Sixteen Degrees Of Separation

After being purchased from Amiga earlier this year, former marketing execs Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss are back on the road to building Amiga into the multi-platform, multimedia-savvy company that the fans have been begging for. Well known for being an on-again, off-again brand name, it looks as though things may have settled down long enough for the new team to make a difference.

With the release of the new SDK, fans are treated to a showing of forward motion by a company bearing the name Amiga. The new management has gone out of its way not to announce projects until they're near completion, and this forward motion is only creating angular momentum for the thousands of Amiga zealots who are getting in line to wait for new hardware. While most take a wait-and-see attitude towards the new Amiga, there's certainly a lot of excitement brewing with partnership deals with Corel and the strong support of Linux as a development platform for the new AmigaOS.

The guys at Amiga are interested in doing something new and interesting. I recently spoke to Amiga VP of Development Fleecy Moss. "The concept of an operating system has been dying for quite a long time. What we're looking at is creating a dynamic digital environment, in which the most important thing is the producers and consumers of digital [content] matter, and they don't really care how they got there, or what they used to get there, they just got into this environment. You know, you can take it anywhere, you should be able to use any hardware with it. For the lynxey type, the hackers, the geeks, whatever you want to call them, they would want to get down dirty and nasty with the stuff. But even a lot of that stuff, a lot of them would rather get on and actually produce and do stuff, rather than having to go down and find that driver, and change their config files and all that stuff. We're really trying to create this higher environment for developers and for users. It really is where we're moving towards the Gibson dream."

While the guys back in the home office cook up new things to connect us, the Amiga community is all about community. These guys are hardcore zealots fighting for their platform like angry lions. I recently got the opportunity to speak to Wayne Martin, news manager at Amiga.org, an Amiga news and information site.

Slashdot: What is the most important thing in the Amiga community right now?

Wayne: Being involved, I think. It's going to take a while for the new systems to arrive on the market, and it's pointless just sitting around and waiting for them to come. People need to be involved in promoting the Amiga. People need to start code, planning new projects, generally just getting involved. People really need to be active, they need to be out there, saying 'Look, we've got this brand new operating system coming out, and it has got features that nothing else has. It's the best, we think it's the best, here try it.' Amiga's got the best activists in the world."

Slashdot: What excites you about the new Amiga operating system?

Wayne: That it gives users choice. Instead of being restricted to the PC, you get to pick what hardware you want, and after all, that's the most expensive part of the computer. If you've got a job that doesn't require a 500Mhz Pentium III, a smaller chip, something cheaper, you can pick what you want because the operating system runs on so many chips and so many pieces of hardware. It gives the user the choice that they really need.

Slashdot: Do you feel that the purchase of the Amiga name from Gateway was a good idea?

Wayne: Yes, I do think it was a good idea. Gateway had some good plans, but I don't think their heart was quite in it, really. I think they meant well, but it really needs to be in the hands of people that want it on the market as much as the community does, and that's what the new Amiga brings, because it's staffed by Amigans, and you're not going to screw yourself over.

Slashdot: What's the best thing about being a part of the Amiga community?

Wayne: I think being able to go anywhere, and knowing that there's somebody there who knows what it's like to be an Amigan, who has been through the same things. It's like having a giant network of friends all over the world. You can go and stay at people's houses, if you want. You can be sitting on a bus, and talking to a person, find out they're an Amigan, and instantly, you're friends. You don't get that on the PC, if you're sitting next to somebody on the bus, and 'Oh, you use Windows, too!' It's not exactly the same kind of thing. When you're an Amigan, it passes being a computer user. There are some Amiga users who use it and they love it. There are some people who go much further than that, and it's more of a religion. It's coming even closer to a race of people, in a way, who all seem to think the same. They're very stereotypical, fanatical in some cases, but I think it's all generally there that the people have the right idea, and they're there for the long haul.

Slashdot: What is the stereotypical Amigan?

Wayne: A stereotypical Amigan is fanatical, loudmouthed, doesn't shut up about the Amiga, somewhat like me, I'm a perfect example. If you can possibly realize why we are so like that, you can see. It's like having this brilliantly cool toy, and nobody else can experience it like you have. It's almost like having a divine experience to search for words, something like this. You've got to tell everybody about it. They may not understand, but if you can get through to one more person, wow. That's them helped out, especially in the world of the Microsoft monopoly.

Slashdot: Given that Amiga's original big sell was stereo sound and multimedia capabilities, how do you feel about BeOS?

Wayne: Nice try, but no cigar. Be had a good idea, they wanted to make a media OS. It's obviously a hybrid between MacOS and AmigaOS. When it was there and ready, nobody came. It's a bit of a pity really, because it's not a bad OS at all. But if they can pull their act together, well, good on them, but I don't really see that happening too soon.

Slashdot: What about the 'soap opera' attitude the industry has towards Amiga? How does this affect the new company?

Wayne: Well, I wrote a small piece for Slashdot late last year. Within three days of writing that small paragraph, Amiga was owned by a different company, it was a different deal with AOL, and the entire computer spectrum for Amiga had changed, and that's just what it's like for Amiga. It's why I don't write articles anymore, because the second I do, the next day, the whole market has changed. That's the weird thing with this new Amiga. There's this eerie calmness. It's not erratic, people aren't making rumors, they're not seeking this stuff out, because they're actually getting the information! That's very reassuring for this company, and I think we're going to see good things from them.

Don't expect any of those good things to be Open Source operating systems, however. Straight from Amiga President Bill McEwen: "If we do any Open Sourcing of our architecture, releasing code on the driver side would make the most sense. I don't think Open Source everything makes sense. This is a point where Bob Young and I would disagree. I think it's done great, great things in a non-consumer environment, but in a consumer environment, I don't think you can Open Source everything. It makes it too hard to have a commonality in the way everyone could use it, because everyone's got their own opinion, their own way of doing something better. Unfortunately, in a consumer world, that doesn't mean that it's going to be better for everybody."

