Amiga Returns With Lackluster Linux-Powered Mini PC

crookedvulture writes "Commodore has revealed the Amiga mini, a small-form-factor system that runs a custom Linux distro dubbed Commodore OS Vision. A trailer for the OS hardly inspires confidence, and the rest of the system doesn't help. While the Amiga mini features a high-end Intel desktop CPU and modern conveniences like Blu-ray, USB 3.0, and 802.11n Wi-Fi, it's stuck with one of the slowest graphics chips Nvidia makes. Some of the other specifications are head-scratchers, too. The mini comes with a whopping 16GB of RAM but only a terabyte of storage. You'll have to pay extra to get an SSD, which makes the $2500 asking price particularly onerous. The case, Blu-ray drive, and power supply are being made available separately, but at $345, they're hardly a bargain. Add this to the list of nostalgia-baiting remakes that don't live up to their inspiration." Update: It looks like Commodore has dropped the price after receiving a lot of negative feedback.

Comments

It goes without saying

[suso]

This is not Commodore, this is not the Amiga. This is a fucking bastard.

Re:It goes without saying

[amiga3D]

I wish they'd just let the poor Amiga rest in peace. Far, far, far ahead of it's time and an early death due to morons in the HQ. Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould....the anti-Jobs. Together they wrote the manual on how to mismanage a billion dollar corporation into bankruptcy in just a few short years. Towards the end the small investors grouped together to hire a Private Investigator to find out where the clandestine stock-holder meeting was being held so they could show up to give them hell. If anyone had ever compared a pitiful late 80's early 90's pc to an Amiga they'd never have believed how things turned out.

Re:It goes without saying

[amiga3D]

The Amiga was defined by it's custom chipset. The way it handled graphics and sound in conjuction with the CPU coupled with a really sweet multi-tasking system that directly banged the hardware. This ultimately lost out to the much cheaper to build open architechture of the PC when Microsoft finally put out windows 95 that sorta did most of the things the Amiga had been doing for 10 years. It didn't do them nearly as well but it was, as MS usually is, good enough to get by. Coupled with dirt cheap hardware there was no way for the people who bought the Amiga rights to compete with it so there was never a chance for a new Amiga and there never will be. Due to the fanatical user community however some people have played on the desire for a new Amiga to bilk money from the faithful.

Re:It goes without saying

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy smokes!

The world has started spinning in reverse because the Apple product is a comparatively better buy.

The sky is falling!!!!11!

Re:It goes without saying

[ILongForDarkness]

That is fantastic. Are you saying than that everything ships late to maximize the free pizza per project ratio? :-)

Re:It goes without saying

[Bert64]

All these half assed linux distros, especially those that used to ship with netbooks give linux a bad name...
They need to use a mainstream well known distro with a decent package repository available.

2500$ for that thing ???

[yvesdandoy]

Who said Macs were expensive again ?

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[durrr]

Everyone, just because you find a worse offender doesn't mean the lesser one if redeemed.

This is stupid though, $2500 for generic mini-itx hardware with a retarded OS? Is this a joke or something?

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually nobody that has a clue calls mac's expensive.

The irony.

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[Anonymous Coward]

Aaaah...another person who thinks there's magically unique super-special higher quality hardware in a mac.

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[Theophany]

And a Mac is expensive compared to an 386 I picked up at a yard sale - did I miss something or are we churning out meaningless comments?

This abomination is ridiculously expensive compared to a Mac if for no reason more than any sucker who buys it and needs some form of support in 18 months time will probably be shit out of luck, given how often the Commodore and Amiga names have changed hands. That _won't_ happen for a Mac. Peace of mind doesn't come cheap.

Mac pricing isn't about hardware costs, it's about the quality that goes into everything they create - the R&D, the development, the ongoing service, the bundled software, the bundled infrastructure (iCloud etc).

So when you compare that to a Dell Shitspiron XXXX that comes bundled with a bottom-of-the-barrel version of Windows 7, several tonnes of bloatware and a tech support service that has the value add of simulated brain damage Macs _are_not_ that expensive. Unsurprisingly, you get what you pay for.

