The Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group

The Status Register - June, 1999


This newsletter will never appear on CUCUG.ORG before the monthly CUCUG meeting it is intended to announce. This is in deference to actual CUCUG members. They get each edition hot off the presses. If you'd like to join our group, you can get the pertinent facts by looking in the "Information About CUCUG" page. If you'd care to look at prior editions of the newsletter, they may be found via the Status Register Newsletter page.
News     Mac     Amiga     CUCUG

June 1999


To move quickly to an article of your choice, use the search feature of your reader or the hypertext directory above. Enjoy.

June News:

The June Meeting

The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, June 17th, at 7:00 pm, at the Bresnan Community Center. Direction to the Bresnan are on the back of this newsletter.

The June 17 meeting will be one of CUCUG's split SIG meetings. The Amiga SIG will be discussing datatypes . The Macintosh SIGwill be treated to another of Richard's potpourri presentations. Come and contribute to the fun.

ToC

Welcome New Members

We'd like to welcome our newest members, joining us in the last month: Taizo Torimoto (C128, A1000/2000, Mac 68K, ClonePC), David Brumbelow (A500, ClonePC), and Lesli W. Gager (A500/1200, ClonePC).

We'd also like to welcome back returning member George E. Aiken.

We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome to one of the best.

ToC

Amiga No Computer?

OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY - June 8, 1999

Dear Amigans,

Ted Waitt [founder and CEO of Gateway - Amiga Inc.'s parent company] was recently interviewed by Guardian Online about Gateway's plans in general [http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/ online/story/0,3605,55081,00.html]. There was also a question specifically about Gateway's plans for Amiga that Ted answered as follows: "we've had a group of people working on leveraging the Amiga assets into an appliance strategy for us. How well that works out, I don't know: it will be interesting to see. There are some great assets there. It's definitely not a computer business." This comment has obviously spurred many responses from the Amiga community. I want to assure people that this doesn't reflect a shift in our Amiga plans. We have not changed our plans to release a next generation Amiga multimedia computer. I have described the new multimedia computer and how it integrates into a full "information appliance" environment in my May letter to the community posted on our web site. Please read the May letter, as it will help you understand Amiga's product strategy.

Ted's comments refer to Gateway's product plans for using the Amiga technology. Gateway's main interest in the next generation Amiga technology is for the emerging information appliance market. Gateway's focus on Internet connected information appliances is justifiable given the extremely high potential of this market and it's threat to the PC industry. Prominent Industry analysts have called information appliances "the next Internet wave" and "one of the most exciting opportunities of the new millennium." By the year 2002, it is forecasted that information appliance shipments will surpass PC shipments and there will be more information appliances connected to the Internet than PCs. If I were CEO of Gateway, this would also be one of my primary areas of focus. But I am not CEO of Gateway. I am CEO of Amiga and I don't want to confuse Gateway's plans with Amiga's. There is a significant overlap in our plans but there is a difference in focus. I have been empowered by Ted to drive Amiga as an independent company with it's own strategy and plans. This will eliminate a major challenge that has held Amiga back for many years. The challenge of getting the proper attention and priority from large corporate parent companies which are focusing on their core business.

Regarding Amiga's strategy, I have mentioned many times that Amiga will use the immense emerging information appliance market to build momentum for our next generation architecture. This is why we have come up with an architecture that integrates the power of multimedia computing into a full home computing environment that includes information appliances. This is a revolutionary architecture and computing environment for the future that combines power and simplicity. It is a powerful plan that gives Amiga a great chance of rising again as a significant force in the industry. On my trip to Germany and the U.K. last month, I presented details of the architecture and plans to a small group of prominent people in the Amiga community. I did this confidentially to get some feedback and validation on our plans. Once people understood exactly what we were doing, the feedback was very positive and people were excited about the revolutionary new architecture. Personally, I am extremely excited about sharing details of the new Amiga architecture with the community as a whole but we are still in a very sensitive stage relative to competition and technology partners. I know this is frustrating to the community since you have waited so long for a next generation product. We will continue to share as much information as possible when it is appropriate.

I hope this letter clarifies Ted's statements on Gateway's use of Amiga technology. I will continue communicating as much as possible. You can expect to see my June letter to the community in a few weeks. I promise you that 1999 is going to be a great year for Amiga and the Amiga community. Keep the momentum going as we come back for the future.

Sincerely,
Jim Collas
President and CEO, Amiga

ToC

Amiga Announces the creation of the Amiga Advisory Council

San Diego, CA - May 19th 1999 - "In order to make Amiga a great company, delivering the type of innovative products that users desire, it is imperative that the Spirit of Amiga flow throughout our products, and that Spirit is the community." Said Jim Collas - President of Amiga.

As the company moves forward, the advisory council will be influential in helping to set the future direction of Amiga, with a special focus on the needs and desires of the existing Amiga community.

"The Amiga community is one of the most valuable communities in the computer industry. They are a great resource that needs to be heard as we maintain delivery of current product while moving into new areas and directions for Amiga. There are great people in the community with great ideas, and a talent pool that is without equal. It is because of the leaders and members of this community that the Amiga is alive today," Jim Collas - President of Amiga.

The Amiga Advisory Council will consist of members from the community and the Amiga leadership team. Candidates will be selected over the next 30 days from nominees submitted to Amiga. Amiga will be evaluating and selecting the candidates based on the following criteria.

In the coming weeks nomination forms will be found on the Amiga WebSite. The Amiga Advisory Council is expected to be in place by the end on June.

Please visit the Amiga web sites www.amiga.com, and www.amiga.de to nominate your Council Member.

ToC

OS3.5 Details

from AUGS User Group Meeting
posted by Martin Heine in comp.sys.amiga.misc

Here are some more details regarding OS 3.5 as revealed by Haage&Partner at the AUGS-Meeting -- as usual aimed as a piece of first info in Germenglish until someone tells you all this in an official statement in correct English. =)

Internet:

A special version of AWeb will be the Browser (like I said) and the TCP/IP-stack will be Miami (unlike I said :-). Integrated Network-support. The E-Mail-API and the simple E-Mail-Client will be from the author of Voodoo and New York.

Workbench:

Regarding our topic "Moving of the Icons" was said that it wouldn't be necessary anymore to use the Shift-Key when moving more than one icon. An "Unselect" will be possible when more than one icon is selected. All Preferences programs will get the new Reaction-surface. The Submenus of the WB will be optimized for a better handling.

Icon Library:

When selecting, the icons will start to "glow" when dragging them they'll get semi-transparent. Via the "Info" option it will now also be possible to set the process priority. The current and the New Icons will be supported. The AppIcons will now be able to be animated.

Reaction:

The Tool Reactor will enable software-authors to use the new Reaction-surface with their own software. One of the highlights of Reaction is the possibility to have a color-gradient in the background of a window. Also, bugs in the asl.library will be removed.

PowerPC:

WarpUp will be integrated in its latest version. An important part will be the Preferences settings which will complement the integration.

Installer:

The installer will be able to be opened on an own screen. This screen can have a color-gradient (where did I see this before...)-: New will be the possibility to go steps backward during installation.

Printers:

The printer-support will be redesigned completely so that 24-bit-printing will be possible on the WB. CyberGraphX and Picasso96 will be supported. There will be only one Printer setting in the future, which will also have a preview window showing immediately the changed settings.

Datatypes:

Reworked and improved, now also 24-bit-capable. New are datatypes for AIFF, JPG and GIF. Complete rework of the AmigaGuide datatype. The documentation will be in HTML in German and English. Release date is still August. First Beta-Tests will start in 3 weeks. AmigaOS 3.5 will be delivered on CD-ROM for 99,50 DM.

[Pre-orders for OS3.5 are being taken by most Amiga distributors. In the US, Software Hut is selling OS3.5 for $59.95.]

In order to upgrade your Amiga system to OS 3.5, it must be equipped with the following hardware:

For better performance, Amiga Inc. recommends:

To take full advantage of OS3.5 Software Hut also recommends you add the following:

ToC

3Dfx Add On for PicassoIV - Name The Baby

Scheduled for the 3rd to 4th quarter 1999 is our new add on board for the PicassoIV modular graphics-board.

The board will bring 3Dfx technology to ZorroIII Amigas like A3k, A4k, A1200 with z3 board in conjunction with an additional PicassoIV. It will give you never seen 3D functionality to the Amiga-classic range of computer systems.

With the optional PabloIV module you will be able to bring your 3D-applications to your 25" television and/or tape your 3D-scenes to your videorecorder.

From the technical point of view the board will be able to bring up to 960x720 pixels in resolution with 8 MB of texture/pixel RAM. Programmers will get a native GLIDE API and later an additional Warp3D driver for the Haage&Partner 3D API-system.

CHIPSET:                Voodoo, 3Dfx
BUS:                    internal PicassoIV PCI connector
RAM:                    8 MB
RESOLUTION              960x720 in 16 bit
MODULE SUPPORT          PabloIV
DRIVER SYSTEM:          Glide, Warp3D
REQUIREMENTS            ZorroIII, (A3k, A4k, A1200+ZIII board)
                        8 MB usual RAM, 1 MB chip, CPU 040/25 minimum

But now we need your help: WE DON`T HAVE A NAME FOR THIS FANTASTIC BABY! If you have a good idea for our 3D-product and/or painted a LOGO for it you can drop us a mail and you can win one of the first 3d-add-on board when we use your idea! This contest will close 19th of July.

Contribute now and send your suggestion to:

mailto: *amigasupport@village.de*

Ekkehard Bruggemann                     http://www.villagetronic.com
Village Tronic Support Team             amigasupport@village.de
Village Tronic Marketing GmbH           Tel.: +49(0)5066-7013-20
Muhlenstr.2 - D-31157 Sarstedt          Fax.:+49(0)5066-7013-49 

ToC

TurboPrint Professional v7

TurboPrint Professional v7 is now shipping! Highlights include PDF printing, bug fixes, and new HP and Epson printers. Upgrades and full versions are available. If you've been waiting for a new printer, now's the time to get one!

ToC

SoftLogik has Moved

As reported online earlier, SoftLogik is moving. The building in St. Louis was closed February 24th, 1999. I finalized the purchase of a new location in Wisconsin on Tuesday, March 9th, 1999.

SoftLogik's new home will be located on the same piece of ground that I will be living on. The only problem is that this new building is not complete. This is expected to take a few more months, and then we can get the permits, and then the phone lines and address. (Don't ask, long story about local red tape will result).

Until then, we now have cellular phone service, and we are going to try running the customer database off of a generator between the hours of noon and 4pm central time. We will try and answer the phones at other times than that, but if you leave a voice mail message we will get back to you by the next business day.

