The future of Amiga
 

what do people think about the possibiltiies?

When i read of the amigaone x1000 soon to be released a couple months ago i had hope rekindled in the community and software developers that are the heart of the Amiga. I was amazed by all work done to emmulate the amiga hardware and systems under winuae - so cool! I'm currnetly exploring the newer/older amigas and software that i never had a chance to years ago - while anticipating a rivial in OS development and hardware implementation only dreamed about in the early 90's - including opensource.

I think the article in the last cd issue 52 of amiga format regarding the future of amiga programming and community is very prescient. As well, the bloatedness, antifeatures, drm, of microsoft and Apple among other issues is driving me back to the amiga os.
I recently stumbled across the 7 sins of microsoft and a lecture at south by south west
with a message - program or be the user and the used. This is a very interesting and exciting time for the amiga.


I am enthusiatic and hopeful about the evolution of the amiga system and concept.

I think the possibility of an FPGA-based Amiga will make more sense than the X1000's Xena chip. That way it will run most Amiga software without need of an emulator. Even with the raw horsepower that PA-Semi's PPC chip offers, the X1000 will be hard-pressed to emulate some games at full-speed.

The only other option besides an FPGA would be to translate most of the functionality of the Amiga AGA chipset into shaders and run them on the graphics card. In the end I suspect both solutions will be adequately explored.

Check my sig. Recreating stuff on FPGA works, but I doubt that'll create a viable platform. Sure there is still a niche market, but that'll hardly attract people that are used to systems that have been 'alive' for the last 20 years. Just my 2 cents about the 'future of Amiga'.

I like your sig TCD. ;)

Thanks :D

To be honest, the amiga for me is a classic gaming platform and I use the original hardware (A1200, plus accelerator) to do this

Sure, I would like to see some new games made, that work on a stock A1200...

As much as I dislike how Microsoft dominate the computer Market and apple don't provide the things I need a new amiga would not provide anything different

Help!! I'm beeing assimilated.... Future Amiga Save me......

Hehe :D
Nah, it's cool if you're into new stuff really :) For me it just seems like none of those things will really take off and that they don't just 'join forces' confuses me as well. Still I wish all those projects the best, but I will be realistic and say that I won't buy any of them.

My opinion, and it's only an opinion, and therefore worthless, is that:

OS4 - is a nice progression of AmigaOS but is still still seriously lacking, eg. support for USB 2.0
SAM - the specs are too weak for what they cost, considering the system they are trying to replace
X1000 - looks like a powerful piece of hardware, but is no more an Amiga than a PowerMac G5
MorphOS - is another nice OS but it still doesn't quite "fill the gap"
Using old PPC Mac hardware - is a good move, all things considered, but feels like an cop-out as long as it lacks OS4 support

NatAmi - should be good "classic" compatible hardware, but by now OS 3.x has been patched and hacked so much that the software may not ever be able to deliver. This is the one I'm waiting for though, and maybe AROS will make it work.

Overall: too many different projects, pulling in too many directions. AmigaOS has become Linux for the retro enthusiast. Forget KDE vs. Gnome, it's MUI vs. ReAction, PPC vs. i386, Ambient vs. Workbench etc.

I'd like to see all flavours succeed, in some kind of compatible unity, but I think I'm being overly optimistic there.

Yeah Probably right about Natami perhabs that why Natami team havent ramped up production of hardware yet, cause the waiting for the software to catch up (mainly Aros). Since there isn't any way legally buy amiga os classic for an fpga computer. Ie Amiga forever is only a license to use amiga os in software emulation not hardware.

I think a lot of people interested in talk of new Amigas cling on to the idea that Amiga can be reborn somehow.I can't see why it needs to be but i do understand at least the desire for new hardware that runs all the software outside of emulation

A new Amiga wouldn't really feel like an Amiga anyway in the same way Atari isn't really Atari anymore and i do do struggle to see the point. And of course pc does everything as it is

I use my 3 pieces of real Amiga hardware (acelerated A1200 and 600 and a CD32 with MPEG) mostly for retrogaming and retroprogramming fun. And I like it that way.
In what future is concerned, I think AROS for intel machines has a chance. I'm using it now to work with something I can really call "Amiga" with the power of a 2 GHz Pentium 4 machine (my old PC). It's still too young, but I can see a potential there that somehow I miss in the other alternatives!

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I am with TheCyberDruid. The future of the Amiga is as a wonderful bit of nostalgia that people keep finding new and cool things to do with. I would rather see little bits and pieces added to classic hardware (thanks Jens!) than to cling to some sort of rebirth.

someone needs to take over production of video cards like nvidia etc and call them amiga, that way, the 'amiga' custom chips philosophy lives on. Push it forward with software that is produced to specifically take advantage of the 'new' video chips.

perhaps this may be the only way for anyone to survive in the intel dominated environment...

To me the future of the Amiga is in software. WinUAE and Aros in particular.

The Minimig is appreciated, and I'm looking forward to see the Natami and Clone A, but that's rather nostalgia than a viable alternative platform.

I agree with you as this pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.

Ssshhhh you might give someone too many ideas. ;)

I'm a classic machine lover (I can't get to like the concept of the new PPC Amigas), so in my humble opinion, the "future" for most Amigans is represented by machines like the NatAmi or Clone-A, which are actually pushing the original Amiga architecture outside its old limits. It will still be a niche product, but at least is something I can still call Amiga.

As for the _real_ future (one which can actually extend outside the limited Amiga enthusiasts group), they should just ditch the PPC architecture, and go for a low cost ARM-based idea (Project Denver + custom chipsets anyone?). Amiga was successful because it was a relatively cheap machine which was a lot more powerful than its competitors. If we can't get the "more powerful" side, we should at least aim for the "relatively cheap". Port AmigaOS4 on it, and start producing it for cheap as a hobbyist/business/internet oriented machine. Maybe that'd give new life to the Amiga name.

Most certainly, I can't see a 1500EUR machine being successful (*cough* X1000 *cough*).

That's just my two pennies' worth :D

Keep your eyes peeled for Project Denver, then ;)

Overly expensive fake amiga *cough* Commodore usa Amiga *cough* :D

For me, new implementations with the Amiga seem to come and go... some disappearing into a blackhole....

But one remains true to the dream and original - the classic Amiga's :)

Yes there is. OS 3.x is still on sale in Europe and USA.