So I was reading my email one day and what do I get but an email from the current owner of Amiga.org! He has agreed to come on to Amiga Roundtable and answer some questions from the community. If you have a question for him, now is the time to ask it. He does ask that technical questions be excluded as he feels he isn’t technically savvy enough to answer any. So questions pertaining to the website and the community will have first consideration. So if you do have a question, please email them to us at amigaroundtable@gmail.com. The hosts of  the show will pick the 10 best ones and ask them on an upcoming show. This most likely be sometime in January as the holiday winds down. We will have a definite date for you when we get a chance to co-ordinate after the New Year.

So come up with a good question or 2 and get it in. Deadline for questions will be January 10th.

I have to say that this is a pretty cool idea to help get some traction on getting an Amiga family OS adopted by a few more users. The name pretty much says it all. Nothing is more annoying then a paper cut. It hurts and you never see it coming, but when it does happen, it’s sure to make you swear and curse for a good day or two. This project’s aim to get those pet peeves in AROS fixed.

AROS Mascot

Instead of working on all those big things first and then coming back to those smaller little “non priority” kind of bug, Papercuts’ goal is to get those things fixed, making the overall experience of the OS more pleasant and gratifying. And after a little over a week, it seems to have gotten the support of the users out there. As I haven’t yet really used AROS that much, I have yet to come up with any good ones. But I have a feeling, that all of the things that would drive me a little mad, will be gone by the time I feel like I have anything.

A couple of examples would be like the List command in the C: directory. It doesn’t move to a new line after it completes it’s output. This has now been fixed. Another is wanting to delete or overwrite files, if you click “Yes to all”, it still gives you a requester for every file. This has been now fixed too. And there are others still coming in. This is one of the reasons I love the Amiga Community. Because we are the underdogs, we have to come up with interesting ways to fix our problems. Sometimes, adopting new ideas from outside is also the way, like the recent mention by Steve Solie and Hyperion maybe adopting Mozilla’s rapid release scheme. Even small updates get pushed out as soon as they are working. No waiting for a major release.

I do have to say, in the days since AmiWest, I am more Amiga-centric then I have been in a long time. It seems like the community is actually moving along, we have dropped a lot of the animosity that was out there and seeing a brighter future for the platform many of us are still enamored with. Even the trolls on that “Cow Rodent” site are less “troll-ey”. And with that feeling, I shall sit back with my popcorn and enjoy.

This video has been out for some time, and the word spread like wild fire on the Amiga community forums. This, is by far, one of the biggest things to happen in the Amiga Community since the release of Amiga OS4. And I personally, wanting to be an OS4 user but not being able to afford new hardware, am as pleased as punch about this!While this certainly did eclipse the news about the AmigaOne X1000′s availability for this holiday season, the community as a whole, is very happy to see this. Lower cost hardware is a great way to help get the attention of former Amiga users and with luck, get them back into the community. Increasing the user base has long been our goal. The more people we have, the strong the community becomes. So with that, I give you Steve’s speech at AmiWest 2011.

And just for good measure, Trevor Dickinson’s speech about the AmigaOne X1000 at AmiWest, as well. After watching both of these videos, I have to wonder to myself how could I be a part of all this? The podcast is fun and everything, but I feel like I would like to do more.But, here’s Trevor’s speech at AmiWest 2011.

Mikej over at Amiga.org has posted in the forums as well on his website, that he is ready to start taking orders for his FPGA Arcade board, that is capable of emulating classic Amigas. Not only is this a light at the end of a long tunnel, but a welcome bit of news in a community hungry for hardware.

Photo Courtesy of fpgaarcade.com

According to the post on Amiga.org, the price of the base model, that has no SVHS/Composite output will be $340 (€250), and the model with SVHS/Composite will be $375 (€274),  that includes the Value Added Tax. No word on shipping costs. MikeJ also says that prices could come down another $30 (€20) in the future with volume runs.

This board has been talked about for over a  year now, with regular updates and pictures from MikeJ. Discussions on specs and suggested features and options have also been made. The big difference with this project compared to other hardware projects in the past for Amiga, is that regular updates have been coming out about the hardware, as well as info about the soft cores used to run on the board. Amiga is just one of the cores available, as well as others like Colecovision, Vic-20 and Atari ST. There are also a few others, but the Colecovision, Amiga and Vic-20 cores are the ones that have my attention. I used to play on a friends Colecovision after school and weekends when I was over at his house. I would even sneak some of my Atari 2600 carts out of the house, after my parents told me numerous times not to, to play on the expansion for the Colecovision, that supported Atari carts.