During our down time, evidently our ISP failed to maintain our web site. It was entirely my fault, but that doesn't make it any less disastrous. While in the process of doing everything else, I managed to track down a new ISP with a good reputation and a fair price. For those who saw SoftLogik disappear from the radar, we are sorry, but reports of our demise are untrue!

What about the development schedule? Good news actually. Without phones, mail and email to answer, I've been getting a lot of PageStream4 and Windows code fixed. I took all the source code and dumped it to my new laptop. I've been working on the kitchen table of my friends house where I had been living the first month. It took me a couple days to get familiar with the new stuff, but I'm back at it now. And the nice thing is this machine is fast. I used to be able to take a Coke break (don't really drink much coffee) during a compile. Now a full compile only takes about 10 minutes, and an incremental compile is done before I can catch my breath. Now I can work in my truck, on a lawn chair, at McDonald's, the real estate office, where ever life takes me while I get SoftLogik settled.

Thanks for your understanding, and thanks for being a customer!

Deron Kazmaier, President
SoftLogik Publishing Corp.

[It has been announced that PageStream4.0 will ship by August.]

ToC

New version of Amiga Forever Online Edition

Thu, 27 May 1999 - Cloanto is pleased to announce that a new version of Amiga Forever Online Edition is available for download. For this release, both the preinstalled Amiga software and the WinUAE emulation have been updated and improved.

The 68K CPU emulation has been carefully profiled and optimized, and is now on average at least 20% faster than in the previous version. CPU-wise, an average PC can now comfortably emulate a 68040 Amiga (benchmarks are based on Personal Paint compilation times using SAS/C, Amiga 4000/040 and Pentium II/400 PC). Experimental AGA emulation and MIDI output are now also supported by the emulation and already have many enthusiastic users (some of which can now at last use Bars & Pipes Pro!) Features such as virtual memory, floating point unit, true color RTG display modes and TCP/IP continue to be part of the default Amiga Forever emulation configuration. The latest version of the Amiga Explorer Amiga-PC networking software is also included.

The new version of Amiga Forever Online Edition is available for immediate download from cloanto.com at $29.99. Amiga users in Yugoslavia have reported credit card authorization problems in relation to the current situation, and can therefore get the software at no cost directly from Cloanto.

Existing CD-ROM and Online Editions of Amiga Forever can be upgraded to the latest version of the emulation software following the instructions at cloanto.com. The Amiga Forever pages have been completely updated and now provide even more resources for users of Amiga emulation. The Amiga Forever Home Page has a new, easy to remember browser shortcut: amigaforever.com. Other Amiga product pages at cloanto.com have been moved to a "Classic Amiga" section, in preparation for new software titles for Amiga NG.

We are observing with interest that the emulation topic is currently being hotly debated both on the internet and in the courts. We would like to point out that Amiga Forever stands out as a unique example of careful and complete licensing of the technology being emulated. Cloanto has licensed the entire portfolio of Amiga patents, trademarks and copyrights before even considering the publication of the emulation, ROM and OS components which are part of Amiga Forever.

Once again, we would like to thank all Amiga users for their continued support!

Your Cloanto Team

Amiga Forever Online Edition Home Page:
http://cloanto.com/amiga/forever/online.html

Instructions for Emulation Upgrades:
http://cloanto.com/amiga/forever/upgrades.html

ToC

PowerPC G4 not late, says Motorola

Posted 07/06/99 5:25pm by Tony Smith

Motorola today called The Register to stress that it's PowerPC G4 production process is still running to plan.

That contradicts a story posted last week on Apple-oriented Web site AppleInsider, which cited unnamed Motorola sources who claimed that the company had fallen way behind schedule.

Motorola's head PowerPC spin-paramedic, director of PowerPC marketing Will Swearingen, said those claims were completely untrue, and that the company was still on course to roll-out the PowerPC G4, aka the PowerPC 7400, in volume around about the middle of this year.

That's the timeframe Motorola PowerPC project manager Paul Reed unveiled at last October's Microprocessor Forum.

Swearingen also promised Motorola would make a major announcement about the G4 "in the third quarter", when the company would be joined by "multiple companies from multiple markets".

He would give no further details, but said the announcement might be comparable to a typical Intel product launch where "by the World's greatest coincidence 25 computer vendors announce they're shipping machines based on that product that very day".

Swearingen's point was that Intel can do that by getting production up ahead of the announcement to allow those vendors to make that statement, and by implication that's what Motorola's going to do this time round. And, since the announcement takes place in Q3, that would suggest volume shipments in the July timeframe -- right where Motorola originally said it would be.

We shall see. Annoucements of announcements, like announcements of products are subject to change, so the onus is now on Motorola to make that Q3 deadline.

Still, it's good news for Apple, which presumably won't now have to put its upcoming Power Mac G4 back by six months. Swearingen would not confirm whether Apple would be at the big announcement or not -- or anyone else's attendance, for that matter -- but it would surely be a major disappointment if Apple, as Motorola's prime desktop customer, wasn't there. Still, there's always Amiga...

[Source: The Register - http://www.theregister.co.uk/990607-000020.html ]

ToC

QuickTime 4 Downloads Pass Three Million in First Month

CUPERTINO, California - May 20, 1999 - Apple today announced that there have been over three million downloads of QuickTime 4 software during the first month since its launch. QuickTime 4 features "streaming" of live and stored video and audio over the Internet, and is the first Internet streaming solution to use open, industry-standard protocols (RTP and RSTP), eliminating the "server tax" charged to content providers by competitors using proprietary protocols.

ToC

Apple Names Software Design Award Winners

TidBITS#482/24-May-99

Apple Computer has announced the winners of the fourth annual Apple Design Awards competition, with REAL Software's REALbasic 1.0 and Alsoft's Disk Warrior 1.0 taking home multiple honors. REALbasic won the Best New Product award, with Disk Warrior taking the Runner Up position. In the Most Innovative category, the situation flipped, with Disk Warrior winning and REALbasic coming in as Runner Up. For Best Macintosh User Experience, the game Food Chain 1.0 from Cajun Games took home the honors, with REALbasic again taking second place. Finally, in the Best Apple Technology Adoption, the top award went to Kohshin Graphic Systems' Cutie Mascot Jr. 1.5, an application for creating interactive desktop animations, with the popular Virtual Game Station from Connectix coming in close behind. Congratulations to the winners, and for those of you unfamiliar with Food Chain and Cutie Mascot Jr., we encourage you to visit their Web pages. [ACE]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/1999/may/19awards.html
http://www.realsoftware.com/realbasic.html
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
http://www.CajunGames.com/foodchain/
http://www.kohshin-graphic-sys.com/e_version/mascot_e.html
http://www.virtualgamestation.com/

ToC

Apple's New Technology Gap

TidBITS#483/31-May-99

Apple Computer has appointed Millard "Mickey" Drexler to its board of directors. Drexler isn't in the computer business; rather, he's the chairman and CEO of Gap, Inc., a worldwide clothing and apparel retailer that's also behind the well-known Banana Republic and Old Navy clothing brands. Apple apparently hopes to leverage Drexler's consumer and retail marketing experience to expand Apple's user base and product appeal. Anyone for a khaki iMac? [GD]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/1999/may/26bod.html

Apple's board of directors is now composed of seven members:

ToC

BBEdit 5.1 Rolls In Support for MacPerl

TidBITS#483/31-May-99

Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 5.1, the latest version of its high-end text editor used by programmers and Web authors. BBEdit 5.1 offers integrated support for MacPerl, the Mac OS port of the programming language often used for text processing and CGI applications on Web servers. BBEdit 5.1 offers a special menu for MacPerl scripts and enables users to create custom "Perl filters" that operate on the contents of BBEdit document windows. Among other changes, BBEdit 5.1 integrates more fully with the Projector source control system used by Apple's (now free) Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW), offers an improved multi-layout Web Color palette, rolls in improvements to its HTML verification utilities, and enhances tools designed to clean up after visual HTML editors. The BBEdit 5.1 update is a 2.4 MB download available for free to all BBEdit 5.x owners; owners of previous versions of BBEdit can upgrade for $39, and $79 upgrades are available for owners of competing programs or the freeware BBEdit Lite. [GD]

http://web.barebones.com/products/bbedit/bbedit.html
http://www.macperl.com/
http://developer.apple.com/tools/mpw-tools/
http://web.barebones.com/support/update.html

ToC

Blue & White G3s Speed to 450 MHz

TidBITS#484/07-Jun-99

Apple has introduced revisions to its blue and white Power Macintosh G3 computers that sport processor speeds from 350 to 450 MHz and come with Mac OS 8.6. Apple claims the 450 MHz G3 offers up to 23 percent better performance than the previous top-of-the-line 400 MHz systems. Apple also introduced two new blue and white G3 server systems sporting one to three 9 GB Ultra-2 SCSI drives, and either Mac OS X Server or AppleShare IP 6.2 with Mac OS 8.6. The new systems are available immediately from Apple's online store. [GD]

http://www.apple.com/powermac/
http://www.apple.com/store/

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

Mac OS X or Mac OS NeXT?

by Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)

When Apple acquired NeXT in late 1996 the goal was ostensibly to acquire a next-generation operating system that could replace the Mac OS, since Apple had bought into the notion that the Mac OS was creaky and could barely cross the street under its own steam. As the past two and half years have demonstrated, the most valuable part of the NeXT acquisition was in fact the return of Steve Jobs to Apple's helm. Since Jobs has become interim CEO, Apple has successfully executed a number of daring moves, most notably the release of the iMac.

It's easy to forget that the other effects of NeXT acquisition have barely begun to be recognized. Sure, Apple has talked about a road map to future versions of the Mac OS and has even released Mac OS X Server, but for the most part, we've simply seen improvements to the Mac OS we know well. But if you look back the schedule Jobs laid out at the Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) a year ago, you'll see that Apple has done well at meeting those self-imposed deadlines. Mac OS 8.5 shipped on schedule in Q3 of 1998, Mac OS X Server was only a little late in Q1 of 1999, and Mac OS 8.6 appeared soon after its scheduled Q1 1999 launch. The next major release comes in Q3 of 1999, when Apple plans to ship the next version of Mac OS 8, codenamed Sonata, with the first full release of Mac OS X scheduled for early 2000.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04899

One friend who attended this year's WWDC called it "nicely boring," because along with the schedule, Apple was sticking to the same stories told at the previous year's WWDC. Despite the lack of excitement, that's great news to hear, since developers in the past have griped about paying a lot of money to go and listen to Apple evangelize technologies that would meet the guillotine shortly thereafter. Consistency is good, and for Apple, consistency seems to mean adding underlying improvements to Mac OS 8.x and concentrating on the release of Mac OS X.

