. This includes innovation
in software and hardware. We don't want to make major compromises,
just to follow the mainstream or to do what everybody does.
2. There is obvioulsy no place for phase 5 (as well as many other
developers, as I will outline below) on the roadmap of Amiga Inc.
We are simply doing what we believe is the right thing in respect of
our vision, the technological goals we follow, and also the business
opportunities which we believe are the best for our future.
From our point of view, AI will be developing and marketing a product
that has only the name in common with the original Amiga. They
probably have some nice ideas (although many details are still quite
vaguely described by common buzzwords at this time), but we can't see
any revolution in there - only evolution similar to that you can see
in many places of the computer industry today.
Looking at the available information, to us it seems obvious that
Amiga will build an appliance based on Linux, incorporating JAVA
technologies and their extensions named AmigaObjects. It is an
appliance to "fulfill the promises of the information age". That's
nice, but there are others to do so, too.
I strongly feel that the major revolution that Amiga is talking about
is the next marketing revolution, when you can sell "information
appliances" to those millions of people who are not computer users,
but shall be connected to the Internet just as they became connected
with telephones long time ago. There's nothing bad in this, but what
has it to do with an Amiga computer? What I feel most uncomfortable
with is the fact that there is obvious no intention to create
something new, spectacular, extraordinary because this is risky;
instead, the new product is intended to be sold to millions, requiring
to accept many compromises and to follow the mainstream.
So, what has the upcoming AI product in common with the original
Amiga and it's spirit? It may be a nice product, that many people will
go for, but such are palm pilots, cell phones, playstations, stereo
systems, TV sets, beer and candy bars as well (I left out the
Wintel-based PC intentionally from this list). There's nothing wrong
at all when Amiga users are saying, "hey, this is a nice thing I'm
gonna buy it", just as there's nothing wrong in Amiga users buying
palm pilots, cell phones, playstations, stereo systems, TV sets, beer
and candy bars as well (I left out... uh, you know what I mean).
Amiga has not been talking to us, phase 5, except than in a meeting
on Jim Collas' trip through Europe. Ever since then, there was not a
single email, contact, any information to us. They didn't supply us
with an NDA, allowing them to tell us more about their plans earlier,
and supporting us in making our decisions. Instead, they watch us
(where "us" means many other developers as well) supporting the "Amiga
Classic" and following the PPC route, while they are going to cut it
off again. Is that fair or loyal against the developers and users
supporting the Amiga platform with their efforts and their money? It
gives me the strong feeling that don't even care what happens with us.
There is no indication of any kind of partnership at all, so there
can't be any mutual loyalty either.
I do not know which contacts have been made to other existing Amiga
developers. Many of them seem to be surprised by the latest
announcements, many dislike them, some may appreciate them - but if
so, did they think about their own future? Personally, I believe the
lately announced "contacts to Corel" are a significant message. Why
didn't we read "AI works closely with H&P to port Amiwriter to the
AmigaNG", "AI has choosen NovaDesign's ImageFX to ship with the MCC",
"AI and WorldFoundry announce availability of two hot 3D titles with
the release of the MCC" or similar announcements?
It's simple: AI follows the industry standards. Just as they use
Linux and need the momentum from Linux to carry them forward, they
need the big names such as Corel to carry them forward. They don't
need, for example, phase 5 as a hardware company supporting their
projects, and I strongly believe they (at least think they) don't need
the Amiga S/W developers for their success. Jim Collas said in his
"Response to Linux feedback" of July 10:
"I simply don't believe we can gain enough momentum without tapping
into the Linux momentum. Linux will give us continuous access to new
technology and components as they are released. With QNX we could get
out a new platform but I don't believe we would keep up with the rapid
technology changes in the computer industry."
Can we read from this that all the active Amiga developers - who have
supported our platform with so many products and technologies that
make the Amiga still up-to-date and useable - are assumed to be unable
to provide the necessary software technologies on a new platform? I
think so. Jim Collas showed concern about the business success if
Linux hadn't been choosen. Obviously, the relationship with Corel
seems to be important to AI also, to support the business success. Who
will be the next important partner, preoccupying market segments on
the new Amiga platform? Adobe? ID Soft? Who knows.... Now, just a
thought: If there wasn't that Linux momentum right now, would then be
Windows compatibility important for the success? A question to the
Amiga developers: Do you appreciate that AI considers it important for
the success of the MCC, that the big names in industry come to the
platform to provide the technology/software products that - as it
seems - AI doesn't believe you could provide? And a question, to the
Amiga users: What is more important for you, the success (and
shareholder value?) of a company that carries the name Amiga, or the
technology that they bring to you?