A daughter board is also planned to add other features, like a Ethernet jack for networking of the board. It uses a compact flash card interface for the storage and to boot from. Just looking at it makes me a giddy. This is a welcome addition to the community and I have already placed it on my wish wish, just under a Natami. I hope that MikeJ and all the others working with him on the project see great success with this and I’ll be saving my hard earned money for this one.

You may also be able to see this sweet new board in action at AmiWest 2011 in Sacramento, California.

If you’re wondering why I am posting this instead of an Amateur Radio story, then please read the full article and you will understand. But for now, I am posting a clip and a link to my full article on the Q103Albany website, and it has already been picked up by the station I used to work at in Utica as well. Here is a clip:

I have been trying to write this story for hours now. It’s not hard to talk about someone like Steve Jobs and recite facts about him. Yes, he pioneered how we consume digital content and how we buy our digital music as well as how we use computers and much more. And while it could be considered corny by some for me to say this, he touched lives all over the world. Just look at Twitter and Facebook. One of those lives he touched, is mine.

To read the full article, check out my Tech Thursday story for today.

73.

Courtesy of Gawker.com

One of the first people I met at AmiWest back in 2007, was Steven Solie. He was setting up maybe 10 feet away from me, next to Bill P. from DiscreetFX. While there I was able to interview him and see his presentation on what he was then working on. Now, he shares his experience of getting his beta Amiga One X1000 setup experience.

Photo Courtesy of Steve Solie/http://www.solie.ca

I didn’t see anything really posted about it on any of the community sites, so I figured I would just give a quick blurb about the story he posted. But for the full low down, you’re really going to want to read the story on his website. After reading it myself, there are a couple things that kind of strike me.

The first thing is the power requirement of 400 watts minimum. That’s a lot of power in my opinion for a machine. I guess I’m used to laptops and the lower power they need now. 85 watts for my Macbook Pro seems about right. But 400 watts seems like a lot. Also, the amount of drives and ram expandability. It seems like this is more like a server machine then a desktop. Install a webserver and a database and have at it. But it looks like that Varisys was looking ahead. While Amiga OS can only support 2GB of Ram right now, the board can have up to 16GB installed. Will future versions of Amiga OS 4.x support the extra RAM? You’re guess is as good as mine. Not sure what you would do with it all. Maybe a huge RAM Disk?

The case was also very awesome looking. I was always one for eye candy, and in this case, more so. The case looks fantastic and seems quite “Amiga-ish” if you will. Even without the boing ball etching, I would say the same. It reminds me of the A3000T or the A4000T. But the impression I also get is a slick looking gamer’s case.

The Motherboard? Well, what I can I say. It exists. It’s in the hands of real people and being tested. If you were one of the people going on and on and on and on about it’ll never happen, it’s all a hoax, well I have only one question for you. Do you like your crow BBQ or baked? Beyond that, I leave it in Steve’s capable hands on getting us more info on how it preforms. In the mean time, I’ll wait for it to come out for general sale and hope the price point is near my range. If not, I’ll just have to find another solution for my Amiga cravings. But all in all, by Steve’s account, I am happy to see new hardware finally making it’s way out for people to see and use.

Steve has said he will be bringing it with him to AmiWest, and folks will be able to try it. If you do go and try it, I would love to know what you thought and think about it.

~Rich

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, Albany’s #1 Rock Station website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios and hosts a podcast called The Kim & Rich Show with his fiance’ Kim Dunne.

I’m not a fan of New Kids on the Block, but this title just jumped out at me when I saw the story over at ARRL.ORG that NASA is looking for more astronauts. Currently there are only 59, where a decade ago, there was 150. Since the retirement of the Shuttle, the numbers have been going down.

Photo Courtesy of NASA/APOD

It takes 2 and a half years to train to be an astronaut, on top of the years of college getting a degree. Then there is the 31 weeks of working in Russia to learn how the Soyuz craft work and learning Russian. It’s a pretty big commitment, but from what I can see, it has some big payback and perks. I mean, who wouldn’t want to fly a few hundred nautical  miles above the Earth in micro gravity?

