Jim Collas Offers Clarifications

As you can imagine, I have been following the newsgroups closely as you discuss the Linux decision. The personal attacks on me are discouraging but I can't blame some people for being very angry. It's understandable given what the Amiga community has been through in the last few years and the way this situation unfolded. I wish I could have managed this situation better but I have been traveling a lot and QNX blindsided us with their announcement. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were planning to communicate the Linux decision along with our technical brief. I don't want to argue the Linux decision here because you need to understand the full picture first and the technical brief should help this. I would like to address a few misunderstandings that I am seeing in the postings. Whether you agree with the Linux decision or not, misinformation and inaccurate speculation will only confuse the situation. I would like you to understand the following:

1. There have been multiple comments about how Amiga led QNX on and then dumped them. Some of these comments imply a lack of ethics on our part. These comments aren't accurately portaying the situation. I am very ethical and won't tolerate unethical behavior at Amiga. We delt with QNX ethically and above the table. People shouldn't assume that the Amiga/QNX deal died solely because of Amiga. There were differences of opinion on strategy, implementation, and licensing terms that we spent months and months trying to negotiate. I stepped into the middle of this and was personally involved in the negotiations for over four months. Linux started as our back-up plan, just in case we couldn't reach an agreement, and it ended up as the preferred choice. I can't go into details but remember that things aren't as simple as they seem from the outside.

2. The comments that bother me the most are the ones questioning my ethics and motivations. With Amiga, I inherited a situation that has been mismanaged for years and a community that has justifiably lost its patience. It is frustrating that people associate me with all of the mistakes and delays of the past. This gives me very little room for errors and corrections. I have been president of Amiga for five months and this Linux decision is the only major shift I have made. In hindsight, I could have better managed the communication on this situation but there is an incredible amount going on and I am only human. I will screw some things up. The surprise from QNX didn't help. I have been open and straight with the community in every situation. Amiga has made more progress in the last five months than had been made in the last five years. Remember that we aren't just developing a product. We are building a substantial company to compete in this aggressive industry. This in itself is no small task. In summary, give me a break. Please.

3. There are many inaccurate perceptions about the size, stability, and performance of the Linux OS. I initially ruled out Linux because I had the same perceptions. There are so many options and configurations with Linux that it is difficult for people to get a handle on it. This is why we spent months evaluating it before making any conclusions. The core Linux OS is better than people think it is. QNX is better at a few things and Linux is better at others. Try not to make assumptions about the current state of Linux without details. I have asked Allan Havemose to summarize our Linux evaluation for you.

I hope this will help clear up some of the inaccurate statements. I expect that some people will continue to slam me and our decision. I understand that this level of frustration doesn't go away over night. All I ask is for people to take the time to read and understand our technology brief when it comes out.

Sincerely,
Jim

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