When the new AI MCC shall be sold in millions, the current Amiga
community will not be a sufficient market at all. I believe it is then
the latest, when AI's loyalty to the Amiga community will end - just
as AI's loyalty with the current Amiga developers has ended. The same,
I strongly believe, will be the case for the small remaining base of
dealers and distributors. What will count for AI is not the fact that
those have supported the Amiga many years - the business success will
demand that the MCC is sold by the BIG ones. And that's what it is all
about: becoming BIG, selling BIG, making BIG money. Nothing wrong
about it - but the loyalty of the Amiga community, which AI is surfing
on these days before their BIG take off, will probably not be
rewarded. And while AI teams up with the already BIG ones, the chances
of us small ones to grow big with the new Amiga generation are getting
smaller each day.
Where does this leave us? From my point of view, there is no place
for us - and I mean not only phase 5, but most if not all of the
current Amiga developers - on the Amiga roadmap, and in the future
that Amiga wants to create. That also means for us as companies: no
more (Amiga) business. But with QNX, there is an OS solution that will
fulfill the promise of technological excellence - and we here at phase
5 are able to provide some really advanced hardware as well as
concepts for future computing.
Just a side note: What Amiga today calls a revolution, are just
concepts (and some developments from such) which we have proposed
three years ago already. We proposed hardware-independent distributed
processing a long time ago, and we outlined our vision of application
tasks or threads (read also "Services" or "Objects" or "Revolutionary
objects" or "You-know-which-kind-of Objects") that run on different CPUs
or processors or appliances, somewhere in a box or a network, and
communicate with each other. I don't want to say that AI may not have
some additional and new ideas, but if they are so revolutionary
remains to be seen - and guess what remains there if you climb down
from the above-JAVA level to the underlying levels of software
technology....
QNX Neutrino will allow fantastic software to be written, to support
similar revolutionary services, applications and developments. There
is new and stunning hardware technology available to us - PPC G4, the
stunning Altivec technology, multimedia processing in many kinds, and
the digital convergence (we talk about high-performance digital
convergence here, not about a fusion of a cell phone and a palm pilot)
- and this altogether can be the base for a wonderful platform for all
the creative users out there, as outlined in our latest announcements.
It can be a future that we design altogether - the users, the
developers, the user groups and all others who support the Amiga. We
definitely need to team up now and develop our future, instead of
waiting for AI's BIG thing we have been waiting for three years now.
And so I am asking you all out there, to make a stand and show your
position. I am asking you developers to show publicly your support for
the QNX Neutrino running on PowerUP boards, and our upcoming AMIRAGE
computer series (and maybe other hardware from other manufacturers,
too...). With 13 years of Amiga history and experience, I can only
underscore that the strong support of the majority of Amiga users and
developers for this new path will create succesful products, most
creative and stunning technology, and a growing and valuable market in
which all those who start now can become technology leaders. We all
have survived in a shrinking market for so long, and now we can decide
actively if we want to start off into a future that will realize
technological excellence and open up new dimensions for us, or if we
want to be lost in the mainstream finally, which we could have joined
many years ago already.
BTW, I deny those assumptions saying we would split the Amiga market.
We are just offering the products that AI won't offer - and just
considering the features and price position, our product may initially
not be in competition with Amigas MCC (although we have not heard
about the MCCs price yet). We are following a path that AI has
obviously dropped, and we want to team up with those Amiga friends,
users and developers which Amiga wants to leave behind (maybe not on
purpose, but probably with a "hey sorry if you came under the BIG
wheel that we are turning now" attitude).