Mac OS X Details

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Mac OS X for current Macintosh users is that it is slated to support most existing Mac OS 8.x applications, some that won't be able to take advantage of Mac OS X's advanced features, and others that can become full-fledged citizens by sticking to a set of current Mac OS application programming interfaces (APIs) called Carbon, which Mac OS X will support directly. If Apple and Macintosh developers are able to pull off the Carbon strategy, it will truly be a best case situation where existing applications can take advantage of Mac OS X's features without needing complete rewrites. Here are the basic levels in Mac OS X:

This combination of the best of the Macintosh with the best of NeXT's operating system technology sounds great in theory, but as Mac OS X's release date looms closer, concerns arise. Most of the public moves from Apple have focused on improving the Mac OS and releasing new Macintosh hardware. But all those employees who came over from NeXT haven't been sitting still. They may wear Apple badges now, but it's possible that on some levels these people are more interested in turning the Macintosh into a NeXT-like system than in making a Macintosh system built in part from NeXT technologies. I commented on this back in 1997, when the lines between Apple and NeXT technologies were more distinct. Things have blurred since then, but a sense of NeXT/Unix mentalities being forced onto Mac OS X still remains.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00694

Examples of this unsettled feeling broke the surface at this month's WWDC. In each case, Apple has made promises about maintaining the best of the Macintosh, but after discussions with Macintosh developers, we're left with concerns about how the situations will play out in reality. Consider the following:

Carbon Finder

At WWDC, Jobs and Apple vice president Phil Schiller showed the "Carbon Finder," a version of the Finder rewritten from scratch. Unfortunately, on the surface it bore little resemblance to the Finder that tens of millions of Macintosh users use every day, and the audience greeted it with a combination of hisses and silence (comments after the keynote were even less polite). Instead, the "Carbon Finder" looked like an updated version of the NeXT Workspace Manager file browser (see the Macworld Online picture linked below) that was used by at best tens of thousands of people in NeXT's heyday.

http://macworld.zdnet.com/1999/05/02/wwdc/photogallery/wwdc5.html

It seems that with proper settings, the Carbon Finder could be made to look like the current Finder, and it should provide a better interface for network browsing than the Chooser or even the Network Browser, which isn't part of the Finder. Apple has long needed to resurrect something along the lines of the PowerTalk Catalog, a desktop icon that provided access to networked servers (see "PowerTalk Arrives" from TidBITS-195 for description).

There's nothing wrong with multiple pane file browsers, but they often aren't as flexible as today's Finder. No one minds Apple providing a file browser as an option, even as a View option, but if Apple attempts to replace the Finder with a less-capable file browser, current Mac users will revolt. For a preview of a file browser, try Greg Landweber's shareware utility Greg's Browser.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02403
http://kaleidoscope.net/greg/browser.html

The Yellow Brick Pathname

Mac OS X is based on Unix, and one of the basic aspects of Unix is a reliance on special directories with cryptic names like /bin, /etc, /usr, and so on. That's not all that different than the Mac OS's reliance on special folders like the Extensions, Control Panels, and Preferences folders. The main difference is that Unix file systems rely on pathnames not just for the special directories, but for all directories. In contrast, the Mac's HFS and HFS Plus file systems assign every file and folder a unique ID number. The beauty of file IDs is that their independence from names and paths allows a level of abstraction that's not possible under Unix. For instance, if you rename the folder that contains your applications, everything works as it did before, because file IDs don't change. In Unix, such an action would cause all pathnames to change, in turn causing applications to lose track of support files.

In addition, it's possible on the Mac to have multiple volumes with the same name, something that doesn't come up with Unix (where the root level is always /) or Windows (where every volume has a unique letter). The impact of losing the capability to have multiple volumes with the same name could range from annoying to disastrous.

Mac OS X is slated to support HFS Plus by default, so file IDs should continue to work on disks that use HFS Plus. However, the fact that standard NeXT programming practices encourage pathname use may result in file IDs not being used. It's also unclear what will happen when sophisticated users move back and forth between the different file systems also supported by Mac OS X. Even mentioning multiple file systems to most Mac users is a bad thing, so let's hope Apple manages to hide the entire situation from normal users.

What's Your Type?

Mac OS X, being Unix, may also rely in part on filename extensions to assign types to files, just like Windows. A GIF file must have a .gif extension, a text file must have a .txt extension, and so on. The Mac OS instead uses file type and creator data structures to type files, so although you're welcome to add .gif to a GIF file's name, the operating system identifies the file as a GIF based on its file type code, not its file name.

Another feature Macintosh users expect is that files of the same type can open in different applications when double-clicked. One text file might open in SimpleText, whereas another might open in BBEdit or Nisus Writer. In Unix, as in Windows, files of the same type can be linked only with a single application. Aside from the obvious loss of functionality here, there's a loss of control for the user. Suddenly, you must name your files correctly or they won't work as you expect. I can't imagine trying to explain to my grandmother that every file she creates must have a specific set of characters at the end of the filename. Applications could add them automatically, as many Windows programs do, but that's also confusing.

Again, since Mac OS X will support HFS Plus, type and creator codes will probably be retained at least when using an HFS Plus file system. Expert users are curious how Mac OS X's Unix utilities will interoperate with HFS Plus volumes, since it's unlikely that the Unix file copy command cp, for instance, would retain type and creator codes when copying files on an HFS Plus file system.

To Text or not to Text

As a final concern, consider the humble preferences file. Normal Macintosh users seldom interact with their preferences files directly, because it's an accepted tenet of the Macintosh world that applications must provide an interface to their preferences. In the Unix world, though, text- based preferences files rule.

As a friend has noted, attempt a real Apache configuration in today's Mac OS X Server and you're in vi (an arcane Unix text editor). Want to change a setting? Just edit the appropriate line in this text file! That may work fine for Unix power users, but it's a recipe for disaster in the Macintosh world. Text-based preferences files are brittle; make a single character mistake and the application won't behave as you expect.

Of course, an application could provide a graphical interface to its preferences and save the results in textual form, but as we've seen in programs ported from the Unix world, once there's a text- based preferences file in use, creating a graphical interface becomes a low priority and may never happen.

Reading the Cocoa Leaves

These concerns are for the moment just that, concerns. Mac OS X isn't scheduled to ship for at least seven months, and since Mac OS X Server slipped from Q3 1998 to Q1 1999, it's entirely likely that the full Mac OS X will slip as well.

That gives Apple time to make sure that Mac OS X truly incorporates the combination of the best features of the Mac OS (the user experience) and the best features of the NeXT (modern operating system features). Steve Jobs has called the Mac OS Apple's "crown jewels," saying that Apple had to concentrate on the Mac OS because that was where the company's customers were. No one bought Macs during Apple's death spiral days because they cared that Apple would one day release a totally different operating system. They bought Macs then, as they do now, because the Mac OS remains the best computing experience available today.

I sincerely hope that Jobs wasn't buttering up existing Macintosh users merely to bolster Apple's then-waning fortunes, because his comments then were on target. As good as aspects of the NeXT may have been, it was not a commercial success, whereas the Macintosh changed the face of computing. Keep the Macintosh face, Apple, and utilize the NeXT technology behind the scenes where it can work its magic without disturbing millions of Macintosh users.

[Source: TidBITS #483 / 31-May-99. TidBITS address is http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/default.html.]

ToC

The Amiga Section:

BoXeR -- Leap of Faith Not Taken, Yet

by Steve Duff (steveduff@earthlink.net)

I thought I'd share my experience re: my near pre-order of a BoXeR system from AntiGravity. As many of you know, AntiGravity offered a $300 discount on pre-ordered systems up through May 15th. This date has now passed.

I called AntiGravity prior to the deadline. I've long wanted a second Amiga and the BoXeR looks like the best thing going, although a used A3K or A4K would be cheaper and have the benefit of coming with all sorts of software and other goodies. Still, the BoXeR system offered certain advantages and was considerably less expensive than an Odyssey PPC 1200 from Randomize.

As to the BoXeR, I had in fact configured a system to my liking using their online configurator. I'd selected an '060 @66Mhz system with 128MB of RAM, a 40X CD-ROM, 4GB drive and a PicassoIV in addition to all the basic options. The system as configured would set me back $2,400+. Yes, that's a lot of cash for a 66Mhz machine, but a good price for such a powerful Amiga. So far so good. The whole online configurator is a major step forward for Amiga systems merchants. I was in fact ready to place my order right from the website, but a couple things stopped me and encouraged my call to AntiGravity.

For one, I wanted to find out if they were really close to their anticipated May 15th shipping date. For another, I saw nothing about a money-back guarantee.

I called and spoke with Dan Lutz, the owner. This is perhaps not surprising when dealing with Amiga businesses. :> Anyway, the first bad news was that they were nowhere close to their May 15th shipping date. I called just a few days before May 15th and as yet they hadn't even received the first boards. I'd like to thank Dan for his honesty on this. As it turns out, the odds were strong that AntiGravity would not achieve full-scale production until late June, so there'd be a very long stretch between making the order and actually getting the machine.

The second bad thing was even worse -- there was no money-back guarantee. Dan stated that originally they had gone with an 'all sales are final' policy, but now had gone to a ten-day period during which you could send the machine back for store credit. Obviously, a nicely-loaded BoXeR equals a butt-ton of store credit. Chances are that most Amigans would have trouble finding a way to spend such an amount.

Well, this was the deal-breaker. I just couldn't allow myself to spend that much money on a system that had never even been tested for compatibility. AntiGravity had been unable to test the BoXeR since at that time they didn't have one to test. We know the BoXeR has been *designed* for 100% Amiga compatibility; designing for such a goal is one thing, *but demonstrating that* *it actually works* is another.

So there you have it. I still have but one Amiga. The beauty of my Amiga is that it certainly will take the finest G3/G4 upgrade cards, should they ever materialize. This was (and still is) a concern with the BoXeR, which requires a 68K CPU in addition to any PPC add-on, rather than offering the option of a PPC-only approach.

I'm happy to report that I had a nice chat with Dan and that it seems many Amigans were in fact willing to take the chance on a BoXeR system. Dan also stated that early beta units would be sent out to various Amiga mags for review. I decided to wait for those reviews, preferring to lose $300 on a sure thing rather than risk losing $2,400 on a preorder gamble. At this point I'm not certain I will order a BoXeR. Money I'd saved for the BoXeR went into upgrading my PC, and there is still the matter of NLE gear, probably for the PC, and later in the year a G3 or G4 accelerator for the A4KT. That's a lot of money, and the BoXeR will probably get squeezed out. Yes, I'm thinking out loud, here. ;> But it does demonstrate that there are certain junctures in time where, with a given set of resources, you can do certain things, but if you don't do them at that moment then time and tide may make it impossible to ever do them again. I'm sure we've all encountered several such junctures in our lives.

