Mike Battilana Interview 2019

[clusteruk]

[ Show youtube player ]


After a false start with my back injury we re organised and I hope this video lives up to promise.
One thing I ask, please watch from the beginning so you can understand Mike better and more about who he is.
I mention the coughing section removal but I left them in the video so this is uncut.
Thanks to all those who sent in the questions, some were duplicated.
Various links to my sites, channel, Kickstarter etc are at the bottom.
This was filmed on my Samsung Galaxy 9 with a few extras tools.

Introduction

00:12:00 Overview of Amiga history since late 90's to build context.

00:17:20 Red and Blue wars that I missed, which I believe caused a lot of the problems we have now ?

00:19:30 Discussion about the Gateway deal?

Light hearted ones

00:12:30 Which beer you prefer, as poster has promised to buy him one (or more) at Amiga34 in Germany.

00:24:00 Are you going to Las Vegas in August at Comm Vex?

00:25:30 Somebody did not want to ask a question due to my avatar LOL

00:26:10 Will amiga.com finally be for Amiga fans instead of trying to pawn off a snowman screen saver LOL

00:31:45 HI Michael thanks for supporting the Amiga platform when very few were .

00:32:35 How does it feel when specific parties (and many people on various forums) try to paint you as the (only) bad guy, for simply defending yourself in court?

Antagonistic Section

00:36:35 Who do you think you are? Response to answer “Is that the best you've got?“

00:40:00 What would your parents think of this?

00:42:50 Where do you get off?

00:43:10 Did you ever understand what Amiga Inc. tried to do the past 20+ years? If yes - what did they do?

Serious Questions for Michael

00:46:20 Thoughts on new clones coming out e.g. AmyITX, ReAmiga, Pauls A4000 board etc?

00:50:50 Does Cloanto support Fair Use when it come to Amiga media and material?

00:52:40 Where do you see Amiga in 5, 10, 25 year times, and what are your plans for the Amiga?

1:00:00 Any thoughts about expanding Amiga Forever to include MAC os8 emulation, Mac ppc emulation, and Atari ST emulation?

1:02:00 Given the recent (and not so recent) court / legal actions, is there any new development regarding the "Discourse on Possible Futures" specifically open source?

1:05:40 Possibility of a version of workbench/ ROM that would work out of the box with the Vampire range of accelerators or even just the V4 stand alone? Since the Vampire supporters support you blindly are they licensing your ROM copies?

1:07:00 Should Cloanto secure the necessary rights, would the company let independent developers access the source code or contribute, without having to sign an NDA or contracts of sorts and will we be allowed to freely share the patches and/or derivative work ?

1:09:50 Amiga Inc. had a plan of going cross platform with the AmigaDE product as a VM. What plans still exist and does the invention of WebAssembly in the browser influence this?

1:12:30 Will there ever be a bridge technology that allows accelerated 68k machines to run VM code along with Next-Generation AmigaOne series platforms?

1:13:50 Will AmigaOS 3.1 be open sourced and under what license? and Does Cloanto have the ability to open source Amiga OS? If so why does he not open it up?

1:15:40 How are you going to make sure, to the best of your ability, Jens Schoenfeld (or any other important people) does not leave the Amiga Classic hardware scene?

1:19:00 Are there some plans to bring back updated RKM manuals in some form? There are reasonable inexpensive print-on-demand services today, or maybe as e-books or PDFs?

1:20:55 I have and love my AmigaONE X1000 that runs AmigaOS4.1FE now and have long dreamed of an AmigaOS4.2! Can you please tell us NG Amiga users how Cloanto owning the Amiga IP will affect future updates to OS4.x?

1:24:00 Why is Cloanto Corporation and C-A Acquisition Corporation organized under the laws of the state of Nevada?

1:25:05 I also updated my classic Amigas with the recently released OS3.14 and physical roms from Hyperion and again wonder how Cloanto owning the IP rights moving forward will affect OS3.14 and future updates moving forward ?

1:26:00 I’d like to know what he thinks about the Vampire and the growth of the 68K community in a post-PowerPC age.