I would also like to say some words about our former projects, the
A\BOX and the pre\box, in comparison the the new AMIRAGE K2 project
(BTW, we knew that some would read it as AMI-RAGE, and others as
A-MIRAGE, but we a) have no problems with some self-irony, and b)
recommend to speak it with a french pronounciation). There are voices
critizising us, blackening about the vaperboxes and such. It is true,
we failed to deliver these two products, while we - in contrary to
others - did at least provide the leading Amiga add-on technology,
continuously throughout the last years, in a difficult market. The
A\BOX development was delayed following the initial delays in the
PowerUP development. After PowerUP had been finished, the market
situation had changed significantly since Amiga had been sold to
Gateway, and many users and Amiga people were waiting for
developments/announcements at/from Amiga Inc. It was a logical
business decision to stop the A\BOX project, as we couldn't justify
continued development efforts and investments into it at this point.
Later, in March 1998, we announced the pre\box, a simpler and
easier-to-realize stand-alone product, planned to support MP and the
PPC transition, for which we also signed a license agreement with
Amiga for the OS 3.1. But shortly after the pre\box was announced, AI
announced on the WOA 1998 in London that they would not use the
PowerPC but the MMC chip instead, an announcement that significantly
hurt our business (as well as the business of many Amiga developers
and companies). As a consequence, the pre\box development was put on
hold and went back into the drawers later that year. I think that it
is obvious that our chances to succesfully realize the former
demanding projects - which would have required support of AI, the
developers and the community - have been badly influenced by such
external decisions. Today, with the AMIRAGE K2 development, we are in
a completely different situation, as the use of the QNX Neutrino OS
will allow us to focus on the hardware development, and exploit the
options that todays's latest silicon technology offers, without
drawbacks and compromises. We are convinced that we can deliver on our
promise with the dawn of the next millenium.
Hoping to see you in the future.
Yours sincerely
Wolf Dietrich
{Editor's note: there are some interesting points made in the above
letter from Mr. Dietrich, and, though it is long, we felt we should
bring it to you in its entirety. However, we will not be covering the
QNX/Phase 5 aliance and its results in detail. Whatever they make, it
by definition will not be an Amiga. There may be irony in that, but
such is the case. We don't intend to ignore them, but our focus in on
Amiga, whatever it is and whoever makes it. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F R O M T H E A M I G A R & D T E A M
19 Jul 1999
Very interesting and active debate over the past two weeks. We *love*
the passion of (most of ;-)) the on-line community. Linux? X- Windows?
PCI? USB? MIDI? Floppy Drive? ATI graphics, etc., etc. While an
overwhelming percentage of our email is quite positive about Amiga's
directions, there are those who have raised quite legitimate technical
concerns, and a small percentage who are just bashing everything we do
(more on them later). One positive aspect of the Linux announcement is
the huge influx of technical talent into the Amiga camp from the Linux
community. There are legitimate issues with Linux, as anyone with a
technical background will acknowledge. One positive aspect of the
Linux phenomenon is that there are hundreds of thousands of
programmers out there working to fix those problems. There are also
hundreds of companies working on applications and drivers (and
hardware) for Linux, that we can immediately tap into. Yes, there are
integration and testing issues to work on, but there are many, many
more positives than negatives. Please understand that the Linux
decision was not purely (actually not mostly) a technical decision. It
was a decision driven by a reasoned analysis of what underlying OS
would give Amiga the greatest chance to succeed in the marketplace,
and as a company.
Also understand that we have not yet seen a single technical issue
raised in the news groups that we are not already aware of, and
working on either inside of Amiga or through partners. Will the Amiga
MCC under development be perfect? Of course not -- product development
is all about tradeoffs. When it is shipping, will it be at the heart
of the best distributed multimedia computing environment in the
marketplace in terms of price/performance/usability? Yes! Even more
important, the MCC is only one piece of a much broader strategy that
we have chosen to not really discuss yet. When Jim Collas talks about
revolutions, it's not a revolution in terms of what happens to be
inside the MCC box (although some of the unannounced components are,
indeed, revolutionary); it's the entire distributed home
computing/Internet environment and experience that will be
revolutionary as it rolls out over the coming year. DON'T JUST FOCUS
ON BOXES AND OPERATING SYSTEMS! (sorry for shouting.)
So, to those of you raising legitimate technical concerns, we will do
our best to communicate solutions as they are worked out. Better yet,
help us track down those solutions. Linux is getting better every
week, with issues getting resolved at an amazing pace. ATI may not be
able to ship their new graphics/video accelerator (which looks great)
on time, and rest assured that we're also looking at 3dfx and NVidea.
Yes, there will be a floppy drive (probably a 1.44MB / 120MB combo).