Here's hoping the BoXeR machines actually appear and are a success. I'd like to mull over this option again someday..................

ToC

Open Letter to the Community - May 1999

April was a very busy month for Amiga with much activity and good progress. I received over 1200 emails from people around the world, I met with key representatives of the Amiga community in Germany and the U.K, we added to our executive staff, we established relationships with key technology partners, and we finalized our 1999 product plans.

The amount of emails I received from the Amiga community has been overwhelming. Most of them were emails of support and encouragement while many others gave me suggestions and input on technology and products. These emails have been wonderful. They are uplifting, insightful, interesting, and fun to read. People in this community have a great personality. Many were short emails of encouragement but just as many went on for several pages listing insights, suggestions, and opinions. Thank you very much for your emails of support. They have been tremendously encouraging to the Amiga executive team and me. There were, of course, also some emails sent by Amigans who are frustrated by the situation. These emails were also valuable in giving me insight into the mistakes of the past so that I could avoid them as we press toward the future. Please keep the emails coming.

I apologize for not responding to all of the email sent to me. I have personally responded to over 600 emails but was unable to keep up with the volumes. I want to assure you that I read every email sent to me and that they play an important role in defining our future plans. I will continue to respond to as many emails as possible on a personal basis. This brings me to the main subject of this month's letter: communication. It is important that we set up an effective process for communicating with the Amiga community. Emails and requests for meetings are overwhelming Amiga executives at this time. This volume of communication is very encouraging but I am concerned that we can't personally respond to every one of them and it will become frustrating to the community.

We are working on plans to improve communications between Amiga and the community. These plans will consist of multiple programs including: the current executive update, an email response team, a new Amiga Advisory Council, polls on future product features, better monthly user group communication, and improved communication to the Amiga press. Detailed information on all of these programs will be posted on our web site in the next several weeks. In addition to keeping the community up to date on Amiga activities, the main goal of these programs is to involve the community in setting future Amiga plans. All of us need to work on this together to make sure we are setting plans that will help the community and allow Amiga to drive the next computing revolution.

One of the planned communications programs is a new "Amiga Advisory Council or AAC. The idea for this program came from my discussions with people in the Amiga community. It is difficult to get thousands of people involved in our planning process so we need to establish a more manageable forum. The plan is to set up an advisory council consisting of people that are viewed as leaders in the Amiga community. Members of this council will be "elected by the Amiga community. We are currently working on the details of the "election process. This council must represent all major constituencies of the Amiga community so that we can get a full set of concerns and inputs regarding future Amiga plans. We will set-up special message boards, email lists, and meetings allowing the AAC to communicate effectively. Information on AAC meetings and decisions will be communicated to the Amiga community. Keep watching our web site for updates on this program. We will also make sure information gets published to Amiga magazines and user groups.

In late April I traveled to Germany and the U.K. to meet with representatives and leaders of the Amiga community to discuss Amiga's future plans and get the community's help in setting these plans. I apologize to the people that did not have the opportunity to participate in these meetings but I had to keep the meetings to a manageable size. There were about 30 to 40 people in each country representing developers, dealers, distributors, user groups, and press. I think that these meetings were very informative and productive. They will allow me to optimize our future plans while taking the requirements of the Amiga community into account. To give you an example, we spent a considerable amount of time talking about how to bridge the community from the current Amiga platform to the next generation. The current Amiga platform has several years of useful life remaining but people are not investing in it because it is dated and the next generation is around the corner. One suggestion is to port the next generation AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) so that it runs on a current Amiga configured with a Power PC expansion card. This would not be an optimum configuration but it would extend the life of current PowerPC Amigas. We are looking into this possibility and will keep you updated.

On a personal note, I had a wonderful time in Germany and the U.K. The trip was both productive and very enjoyable. The trip was packed with excellent food and good people. I really enjoyed meeting with people from the Amiga community. After six years of working with executives in the PC industry, it is a breath of fresh air to work with people that have so much passion and enthusiasm about what they believe in. I especially enjoyed the extended conversations in the bars and pubs. These tended to get even more passionate and creative. To those of you who participated in the events, I thank you for making my trip both productive and enjoyable. In case you are curious, the most challenging part of my trip was sitting still while Petro drove me on the autobahn at 240 km/hour. I thank god for solid and stable German automobiles and good German beer.

Before I end this letter I would like to cover a few more topics that came up frequently in emails sent to me. First, I would like to clarify our hardware product plans. Amiga is planning to come out with a next generation multimedia computer in late Q4 of the year. This computer will have a unique architecture, a great operating system, awesome 3D gaming performance, and advanced multimedia features. I am confident that this computer will meet your expectations for a great next generation Amiga. Unfortunately, we can't disclose details of the new computer yet since we are under non-disclosure agreements with our technology partners. We also need to be careful about alerting our competition to our plans. One thing I can say is that the technology partners we are working with are extremely excited about our direction and technology. There are Amigans in all major technology companies and they are eager to support us in driving a new computer revolution. These partners include some major technology and component companies in the computer industry. We should be ready to disclose more at the World of Amiga and AmiWest shows in July.

The new Amiga multimedia computer will also support a home networked "information appliance environment that will allow networked devices throughout the house access to the power and features of this computer. I need to clarify the term "information appliances which is becoming a popular term in the computer industry. "Information appliances are not digital toasters, refrigerators, and ovens with LCD displays. They are devices such as wireless LCD tablets, Internet terminals, game machines, and digital set-top boxes. These devices will all be connected together through a single network and will be integrated into a single comprehensive operating environment. This is the reason why we use the term "operating environment, or OE, to describe our new software rather than operating system. Our software is much more than the underlying operating system.

In addition to the full multimedia computer described above, Amiga will also develop reference designs for a variety of "information appliance companion devices such as wireless LCD tablets. Our goal is to enable a full home computing environment rather than just a computer. We will encourage others to develop and ship Amiga-compatible computers and information appliances. To help clarify our plans to the Amiga community, we are releasing our initial product concept to the Amiga press to publish in the next issues. I hope this helps clarify our product plans. We will continue to disclose details as they become available and as is appropriate.

The second topic that I would like to cover is Amiga support for developers. The Amiga development community is important to us and we will be taking an active role in support Amiga developers. We are evaluating plans for financial support as well as in-depth technical support. We will communicate more about this plan within 60 to 90 days when we also start releasing more technical information for developers.

I have also updated the "major activities" sub-section under the "executive update" section on our web site. This will give you some more detail on the status of Amiga programs so I encourage you to read it. We have also added a Monthly Questions and Answers web page to the "executive update" section. This page will answer the top questions asked in emails sent to me.

In closing I would like to say that I am more excited then ever about the opportunities for Amiga and the Amiga community. It has been a long wait but the Amiga community is still the greatest community in the computer industry and the time is ideal for a new revolutionary architecture and platform. I will keep you posted on our progress and promise to disclose as more details as soon as possible and appropriate.

Sincerely,                              executive@amiga.com
Jim Collas                              jim.collas@amiga.com
President, Amiga                        http://www.amiga.com

ToC

Update on Major Activities - May 1999

Operations/Planning:

1) We are looking in San Diego to move out of the Gateway building into a separate Amiga building in order to accommodate the expansion in Amiga's San Diego staff.

New Staff:

1) We hired Dr. Rick LeFaivre as our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Sr. VP of advanced technology. Dr. LeFaivre is a senior technology executive who has worked for Apple, Silicon Graphics, Sun, and Inprise. See the associated Amiga website news release for more information.

2) We hired Tom Schmidt as our Chief Operating Officer (COO). Tom Schmidt is an experienced senior executive from Allied Signal, which is a $30 billion corporation. See the associated Amiga website news release for more information.

3) Several weeks ago, we placed Amiga employment ads in major newspapers and have a significant amount of highly qualified leads that we are reviewing.

4) We have hired a full time recruiter to coordinate our expanded recruiting efforts.

Major Development Programs:

1) O/S 3.5 - This product is being developed by Haage & Partner under contract from Amiga. The target release date is late July or early August. We are talking to Amiga hardware development companies to qualify hardware products targeted at the O/S 3.5 release. We plan to come out with a recommended hardware configuration and list of qualified Amiga hardware products for the O/S 3.5 release.

2) AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) - We are developing our next generation operating environment including operating system, user interface, and some revolutionary software structures to be disclosed at a later date. Target beta version is 3Q99 with final in late 4Q99. We are also looking at the possibility of porting this new AmigaSoftTM OE to the O/S 3.5 recommended hardware configurations. If we can accomplish this it will allow people to run the new OE on specific Amiga configurations with PowerPC boards.

3) Next generation hardware architecture - Being developed as a foundation for all next generation Amiga products. We are within several weeks of final component selection.

4) AmigaSoftTM development system - This is planned in 3Q99 along with the beta release of the new AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment.

5) Initial next generation computer - We are developing the next generation computer that will be used to launch the next generation systems architecture and operating environment. Target release date is late 4Q99. Please see this week's letter to the community for more information.

6) We have released concept drawings of the next generation Amiga products to the Amiga press.

Shows and Community Activities:

1) I visited Germany and the U.K. and met with representatives of the Amiga community. We held meetings with leaders of the Amiga community and discussed future Amiga plans.

2) We will sponsor and participate in the 1999 London World of Amiga show in late July.

3) We are also planning to support the AmiWest show in late July.

4) We are planning for the Cologne and Las Vegas shows in November.

5) Petro and Jim Von Holle are developing reseller, distributor, and magazine support programs to help the Amiga community.

6) We are also working on some user group support programs and improved communication programs.

ToC

Letter from Amiga's new CTO, Dr. Rick LeFaivre

May 26, 1999

Dear Amigans,

I thought it would be appropriate for me to "introduce" myself to the Amiga community, having joined the new Amiga in April as chief technology officer and senior VP of R&D. Just as Jim Collas is opening up communications channels as our new CEO, I'll try to communicate as openly as I can about Amiga's technology vision and directions.

First, a little about my background, and why I'm at Amiga. I wrote my first computer program (on an IBM 1620) in 1966, and got my first job as a (student) programmer in 1967. Over the past 32 years, I've been privileged to participate in the evolution of computing from the mainframe to the minicomputer to the personal computer to the Internet. I started my career as a computer science professor doing research in artificial intelligence and advanced programming environments (LISP, SmallTalk, and an AI language I developed in the early 70's called FUZZY). I moved into industrial R&D in 1978, and over the years have directed R&D organizations at companies such as Tektronix, Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Silicon Graphics and Borland International (now Inprise). At Apple, where I oversaw advanced technology R&D, we pioneered technologies such as QuickTime, PlainTalk, QuickTime-VR, and a host of other innovations that were subsequently copied by our friends at a large software company located in the Northwest corner of the United States (sigh). We also provided funding for the world's first Internet browser, and set up Apple's first Internet web site.

