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[News] Show report: AAA 2003, Commodore Billboard back onlineANN.lu
Posted on 07-Jul-2003 19:46 GMT by Jens Schönfeld217 comments
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This is a show report from individual Computers about the Amiga Alpe Adria that took place in Udine, Italy this weekend, and some good news about the Commodore Billboard! This weekend, the Amiga Alpe Adria 2003 took place in Udine, Italy - another station of Amiga OS4 on tour. The show was organized by Cloanto, well-known for a lot of Amiga programs and the emulator "Amiga Forever". Jürgen Schober of Point Design had to make two OS4 presentations, because the room was totally overcrowded with more than 100 Amiga fans and journalists of daily press and computer magazines. We also had the chance to show our products in a 30-minute presentation. Best-seller of the present retailers Soft 3 and Virtual Works was the Catweasel MK3, that became the first choice accessory for many Amiga One owners because of it's high degree of integration into the hard- and software of the new Amiga.

A small Retro-computing museum right at the entrance of the showroom brought back joyful memories in the visitors. Rare items like an SX-64 in best shape, a VIC-20 rev.1, and even a C65 prototype were shown. One of the first multi-computer games (today's networking games) was shown on two PET computers that were connected through the serial ports. The home computer pioneer Altair 8800 from 1975 was the only none-Commodore computer.

The "Video Microwave", a Pegasos-board that was built in the case of a Sharp Microwave oven, was - at best - good for a laugh. The keyboard did not work at all, and it only took a few mouseclicks to make the computer with the MorphOS operating system crash. The reason for this could not be found in the short time of the show.

Commodore Billboard back online

Our good news for the fans of Commodore nostalgia almost got lost in the excitement surrounding Amiga OS4: The Commodore Billboard is back online! The initiator of the project, Søren Ladegaard (Denmark) had to drop the project due to lack of time in January 2003, and transferred the website to individual Computers. We're now sponsoring the website that can cause a lot of traffic with it's several hundred megabytes in size. During the past half year, the new webmaster Stefan Zelazny has converted the audio and video files to mpeg and mp3, so the website can be viewed on most platforms. For example, the Realplayer is not necessary any more.
Currently, the website is available under the address www.commodorebillboard.de. The .com domain will be made available in the coming weeks.
If you're interested in a local copy of the website, you can support us in paying for the high cost of the website by ordering the CD. It will be available in august this year from all our retail partners for about 15,- EUR. The double-CD package also contains some surprises for Commodore-fans!
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Comment 1Anonymous07-Jul-2003 18:25 GMT
Comment 2Christophe DecaniniRegistered user07-Jul-2003 18:45 GMT
Comment 3Ian Shurmer07-Jul-2003 18:49 GMT
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Show report: AAA 2003, Commodore Billboard back online : Comment 76 of 217ANN.lu
Posted by DaveP on 08-Jul-2003 06:36 GMT
In reply to Comment 72 (gary_c):
>> I would rather not buy from a company that throws a poor quality release of software out into the market early merely to score political points ....

>I don't really know, but I doubt if this was a rationale for the release.

See later on.

> A "BetaTester" release is, after all, for beta-testing, right? And why would they "throw it out early" just for the sake of being early? It's not like they had a competitor poised to beat them to market.

Ahem, at the time, time to market was the key to establish credentials. Unless of course the passage of time is of an entirely different physical manifestation in Japan?

> For pete's sake, they're on version 1.4 now and AOS4 is still months away.

This is now and that was then.

> > The differences in approach between Hyperion and Genesi are as chalk and cheese in this matter, Hyperion desperately want to get all the instabilities, bugs and features done before releasing a full product to its consumers. Genesi does not.

> Obviously, this is speculation. You are assuming that because Hyperion is taking longer that its product will be more stable and bug-free.

No. I am talking about motives here, Hyperions motives are to release a solid product as OS4.0 to the general product. Genesi *released* a product to the general public as "betatesters" which was far from complete, stable or bug free. THEREFORE Genesis motives are already established - to get the credibility of releasing something. Hyperions you will have to take my word on I guess unless Ben or one of the Friedens have posted something public about this.


>> However the culprit in this case is not Genesi - who called it a BETATESTER, it is the users, the militant ones ( and we all know who they are ) who are two faced lying hypocrites and start getting a nervous tick whenever you suggest that MorphOS might not be a production ready product and beating you over the head.
> I prescribe a nice mug of warm milk. You seem to be getting a bit overexcited, Dave. :-)

Hardly, just painting it as I see it. Have you forgotten the discussions where certain persons claimed that only the Pegasos board was "betatester" the OS was released?

>> Maybe its time to stop the fight and just get on for the sake of truth?
> Your opening paragraph here reveals you as a combatant as well as correspondent.

Nothing I have ever denied.

> If you're so enthused about stopping the fighting, then refraining from inflammatory statements like those in your post could help somewhat.

Uh huh, remember that the opening paragraph was following a quote from your post, which said:

"Say what you want about Genesi's product designations, descriptions, etc., the key point is that MorphOS has been available for some time now and is being steadily improved. I think the glass houses rule holds here."

Right, then I express a preference. If you find that preference inflammatory then I suggest a nice cup of warm milk.

MorphOS has been available as a BETA for anyone who cares to buy a Pegasos 1 board. AmigaOS4 has been available as a BETA for anyone who is on a closed list of betatesters. Genesi choses to ship MorphOS as a product ( M day anyone? ) whilst people like you claim that it is a "product that is available" - the key word being product here.

If you make something substandard available as a "product" then there are several ways of doing it:

1. Run a beta programme, closed list, everyone knows what they are there for but its just that a "beta" and not released to the general market. Strict conditions and problems are sorted out away from the glare of public view.
+ When product becomes generally available it is reasonbly fit for mass consumption and servicing costs are lower.
- Takes longer behind closed doors, looks like you havent released anything.
- Competitors can claim vapourware.

2. Make a limited availability programme ( often called tech previews ) which is basically saying public beta. People download things on their own heads. It isn't a real product yet.
+ You can claim its out there, people are using it other than internal testers.
+ Mindshare, early adopters.
- You expose yourself to potential ridicule with silly bugs and crashes.
- Too many claims about it being out in the wild can lose you credibiliy.
- Public exposure of problems means you put of potential customers.
- Higher servicing costs whilst testing is ongoing.
- Potential duplicate defect reports and debugging costs to establish this are much higher.

3. Release it anyway, its a product, its out there.
+ You can claim its out there.
+ Mindshare, early adopters.
- You are going to get known for releasing shoddy products before the are ready.

Now to me ( and this is what I said ) Genesi did #2 but people such as yourselves continually claim its in category #3. Hyperion are doing #1.

It is the people that claim it is in category #3 when it suits them ( oh its released but AOS4 isn't - and you do this in your reply ) and then its in category #2 when it has bugs ( "its no for general consumption" "its really a betatester" and you do this in your reply ) and problems in the public eye that I find hard to give any credibility to.

Interestingly both pegasos owners that I have had *technical* conversations with in private are limited by what they can say by NDAs. :-D

For the fighting to stop, the BS has to stop. I see no reason to stop posting controversial stuff, you do not need to be PC to have a valid point.

> Beyond that, some people seem to be suffering from a toy shortage. Once they have something that occupies them, maybe they'll have less time for stirring the muck.

But Gary, you have put your Pegasos together now yes? ;)
Jump...
#78 mahen #111 Christophe Decanini #114 dammy #196 gary_c
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