We're working on the sound/MIDI requirements. We're listening to
proactive suggestions, and will do our best to manage the inevitable
tradeoffs to create the best next-generation system we can.
To the small number of individuals who have been sending vulgar,
threatening hatemail because you don't like what we're doing, and have
announced that you're fed up and are leaving the Amiga community,
goodbye. Millions and millions of people will purchase Amiga-branded
and Amiga-compliant products over the coming years, and we're sorry
you won't be among them.
Rick LeFaivre, Allan Havemose, and the Amiga R&D Team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
V O T E F O R F A V O R I T E U T I L I T I E S
News Release 24/7/99
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amiga Information Online has set up a Utilities PD Toplist. So if you
have three favourite Utilities that you would like to give credit to
then why not show your support for those programs and send us your
votes.
It is very simple, all you have to do is give 3 points to your
favourite Util, 2 points to your second favourite and then 1 point to
your third favourite utility of all time.
The only restriction is you can only vote of PD/Shareware type
software and not Commercial. By commercial I mean you don't register.
It still holds it open to vote for Utilities like Miami, AmIRC and the
like.
If you are interested please return the form to the address below,
-Cut-
1st Util (3 Points) : [Enter util name here]
2nd Util (2 Points) : [Enter util name here]
3rd Util (1 Point) : [Enter util name here]
-Cut-
Email : SnorsleX@Home.se
Topic : AIO Toplist
You can see the latest ratings in the latest issue of AIO or on our
website,
Aminet:Docs/Mags/AIOV26.lha
or
http://www.aio.co.uk
Chris Seward
Editor of Amiga Information Online
----------------------------------------------------------------------
S A S S E N R A T H O N T E C H B R I E F ?
{Editor's note: this exchange was found in an Amiga usenet group on
the net. There is no confirmation from Carl Sassenrath for this item,
so it must be considered a rumor. We invite comments from Mr.
Sassenrath if he so wishes, and would be happy to publish them. Brad}
21 Jul 99
>On the 20 Jul 99 05:38:34 +0000, Paul May said,
>>
>> to Quote: Carl Sassenrath on the Tec Brief, Amiga to use Linux.
>>
>> "I'm not impressed. This crap is not in my future.
>>
>> I say: complexity begets complexity.
>Um, Paul, do you have any opinion of your own rather than the dozen
or >so daily postings from famous amiga people that you keep sending
here >from the team Amiga maillist (have you permission to forward
their >mails to the newsgroups ?).
Hi Ed.
Indeed, the answer to both questions is YES, i have many opinions but
rather than add my thoughts to the many good posts here, i prefer to
take the direct route and try to help everyone in both places to get
the bigger picture so as to have better Opinions by forwarding both
ways for thoughs people not on both the TAML or here.
i hope you find it useful ?, if not then i'm sorry for wasting your
time making you read them.
on the matter of a 'Dozen or so' thats not quite true, more like 6
perhaps seven and then not that many *every* day, even so at your
estimated dozen a day that is a very small ammount compared to the
traffic here on csam, to date no one on TAML as had any comp about me
forawarding Jim's and several other peoples usenet posts there other
than one person not being able to view my forward very easly.
as for the TAML, everyones welcome there and it has from day one had
the policy that anything posted there is freely distributable, that
fact plus Team AMIGA mailing list has probably the highest
concentration of AMIGA Developers/resellers/service providers Ect
online, makes it a really good place for open peer review IMO OC, plus
TAML eventully finds its way to far more places (FIDONET for instence)
than csam so helping to spread the important
information/facts/announcments to those persons interested but without
Web access (many more than most web people realise).
--
to Quote: Carl Sassenrath on Tec Brief Amiga to use Linux.
"I'm not impressed. This crap is not in my future.
I say: complexity begets complexity.
Give me an OS that fits on a floppy. And you know what? It will work
better than their system ever could.
Down with big systems. They are created by those who don't have a
clue what computing is really about: people".
--
Paul May, Manchester, UK
Team *AMIGA* , *OwlNet* , *REBOL* , *KOSH*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A F L E A M A R K E T I N T E X A S
July 18,1999
MCCC Announces Flea Market Extravaganza '99
Where : The Brookside Convention Center, Hurst, Texas
When : Saturday, September 25, 1999
Time : 12:00 to 4:00pm
Admission : Free
Amiga Computer Flea Market
Hardware and Software for Amiga computers, from members and
non-members, will be for sale. The flea market will be open to members
for a fee of 5% on items sold. A fee of 10% will be charged to
non-members on items sold.
