From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: Why has Amiga never asked us what we want?
Date: 20 Jul 1999 06:30:14 GMT
Message-id: <7n151m$jbj$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc

In article <7mnf9b$gju$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, countchocula_the_1st@yahoo.com wrote:

[snip - relevant rant from well intentioned person]

Warning! I deserve to right to rant once in a while also so here I go:

I know that we still have to improve communication but visibly communicating with a large community is difficult. I expend a significant amount of effort listening to and understanding the Amiga community. I have spent 100s of hours in the last several months listening to and corresponding with the Amiga community. Here are some of the activities:

1) I met with over 100 Amigans in multiple groups in St. Louis to listen to input.
2) I have met with multiple groups around the U.S. to get input. I have held several press conferences to get input.
3) I flew to Germany and the U.K. in May specifically to meet with 60 to 70 prominent Amigans and listen to input. Multiple feedback session of several hours.
4) I met with key Amiga developers in U.K. and Germany.
5) I read the most popular Amiga newsgroups daily.
6) We have started Amiga sponsored forums to get input.
7) I read over 100 emails a day from the Amiga community and reply to many of them.
8) I talk to people in the Amiga community many times a week.
9) Bill McEwen and Darreck Lisle read 100s of email a day and compile the common inputs and questions fo me and other executives.
10) We are establishing an Amiga Advisory Council consisting of prominant Amigans that were nominated by the community.
11) etc ...

As you can see I have had 1000s of interactions with the Amiga community. I wonder if anyone realizes how much effort this is on top of running the company. I wonder if anyone realizes how much travel this is away from my family. I do this because I care about what you think. I listen to the community and think deeply about the input as I set the plans. In order to better understand our plans, there are a few things people should consider:

1) There are many differing opinions in the community about what to do. Many times people are pulling in opposite directions.
2) There isn't a single consistent set of requirements from the community.
3) I am trying to make up for several years of flawed decisions. This has made the situation very difficult. Because of the delay we can't just evolve a product line like most companies would. This also means I inherited a community with little patience (understandable).
4) There are a significant number of variables to consider and its impossible to communicate them all publicly.
5) There are many things that the community doesn't know relative to new technology advancements.
6) We can't share all of our strategic plans publicly.
7) This is an extremely difficult industry to compete in. There are many big players with deep pockets. Microsoft just passed the $500B value mark. We can't just waltz in with a "me too" strategy.
8) We are basically building company from scratch, not just a product. Do people realize how difficult this is to do quickly.
9) There are constraints on budget and resources. We are working as effectively and diligently as we can.
10) There are people that will blast whatever we do. No matter what we do. It's unfortunate for me but they are understandably fed up because of the past.

I know it's frustrating but don't judge me on the last several years. These were screwed up and I didn't have anything to do with it. Judge me on the last 5 months. I am driving Amiga in a way that it hasn't been driven in a long time. As an aggressive, independent, and visionary company. I am balancing technology, business, marketing, and industry dynamics to come up with a plan that gives us a great chance at being a driving force in the computer industry again. We are in a very difficult predicament and I am defining a very strong plan to get us out. It is not easy to understand all of the variables that go into this plan. It's even more difficult to communicate it publicly. This plan requires complex compromises and prioritization and not everyone will understand or agree. Also remember, the first product out is not the end of our roadmap. The only thing I can assure you is that I do care about the community and I listen. I will drive relentlessly and aggressively to bring back Amiga as a driving force. There is 101 things I can do with my career but this is what I have passion for. I need the Amiga community behind me on this or we will fail. We have one last shot. We can't afford to be diverted or distracted. We MUST stand united to succeed.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Jim

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: Let's talk about AmigaObjects
Date: 18 Jul 1999 23:30:37 GMT
Message-id: <7mto2t$cqt$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc

Ruediger Hanke wrote:

good stuff

> The Amiga will be the first computer to almost *enforce* all these > software QUALITIES. It'll be the industry's new darling, melting > all the qualities the industry can dream of into one machine > that supports it all from the start. *The new Amiga will be the > embodiment of the ideal software engineering process* And with > the OE vision, even more... >

This is our goal and we can accomplish it with the proper integration of emerging technologies and standards. Thanks again for helping people expand their thinking beyond a CPU, a graphics chip, and a standard OS.

Jim

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: What about the logo !
Date: 18 Jul 1999 07:47:13 GMT
Message-ID: <7ms0q0$uad$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
I

n article <546.868T2932T133068kentas@moldenett.no>, Fraggel wrote:

> I am just wondering what kind of logo the new machine will get... and i > thought about linux's cute pingu penguin and amigas boingball !

We will continue to use the boingball for sure. Hadn't thought of the penguin. Very creative but we need to be carefull not to be percieved as yet another Linux distribution. There is much more to the new Amiga than Linux. Thanks for the suggestion.