I spent most of my career as a UNIX user and, later, a Macintosh user. I managed to avoid having to use Microsoft DOS or Windows prior to Windows 95, but for the past several years have had the, uh, "pleasure" of being a Windows 95/98 user. I must confess that I have never been an Amiga user, but I was well aware of what was going on in the Amiga community as the Amiga and Video Toaster moved multimedia into the mainstream. People at Apple had a great respect for the Amiga, and the communities always seemed similar to me. I am rapidly learning more about the spirit of innovation that has been at the heart of the Amiga community since the first Amiga was shipped in the mid-80's.

Well, it is now 1999, and we find ourselves at the dawn of a new millennium, and the dawn of the information age. The personal computer, as represented by Windows PC's and Macintoshes, is now a mature product category, with little true innovation occurring in the PC industry. What's next? With the PC industry now in it's third decade, what will be the next big "S-curve" that will dominate the next 20 years of computing? Clearly, it will involve the emerging global information infrastructure, which is creating a fundamental transformation of business, communications and, indeed, human culture. In many ways, we are transitioning from the era of computing - building faster and faster computers that may, incidentally, be networked - to the era of communications, with powerful ubiquitous communications networks that connect a wide variety of computing devices.

We at Amiga feel that unleashing the full power of this emerging information infrastructure requires much more than a PC with a browser plugged into the Internet. What is needed is a complete home computing environment that ties together powerful multimedia convergence computers with easy-to-use information appliances, all transparently accessing content and services on the Internet. As Jim has told you, our vision and mission is to make computers a natural part of everyday life by creating an industry-standard systems architecture and operating environment for this new world. In essence, we want to redefine the home computing experience for the 21st Century, combining awesome multimedia, transparent networking and Internet access, and a user experience that makes a computer or information appliance as easy to use as... a toaster!

It's a very exciting time as the spirit of the Amiga starts building again. Personally, I'm thrilled to be a part of the new Amiga team, working with Jim, Petro, Jeff Schindler, Allan Havemose, and the other top people who are being attracted to this opportunity. I look forward to sharing more about our vision, technologies and products in the months to come. Stay tuned...

Rick LeFaivre
CTO and SVP, R&D
Amiga, Inc.

ToC

Post Game Analysis by Dr. Rick

Subject: Re: Letter from Amiga's LeFaivre
From: Rick LeFaivre (rickl@amiga.com)
Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 21:15:45 GMT

Since the message from JFW was posted to a public bulletin board, I thought it would be appropriate to post my reply back to him. As I say in the following note, I know it is very, very frustrating that we can't yet put out details on what we're doing. We have technology partners who are not yet ready to go public, intellectual property filings to make, and competitive reasons to not disclose specifics prematurely. However, I can say that I wouldn't have joined the new Amiga if I didn't think it was going to resurrect the spirit of the old Amiga. As I said at the end of my initial letter to the community, stay tuned ...

Rick

=========================================
Dr. Rick LeFaivre, CTO, Amiga Inc.
E-mail:  rickl@amiga.com
Voice:  619-799-2518   FAX: 619-799-3425
=========================================

From: LeFaivre, Rick
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 1:46 PM
To: 'jwiede@biff.com'

Saw your recent posting. Always good to get constructive criticism. Of course, you're correct that my "introductory" letter was high-level and buzzwordy. We simply can't say a lot yet about what is being worked on; I know how frustrating this is, but it's a competitive market out there, we're filing for some IP protection, etc.

The "information appliance" thing is already being overworked, but it will, in fact, be the next big evolution of computing and the Internet. PC's and Macs won't go away, but we're reaching an interesting time when the general-purpose PC platform is maturing, and new kinds of devices will start to appear, especially in the home market. This is where the new Amiga is focusing. I mentioned "multimedia convergence computers" in the same phrase as "information appliances," because many people equate "info appliance" with handheld PDA, and we feel that there will be very high powered multimedia appliances as well -- I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea that we're just looking at PDA's.

Thanks for caring.

Rick

ToC

Let My People Go?

Terry Hover (thover@nwamiga.org):

Not that this list is short of reading material, but the AmigaUniverse site (http://www.amigauniverse.co.uk/index.shtml) has some comments by Fleecy that are worth a read or two: http://www.amigauniverse.co.uk/columns/fleecy/jun99.html

Clipped from the Fleecy Moss's AmigaUniverse editorial:

The history of the past twenty years shows us that allowing this to be done by techies is a monumental mistake. Techies function best behind the scenes, providing the foundation, mechanisms and tools but that is also where they should be kept. The Amiga Inc website is loaded with jobs opportunities for people versed in every technology under the sun, but where are the jobs for the people who will define, build and evangelise the vision. Vision leads, and technology follows, is an old adage, but one that has been ignored by the computing industry as the techies were able to take control, via "professional language", technobabble and an egomaniacal superiority complex. As a result, twenty years on, we have a technical solution but we have no "human" solution. I really hope that Amiga won't make the same mistake.

As far as I can tell, the Amiga marketing department at the moment is two people, Jim Von Holle, and Bill McEwen. I don't know Jim, but we all know Bill, and we know the rich talent and passion that he brings (as well as a nice set of frocks). What I want to see now are more names under the marketing department, ideas coming out from them, news of contacts and partners being sought, product concepts and designs being pushed down to the tech boys for them to produce, the picture of an attractive, unresistable future being painted, evangelised and implanted into the minds of the human population to such a degree that the term "Amiga" becomes synonynous with how the future should be, in preparation for product launch.

Tim Trepanier (timt@netrover.com):

It looks to me that Jim Collas is planning to fill this need, of people with the vision needed to integrate AmigaSoft into human culture, with the AAC (Amiga Advisory Council). As their role is to scan the world of users, developers, retailers, etc.. for the ideas needed to make Amiga useful and integrated into the human way of life. It's important to note that these ideas don't come from techies but from the average user, the average retailer, the average person. The average person is the one were trying to sell the Amiga to, so the system must work best with them, making them the ones we must listen to most.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

That's the optimistic view of it. The other view is that it is just a lame marketing attempt to placate the community, taking as many of the opinion formers as possible and trapping them into endless meeting and structures where their egos grate against each other, instead of against Amiga Inc.

Remember the old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.....

Notice I am not saying that this IS what the AAC is for. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but with all the surveys, the emails, and McEwen there, Amiga Inc knows what the community wants. The classic HW and SW open source, and if their new OE is any good then we'll look at it, the same as we'll look at any other product.

Juan Carlos Marcos (jcmarcos@datavoice.es):

>The other view is that it is just a lame marketing attempt to
>placate the community

Sure, one of my biggest "fights against myself" is keep believing that there is something that puts some weight on the first statement. Let's say that I also find it hard to believe that "something is going on", as I can't see the difference from "nothing is going on", at least from my position. But I'm Amigan, I tend to believe. Mostly after all the mental readjustment I've done all these years. I'm ready for a new Amiga that is only a fraction of the awesome machine I dream of. I'd love to see a radical operating system like KOSH, an all new effort, from a blank sheet. Maybe what I want is BeOS, but I've never seen it further than some pretty screenshots. Dave says it already has some nice applications, so I assume it's not a laboratory beast.

If Allan Havemose comes up with some reworked UNIX (his comments on IRC about importing the BASH/TSCH shell from it scared me a lot), and a basic kernel with no support for applications further than a "hello world", then I'll be worried. This is no revolutionary multimedia computer. You know, it's not the first time I torture myself (and you) with my concerns, but the thing is that I wouldn't be so dubious if there was some feedback. Most of all, some contact from Amiga Inc. SHOULD be here, so we could all feel more secure.

>taking as many of the opinion formers as possible and trapping them
>into endless meeting and structures where their egos grate against
>each other, instead of against Amiga Inc.

This is perhaps the biggest harm in Amiga history: Excessive individualism. We have great individuals doing amazing things, but we are not used to share our work. Everyone is pulling attention it's own way, and the attitude of lots of our very developers to lock everyone out of their code is totally childish. There's no cooperation, maybe the Amiga in itself is all about individualism.

>Notice I am not saying that this IS what the AAC is for.

Fine for me. But I'm also tired to see endless repeating efforts for an "official" organisation, and I can't help but feel that all these ICOAs, JMSs, UGNs, whatever, are just people playing politics on the Amiga. Computer development is not about this, I fear we've always liked to look and feel like an organised group, while at our hearts we like to be individualised groups. I'd like someone to get offended by this, so I can get some sincere explanatioin. I must insist, I don't know what are this groups for. Even, for me, the term "community" is quite an artificial one. We've never been a community in the sense of joined efforts. The individual has always had the edge. The term "community" is an invention from this late age, when we desperately need to change our minds, and become one group. But this is impossible, it's against our very nature.

>The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but with all the surveys,
>the emails, and McEwen there, Amiga Inc. knows what the
>community wants.

I like Bill McEwen. I'm worried that, with Jim Von Holle, and Jeff and Petro going down his position at Amiga Inc., maybe good old Bill is somewhat out of the picture. Is it true that he is no longer under contract from Amiga Inc.?

>The classic HW and SW open source

*BIG* yes here. It's an utter unsustainable situation, the Real Amiga must be free! Stop screwing us!

>and if their new OE is any good then we'll look at it, the same as
>we'll look at any other product.

That's another thing that I fear: AmigaSoft not being as interesting as to make all of us push forward with it. Without each and every Amigan (say community if you wish, it formally is), AmigaSoft is dead, it's just another guy raising his hand in the air with a CD-ROM and shouting "this is the Next Big Thing (TM)". Useless, pathetic. Unless it really means a new platform (and I mean at least as much as BeOS, which has years of advantage), it will be just another insignificant failed project in the computer history. I'd like to ask a lot of technical questions about it, as much as we can talk about KOSH, the new G3 cards and emulated AmigaOS, battle about ColdFire's chances... At least it keeps me going on. All this complete silence about development makes me fear that one day will come when Allan finally comes up with HIS creature, and we don't like it because we don't understand it because we know nothing about it. I don't want purpose made "open letters to the community" that supposedly make me feel better, I want some technical feedback. I don't care a damn what brilliant CEO we have this week, I want ACTION, I'm tired of all kind of organizational efforts over this dead thing we have in our hands.

Someone come over me with an ELECTRO SHOCK!

Dave Haynie (dhaynie@jersey.net):

>... just a lame marketing attempt to placate the community

Of course. However, you need to put some prespective on things. I usually expect that people making decisions do them out of both good intentions and, certainly, rational self interest. Naturally, stupid people make stupid decisions, but as Collas has so far demonstrated some real understanding of the issues, we can't bet on that. Thus, the only logical conclusion is that this is the real deal. After all, if you're not actually interested in maintaining the Amiga, market and community, why even bother with a facade?