And, FYI, I built my system last month for the sum of £2,500. THAT is expensive.

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[jellomizer]

The problems with Macs isn't that they are expensive but you only have a small selection of models to choose from.
If you take a Mac and Price spec for Spec (Every spec even if you don't think it is a big deal such as glowing keyboard with light sensor or weight and thinness) You will find that the Price of the Mac is the same as any other new Commercially built system out there of the same quality. However the Mac may not be a value to you because a lot of the stuff that comes with the Mac you may not need and for the feature that you do want you may have to get extra stuff that you will pay for that you may not use...

So if you want a Laptop that is Light, and Fast. For PC's you have a bunch of options many without too many extras. For Apple you have only a couple of models if that to choose from.

It isn't that Apple is gouging customers (the Apple Tax) you are getting what you pay for. The crux of the matter is you may be getting more then you need or want.

Re:2500$ for that thing ???

[StikyPad]

If you take a Mac and Price spec for Spec (Every spec even if you don't think it is a big deal such as glowing keyboard with light sensor or weight and thinness) You will find that the Price of the Mac is the same as any other new Commercially built system out there of the same quality.

For the very low-end models, maybe, but when you look at the price of the higher models and upgrades -- literally comparing Apples to Apples -- it's readily apparent that their prices are way off, and egregiously so.

Let's compare two "base" iMacs, the only noted difference being the processor and HD:
21.5" Core i5 2.5GHz & 500GB -> 21.5" Core i5 2.7GHz & 1TB [$300 difference]
Core i5-2400S 2.5GHz $184 & Seagate Barracuda 500GB $84 (Total: $268) -> Core i5-2500S 2.7GHz $205 & Segate 1 Barracuda TB $109 (Total: $314)
Actual Difference: $46 Apple's Markup: 552%
Sources: Intel's price list 500GB @ NewEgg 1TB @ NewEgg

Component upgrades for the second iMac:
2.7GHz Core i5 -> 2.8GHz Core i7 [Add $200.00]
Core i5-2500S 2.7GHz $205 -> Core i7-2600S $294 Actual Difference: $89 Apple's Markup: 125%
Source: Same as above

4GB -> 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [Add $200.00]
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 $25 x2 = $50. Actual Difference: $25 Apple's Markup: 700%
Source: The most expensive laptop 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM @ NewEgg

4GB -> 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB [Add $600.00]
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 $25 x4 = $100. Actual Difference: $75 Apple's Markup: 700%
Source: Same as above.

1TB -> 2TB 7200RPM Serial ATA Drive [Add $150.00]
Seagate Barracuda 1TB $109 -> Seagate 2TB $130 Actual Difference: $11 Apple's Markup: 1263%
Source: 1TB @ NewEgg 2TB @ NewEgg

And then there's the whole issue of using mobile components in a desktop. Why would they do that? Not to provide value -- mobile components are generally more expensive and lower performing then their desktop components -- but to cram them into a retarded form factor. Sorry, Apple's tax is alive and well, and it's insulting to an informed consumer. You can throw together a *better* system for well less than what Apple charges for its iMac and as a bonus, you don't have to buy a new your monitor when you upgrade your entire system. And for $28 and a little pre-planning, you can even throw Lion on it or run it in a VM. Yes, you have to learn or know how to do it, but as they say, ignorance can be expensive.

Oh wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

_Only_ a terabyte of storage?

Since when is that a little amount of storage?

Re:Oh wow.

[stoolpigeon]

at that price point it isn't much. my $400 acer desktop came with a terabyte drive in it.

Pricepoint fail

[talexb]

Guys, welcome to 2012. Now, about the price on your unit .. way, way too high.

Twenty years ago, a Cadillac PC was three to four thousand bucks. These days you can get an amazing PC for under a grand. I got a used Dell for $600, including tax, with dual core, 16G RAM and a 1T drive.

I don't even care what it does -- it's too much money. So, good luck with that.

Forget the names please

[sTERNKERN]

Back in the old days Amiga, C=64, ZX81, etc. names meant something.. just let them die peacefully, do not tread on their graves by naming a plain today's PC as one of those.