But currently, the Soyuz is grounded because of the crash of a supply ship in August, while Russian space agency investigators troubleshoot what went wrong. This could lead to a short abandonment of the International Space Station if Russian officials find the problem quickly. But still, the need for astronauts for the manned space flight program is still there.

From the ARRL.ORG story:

NASA has said that it expects to send four to six astronauts to the ISS each year for six-month rotations. But the August crash of a Russian re-supply rocket has grounded the Soyuz, the only vehicle capable of flying crew members to the station. NASA noted that the Russian crash might lead the agency to temporarily abandon the ISS this fall unless the Russians quickly troubleshoot the problem. “We will understand, to our satisfaction, the anomaly, what is believed to be the cause and how they resolved it,” said NASA ISS Program Manager Michael Suffredini in a press conference after the crash. “If we’re not happy, we won’t put our astronauts on the Soyuz.” In April, NASA awarded $269 million to four companies developing craft to deliver cargo and crew to the space station.

This along with the time needed to train, could lead to a shortage in 5 years. So NASA is looking now. But I doubt you’ll find a posting for the job on Monster.com or Regionalhelpwanted.com. Still, if you possess  a pretty hefty degree and are in good physical shape, you could be the next NASA astronaut. And having a Ham Radio license is also a plus. Right now there are 4 Hams on the Space station. Ron Garan, KF5GPO (NASA), Mike Fossum, KF5AQG (NASA), Sergei Volkov, RU3DIS (RKA), and Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW (JAXA). And you can check out AMSAT or the ISS Fanclub for more info on working the ISS.

I just got a Google Alert this morning, that TouchArcade has a hands on preview of the new iAmiga emulator for the Apple iOS, and it’s just a few weeks away from making it’s debut on the iTunes App store, and Cinemaware’s 1986 classic Defender of the Crown will be the first, fully licensed, title to be available for Manomio‘s upcoming iAmiga emulation system for iOS. 

YouTube Screen shot

According to the article:

Being a faithfully emulated version of the original, Defender of the Crown for iOS brings with it the Amiga’s mouse-based controls, and Manomio has done a good job of making that work with the iPad’s touchscreen.

The article goes on to say that using the iPad like a large trackpad, like you would use instead of a mouse on the laptops or even on an iMac, is a wonderful way to play the game.

Looking at this makes me wish I did have an iPad to run this in all it’s glory and enjoy this game like I did back in the day on my Amiga. This app has been long in the channel and going by searches and hits on this website alone, is very popular, as the term “iOS Amiga emulator” has been in every set of stats since I posted the first article a year or so ago. So the arrival of this app will get a warm welcome. The artwork of Jim Sachs is still great to look at in the preview pictures on the website as they were back in the day on the Amiga. That in my opinion made the Amiga version the best version of the game by far. Yes, I am biased, but I think the games speak for themselves.

Defender of the Crown for iOS is a Universal application supporting the iPhone 3GS, 3rd gen iPod touch and iPad. Enjoy a video from TouchArcade showing off the new Defender of The Crown.

“Have fun stormin’ the castle!” ~Miracle Max, The Princess Bride

I was getting ready to go to bed with my fiance’, so I was making one last check of my email before I headed to dreamland. When I checked our super secret email list for those of us that host Amiga Roundtable, Bill and Sean had posted replies to a discovery made by TheDaddy on some of the community forums. Some pictures that were released by Commodore USA seem to have been lifted from a magazine’s website, and passed off as a factory floor full of PCBs for soon to be built Commodore 64s made and designed by Commodore USA.

Screen shot of the photo released by Commodore USA

Here is Barry’s reply to the photos as posted on the Commodore-Amiga.org Forums among others…

The shots were provided months ago by one of the agents we were using for parts sourcing. I asked for hi res shots that we could use for promotional purposes. We have been provided factory photos in the past from most of the manufacturers and agents we deal with. In fact, the most recent photos of the VIC Slim production line show our products, with our logo clearly indicated. I never had reason to doubt the validity of any of our sources, and I’m certain there is an explanation for the pictures in question.

I have always maintained an open door policy regarding our plans, projects and progress. i invited anyone who was interested to call me, or come and visit in person. Only a few took the time to do so, and each one of them can tell you that there were no claims or facts presented that could not be verified.