>Let's say that I also find it hard to believe that "something is going
>on", as I can't see the difference from "nothing is going on", at least
>from my position.

None of us can see direct evidence of "something's going on", and sure, it's damn frustrating. It's also why, if you need or want a better or worse feeling (eg, a more focused guesstimate of what's really happening), you need to don the old Deerstalker and read between as many lines as come your way.

>But I'm Amigan, I tend to believe. Mostly after all the mental
>readjustment I've done all these years.

I think we've all had to do a little mental adjustment. Hope and distrust run high, so does a certain amount of doublethink amoung the "religious caste" in the Amiga community.

>I'm ready for a new Amiga that is only a fraction of the awesome
>machine I dream of.

With years in the business, I'm not expecting another surprise. And yet, that doesn't mean there can't be something better that's very nice, interesting, and even well supported by Amiga [the company]. I really don't expect to see anything like the Amiga -- that much new ground all in one package -- to come along again in my lifetime (well, if they get that machine-stored intelligence going in the next 50 years or so, or high octane youth drugs, I'll change my mind -- maybe even literally). That doesn't mean you can't find something that's cool and fun.

For example: the PalmOS. I just got a Palm V (it'll be up to 8MB as soon as the parts arrive), and it's immediately clear why the PalmOS is so much better than WindowsCE for this kind of thing. Developing an app for the Palm is actually quite interesting. With everything this small, it's back to the garage -- a one-person company can develop lots of little, narrowcasted apps (I'm horribly tempted to write a few things for it, to support photography-in-the-field, camera-collecting activities, music composition on the bus, etc) with little effort.

This is exactly a foundation stone of what I have been pushing for KOSH. Windows development is such a large-scale thing these days, so many bad APIs, so much work to deliver an app, that you need large companies with many programmers. The prize is big, too, due to the Windows market, but wrought with competition, the worst from Microsoft itself, if they dig your particular market this week. Basically, all of this leads to two things that benefit Microsoft: only a fairly large company can deliver a mainstream Windows product (BENEFIT: large companies are far more conservative than small ones), and porting to another OS is very difficut (BENEFIT: few apps move to other OSs; the amount of work needed since Windows code can't be reused, and the fact you need to hire Windows experts to wade through this stuff, keep Windows supporters loyal to MS).

>I'd love to see a radical operating system like KOSH, an all new
>effort, from a blank sheet.

Yup. But the real trick is deliver a platform that's so easy to develop for, small companies can deliver something that'll compete. PalmOS does this by way-undercutting the desktop -- things that fit in my pocket today aren't expected to do the same job as things that run on my fancy desktop machine. For a new OS that may intersect with the desktop market, the apps won't be so simple, but the development needs to be orders of magnitude easier than Windows, or enabled in some special way to beat Windows in a niche.

>Maybe what I want is BeOS, but I've never seen it further than some
>pretty screenshots. Dave says it already has some nice applications,
>so I assume it's not a laboratory beast.

Most of the major computer audio/MIDI companies are developing for BeOS. At least part of the reason for this is that Microsoft has so long neglected audio/MIDI support on Windows (it's there, but it sucks), that BeOS can deliver a very significant performance advantage on identical hardware. The other thing is that, especially at the high end, music software is a workstation-like application. By that, I mean that computers are set up for the specific purpose of running audio tools, much in the same way someone would set up a Video Toaster machine on the Amiga. The OS Just Doesn't Matter. And the nice thing is that, while BeOS could well be the audio platform of choice in the next year or two, it's not really "multimedia only" -- pretty much anything on it is far easier to write than it is for Windows. So you can get basic office tools these days, maybe a bit more at the Amiga level than the PC level. Then again, maybe not -- people think MS-Word is a "pro quality" wordprocessor, when in fact it's useless beyond small papers and memos. So who knows.

In any case, any dedicated market is a good tractor for peripheral apps. When you put in PCs with even one job, you ultimately want everyday apps on the same PC. Be, of course, knows this -- but being clever, they have stressed the Multimedia side of things, so no developers will expect them to go head-to-head against Microsoft. Sun knows this very well: first WABI, then Java, have been at least partially directed at the idea of making everyday, ordinary apps available for Sun workstations at PC prices.

>If Allan Havemose comes up with some reworked UNIX (his
>comments on IRC about importing the BASH/TSCH shell from it
>scared me a lot),

Using a UNIX shell is a no-brainer these days if you have a POSIX module in your OS. This is what Be did. It makes sense for many reasons, but it's hardly the same thing as "some reworked UNIX". The point of POSIX is basically just this: POSIX defines a standard UNIX-like API, but it doesn't require anything even remotely like UNIX hidden down below. Windows NT, BeOS, QNX, and others offer POSIX layers as standard, other OSs let you bolt on something pretty close. This lets you port all of the GNU shell tools, for example, without much work.

And while a POSIX shell with all the GNU shell tools would make the CLI very different than today's Amiga shell, that's not necessarily a bad thing. For one, all that work is done. Thus freeing up Dr. Allan's team to do the work that only they can do. Then there's the fact that in a proper GUI-based OS, the shell is only necessary to advanced users. You'll probably find that at least 50% of the advanced users around prefer one of the UNIX shells and the basic UNIX commands. I certainly have most of the ported GNU tools on my Amigas (and on Windows, and NT, and Liunx, and OS/2, and BeOS). Which is another factor: the shell becomes a fairly standard thing, based on what's clearly the best tradition for shell tools: UNIX.

>and a basic kernel with no support for applications further than a
>"hello world"

That's the QNX kernel, all right. But it's not a kernel's job to do anything beyond that. That's the other 99% of the operating system. And one would expect, what Allan and the boys bring to the party.

> This is no revolutionary multimedia computer.

Well, that, we don't know. You do need the right kernel to enable Amiga-like-Multimedia. You have this in AmigaOS's Exec, you have this in the BeOS kernel, you don't have this yet in most any UNIX kernel or anything-Windows. Shell and shell tools are entirely unrelated -- they don't enter into the MM picture at all, it's a totally separate subsystem.

The real AmigaOS part, what you can't get on QNX today, what you can't get in shell tools today, that's what will make whatever difference is made here. That's presumably where the Amiga heritage enters in, and what Dr. Allan is hiring for. It's also what isn't being talked about in any detail yet.

>This is perhaps the biggest harm in Amiga history: Excessive
>individualism. We have great individuals doing amazing things, but
>we are not used to share our work.

Yup. That's the problem I wanted to solve with the Industry Council idea. Too many Amiga factions/companies/individuals in-fighting, re-inventing the same wheel, etc. This happens much less on Windows (as a percentage, anyway), because of the force of Microsoft: they're the dictator, they make enough of the basic technology that most others don't bother to try, and most companies are more in fear of Microsoft entering their market than of competition with someone else. You can't fight a fragmented battle against a unified enemy, even with better technology/ideas/parties/etc.

>>Notice I am not saying that this IS what the AAC is for.

>Fine for me. But I'm also tired to see endless repeating efforts for an
>"official" organisation, and I can't help but feel that all these ICOAs,
>JMSs, UGNs, whatever, are just people playing politics on the Amiga.

That's certainly not where some of these groups came from, but I definitely see the organizations factionalizing. This is hard to avoid. For example, I helped start up ICOA and JMS, two different ideas for two different purposes, open to all. But then something like UGN comes along, gets Gateway's ear, and frightens the folks in these others into thinking (perhaps rightly so) they're now magically made second class. Unfortunately, I didn't have a solution for that, so I didn't offer one. While I try to support any reasonable efforts (which is why you all have this direct line to me here -- Gary et. al. have kept this place reasonable, and if I don't let ideas out, I get nuts). JMS wasn't even supposed to be about politics, but really just a place to talk about new ideas. Gio keeps this faith better than anyone, but if we all kept to these goals, rather than playing power games, you'd have that 1000-fold.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

>... I wouldn't be so dubious if there was some feedback. Most of all,
>some contact from Amiga Inc. SHOULD be here, so we could all
>feel more secure.

The issue as I see it is this, and my article will be about this is as follows:

1 - The Amiga community belongs to the classic Amiga
2 - the classic Amiga is of little interest to AInc
3 - AInc is a technology company with plans of its own
4 - AInc would like a community on its new product line
5 - The Amiga community wants a real advance

So we have a company that bought the Amiga name but which can do with it what it wants. We have a community which has tried several times to take control of its own destiny and move along, but which has always failed because we do not have the one thing we need, ownership of the classic product. For AInc to try to adopt or shoehorn the existing community into their new product line is just plain wrong. It will garner a community based upon its features and appeal. Many from the Amiga community may move to this community, and if we can influence the development, or provide feedback and help, then fine, but in exchange we want the classic Amiga to be given the chance it never got, to see whether it could truly become what we always thought it could, and the best forum for that is open source at the moment.

I think the AAC is to be welcomed, but we will see the true commitment of AInc when we find out what it's funding will be, what influence it will have and ultimately, if any of its ideas turn up in product. As I said in my article, if they are to triumph, as opposed to merely succeeding, then they need some revolutionary ideas, structures, and people. The AAC *could* be the first.

>I like Bill McEwen. I'm worried that, with Jim Von Holle, and Jeff
>and Petro going down his position at Amiga Inc., maybe good old
>Bill is somewhat out of the picture. Is it true that he is no longer
>under contract from Amiga Inc.?

When I spoke to him yesterday he was still under contract, and looking forwards to continuing to be so. He is a smart, fun guy, and I hope Collas begins to use him for a lot more than just secretarial work. Especially given some of the other appointments.

>That's another thing that I fear: AmigaSoft not being as interesting
>as to make all of us push forward with it. ... I don't care a damn
>what brilliant CEO we have this week, I want ACTION, I'm tired of
>all kind of organizational efforts over this dead thing we have in our
>hands.

Amen - there is a time for talking and a time for doing. For AInc, they are 2 years over the line.

Do give Collas a chance though....he has a lot of potential, but what he is trying to do requires more than one man, and that's where I fear. Coming out of the Gateway swamp of corporate slime, he has to stop seeing with political eyes and see with the eyes of a revolutionary. The only person I see there who can help him is McEwen at the moment.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

>After all, if you're not actually interested in maintaining the Amiga,
>market and community, why even bother with a facade?

That's the $64,000 question, isn't it? Whether for good or bad reasons, I do welcome the AAC. It is something Bill and I pushed for a long time, and Gio has been insistent on it for far longer. My fear is that people get an ego boost being put on it, and then end up being patsies as AInc follows its own agenda, and the community gets yanked along one more time. But time will tell. Let's see just how serious they are.