1:26:45 Now that you own all the IP, will you be looking to create a rebirth machine range including entry level A500/A1200 equivalent, and if yes, would you consider the classic micro computer form factor?? and If so would you be looking to work with existing hardware manufacturers (A-EON, Apollo etc) or would you try to do it "in house"?

1:29:00 I'm planning on buying wb 3.1.4 and ks roms. But who actually owns both? Who should I buy it from? if hyperion is selling them, does he get a commission?

1:33:20 What happened with the 8-Bit guy's request for licensing?

1:36:20 Will we see Amiga as a cloud based OS and possible to install as a virtual machine?

1:38:05 In event of open sourcing of AmigaOS 3.1, have you considered using source code license compatible with AROS source code license?

1:39:35 What are all the Amiga related IPs that he owns and what rights does that give him?

1:40:30 How do third party companies get in touch about licensing and new product design to be inline with IP rights?

1:43:15 Are you going to reach out to hardware developers, and what support will you be offering?

1:44:15 Have you any plans to develop in house software for classic accelerated Amigas?

1:44:40 Will you encourage the support of Raspberry Pi and other SBC's?

1:47:10 As the technology world around us is increasingly becoming "touch screen only," I would like to know if your plans for either the Classic AmigaOS or NG include plans of ditching traditional mice and keyboards, or if they will still be supported?

1:48:45 Do you plan on leveraging hardware companies (A-Eon, A-cube, etc.) to move away from PPC toward a more affordable hardware CPU platform? and Do you plan on making AmigaOS4.x hardware agnostic, or keeping it limited to one family of CPU's?

1:50:10 Would you be for forming an Amiga (OS) Foundation to support development in the same vein as the Apache, Mozilla, and various BSD Foundations?

1:50:55 Will there be new 3.X AOS versions in the future? How will the lawsuit effect that?

1:52:20 As a Mac/Linux user I really only use the ROM files from my current version of Amiga Forever. "We'll soon start working on a Mac version of Amiga Forever” seems to have been on the Cloanto website for a very long time now. Are Cloanto still working on a Mac version of Amiga Forever which offers the same, or better functionality as the Windows version?

1:54:15 Will there be an Amiga Mini or would they be willing to work with Emubee for the furtherance of their Amiga X project? and Will the new entity, Cloanto or whatever support (or better: get involved into) the AmigaX project?

1:56:30 I recently read that Commodore Italy has acquired global rights for Commodore trademarks. Do you have any thoughts or plans to partner with them for products?

1:58:30 Can you confirm that Cloanto now owns the Amiga name and logo (the one on the A500 etc) and if so, are you willing to license it out to third party products?

2:01:25 The work from Olaf and Thomas on 3.1.4 is awesome. The cleanest and best update to 3.1 so far. How do you think Cloanto can support and contribute to OS3 development from now on?

2:04:38 The Amiga logo has been revised on numerous occasions. The logos associated with the operating system and the hardware include, among others, the original variant written in italic Times (created by Commodore) and one more stylised variant written in a modified bondoni typeface (created by Amiga Technologies). Under Cloanto management, which one do you plan to use up ahead and why? What graphical identify do you feel properly represents the Amiga in 2019?

Finishing off

2:08:00 Michael thoughts on where we are now and what are his plans for the future .

https://www.amigaforever.com/
https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/

[spudje]

Can't wait to watch it! Great achievement Stephen, thanks for that!

[rcman]

I felt questions didn't really get answered

RC

[klx300r]

BRAVO Steve! thanks so much to you & Mike as well as all other parties involved in making it happen. Great video from start to finish

[spudje]

@rcman, yes sure, some questions didn't really get answered. But the reason why they aren't answered was made clear:
1. First the legal issues need to be resolved
2. Then a real plan can be made (i.e. many "future" plans couldn't be answered, because honestly I can imagine there is no detailed plan yet, as only when the legal issues are clear you know what the foundation is on which you can build a future.

[malko]

Originally Posted by rcman

I felt questions didn't really get answered
RC

It's a truism . So let's wait another interview after the court case.
@clusteruk: Thanks for the vidéo. It was pleasant to watch it.

[Steffest]

He seems like a nice guy but so does everyone else.
And yet here we are - still fighting after 25 years ...