Never has a company, nor the individuals involved, been subject to more scrutiny, slander and misinformation than we have. Perhaps that’s the reason some of my replies we as caustic as they were. Nonetheless, our record speaks for itself. While some of you don’t agree with our plans and policies, the reaction that was generated by some members here, and on other forums, is just too extreme to deal with in a rational manner.

Regardless of your personal beliefs and concerns, this simple fact remains: We took an idea and a dream, and in little over nine months time, created more publicity and brand awareness than has been achieved by all others combined over the last 15 years. We are now ready to ship our entire product line, and in a few more weeks will be presenting our new Commodore OS.

No one has a gun to your head making you buy our products. Nor do any of you have the right to comment in the most disgusting manner that has become the defacto standard on some of the other forums. I have no problem with comments regarding the direction our company is taking, or the methods we employ. Just no need to bring it to the insane personal level that serves no purpose but to create greater chasms that already exist.

My offer still stands. Our doors are open to anyone with an interest in hearing the truth, and seeing for themselves the reality we have created for the Commodore and Amiga brands.

Barry

Screen shot of website the photo was lifted from

Needless to say, the entire community is now in a little disarray. Did C=USA release faked pics on purpose? If so, what would they gain? If not on purpose, how is C=USA going to recover from this mishap? Their credibility in the community was already strained, and some users already alienated. I don’t see how they are going to move beyond this with anyone in the community that was still on the fence.

The more I see the arguments from both sides, the more I have to agree that Commodore USA, is selling something that is not what I want, and frankly, really isn’t an Amiga. It’s not part of the community. I would classify it, as a cousin. So I’m going to take Barry’s advice and not buy one, but also, going to say that posts on community websites for Commodore USA belong in the “Other OS” sections of forums. Also, I don’t plan on posting anything more, on this site, about Commodore USA’s computers or plans unless it directly affects the Amiga Community at large.  And as for Amiga Roundtable, I don’t plan on bringing it up anymore after we record Episode 51 sometime in the next week or so.

And we ask the question to you….

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

For 10 years, QuantumLink was the online service for Commodore 64 users. It offered mail, online chat as well as games and public domain files for download. In October 1995, the company changed their name to America Online, and are still know by that name the world over today. Slowly, Commodore users dropped off or switched platforms and the focus of the service centered on PCs and Macs. But QuantumLink still lives for Commodore users who love the platform.

Photo by Wikipedia/Mcloaf

In 2005, some Commodore community hobbyists were able to reverse engineer the service and create a clone of the old protocols that were used. From there they created a server that allows the software to connect via the internet with nothing more that a C=64 emulator like VICE and a D-64 disk image. You can even run the software on a real Commodore 64 with a serial to internet interface.

For the old school Commodore users as well as original Q-Link members, it’s a way to reconnect with old friends that may have found their way back on this new QuantumLink. A Yahoo message group allows many of the members to stay in touch when they are not on the service. There’s also some reminiscing about the days past, and was even a discussion about the new Commodore 64′s that Commodore USA is planning on selling soon.

Like many in the Amiga community, these users help keep computer history alive and make it a living breathing experience for people who are curious. Giving those that want to know or experience more, the chance to “see what it’s all about.” I’ve always been the kind of person who believes that you can’t really know where you’re going till you know where you’ve been. This project, in my opinion, is a good example of this philosophy.

If you’re interested in trying it out, you can join the Qlink-Orphans list on Yahoo Groups and download a zipfile with the disk image and instructions to get your C=64, real or emulated, on the service.

The Amiga community has been debating and discussing the whole Commodore USA situation for months now. While this has been going on, C=USA has put their promotional machine into overdrive, and it has been paying off. Now Rolling Stone magazine’s Scott Steinberg is giving his take on the new Commodores and Amigas.

Photo by Wikipedia/Bill Bertram

The article basically covers prices and specs and then continues to a quick glance at the OS, which is Ubuntu with Commodore OS 1.0, which is essentially an emulator. So nothing new has been revealed in the article. But a comment to the article pretty much sums up what many in the community is asking:

“I love the brand, but these models are a bit too high in price and a little too low in real innovation. Will they sell on nostalgia only?”

This is the same discussion that was had in a recent taping of Amiga Roundtable. $600 for a basic machine is kinda steep in my opinion, but to each their own. Plus the fact that the hopes of the community have been raised and then dashed countless times, raises the question of this being another case of broken promises. Then the purists are upset that these are PCs and not real Amigas true to the original hardware.