>I think we've all had to do a little mental adjustment. Hope and
>distrust run high, so does a certain amount of doublethink amoung
>the "religious caste" in the Amiga community.

A very good analogy. Sometimes I think the Amiga community has become too religious in that it is always looking for a saviour, when it really should stop believing in others and believe in itself. A concerted campaign to get the classic open sourced could help us mature to a new plane, instead of constantly hanging on the words of owners.

greenboy (greenboy@bigsky.net):

Amiga Inc SHOULD follow its own agenda. If Amiga Inc wants to proceed to best effect, however, their agenda needs to have something in common with others' agendas . Also understandable and natural, that people get ego boost from being publicly associated with a body such as the AAC. That initial reward will hopefully will be balanced by a knowledge of the responsibilities such a position truly entails.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

Of course AInc should follow its own agenda. The issue has always been whether that agenda and the agenda of the community coincide. Many people seem intent to blindly trust and follow any tom, dick or sarah that owns the rights to the name "Amiga". If they TRULY want the help of the commuity and intend to involve it heavily then fine. If they are just pulling us along to sell us their new product line then that is something different.

greenboy (greenboy@bigsky.net):

What is in it for Amiga Inc to go to the expense of open-sourcing the Old Amiga? If in this fashion efforts to kickstart the classic marketplace were successful, Amiga Inc would be partially competing against what was once their own dearly-bought intellectual property. Not to mention the efforts and energy that might be siphoned away from AmiQNX third-party development.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

Not at all. The cost is minimal. The benefit is that its claims of valuing the community will be seen as being real. They also can open source it in such a way that it is free to individual users but that for any commercial usage, they can negotiate a licence. Also, who is to say that their QNX OE will be a success, or that QNX could go bust, or be purchased by MS, or anything else. With a vibrant AmigaOS being developed and ported, perhaps with HW being developed for it, then AInc would always have a back door. Ask any company why they have open sourced.

There is also a minimal chance of competition. AInc are after the convergence mass markets. IF they can build a new platform, then they will take it, but that is much harder for them to do. Amiga users don't want simplified interfaces and convergence OEs - they want the Amiga that they have moved onwards.

Olaf Barthel (olsen-ta@sourcery.han.de):

As shown by other examples, going open source will prolong the life time of a product almost "indefinitely" (provided, of course, that the product is embraced by a community to attend to it). And by working with the existing 68k OS, I got the impression that there is still a lot of potential. Even "just" a switch to more modern development tools would help to move the OS forward (can you imagine that today, we're building this OS with tools that are 4-9 years old?). Whether an open source project will secure your future as a company is still an open question. It didn't seem to have worked for NetScape. Still, I reckon that if AmigaOS went open source, it might survive even Amiga, Inc.

greenboy (greenboy@bigsky.net):

And personally, I don't see it as entirely Amiga Inc's fault the classic market is a mess. They've been owner just over 2 years and two months ..., but the market has been in dire straits for far longer. Whatever missteps they have made, people involved with the Amiga for longer have made some incredible sapping blunders, and have suffered from inevitable tendencies that were in motion even before CBM made life nearly impossible.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

That is both very true and very false. There are many things that could have been both, both by Petro and by Gateway, many of which Torre, McEwen, Olaf, Dean and a great many others proposed that were just completely ignored, which could have made a huge difference. Yes the rot had set in much earlier, and it would have required something very special being done, but it could have been done.

Of course it is all a moot point now.

Olaf Barthel (olsen-ta@sourcery.han.de):

That pretty much sums it all up. I, too, always thought that with a bit more common sense applied (or with common sense applied in the first place), Amiga could have put the talent, the creativity and initiative of the Amiga community to good use. Instead, they considered themselves an up-start company with a (somewhat annoying) fan group attached to a brand name. And with that view, initiative doesn't win you any friends or is even appreciated, it just makes you look stupid. Today it's not a rewarding job to show initiative in the Amiga market: you try to do something, and there's no response. Sometimes you don't even get that far, you won't even make a shallow impact (if there is such a thing). Perhaps this is just a personal experience, but I found that trying to take the initiative in the Amiga market now actually has the effect of "eroding" your credibility.

I also agree that the rot had set in much earlier. This very platform has been in stagnation for more than six years. A former Commodore software engineer said to me that the decline started even earlier, back in 1991. It's just the combined effort of the developer and user communities that managed to keep the Amiga "alive". (If you want, try to compare this to other promising platforms, like the NeXT, which started life in the early 1990'ies and had a tremendous impact on the industry, in particular including the Amiga. Can you still buy the NeXT operating system today? How many new NeXT applications are published each month? Admittedly, NeXT has a different history and its assets are valued by the company that now owns them. But the point is, the Amiga is still very much alive in the same form as in the last days of Commodore.) Still, "alive" isn't "sound" and you didn't see much innovation this market for the past few years. In fact, I would be in big trouble would I have to name any real innovation (question: can you?). The Amiga as we know it has become a "stagnant pool". I still believe that Amiga, Inc. could have done *something* to move Amiga out of this state, they just didn't consider this worth the effort, ignoring the leverage effects and the overall impact this would have had on the developer and the user communities. A cardinal error. What happens now in the form of the OS 3.5 update shows that Amiga, Inc. has learned "something", but the level of integration into the "big picture" and the project constraints suggest that they haven't learned enough yet.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

It is a shame we never got to turn our original screenplay into the great film it could have been, friend Olaf.

My next month's article for Amigaverse, and hopefully my column for Owlnet if we get started is going to focus on WHY AInc should allow the classic to go open source. There may be elements in Amiga Inc against this, but Collas has a very open mind and places a high value on the community.

We should thus begin a concerted effort to get the classic OS and HW open sourced. We have already come so far, with AROS, UAE - many respected people have proposed, and implemented major improvements. Last year, much was talked about in private circles that would have been a leap forward if it had come to fruition. On his own intiative, that hugely talented snow dwelling lump Trond gave me a peak at something that, whilst rough, got me excited the way the my first Amiga did.

Team Amiga, as the BIGGEST Amiga organisation should lead this movement, anyone nominated to the AAC should make this a priority.

Now don't get me wrong. I think the future AInc is adopting is a sound and sensible one. The pieces are there, but the whole is not, and humans are waiting for the digital information revolution to finally take off, and I hope the community will support, encourage and evangelise this. But in addition to what AInc are after, the community wants something else, - the chance to advance the platform around which the community itself is built in the direction of an individual workstation. If they lean too far our way, they will compromise their other markets. If they learn too far the other way, then what we want will be killed anyway, in anything that has the word Amiga on it anyway. They may shout about a single OS that scales from toilet rolls to planetary computers but when the reality of their customers requirements hits them, they will start to see the word "compromise" featuring heavily in corporate emails. The OE that is their big idea is already here - it is the open standards of TCP/IP, RPC, Corba, DCOM, HAVi, and the bridges that will go up between them before sense rears its head and all become common. It is in the numerous ways into that new environment that any OS, any device can find a home, and that includes the classic Amiga.

We should be creating reasoned argument, and proposals that encourages them to overcome their worries and fears and allows them to open source the classic OS. When fifty percent of the mails on this list are crap about some rabbit, you have to wonder about the commitment to the Amiga, and its ideals.

Come on TA, come on AAC, let's work to persuade AInc that the only sensible course of action for the classic is open source, of course!!!..

Mario Saitti (saittim@cytanet.com.cy):

This is 1999, Fleecy, maximum flexibility, maximum resuability, easy maintenance, rapid development are the keywords. None of those really apply to the current library model to 1999 standards.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

As I said before a library is just a container - there are many ways to develop the containers model - opendoc was a brave try, SOM, dynamic matrices, the object sea, dynamic structure metamorphosis. But to be honest, it doesn't really matter - what matters is if enough people want to try it, then is that not reason enough to try?

Mario Saitti (saittim@cytanet.com.cy):

How did you just make this statement and maintain that the current library model is still valid for substantial progress? Granted you can improve the current system, but you are tied to certain constraints.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

Then you take a step backwards, or a step sideways, or you punch a hole through the sidewalk and come out the other side. Most technical obstacles are surmountable. What isn't is lack of drive and motivation, and that is what exists at the moment. All we see is talk, talk, talk, but in the end, people will just sit here and hope AInc give them what they want....and then bitch anyway. Open sourcing the OS may turn into nothing, but it may be the oxygen that allows the fire to breath again. You have given some comments about why you think it won't work, but not why we shouldn't do it. That isn't enough for me to kick ten years of believing the Amiga vision into the dustbin and "believe" in the new AInc, especially when I know them. They have no visionary, and without one, they are just businessmen out to make a profit.

Mario Saitti (saittim@cytanet.com.cy):

I remember that well. You did inspire people, however I DID see Amiga Inc. personel saying that they didn't need Amiga developers. And now that attitude is being paid for.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

....well, not exactly paying for it, but I remember it well, and it made me sick, and I went out on more limbs than a bandy tree, but to no avail.

Fleecy Moss (fleecy@netreach.net):

>... what matters is if enough people want to try it, then is that not
>reason enough to try?

Mario Saitti (saittim@cytanet.com.cy):

Well putting it like that, I guess so;) I guess getting something done is a good enough excuse.

>All we see is talk, talk, talk, but in the end, people will just sit here
>and hope AInc give them what they want....and then bitch

True enough, I guess using the current model is the only way we will see any progress at all. Its all very well knowing that something better could be done, the issue is whether it would be done:( KOSH is a good example of this.

>Open sourcing the OS may turn into nothing, but it may be the
>oxygen that allows the fire to breath again. You have given some
>comments about why you think it won't work, but not why we
>shouldn't do it. That isn't enough for me

Not why it wouldn`t work, more why it wouldn't turn into the dream you are looking for. Although seeing things from your standpoint, I guess anything is better than the current situation.

>to kick ten years of believing the Amiga vision into the dustbin and
>"believe" in the new AInc, especially when I know them. They have
>no visionary, and without one, they are just businessmen out to
>make a profit.

Well 3.5 says enough on even Collas's vision (where is he from btw?). The entire affair shows a very distinct lack of realism. He should have intervened to make the project work. To ensure its success. A half hearted attempt is usually met with a less than half hearted response.

>> I DID see Amiga Inc personel saying that they didn`t need Amiga
>> developers. And now that attitude is being paid for.