Comments

WTF?

[Kaa]

I'm feeling a bit nasty this morning so those of you with warm fuzzies may want to look away... The quotes are all from a VP-of-something from Amiga.

"The concept of an operating system has been dying for quite a long time.

Wow! Now that's an introduction that doesn't take prisoners. I guess we should be thankful for the guy telling us. I mean, it's not like OS implementations suck, it's the whole concept of the operating system that's dying. See, we are not going to have operating systems any more. We are going to have, like stuff, and then, like, other stuff will happen with it, and then, see, it's digital content in a Gibsonesque environment and we geeks will want to get nasty with it. But not an operating system, no sir, nothing like that. That concept is dead.

What we're looking at is creating a dynamic digital environment, in which the most important thing is the producers and consumers of digital [content] matter, and they don't really care how they got there, or what they used to get there, they just got into this environment.

Ah, yes. "Dynamic digital environment" -- sounds good, doesn't it? Of course we all here are stuck in a static analog environment, but the new Amiga will lead us into the new world.

Now, take producers and consumers of digital matter. These are free-wheeling guys, they don't care about anything. They don't care where they are, how they got there, what they are doing there, what kind of shit they are producing/consuming -- but, man, they got into this dynamic digital environment -- let's party!

You know, you can take it anywhere, you should be able to use any hardware with it.

Take what? The no-OS-digital-dynamic-whatever-something? Of course, since there is no OS the hardware doesn't matter. It's digital dynamic, baby, who cares about hardware! I'll just make a Beowulf cluster out of my toaster, microwave, and can opener and run it. I won't know how I got there, but, hey, it all doesn't matter, does it?

For the lynxey type, the hackers, the geeks, whatever you want to call them, they would want to get down dirty and nasty with the stuff. But even a lot of that stuff, a lot of them would rather get on and actually produce and do stuff, rather than having to go down and find that driver, and change their config files and all that stuff.

Ah, we get to the interesting bits. The wonderful lynxey type -- I presume, long-time users of lynx? Yee-haw, we really want to get dirty and nasty with that dead operating system concept, you know, hack that corpse to pieces -- that would be nasty, wouldn't it? Or is "stuff" some other stuff? Is it that dynamic digital thingy? Let's see... "But even a lot of that stuff, a lot of them would rather get on and actually produce and do stuff". Ah, I see. Now it's crystal clear. It's THAT stuff. Now I understand. And I really want to get dirty and nasty with it, oh yeah... Wait, there is more: "do stuff, rather than having to go down and find that driver, and change their config files and all that stuff". More stuff! How wonderful! And, of course, all these lynxey people just hate going down on a driver, err, scratch that, they hate finding drivers and changing config files. Changing config files is eeeeevil. Everybody who does this should be shot. Or dumped into the dynamic digital environment where they won't know where they came from or where they are going.

We're really trying to create this higher environment for developers and for users. It really is where we're moving towards the Gibson dream."

Higher? Oh well, I'm not even gonna ask. But I am really interested, what is the Gibson dream that we are moving towards?

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. `It's not like I'm using,' Case heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the Chat. `It's like my body's developed this massive drug deficiency."

Ah, I see.

Kaa

Let's take a trip in the Way-Back Machine...

[jht]

To 1984. Apple has just shipped Macintosh, and the realization is just hitting everybody (even the Apple II division - remember the IIgs?) that "you know, mice, pointing, and graphics are the One True Path". Microsoft starts working on a program called Windows (which doesn't surface until 3 years later, starting a trend for the company), Atari starts working on the ST (the legendary "Jackintosh", and Commodore gets the Amiga project underway.

Of all those, Amiga does something truly different, using nifty custom chips to give the machine a rich color palette and animation capabilities far ahead of it's time. The OS is pretty slick, too, and uses the hardware well.

Years pass. Commodore and Atari join the dustbin of history along with the Berlin Wall. Amiga survives briefly, being passed from owner to owner. After exhausting the capabilities of Motorola's dated 68000 processor series, PowerPC upgrades start hitting the marketplace, but few notice the improved performance possible. Thanks to a neat product called Video Toaster, Amiga has enough of an installed base that the market doesn't die completely, but it starts the long, slow fade into oblivion.

Cut to a couple of years ago - Gateway buys the remains of Amiga and potimism flares up that, in fact, they'll take the plunge into a new platform and out of the Wintel business. These plans, too, fizzle - Amiga instead becomes a "set of technologies" and an "information appliance", and it dies again. A handful of Amiga division people manage to extricate themselves from Gateway's clutches and split Amiga back away from Gateway.

Today, Amiga is now just another OS for Intel-based PC's. Whoopee do. As a platform, Amiga had the promise of continuity to the installed base, plus the opportunity to pick up converts from the weakened Microsoft monopoly. Apple's continued existence and profits prove that there is still a market for different platforms, if you give people a good reason to buy them.

The catch here is that Amiga now will have to compete with Be, Linux, Microsoft, and perhaps even Apple (if Darwin/OS X makes the jump to Intel) for mind and market share. It's not the same box anymore - it's just another Intel-based OS, though one that old Amiga software can be ported to relatively easily.

Though enough old Amiga users may buy generic boxes to run the "new" OS-only Amiga that Amiga will survive for a time, I think the ballgame's over. By dropping the hardware plans, they may have conserved capital (developing hardware is expensive, especially non-Wintel stuff - don't underestimate Apple's development costs), but at the sacrifice of long-term viability.

Meanwhile, Amiga remains the Rasputin of platforms. It just won't die!

- -Josh Turiel