Sellers:
Items for sale must be turned into a club representative. Prices are
set ahead of time and sales are handled by club representatives.
Arrangements MUST BE MADE IN ADVANCE. Items will NOT be accepted on
the day of the show. There will be no exceptions. Items to be sold at
the flea market may be turned in at one of the chapter meetings or you
may make arrangements with one of these club representatives:
Mark Stodola Cedar Hill (972) 299-6824
Ned Kelly Arlington (817) 277-5825
David Owens Fort Worth (817) 847-5486
Dan Stockelman Dallas (972) 985-8522
Buyers:
Cash and checks accepted from members. Cash only accepted from
non-members. Prices will be reduced at 3:00 pm.
Door Prizes
Drawings will be held throughout the day. You must be present to win.
MCCC Amiga Library
The entire MCCC library of Amiga computer disks, over 2,000 disks,
will be available.
Special Membership Offer
13 months for the price of 12. This offer is good for new or renewed
memberships.
Classes
A class/demo of the new 3.5 Operating System will be held, time to be
announced.
Amiga Wares Available
Amiga Wares (shirts, caps and more) from Randomize, Inc., will be
available at the show.
3.5 Operating System Available
Copies of the new 3.5 Operating System will be available for sale by
the club or a dealer to be announced.
Amiga Computer Raffle
Details to be announced when finalized.
Amiga Computer Dealers
Space is available to rent for dealers, companies or user groups.
Please inquire on rates.
Directions & Parking
The Brookside Convention Center is located at 1244 Brookside Drive in
Hurst, Texas. To get to the Convention Center get to Highway 183/121
and take the Precinct Line Road exit and drive south on Precinct Line
Road. After approximately 0.3 miles turn left (east), on Bedford
Euless Road. Drive 0.4 miles to Brookside Drive. The Convention Center
is on the southeast corner. There is plenty of parking space, and
parking is free.
For more information email: mstodola@airmail.net
To be kept up to date as things develop, email: agm@startext.net
MCCC is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the support of Amiga
computers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A L L C O M P U T E R M E E T I N G I N F R A N C E
25 Jul 1999
Hello,
The "Byte Millenium" meeting will take place at Marck, in the north
of France (near Calais), from 27th of August to 29th. We want this
meeting to gather a lot of people from different computers (I was told
that there will be people with Amstrad CPC, Oric, MSX, Amiga, Atari,
PC etc.). During this meting we will have to show what your loved
computer is able to do : Lots of magazines reporters will be there
too.
There will be a contest which aims to equalize the chances between
all the computers (eq you will need more imagination than Mhz).
The entrance will cost 150 FF (for food, and the contest prizes).
Hope to see you there !
One from MCHTML/CocOOn SySteM
NB : No lamerz/gamerz/swapperz please...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H E L A S T P I C A S S O
Our Amiga future?!?
Our (Village Tronic) future in the amiga classic market is not clear
right now. We will definitely sell our AriadneII and the forthcomming
3d-Module add-on for PicassoIV but this doesn`t go for the sales of
PicassoIV, Paloma PAL, Pablo and Concierto. As the sales in the last
few month have dropped dramatically it`s no longer profitable for our
company to run other assembly lines.
So we had to swallow the bitter pill and cancel the productionline
and sales of Paloma, Pablo and Concierto officially. You may find last
pieces of these products with our distributors though... If there is
someone interested in licenzing one of these products you can contact
us.
For the PicassoIV we have another solution for our customers to have
a last chance to get one of these marvelous graphic-boards:
To be sure to sell enough cards for an assembly-line and to make it
profitable for our distributors too, you can preorder your PicassoIV
with them. VillageTronic will produce the requested cards in a VERY
LAST assembly line so that the now preordered boards will arrive in
distribution by the end of september.
Customers that have preordered their cards here directly with us will
get them as soon as we have enough on stock. After that VillageTronic
will NOT sell ANY boards directly anymore to endcustomers.