> ....well, not exactly paying for it

You didn`t see the Collas remark about sponsoring development? How can that be construed as anything other than a complete smack in the face? Their ineptitude cost them the classic market, which in turn cost them their developer network for the new machines. I run more than one company, Fleecy. Just because one is failing, does not mean I will neglect my associates and partners. That is precisely what Gateway/Inc did. One may argue that Gateway did not recognise the asset of the Amiga developer community. That is no justification. Circumstance can and does change. If your holding a knife, you watch what your doing or you stab yourself in the foot. They know that situation pretty well now. Within a month they knew that a chance existed for a new Amiga system. They should have ensured the current network thrived, not left it to die.

ToC

On the current Amiga market situation

Robert J Williams" wrote:

I'm seriously thinking about moving to NewsRog but at the moment the lack of EMail support has put me off.

Steve Koren (srk@frii.com) writes:

It will be in there eventually.

The problem with doing it early on was that I wanted to do one thing well, instead of many things poorly (lord knows the Amiga was already neck deep in ultra-low functionality newsreaders). NR has a lot of features for dealing with usenet that can't be found in any other newsreader on any platform, as far as I know. If I had taken a lot of extra development time to integrate email from the beginning, it would have meant a tradeoff in the power of the usenet side of the application.

But I think you are right: there are reasons why having the two integrated is convenient, so it's on the list of things to do at some point. It may not be for a few more releases though; there are other things higher in the priority queue right now.

Frankly, it probably would have happened already by this point, but I have had to seriously cut back on the development schedule of NR due to piracy and other market concerns. Even software programmers need to eat :-).

One of the downsides of developing for a (nearly) nonexistent market is that it's really impossible to do more than garage-scale software development, which does limit the speed with which you can add functionality. I do wish full scale development was possible in the Amiga market; there's quite a lot of stuff that I'd love to do which just isn't possible currently.

- steve

See the NewsRog preview page at:

http://www.frii.com/~srk/ShadowWorks/Preview/NR.html

joe wrote:

I hate to ask this. But 1000 is such a depressingly HUGE number of pirated programs. How many of us registered? Are we past the point where it's even worth your trouble?....joe (*PROUDLY* registered)

Holger Kruse (kruse@iag.net) writes:

As a rule of thumb, really popular Amiga shareware software is usually registered somewhere between 1000 and 10000 times. I don't really want to disclose precise figures for Miami :).

As for being worth my trouble: sort of. Probably no problem for someone who writes and maintains software part-time, in addition to a day time job, but then users usually cannot expect frequent upgrades. For me it is somewhat different, because I basically develop Amiga shareware as a full-time job, so I need to support myself from revenues. That keeps getting more difficult with every year. If OS 3.5 does not help turn the situation around then 2000 may very well be the year when many shareware authors cannot continue further support.

 --
 Holger Kruse  @nordicglobal.com
                http://www.nordicglobal.com
                NO COMMERCIAL SOLICITATION !  

ToC

The CUCUG Section:

May General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins

The May 20, 1999 General meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers. President Lewis then opened the floor up for Questions and Answers.

The first question was, "Why is there a Microsoft?" That opened the flood gates.

After sufficient venting, the next question was about the newest Apple OS update. The question was, "Have any compatibility problems arisen with the release of OS 8.6?" Mac SIG Chairman Richard Rollins said there have been remarkably fewer bug reports with 8.6 than just about any other upgrade. Jim Huls confirmed that he's been using 8.6 for about a month and has had no crashes yet. Richard Rollins said he's been using it about a week with no problems. Richard said Jack Melby has also used OS 8.6 for a month or so with no crashes.

Someone asked about the claim that the upgrade improves battery life. Richard Rollins said that it is true and is accomplished through better resource management.

Kevin Hisel then related the monthly Amiga news update. Kevin said Amiga Inc. has hired a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) - Richard LeFaivre - and a COO (Chief Operating Officer) - Tom Schmidt. One suspicious member said it was beginning to sound a lot like the old Commodore - too many chiefs and not enough Indians, but Kevin assured him that Amiga Inc. is also hiring a technical staff as well.

Kevin brought in copies of Mr. Collas' latest Open Letter to the Amiga Community and Activity Update (just posted between the release of our May newsletter and our meeting). He also brought in a Monthly Question and Answer page from the Amiga web site and some concept drawings of what the new Amiga might look like. The word "iMac" was on the lips of a lot of people. We are still told to expect new hardware during the fourth quarter of 1999. The feeling however is that Amiga Inc. certainly is not developing products for the current user base.

Jim Lewis offered related information to the Amiga Inc. infatuation with "information appliances." He said he saw an interview of Phillipe Kahn, formerly the chief executive of Borland. Mr. Kahn is now working for Motorola and is very focused on information appliances. Jim said he admires Mr. Kahn's intelligence, saying "When he speaks, Jim Lewis listens."

The next news item came from John Lynn. John talked about the Newtek 4.3 update all on a single CD. John said it was a tremendous bargain. He also noted that Video Toaster NT is coming and will be priced at $1995 if you are a registered Toaster user, $2995 if you are not. John said this also should be of great interest to Toaster users.

Next, Don Shaffer said he has a few friends with iMacs who are basically rank beginners. He wondered aloud if it wouldn't be a good idea to start an iMac SIG? Richard Rollins was somewhat perplexed, as, he said, there's no difference between the iMac and any other Mac, but in the discussion that followed, it was determined that it might just be difference in perception. Don was encouraged to bring his friends in to a meeting as guests. With an eye to getting our word out locally, Ed Hadley brought up "Computers and You" on WILL radio. This is an afternoon program broadcast every third Thursday of the month. The program discusses general computer topics.

Ed also discussed the Mac repair situation in Champaign.

After the Question and Answer Session, the meeting relaxed into the social part of the evening. Richard Rollins, Kevin Hopkins, and a few others spent the rest of the evening trying to get Word 6 to work with OS 8.5.1 and OS 8.6. It was discovered that Word 6 would not work if the upgraded Operating System detected what it thought was a second monitor.

ToC

May Board Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins

The May meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Wednesday, May 25, 1999, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were Jim Lewis, Emil Cobb, Mike Latinovich, Richard Hall, Mark Landman, Richard Rollins, Kevin Hopkins, Jim Huls, and Kevin Hisel.

Jim Lewis: Jim said that he was a little disappointed by the turn out at the last meeting. However, he thought the Question and Answer Session was good.

Emil Cobb: Emil gave his attendance report, noting that we had two new guests. Emil said he had helped one guest, John Nine, with a QuickCam problem. It turned out he had a defective camera.

Mike Latinovich: Mike said he had no business to present.

Richard Hall: Rich gave his Treasurer's report, discussing our expenses and income sources. Rich presented a report comparing the month of May to the same period last year. Receipts are way down in that comparison.

Mark Landman: Mark dropped into the meeting, delivering some very disturbing news from the IRS. These are matters that have continued to fester for many years. The new finance team will have to be deal with this.

Richard Rollins: Richard related the activities at the last social meeting. He said we had discovered why Word 6 wouldn't run on Mac OS 8.5.1. One word - Microsoft. After an upgrade to OS 8.5.1 in April, Microsoft Word 6 refused to run. An uninstall and reinstall did not help. Richard then upgraded the system to OS 8.6. With that upgrade, Word 6 still refused to work, but the OS finally started delivering error messages, rather than just hanging. (A Force Quit could get you out, but previously you were not given any hint as to what went wrong.) Kevin Hopkins provided a clue he'd obtained from a web search on the problem. Another user had attributed the problem to a faulty video card driver. We shut off the video card in the machine concerned, yet the monitor remained active. So, we physically removed the video card. That done, Word 6 began to work. We attempted to attach the second monitor to the SVHS out on the machine, but just as soon as the OS detected the second monitor, Word 6 refused to work again.

The principle improvement to the OS from 8.1 to 8.5 and above was the recoding of the screen routines into native PowerPC code. Word 6 must have a problem with this improvement. One of the other Board members familiar with Microsoft products chided, "You might have an unlicensed user on that second monitor." Richard scoffed, "Brain dead programming strikes again."

Discussing other meeting activities, Richard said he had passed out copies of the OS 8.6 upgrade and the iCab browser. Richard had also distributed some modified DVD drivers.

Turning to future meetings, Richard said he'd talked to Ed Hadley about doing a demo and he has another person who may be willing to do a demonstration of Mathematica.

On more general matters, Richard noted that iMac sales were down in April. Apple stock is still up over 40. OS X Server is going out and OS 8.7 has been delivered to developers. Game titles for the Mac are coming out in droves, including Lucas Arts which has released Pod Racer, having once said they'd never write for the Mac again.

Returning to possible demonstrations for upcoming meetings, Richard said Mark Landman might do a demo of Corel. Richard is also trying to swing a review copy of Final Cut Pro.

Kevin Hopkins: Kevin delivered an updated copy of the database to Kevin Hisel, for his and the President's use. Kevin reported that membership applications are down.

Jim Huls: Jim reported that his wife has gotten a new job with evening hours, so he won't be able to make it to the meetings for a long time.

Jim also stated that the latest Star Wars movie "sucked bad." Others on the Board disagreed with his review.

Kevin Hisel: Kevin related an anecdote about the Quark CEO he read in Forbes. The officer was quoted as saying that "All customers are liars, thieves, and bastards." The statement was officially denied, but others have testified to the fact that it was indeed made. Kevin said that an 87% market share breeds a little contempt.

Kevin reported on some server problems the web site has been having and the inconveniences that this has caused. Kevin Hopkins attested to the latter.

Kevin discussed traffic on the web site.

Kevin reported on a copyright infringement problem he is having with another site.

Jim Lewis: Jim said we need to increase our Mac membership locally. We need to become more pro-active in our recruitment efforts. There was an extended discussion of our target market. We will be trying to craft a new flyer. President Lewis wanted it asked of the membership, "Does anyone with Desktop Publishing skills want to lend a hand?"

The Back Page:

The CUCUG is a not-for-profit corporation, originally organized in 1983 to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users. We've grown since then.

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Bresnan Meeting Center in the Champaign Park District Headquarters (398-2550). The Center is located at 706 Kenwood, 1/2 block south of the corner of Kenwood and John Street, in west Champaign. Kenwood is the fourth north-south street off of John as you are going west, after crossing Mattis. The Center is in the northwest corner of Centennial Park, northwest of Centennial High School.

Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.

Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by the postal service or email at the member's choice. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.

This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.

For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):

   President:            Jim Lewis           359-1342           NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com
   Vice-President:       Emil Cobb           398-0149            e-cobb@uiuc.edu
   Secretary/Editor:     Kevin Hopkins       356-5026               kh2@uiuc.edu
   Treasurer:            Richard Hall        344-8687            rjhall1@uiuc.edu
   Corporate Agent:      Jim Lewis           359-1342           NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com
   Advisor & Mac SIG:    Richard Rollins     469-2616
   Webmaster:            Kevin Hisel         406-948-1999           khisel @ cucug.org

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