Will you be throwing in the towel?

@flipper

Thanks flipper, you underline my point exactly.

@jahc

Its good to see you have the enthusiasm left, wish we could bottle it and give it to everyone else.

As you can see from some of the comments on here, some people are very near the brink of quitting the scene altogether. Its maybe not so noticable here, but if you look on other sites, or chat on IRC or as I do, run a usergroup, you'd notice that this is pretty much make or break. I know so many people who are just waiting for the April announcement. If its not what is expected, there will be a lot of prominent Classic Amiga users going elswhere.

@all

I hope that the more of you post in reply to my article, the more the powers that be, will realise that what I am saying is not just my view, but the view of everyone of us. We are their potential customers and their potential "sales/evangelist" people.

They really ought to start listening to us.
- Before its too late.

Never in the many years of using an Amiga and being an Amiga user and chatting to many in the community, have I seen what's left of the Amiga community (all 3,000) of us (rough guess) at such a low point.

The release of OS4 final should have heralded a renaissance for the Amiga platform but instead the opposite appears to have taken place and disillusionment seems have taken hold throughout the Amiga universe.

As users we can take a lot of credit for actually keeping what is left of this once great community ticking for as long as we have. We are in debt to some fantastic individuals and one man businesses, who have kept us going for so long, the IBrowse team, Airsoft, Jahc, Bean, and too many others to mention.

That being said however we are very much a rudderless ship due to lack of leadership from above. Not since the days of Jim Collas and the fledgling Amiga division under Gateway, have we had so much of a sniff of a vision, or possible money to back that vision.
When Jim Collas was at the helm, things felt like the Amiga platform once more had a direction and hope, not seen since the early days of the Amiga, when it?s creator, Jay Miner and the rest of the original Amiga team created what possibly was the best Operating System ever.

However, Gateway kicked out Jim Collas and closed down their fledgling Amiga divison. All was not lost, because shortly after, former Gateway employees, Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss somehow manged to cobble together enough money to buy out/License the required technology from Gateway to create yet another Amiga inc.

How we rejoiced back in those days, hope once more sprung eternal and we all thought that with the announcement of new hardware via Eyetech, and the Licensing of the OS to Hyperion Entertainment, that maybe, just maybe, things would finally take a turn for the better.

Fast forward 3-4 years and we are left with a rather depressing if not, sadly familiar, story.

True, we have a new Operating System, Amiga OS4, PPC, fast, lean, very nice and although, it still needs some bugs ironed out and some essential features still to be added. Its many times better than its OS3.9 predecessor.

Sadly, if not frustratingly, the vast majority of Amiga die hards find themselves with no hardware of any sort to run the latest evolution of Amiga OS.
Worse still, for those of us who were fortunate enough to somehow get Amiga PPC hardware to run Amiga OS4, we now find ourselves saying ?Where now??

Its all very nice having a nice OS4 PPC capable computer to use. But in all honesty what next? Where?s the next Amiga Game, Application, or Utility Release coming from? They are not exactly falling off the shelves at Amiga dealers (which you can now count on one hand ? Worldwide).

That?s not to belittle the likes of the people behind IBrowse , Hollywood, Audio Evolution, Wookiechat, Tunenet, DV player, on the contrary they are doing a remarkable effort. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so few done so much for so few?
When Jim Collas/Gateway were on the scene it would probably have been safe to assume that the Amiga community stood at around 20,000 to 50,000 users worldwide. Small, but probably just about enough to gain momentum had new hardware materialised there and then or shortly thereafter. Sadly, it didn't

Looking at the Amiga scene now and not just at this site, If we were to say that the total amount of Amiga users is no more than 3,000 worldwide - max, we would not be a million miles out.

So, who is to blame for this sad decline? Well, many would say that the fault lies at with the man at the top Bill McEwen. But that would be a bit unfair to say it all lies with him? there are other factors and other individuals as well.
The split between AOS and MOS was and remains very damaging and continues to kill if not hasten the departure of users on a daily if not, weekly basis.
Mistakes in the past such as the Eyetech not being able to buy enough boards at the right price and in sufficient quantities to re-ignite the brand was no help either.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and one shouldn?t be too disparaging of Amiga inc, they decided to concentrate on their AmigaDE product, because they thought that this may be the sure fire way to bring in the bacon that would allow them to re-launch the Amiga platform. Unfortunately, this strategy didn?t work out and sadly their strategy of licensing the OS and the hardware to third parties whilst at the time was the only option, meant that effectively the Amiga platform had no clear direction. Amiga inc took their eye off the ball. And it seems to have proved to be very damaging if not fatal.
The fact that Amiga inc has undergone more buy outs than MFI in the last 15 years and with who knows how many more still to come.
first it was Jim Collas, then Bill McEwen and Fleecy, next it was Garry Hare, then just Bill McEwen again. (Anyone know where Fleecy got to?)