The bottom line is only time will tell if these machines will sell, and all we can do is speculate.  And then there are those that will troll and create rumors and FUD. For the record, I will reserve my opinion till I see more info on the whole matter. But if anyone from C=USA wishes to set the record straight, I’ll be happy to pass it all along.

From the “Strained Credibility Dept.“, Amiga Inc has announced they are now taking orders for a new 8″ Amiga Android based tablet on their website. Sean Fitzgerald, co-host of Amiga Roundtable, alerted us to this new device from Amiga Land. According to the Amiga.com website’s description of the tablet, the specs include:

• Freescale iMX515 ARM Cortex A8 CPU.
• 8″ LED Touch-Screen: 800 x 600 Multi-capacitive Screen.
• 4 hours of battery for surfing the web using 3G data network.
• 512M DDR NandFlash 4G system Memory.

Photo Courtesy Amiga.com

The device also comes with monitoring software iCNet from i-Contain LLC, which is  according to the Amiga.com website, “a self-monitoring software security solutions that keeps the user in control of their device. If the device is ever lost or stolen, iCNet locates the device, and when needed can remotely remove any consumer data, and shut down the device.”

I’m not totally sure what to think about this yet. One thing I can definitely say I don’t like, is that I see NO connection to the Amiga Community except in the name of the company selling it. Maybe a few Android apps that are ports of Amiga games? Beyond that, I don’t see anything in this for me. Also, a quick search on Google shows no reviews have been posted for this tablet. But as this is NEW, it is possible that it just hasn’t been able to get out to enough places to get a proper review.

If Amiga Inc sends me a unit for review, I’ll be happy to give it an unbiased review based on the device’s specs, usability and features, and not on the track record of the company that is releasing it. But I’m not expecting to find one in the mailbox anytime soon.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

AmiZed Studios would like to congratulate Eric W. Schwartz, creator of Amy the Squirrel and the online comic strip Sabrina Online, which has been published on the Internet for over 12 years and has 500 comic strips.  Sabrina Online is a comic strip about a web designer named Sabrina Skunk, who has a passion for Amigas and The Transformers and her room mate Amy Squirrel. The strip follows the lives of Sabrina and Amy as they go day to day in their lives. The strip started in 1996 and has steadily added between one to four strips every month. Along with some animated videos of the characters, as well as other characters Eric has created and borrowed from other artists. Eric, an Amiga user and fan has also produced videos celebrating and promoting the Amiga computers, software and community. It’s safe to say Eric has consistently promoted the Amiga in one form or another in the 12 years of his comic strip. His comic has also appeared in a few users group newsletters such as the Amitech-Dayton Amiga Gazette in Dayton, Ohio.

Eric says “..I am not doing this for the money, as my finances seem to show, and my main purpose is to pop out some of the stories I have held onto for too long, as well as to just have fun.” Eric’s work has also garnered an award, 2001′s Cartoonist’s Choice Award for Best Romance Comic, and he’s been interviewed in CU Amiga magazine as well as RetroGamer Magazine, and has been called Mr. Animation for being one of the Amiga’s innovative animators in the late 80′s.

Back in September of 2007, Eric was a guest on Amiga Roundtable and talked about his experience with Amigas and the community as well as his artwork. And in celebration of his achievement, we pulled out his interview from Episode 11, “Jerry Springer, Peace Maker” and we’re re-posting that segment of the show.

We want to congratulate him on his longevity, the quality of his art and stories, and hope to see more of his work in the years to come.

Eric’s comic can be found at http://www.sabrina-online.com (Caution: Some strips may be NSFW)

With mobile devices the hottest thing going right now, we figured we would bring you a list of some of the Amiga or C=64/128 related apps that we found on the internet and give you a review. We start with one from the iTunes App Store for iOS devices.

Name: Amiga Radio
Publisher: Skynet Systems
Cost: Free

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amiga-radio/id398202562?mt=8

I’ve owned an iPod Touch for a while. I also own a Nintendo DS, which since getting the iPod Touch, I don’t use very often. Though my daughter seems to like it just fine. But since I enjoy my Touch so much, it’s only logical I do a search on the App store and see what is out there from the Amiga and Commodore 64/128 days. Surprisingly, there is a lot! Just doing a simple search tonight I found and downloaded 4 new free apps! So I thought we should compile a short list of the apps, and write a review of a couple of them. So here begins a series of articles reviewing Amiga related Apps from the iTunes App store.