This will definitely be the last order for PicassoIV. So please
contact our distributors for your LAST ORDER:
--------
America:
SoftwareHut
www.softhut.com
softhut@erols.com
Bolmar industrial Park
991 S. Bolmar St. units F&G
West Chester, Pa. 19382
United States
Tel: 800-932-6442 or 610-701-6301
Fax: 610-701-6306
England:
Blittersoft
www.blittersoft.com
sales@blittersoft.com
6 Drakes Mews
Crownhill Industry
Milton Keynes
Buckinghamshire
MK8 0ER
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1908 261466
Fax: +44 (0)1908 261488
Italy:
Euro Digital Equipment
aorlandini@villagetronic.com
Via Dogali 25
Italy 26013 Crema
Germany:
Vesalia Computer
www.vesalia.de
order@vesalia.de
Industriestr. 25
46499 Hamminkeln
Tel: 02852/9140-10
Fax: 02852/1802
KDH-Datentechnik
www.kdh-datentechnik.com
bestell@kdh-datentechnik.com
Südring 65
72160 Horb
Tel: 7451/555111
Fax: 7451/ 555115
Ekkehard Brüggemann, Village Tronic Support Team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E X O D U S - A M I G A N G
14 Jul 1999
Exodus Multimedia is pleased to announce the first AmigaNG-powered
digital video workstation, Maverick! While still in the design and
engineering stage, we have committed to delivering this exciting new
concept to the video industry. Our decision to proceed with this
project was reached after a private meeting with Jeff Schindler and
Darreck Lisle at the St.Louis Amiga show. After talks with Amiga Inc.
which lasted into the early hours of the morning, it was decided that
the new OS offers significant advantages over other operating systems,
in terms of size, speed, reliability and flexibility. From its
inception, the AmigaOS was designed to handle full motion video,
graphics and animation. The AmigaNG version promises to improve on
this base technology and add features not seen on any other platform.
Our current line of digital video workstations is based on Windows 98
and NT plus the Newtek Video Toaster Flyer. While we are very early
into this project, we will provide more concrete specifications by
summer's end. The tower case will be based on the current design used
on our standard workstation, pictures of which can be seen on our web
page at www.exodusmm.com.
"The Amiga has proven to be the leading OS for video production on a
large and small scale. To this day, there are 15 year old Amigas still
being used to do mainsteam video, while most other computing platforms
are obsolete within two years. It is our goal to take Maverick into
the 21st century with an OS and hardware capable of supporting new
standards like HDTV, DV and MPEG-2 all with realtime video effects and
transitions. The AmigaOS gives us that power!", said Stan Carver,
President of Exodus Multimedia.
From the last poll, there were over 7 million Classic Amigas sold to
date. To show our support for the Classic Amigas, we have been working
with Mick Tinker of Access Innovation, a European company, to provide
a state of the art solution that would allow current Amiga owners to
take advantage of new technologies without sacrificing backwards
compatibility. Based on specifications provided by Exodus Multimedia,
the new motherboard will have a PowerPC processor, PCI slots and fast
SDRAM, in addition to Amiga specific devices like Zorro slots and an
high speed emulation of the custom chipset. Full Video Toaster and
Flyer support will be provided as well. The use of new technologies
will make way for devices currently on the Windows platform such as
FireWire, USB, pro audio sound cards and high end graphics cards to be
easily ported to the AmigaOS without having to redesign hardware. The
new Amiga-powered Maverick should be available 3rd quarter 1999.
In the meantime, we have salesmen and service technicians that are
fully capable of supporting the Amiga community, as we always have. We
are now taking pre-orders for OS 3.5 and look forward to the new
AmigaNG with all of it's possibilities. We will post details on our
web page http://www.exodusmm.com/amiga/ as we progress with this
project- STAY TUNED!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P H O T O G E N I C S 4 . 1
16th July 1999
Paul Nolan is pleased to announce Photogenics 4.1, featuring dozens
of new and improved features, more tools, online html help, and rock
solid stability. It all adds up to the must have graphics purchase of
the year.
To make this purchase even easier, you can now use your credit card
to order using a toll free (US only, international charges apply)
order hotline, or online at http://www.paulnolan.com. Please read the
full details below for more information.
Photogenics 4.1 is a free upgrade to users of Photogenics 4.0, please
email your name and the email address used when ordering Photogenics
to updates@paulnolan.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
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