@I Regret That I Have But One Life To Give For My Amiga @

    It's getting tougher and tougher to keep a bright and cheery 
 disposition.    

    After all, as I write this, we're just days away from the 10th month of
 Commodore's liquidation, and all we have to show for it are a load of
 promises, magazine articles promising a quick solution, and what seems 
 like a gigabyte of Usenet articles proclaiming that Company X has REALLY
 bought out Commodore!

    What has that meant for the Amiga community?  It was hardly growing at 
 a breakneck pace while Commodore was hanging by a thread, aside from 
 making inroads into Europe's game console market.  Now, of course, both 
 the user and the developer bases are eroding.

    At the same time, we're looking at new, seemingly bizarre products.  A
 "laptop" about the size of a 3000, Bring Your Own Motherboard.  A
 pseudo-clone in production with an astronomical price but capable of
 powering the VLab Motion non-linear videotape editing system.  And at 
 least 3 independent projects to replace the Amiga OS with something 
 similar.
 
    Certainly, these aren't signs of rejuvination, but of innovation-
 workarounds for problems that can't be solved in the conventional manner
 anymore.

    So, what is there to do?  Bail out of the Amiga market?  I've given it 
 a bit of thought myself.  Then it occurred to me-there is absolutely no 
 good reason to.  I don't rely on my computer for income, I rely on it for
 entertainment, and I'm getting that much.  Besides, the "other" computers
 will likely always be there for you later, so why not ride the storm out
 now and see where it leads?

    Clearly, those who DO rely on their machine for money are faced with
 serious quandries, and I feel for them, and understand when they switch 
 machines.  But that can't be helped.

    What does the future hold?  A huge challenge.  It can be argued that a
 new computer platform has not been successfully introduced to the mass 
 market in  over 10 years-if you define success by "The parent company 
 still exists", that would be the Macintosh.  Any new company is faced 
 with having to beat those odds.

    What's the key?  Software, of course.  The purchasing perception of the
 mass market is based on the availablility of software-usually a few catchy
 and popular titles.  I would submit that grabbing one major developer in 
 the business field would be sufficient.  MicroSoft would be a logical, but
 unsavory, choice.  Aldus/Adobe would be nice.  Novell wouldn't hurt.  A 
 few others would fit the bill-with their software suite ported to the 
 Amiga, it would appear to be a "serious" contender.

    On the other side of the coin, winning the consideration of a major 
 software publisher is critical.  Electronic Arts would be the most logical
 choice-their sales figures are absolutely staggering, and they would bring
 some of the "hottest multimedia titles", especially through Origin.

    CEI, Commodore UK, and whoever else thinks they want a shot need to 
 court these players now, or the Amiga may be dead-on-rearrival.



                              **************************************
                              *Jason Compton is the Editor-in-Chief*
                              *of Amiga Report, possibly the best  *
                              *Amiga online mag(not including Amiga*.  
                              *Link, ofcourse).  He also contribute*
                              *to Amiga Game Zone.  With all this  *
                              *running around, it's no wonder he's *
                              *one of the most respected Amiga     *
                              *experts around!  He can be reached  *
                              *at:                                 *
                              *jcompton@xnet.com                   *   
                              **************************************