Darreck Lisle at the Amiga Users of the Heartland Meeting

Darreck Lisle, Amiga Inc.'s utility infielder (event coordinator, PR man,
and pretty much anything else necessary until a full staff gets hired),
spoke last week at an Amiga user group meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.  Set on
the grill, this is the summation of the Q&A session that ensued.

Q:  Should we buy AmigaOS 3.1?
A:  Yes--you will need the ROMs for the updated AmigaOS anyway.

Q:  Is graphics card compatibility going to be built into the next OS release?
A: Yes--some type of RTG standard should be included as well as an AHI-type
of standard.

Q:  How long should we expect to wait before we see new systems?
A:  Probably around a year.

Q:  Are there any other enhancements to the Amiga you foresee?
A:  Possibly support for the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

Q:  What is Amiga, Inc.'s position on UAE, the Amiga emulator available
    for Microsoft and UNIX?  
A:  The current practice of pirating Amiga ROMs will be cracked down
    on shortly.

Q:  What does Amiga, Inc. think about Java?
A:  We would like to see Java in the next OS, but there is still a lot to be
    done in this area.

Q:  Are we going to see any of the current operating system hacks, such as
    MUI, built into a future AmigaOS?
A:  Possibly--however, MUI is too large and bulky to consider making it an
    integral part of the OS.  A TCP stack is a definite possibility.

Q:  Will the prices of existing systems be dropped, like say $1000 off the
    existing A4000T prices?
A:  Yes--Amiga motherboards are quite simple in design so cost should
    reduce, especially after improvements are made to the current design,
    such as optimization of the existing custom chip set.

Q:  Will Amiga, Inc. be coordinating with third parties?
A:  Yes--that is one of the main goals of Amiga, Inc.