To me this interview roughly translates into Mike saying.
"Once I sit on the Iron Throne, I'll try to be good King" ...

Sure Mike, sure.

[R4M]

My impression is, that there won't be significant changes in the future. He indicated that he is pretty much only interested in small bug fixes and will continue to make money with copyrights and trademarks. Everything else was pretty unspecific.

There might be more third party project after the settlements, if he offers fair terms. That indeed may be improving.

[rcman]

Did you see the while Amiga Dos 3.1.4 answer? He's like Amiga Dos(3.1) works, it has worked for many years.... but the comment (of it didn't crash when I ran this)

but wait let's back-peddle so he doesn't look bad. It must have been something "I" was doing to cause it to crash. Blah blah blah

I found a lot of these answers. Just like the answer to the 8-bit guy. He basically says the 8-bit guy was a fault. But you noctice how fast he brings the email up when asked and talks about how he over exaggerated this or that.

I don't care about the court case. Get over it! Get off your throne and do it for the Amiga fans!

The whole beginning could have been skipped. I didn't need to know his background and how he worked for the Amulance service. Like he's trying to paint a picture of him before he sits down.

I read between the lines and didn't like what I heard. If I was a billionaire I would buy him out, allow everyone to make whatever for Amiga for US.

It's always been about US!
We drive, support and cherish the Amiga.

Enough said.
RC

[Samurai_Crow]

Sounds like he's leaning away from open source in favor of more of a shared source license.

[cmsj]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

Sounds like he's leaning away from open source in favor of more of a shared source license.

To me, the specific choice of license isn't super important, what really matters is trying to make sure that Amiga doesn't fracture into dozens of forks.

We've already had decades of Amiga fixes/utilities/patches being a big mess of incompatibility and it would be a great shame to see the same thing happen with the OS source if there are many projects all pulling in different directions.

IMO the focus of any future Open Source Amiga project should be about driving the platform forward and ensuring it's conserved for the future. If that can be encouraged by specific licensing terms, that seems sensible to me.

[Marchie]

Seems positive to me.

[systmcrsh]

Originally Posted by rcman

I read between the lines and didn't like what I heard.

^ me too. thanx for making the video, but gotta give it a thumbs down.

when it comes to the serious or significant questions, seems like a lot of stonewalling and gatekeeping.

put it on kickstarter, recover your investment plus some change, and let the community have it. its the community and developers that keep the amiga alive.

[LongLifeA1200]

Originally Posted by rcman

If I was a billionaire I would buy him out

That's pretty much the crux of the issue.

Stephen jokes to Michael when he shows up in his standard-car "is that what you've spent your millions on?" - despite people commenting that what little money is made is probably going to lawyers anyway.

Of course it's not how much money Cloanto makes but how much it costs to buy the IP from Cloanto - which would no doubt be a staggering figure.

So Hyperion couldn't touch the old stuff. Okay. So then, why didn't Cloanto try to reproduce the legacy hardware? It speaks volumes.

[Jax]

I don't really know what to think. For some questions, I really miss the other party's opinion (Hyperion). It all seems to me to be very naive.

[hth313]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

Sounds like he's leaning away from open source in favor of more of a shared source license.

RISC-OS was open source with some restriction in the license. That was recently lifted to make it fully open source as we normally know it. It seems there will be restrictions in AmigaOS 3, should it happen. I also wonder what happens next in that case, as it seems to be against everything Hyperion believes in (if I understand things right). Hyperion will start a new war in this case. Anyone can take OS3 and port it to ARM and call it AmigaOS, or at least a proper derivative. That will not go well with them.

I do not think things will settle in any way, but I am happy to be proven wrong. I am at least very happy we have AROS.

Diversity will continue, that is for sure.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Jax

I really miss the other party's opinion (Hyperion)

You don't know Hyperion's opinion? Their opinion is "it is all ours".

[kolla]

Originally Posted by LongLifeA1200

So then, why didn't Cloanto try to reproduce the legacy hardware?

??

[Tigerskunk]

I don't feel I know more now than before.

Anyway, thanks to Stephen for trying.

Maybe it's a good idea to do another video after the court case.

[Puggsy]

This isn't an interview this is a turkey basting video.