Sb: #AmiWest '98
Fm: Asha DeVelder/SYSOP 76703,4322
To: All
I've been back from AmiWest '98 for a few hours now. It was hot. :)
The show was held in the Ramada Inn in Sacremento. The Inn is a small hotel but cozy. AmiWest took up (at least) three rooms for the three day show. The main room had about two dozen (guesstimate) boths and there were two seminar rooms in use almost constantly.
In the main room, Holger Kruse (Miami) was there, as was Chris Aldi (Finale Developement, New York, Quill, Voodoo, etc..), Kermit Woodall (ImageFX, Aladdin4D) as well as Paul Nolan (Photogenics_NG) and a few others I can't remember (sorry), various magazines (Amazing, Informer) and services (Amigazone--Harv Laser), and the user groups also had booths as well as a few retail outlets (I got Genetic Species). Business seemed to be brisk; people were walking around with bags full of stuff and wearing new t-shirts as well.
The seminars seemed to be well attended. I sat in when Carl gave his second talk about REBOL, and also the demos/discussions with Chris Aldi and Paul Nolan (I *really* want Photogenics_NG!!) and the rooms were packed.
The mood was very positive and upbeat in stark contrast to the last show I attended in '92 (WOA) Pasadena.
Niether Jeff Shindler, Joe Torre, Fleecy Moss, nor Alan Havemous could attend. We were told they were at very important meetings/negotiations but no more than that. Attending from Amiga Inc were Darrick Lisle, Events Co-ordinator and Bill McEwen head of marketing and software evangalist.
The following, in no particular order (I've only had 8 hours sleep in the past three days) is the information I gathered while there:
The rumor of an IBM buyout of Gateway is false
The rumor of BE buying out Amiga Inc is false
The information in the Investment Business Weekly was badly misquoted
and therefore is not correct.
Gateway is not for sale. Amiga Inc. is not for sale. (Carl added that REBOL isn't for sale either)
Speaking of REBOL, there should be a general version available early in the fall, with Amiga one of the first platforms supported.
Re: OS5.0
The kernal to be used is the Amiga kernal. They will be using Exec. There will be direct Java support (JVM) as well as support for OpenGL.
A developer program will be set up soon, projected date August (this year). Amiga Inc wants ALL developers and developer wannabees to come and sign up on their site. There will be a special area (password protected) for developers to get and exchange information. Anyone who is even slightly interested is encouraged to sign up (this was emphasized).
I don't have much on the MMC. There were some rather specific specs shown but I couldn't get them written down fast enough... (sorry) they will also be posted on Amiga Inc's pages soon. We were told the chip was NOT being made by Intel, Cyrix (sp?) or AMD. When I get more specific information I shall, of course, post it.
We were also told that Windows would NOT be on the development machine (Amiga Bridge OS4.0). "No money to Microsoft" is a direct quote.
Bill McEwen said that if anyone had any questions, he'd be more than happy to answer them. You can contact him at bm@amigainc.com. He said he would answer all polite mail. He also said he'd not answer any rude or nasty mail but that *he would keep it*.
Speaking of development. Olaf Bartel (sp?) has been doing extensive work in the Development CD and the RKMs, they have been bugfixed and upgraded (now version 2.1). This should be available soon.
Dave Haynie has also released a lot of information. It can be found on http://www.thule.no/haynie/. There will be more.
Denny Atkins is coming back to the Amiga.
There might be a bit more, but I'm getting really tierd... If I remember more, or get more clarification, I shall pass it on to you. I did have a wonderful time, despite the heat and some physical problems, and I feel more hopeful than ever about the future of the Amiga.
asha@mindless.com
Charter Member: Team *AMIGA* UIN#14766598
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