
The path to next generation Amiga Operating Environment took a giant step forward with the announcement of the d'Amiga
Developer Workstation. Comprising a hardware and software standard, the system could be assembled and shipped by a
variety of suppliers. At this point, five companies around the world have stepped forward with plans to provide d'Amiga
systems to Amigans who need and want them. The companies are Wonder Computers (Canada), Software Hut (USA),
KDH-Datentechnik (Germany), Unitech Electronics (Australia) and Eyetech (United Kingdom). It's apparent at once that
Amiga Inc. has tapped the global Amiga market to provide around-the-world supply and support for its new development
system.
Amiga World interviewed representatives of all five companies about their plans. We found enthusiasm and excitement from
all who responded as they discussed their work on this stepping-stone into the Amiga future.
A brief recap of the specifications for the d'Amiga may be in order before we continue. As announced in the press
release, the d'Amiga system is a "PC" with 500 MHz AMD K6-11 processor, Gigabyte GA-5AX motherboard, 128 Megabytes of
RAM, 40X CD/ROM drive, high density floppy drive, 10 Gigabyte hard drive, an excellent sound system, 3D graphics and a
networking card. It comes with Linux 6.1 from Redhat preinstalled (except where not available), and the Amiga Software
Developer Kit. It further features the Amiga Inc. developer's support package, at Trailblazer Level, a feature worth
$1000 US if purchased separately. This is an impressive package put together from standard hardware and Amiga
software. Any individual could, in theory, go out and buy the parts - or their equivalents - and build a d'Amiga. That's
not necessary though, thanks to our five dedicated Amiga support companies.
We were very curious as to why the several companies assembling d'Amigas decided to get involved in this venture. The
answers revealed quite a bit about the individual companies, and perhaps the current status of the developing next
generation Amiga market as well.
A history of involvement with, and enthusiasm for, the Amiga and its community clearly play a part. The thoughts of Joe
Muoio, President of Software Hut, are typical. "We have distributed product from Commodore and for the Amiga computer
for many years. When Commodore went out of business we were saddened, but determined to stick with Amiga. It's still one
of the best platforms to do so many applications such as graphics, sounds, video, etc. at a price that cannot be beat.
"When the rights to Amiga were sold to Bill McEwen and company, we scheduled a meeting and were extremely pleased with
the rapid development of their business plan," says Muoio. "We were very interested to help with this and one of the
first things to be done was release developer software so that when released, the new OS will have many applications
ready. At the heart of this plan was an Amiga authorized PC system with Red Hat Linux and the SDK preinstalled. We
wanted to make this available to all our customers.
"We have been very pleased with the response," continues Muoio. "Many sales are going to people and developers who never
owned an Amiga before as well as many of our loyal customers. This should allow for a much wider and complete line of
software as soon as the new OS is ready to go."
The answer from Mark Habinski of Wonder Computers in Canada points out the wisdom of Amiga's use of common hardware
components. "We were excited at the prospect of being able to integrate our PC assembly experience with our Amiga sales
background," explains Habinski. "As an Amiga user myself, I am particularly happy to be able to contribute towards the
creation of a new generation of Amigas."
Across the Atlantic in Germany, Günter Horbach KDH-Datentechnik put it this way. "Well, this is the first project for
the new Amiga and we wanted to be part of this new beginning. We hope that the d'Amiga will attract the Amiga developers
and developers from other platforms to take their chances and develop for the new machines. For the community it is the
first active sign that there is something happening behind the scene and the time of announcements only is over."
From Australia, Jeffrey G. Rose of Unitech Electronics gave us this answer: "We are firmly committed to the Future Amiga
and we fully believe that the Amiga has a great future. This is why we have committed our resources to the d'Amiga
project, to enable Amiga users here in Australia to...develop for this new revolutionary package..."
Since d'Amiga is in fact composed of standard "off the shelf" parts put together by its suppliers, some interesting
possibilities develop. Without violating the concept of having a common Amiga platform, it's possible for differences to
exist among the various units. We asked d'Amiga producers about regional variations, and determined there will be
some. In part, this has to do with the vagaries of the Linux world.
