Amiga, a unit of Gateway Inc., notified its customers via a murky announcement on the Amiga Web site that it is changing its strategy yet again, and will not bring to market a much-anticipated multimedia computer.
Amiga's loyal enthusiasts were quick to comment -- posting retorts on newsgroups such as comp.sys.amiga.advocacy and comp.sys.amiga.misc.
'Like a Zombie'
"You have 'hung in there' through a number of upheavals over the past years, and through several false starts on next-generation Amiga platforms. You deserve better," Schmidt said.
Then he hit them with the bad news.
"As you know, we announced in July that we were pursuing the development of a 'multimedia convergence computer' that would serve as the next-generation Amiga desktop computer. After the change in management at Amiga, we reviewed all our product plans.
'Unrealistic' plans
Schmidt's idea, he said, is to collaborate with -- rather than compete against -- PC makers. The move maintains, somewhat, the spirit of former president Jim Collas' plans.
Collas said that Amiga's operating environment and reference specifications for hardware would be offered to a number of OEMs, including Gateway. The multimedia computer to be produced by the company, he said, was to be viewed as a demonstration of the technologies possible with Amiga software, he told ZDNet.
"We are open to the possibility of licensing the MCC (multimedia computer) product specification and design that is now on the shelf to companies that are interested in further developing the Amiga desktop computer product line," Schmidt said.
Saying no to Wintel
Instead, Amiga users are hopeful that a recently formed consortium called the Phoenix Platform Consortium will bring an open-standards-based hardware platform for the Amiga Operating Environment.
Amiga will "Zombie" on, Schmidt told users in his letter.
"The Internet appliance software model that we are putting together will open up an exciting new era of software development that we think will be very interesting to the type of innovative thinkers who were drawn to the Amiga computer in years past," Schmidt said.
"Amiga is like a Zombie," said one poster in response. "Commodore killed it, Escom killed it ... and Gateway killed it. Still, it shambles on."
To be honest, the ability for us to deliver the MCC (multimedia computer) was unrealistic," he said. "We realize that this does not satisfy the desire of the Amiga community for a next-generation Amiga."
'You have "hung in there" through a number of upheavals over the past years, and through several false starts on next-generation Amiga platforms. You deserve better.'
-- Amiga President Tom Schmidt
The idea of running Amiga's operating environment on "Wintel," however, has been generally unpalatable.