Amiga Radio is an app that streams an internet radio station that plays music from the Amiga and Atari damascene. Giving you CD quality music from great artists of the 90′s. Artists like Audiomonster Dr. Awesome, 4-Mat and Mad Max. While this app does give you that feeling of nostalgia, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The interface is pretty much non existent. Only 2 buttons are on the screen, Play and About. You can see the title near the bottom of the screen, but they are using iAds to offset the cost of the app, hence why it is free. But if the title and artist info is too long, it’s hidden from view. While the app is free, getting what you get is fine, but some small improvements could really help this app stand out a little more in my opinion. But you can’t beat free and as long as they stream, I’ll listen.

Amiga Radio Screen

Just came across the AmigaPD.com web site while following some links on Twitter. From the website: “The aim of the site is to showcase the best of amiga public domain, shareware and freeware games which were available during the 1980s and 90s and provide ADF or DMS disk images for download.”

Screenshot of AmigaPD.com

Continued from the site… “The website is still under development.  It was only started on October 21st 2010.  Future plans include detailed reviews of the top 50 public domain games, links to video clips to the games and hopefully encourage homebrew programmers out there to submit new public domain games for the Commodore Amiga 500 and 1200.”

Update: They have now added a Facebook page, and it looks like a Twitter feed is now up and going too.

The site looks great for starters!

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times; seem to be the sentiments amongst the polarised individuals that in some way, big or small, still maintain a connection to the Amiga, be it classic or NG.

Whom do you believe?
There are many who saturate the various online forums with spades of evidence that this is the best of times. Never has there been so much choice available to the non-conformist Amigan; From free and commercial emulation software, and the low cost commodity x86 and free open source AROS, through the flexible MorphOS, and all the way to the somewhat pricey Sam 4×0 PPC boards bundled with AmigaOS 4, and the coveted AmigaOne X1000.

Then there are just as many who reciprocate evidence to the contrary. They’ll cite precedents and personal experience to support their notion that this is the worst of times. Platform fragmentation, divided user loyalties, lack of medium-to-long term plans from…pretty much anyone, creating a dearth of uncertainty and an overexcited collective rumour gland that compounds the problem.

Friends, fellow Amigans, we have come a long way, we may not have all jumped aboard at the same port or harbour, but we’ve all arrived to the same predicament; too few survivors scattered across islands each being proclaimed as the new Amiga.

Enough metaphor, give it to me straight.
The state of the Amiga union is dire. When there are only a few thousand users left the worst thing that can happen is to have multiple choices, especially when there’s much dissimilarity between them. The user is unsure of where to invest their hard earned money and spare time, and a developer is unsure for which platform to develop. Not everyone lives in the first world and even if they did, not everyone can afford to invest their energy, money, and time in two or more of the various options.

Choice is good when there is a thriving ecosystem. It allows for new ideas to emerge, new entrants into the ecosystem, and cross-pollination. What the Amigans need is unity, a single choice, an easy choice. The liberating freedom of constraint.

What are you saying?
I’m not expecting that the respective camp sponsors unite and come-up with a comprehensive multi-year unification plan. Not impossible but highly improbable. I’m not expecting that all Amigans unite and support only a single of the many options out there and force the sponsors to unite with the user supported choice. I’d sooner start a cat herding business.

Then what?
Unfortunately, nothing. The situation right now resembles a defunct governing body, a democracy that is failing its citizens. All the factions are eager for your vote but neither of them has enough votes to form a majority government. Nothing gets decided, nothing gets resolved. And even the wealthier Amigans who support all the choices with their time and money (fence sitters) have but one favourite among them, the one they’d most want to see succeed. But any success in a broken system is only short-lived.

There is however hope.
Throughout history whenever participants of an ecosystem grow weary of their predicament, one action usually followed. Revolution.

What Amigans need, nay yearn for, is a revolution, more so than any other uniquely identifiable group of computer users. They need something and someone to lift them out of this quagmire, out of the inane choices between the squabbling factions of who has the rightful evolutionary claim and heredity to the proto species Computo amigensis. Like that even means anything after 16 or so years.

The state of the Amiga union is that there is no union. There is little hope of their ever being a union from the current stock. I’m not sure what shape the revolution will take or who will lead it, but I do know it isn’t any of the current factions. And I also know. that we’ll all instantly recognise it when it happens.