"Because no retail versions of Red Hat 6.1 are available in Europe," explains Eyetech's Alan Redhouse of the UK, "we are
shipping all systems with SuSE Linux 6.4 on a bootable/installable CD." Amiga Inc. has approved this
idea. "We have chosen this route for several reasons. SuSE's European support is excellent. It is also the most widely
installed Linux distribution in Europe. The SDK installs and runs [on SuSE] without problems. The graphic-based
installer automatically detects all supported hardware components in each of our four hardware platform levels. The
optional retail package from SuSE is an outstanding value, containing a full 500+ page reference manual, easy to
understand beginners get-you-going guide, 60 days of support and six full CD's. This full pack retails (from us) at just
$38"
One thing to bear in mind in light of the comment about the various Linux implementations is that the new Amiga
Operating Environment can run on many different host operating systems. Linux is merely the initial target operating
system. Many Amigans may not yet have grasped the tremendous flexibility of the new Amiga environment: The fact that it
has the potential to run on just about anything that can compute, regardless of operating system or even whether it has
an operating system at all.
Once you have your d'Amiga and begin using it, you'll be in a position rare for recent Amiga owners. You'll be able to
upgrade the basic platform with the wide variety of "PC" peripherals available, as well as adding other operating
systems if that's necessary. In Germany, KDH is already looking at various possibilities for its
customers. "We offer different upgrades to the standard machine," says Mr. Horbach. "Our customers can select different
sizes of hard drives, different sizes of the graphic board, etc."
You'll want to ensure, though, that your work will run on the basic system as delivered. Mr. Rose of Unitech underscored
the importance of this fact. "Our d'Amiga is kept to the standard recipe as laid down in the suggested guidelines by
Amiga Inc. and this was done for good reason, too. For instance," continues Rose, "if everyone out there is doing their
own thing then we have chaos on a large scale. If on the other hand, everyone uses the same machine to develop, there is
uniformity of development. No one developer can claim his/her software runs better or more efficiently if they were
using a faster CPU [for development]. This also keeps error checking and discussions at the same base level, so problems
can be solved by duplicating a series of events on any one given machine anywhere around the world. Standardization of
the d'Amiga has its valued merits at this point in time."
As the new Amiga market develops, there's nothing to prevent the basic technology from growing to provide more power and
options for the "power user" down the road, all based squarely on the d'Amiga foundation. Obviously there are many
tantalizing d'Amiga possibilities for the developer of all levels, and the number of possibilities is still evolving.
One of the key elements of the d'Amiga package is the emphasis Amiga Inc. is putting on support. As noted above, the
system comes with Amiga's Trailblazer level developer support package. This is a great value and includes 24-hour
turnaround on issues, all developer materials, the online Developer Mall and other Web accessible tools, online
developer docs, and a great deal more.
We asked the several companies how they intend to support their d'Amiga models in light of this strong emphasis on
support from Amiga. All plan to offer direct support of their products, primarily through email and telephone. Software
Hut and Unitech also made reference to their companies' Web pages. Most, however, were quick to point out that the most
important support users will receive is the developer support from Amiga itself. This is one of the benefits of
purchasing a d'Amiga from one of these authorized vendors, rather than assembling a system yourself.
Before we finished our conversations with d'Amiga producers, we tried to get some of their feelings for and philosophies
about doing business in the current, changing Amiga market. We were also curious about the future they saw d'Amiga
leading us toward. Joe Muoio sees the d'Amiga as a leading straight to the Amiga One computer, planned for the near
future.
"The d'Amiga is the stepping stone to the future development of the Amiga One machine," mused Software Hut's Muoio. "We
are focusing our efforts in selling the d'Amiga at this time in order to enable and encourage the many great developers
we have in this market and beyond to create software for the next generation of Amiga computers. We are very proud to
bring this system to the US market on Amiga's behalf."
"The Amiga market here in Sydney, Australia has not always been easy to deal with," explains Unitech's Jeffery Rose
"...sales are very much price driven and as such a price-point marketed New Amiga will be seen here as a bargain when
compared to any alternatives."
"We hope to attract new developers, especially from the Linux market," says KDH's Mr. Horbach. "However, it's too early
to say if this will happen." From what we've seen, it appears likely developers from many markets, including the Linux
camp, will at least investigate the new machines, but time alone will tell where the new Amiga developers will come
from.
All the companies we talked to were pleased at the opportunity to help bring to market the first new Amiga development
system in a long time. Their common enthusiasm is perhaps expressed the strongest by Wonder's
Mr. Habinski. "It's very early to comment, but I believe the initial demand for d'Amiga systems bodes very well for the
future of the Amiga market. Keep the faith, long live the Amiga! The new machines will knock the socks off of the
market. I look forward to welcoming back many former Amiga users in the months and years to come."
The very capable d'Amiga development system has an equally capable global network of companies to back it. This
combination has positioned d'Amiga as both a good and readily available tool to lead the development of the new Amiga
software library.