[Forum] Interesting thread on Amiga.org | ANN.lu |
Posted on 06-Sep-2004 14:12 GMT by Anonymous (Edited on 2004-09-06 19:48:28 GMT by Christian Kemp) | 382 comments View flat View list |
Due to censorship by Argo the thread is locked but it is interesting to see a major Anti Amiga Inc webmaster turn in to a Genesi attacker and a certain website defender.
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Interesting thread on Amiga.org : Comment 67 of 382 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Chris Scott on 06-Sep-2004 16:34 GMT | I owned an Amiga back in the mid-nineties. I had to switch to using a PC when I went to college. Years passed, and it was during my time at University that it occurred to me to look up the Amiga on-line. I was somewhat surprised to find that there were still a large number of people supporting the machine. I'd lost track of the Amiga completely so it was something of a surprise to find that it was owned by Gateway. It was a short time after I started to read more about the current status of Amiga that Amino purchased Amiga from Gateway.
At the time I remember being proud that the Amiga had survived for so long without new Amigas or any major software support. At the time I didn't know much about MorphOS, AROS or other 'alternative' operating systems since my research had been focussed on what had become of the Amiga.
I don't clearly remember the beginnings of what is now referred to as the Red/Blue 'war' (for want of a better description) but I remember being initially rather amused by the almost religious disputes between the two sides. As far as allegiances go, I early on plumped for the official Amiga company, as they were offering what I wanted - a new official Amiga OS.
Unfortunately the amusement I initially derived from the unfolding schism soon turned to horror as everything unravelled. Whereas at first the huge battles were confined to appropriate threads, now no discussion can pass without someone taking a swipe at the other side and the Amiga Community - once a thing to be proud of, became an embarrassment. I guess I was lucky I jumped in when I did - just before it all went nasty. If as a former Amiga user I came in now I'd probably conclude that the Amiga had died while I'd been gone and the remainder of the 'community' were fighting over the ashes.
As far as the two companies go, I think it is quite fair to say that they both decided that they needed the Amiga community to support their efforts, and the unfortunate result of that competition is the death of what they both sought.
I have a friend who tried to start his own company so I have some sympathy for the difficulties of starting a new company in a hostile market, but the way that both companies handled the Amiga Community was poor. Amiga kept making promises that they would turn out to be unable to keep (and in some cases they must have known that they were clutching at straws) to try and keep the faithful interested and coming back for more. Genesi tried to stay close to the community - posting on lots of Amiga boards, but this lead them to behave in a very unprofessional manner. Both companies actively tried to dissuade people from switching sides, and the mud-slinging this involved only created bitterness and division all around.
I think that the Amiga community of old is a lost cause. No-one here can look at any thread on ann.lu and pretend that this is a healthy community. It is dying and without some amazing external force to unify everyone, which is clearly not going to happen, I think that there are only two real options available :
1) Let the community die.
2) Split the community into two. An Amiga community and a MorphOS one and have both keep the other at arms length.
The events of the past few years have made any other option impossible as far as I can see. I am saddened by this because there was so much potential and it has been squandered by the way things have turned out, but surely we must try to move forwards?
I apologise for the long (and somewhat serious post), but I felt like I had to say something after years of saying very little and just watching events unfold.
Anyway there's much more I could say but I'll finish now because I should have left work to go to the pub half an hour ago. |
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