[snip]

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: The future??
Date: 18 Jul 1999 23:23:21 GMT
Message-id: <7mtnl1$cll$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc

fleecy wrote:

> It is the future.
>
> as described by Sony/Toshiba/Philips/Grundig/Matsushuta et all
> as described by MS/Intel/Hitachi/Sega
> as described by Apple
> as described by Symbian
>
> ...and now by Amiga Inc...
>
> It seems revolution is breaking out everywhere...
>
>

Fleecy is correct. There is a new computer revolution on the horizon and many companies are trying to address it. I believe Amiga can drive it and emerge as an industry force. Large established corporations aren't very effective at driving disruptive technologies. History has shown that revolutionary change is driven by small innovative companies.

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: Jim: What's up with the Amiga Advisory Council?
Date: 18 Jul 1999 23:03:39 GMT
Message-id: <7mtmg6$cb1$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
"Steven Folberg" wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Any enlightenment on when the AAC will be announced. I know that
WOA/Amiwest
> and the whole QNX thing has been eating up everyone's time, but any idea when
> the participants' identities will be published?
>
> Thanks.
>

We have compiled the nominations and selected the final candidates. They will be contacted early next week so that we can get their acceptance. We are not planning to release the names until the people have accepted. Many of us are traveling next week to the WoA and AmiWest shows so this will delay the AAC announcement. We should be able to release names the week after next. Thanks for the interest.

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: FAO: Jim Collas, We want to.....
Date: 21 Jul 1999 04:01:44 GMT
Message-id: <7n3gn4$h25$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
In article <379504C8.DB5@gecm.com>,
Steven Matty wrote:

>
> And you anticipate having hardware ready to ship this year?
By the end of the year but it is a very aggressive schedule.

> Due to plan to have orginal Amiga-native applications running on
> the new hardware, or will you make do with existing
> Linux ports for a year or so? (latter sounds more likely to me)
>
> Steve.
>

I expect a handful of Amiga native ports at launch and access to a large number of Linux applications (although not optimized). Expect key apps like word processor and spreadsheet at launch. This partner to be announced at WoA. We should see dozens of Amiga native ports in Q1 and Q2 going to hundreds. Porting and optimizing from standard Linux will take minimum effort.

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: Okay, Amiga asks, but are they listening?
Date: 21 Jul 1999 02:44:35 GMT
Message-id: <7n3c6g$fk3$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
In article <7n2rt6$9u3$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
countchocula_the_1st@yahoo.com wrote:
> Jim, I stand corrected, I see that
> you went far and wide to talk to
> Amiga users and hear their
> comments and suggestions.
> That's great...
>
> But which one of them said,
> "Choose Linux to be a
> guaranteed success and a
> media darling, but don't worry
> if it's a compromise?"

Given all the input I was given I believe that the Linux decision is in the best interest of the Amiga community. The technical concerns will be resolved and we will end up with a unique and impressive Amiga product which also leverages the Linux momentum. We will go into more detail at WoA. Some of the most vocal people were against Linux but my email (over 100 per day) is currently running 70 to 80% pro-Linux.

> You see I'm just a plain end
> user. What i want out of a
> system (that nothing but the
> Amiga Classic offers) is:
>
> Speedy Boot Speed.
> Great Multi-tasking.
> Speedy Application Loading.

We are modifying Linux and will achieve this.

>
> Another thing that makes me
> nervous is that I have not
> heard any endorsements of
> Amiga Inc's plan from the
> Widely Recognized "Amiga
> Luminaires," such as:
> Carl Sassenrath.
> Dave Haynie.
> RJ Mical.
> Joe Torre.
> ..etc..you get the idea.
> Why is that? Surely you would
> want them on your side...
>

Carl is fairly busy with Rebol and not really following Amiga activities so I didn't consider calling him. We have met a few times in the past. You're right that it would be wrth getting his input.

I spent about an hour on the phone with Dave Haynie today. Although still cautious, Dave feels much more comfortable with our decision. I think he believes it's the right choice if we implement the improvements I discussed with him. You should read his most recent Team Amiga post.

Joe Torre and I had a positive email exchange several days ago. I think he is behind our decision.

I have never talked to RJ Mical. Would be interesting.

> Thanks,
> Robert.

Your welcome. I don't take your criticism as negative. I want to hear opposing inputs to help guide me. You just have to remember that I have the complex job of balancing all of the input along with the practical concerns to define a single plan that I feel will be successful.

Sincerely,
Jim

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From: "Jim Collas" <jim.collas@amiga.com>
Subject: Re: How to at least make some Amigans feel better?
Date: 21 Jul 1999 14:26:06 GMT
Message-id: <7n4l9e$tdg$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
In article <3795a4ae$0$85019@news-reader.satin.net>, "Mike Coppins" <askme@usenet.for.my.email.address.and.I.might.give.it.to.you.com> wrote: > Get every decent (or at least high profile) game ported to the Amiga NG! > > We want Quake2/3! > We want Halflife! > > as a quick couple of examples...

You can expect some leading games ported for our launch. This is one of the advantages of the Linux OS foundation. We found that many gaming companies can be encouraged to port games to Linux because of the momentum. Additionally porting to our optimized Amiga platform will not take much additional effort. Should create a snowball effect.

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