What we have now it seems is that Amiga inc and Hyperion are locked in a legal dispute of some sort over the OS. Until this is sorted there is nothing, we, the users can do. Apart that is from voting with our feet, or cash as seems to be the case and leaving the platform altogether.

?It was the worse of times, it was the worse of times?

Of course, I know I am preaching to the converted, many of you already know what I am saying and have heard it many times before. But just trawling through the various Amiga sites of late, things, have never been worse.

A lot of people are pinning their hopes on the month of April and the expected announcement of new, affordable Amiga PPC hardware.
Hardware, which had better be available soon and running Amiga OS4, if not, I fear that before long, we?ll be down to a couple of hundred diehard Amigans throughout the world.

Amiga inc, Hyperion, ACube, Troika and the office pet should pull their fingers/paws out soon, because if not, there will be nothing left for them to argue over.

I am not trying to be depressive, I am hoping that this piece will serve as a reminder to the powers that be that time is indeed running out, if they don't act soon, then all I can say is..

Will the last Amiga user left please turn off the lights?

Mikey C

A big thank you to all those who listened and took part in the quiz.

Here are the points in reverse order.

Spot3AD 1/2 point
A1200 3 pts
SlayerDK 5 1/2 pts
Magic 6 pts
Valiant 9 pts
Monoxyde 10 pts
Rigo 18 1/2 pts

Congratulations to Rigo, he wins the Guru Meditation ?20 Euro e-voucher to spend at Guru Meditation.

See you all next month.

Monday 23rd of April. 20:30GMT
(because of BST)

What you need to get started.

On an Amiga.

Either Tune Net or AmigaAMP
via the streaming options on both (which differ) enter the URL http://www.amigans.net:8000

If there is a webcast occuring Audio will be heard upon connection. Note that broadband is highly recommended.

On a Windows PC

There are a plethora of streaming client software for the PC.
Use your software of choice (We recommend Winamp)

again, just enter the url: http://www.amigans.net:8000 and if

If there is a webcast occuring Audio will be heard upon connection. Note that broadband is highly recommended.




Some helpfull info:

If you have your mime type set up to look for .pls then use the following url.

http://amigans.net:8000/listen.pls

Amplifier can be used also for the streams.

@AJS

Nah, no chance, you'll know I'll forget!

@Atheist

Nope.

@svenof9

I said nice guy

And my MicroA1 is luverly

@svenof9

The bit about the A1's being buggy. That MicroA1 I got from Some nice bloke has never given me any trouble (touch wood)

@All

Cheers all, we have had some money in, thank you so much.

@all

Sorry, but although they are very cute, this subject belongs in free for all. We are not the RSPCA

I'll be moving this thread soon.

Fellow Amigans.

We got the required amount for next year's server space, but it looks like we need your help some more.

Our server provider has increased the cost for next year. This means that we are a whopping ?87 Euro's Short to guarantee next year's existance.

If 87 of you could just cough up ?1 euro each, we'd be most grateful

Many, Many thanks.

Mikey C
(on behalf of Amigans.net staff)

There, don't say I didn't bring it to your attention!

Let's see who's on the money.

@Raziel

Glad to know he's alive. Hope he gets some time to come back on here soon though.

Tune in to stand a chance of winning ?20 Euro e-voucher with Guru Meditation.

You will need:
1: TuneNet or AmigaAmp
2: WookieChat (other Amiga IRC clients available)
3: Tune in to http://www.amigans.net:8000 from 19:30GMT
4: Log into #amigans irc channel

For any help on achieving this, please post here.

Note: Winner MUST be a registered Amigans member.

@all

If you don't recieve a confirmation email within 24 hours then please
<B><A HREF="mailto:amigans.net@tesco.net">email us.</A></B>

And let us know.

Thanks

@svenof9

Yes, indeed, their inaction is killing what tiny little embers remain of this once great community.

What's left is so little, I wonder if its really worth our while any more.

Personally, IMHO the blame lies squarely at their feet.