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From: Martin Hilpert, hima0011@fh-karlsruhe.de, GERMANY

concerning: AR #227
            "A Letter to ID...", George Sanderson
            "Musings", Aric R. Caley
            "AmItalia", Gabriele Peterle
            other 'Amiga Fan' stuff ...

Hello, everybody!

I read AR for about 1 year now. And as you may see, I'm a german Amiga
owner. So, please forgive my english, which is not so well.

Especially, I can't agree with Aric's ideas of how to 'save' the Amiga!
It's much easier than many of you think it is, 'cos it's just business!
And business doesn't demand further tons of Amiga's like they exist
nowadays. I don't think, flooding the world with ... yes, OLD Amigas is
the solution to make the future of our Amiga a better place.  :-)

Commodore did wait much to long to offer a new model with better
capabilities of graphic, sound, CPU-Power. I think, the only way to
restore the Amiga's state as it was in good, old A500, A1000 and A2000
times, is to sell a totally new machine with 24 Bit graphics, 16 Bit
sound and a new, fast CPU like the PowerPC 601. Well, the 68060 is good
enough, too. But I'd prefer the PowerPC due to the future and the
competition with others like Apple.

I was one of the very first Amiga owner's. I spend all my money 1986 and
bought a brandnew computer (architecture). And why? You all should know
it: one computer - all posibilities! (Graphic, Sound, Custom-Chips, ...)
That's the reason why I would buy another Amiga. I don't have to buy
sound-card's and graphic-board's. Every Amiga was born with 8 Bit sound.
So, every software can fall back on this ability! And so it is with all
the other Amiga stuff: what's in every Amiga, that can be used by every
Software! No silly driver's, for each board another driver. But the last
years, there's a similar trend like it ever was with the PC's. Now, you
can buy many graphic-card's for the Amiga. And every card needs a special
Software. Is that the future of Amiga? I hope not.

And to avoid such a development, there has to be new Amigas without the
need to buy several card's which includes dependency of small companies
... -> GVP :-(

I still have my Amiga 1000! PAL, ECS, 2MB Chip Mem, 68020, 68881, OS 2.1,
100 MB HD. And I'm still happy with it! But in case a new Amiga with
features like I mentioned above come out, I'll spend all my money again!
And I know several other Amiga owners just waiting for such an Amiga!

Don't produce new Amiga models like the A500, A2000 or A3000! They were
just a small step ahead. No new generation of PERSONAL Computers like the
Amiga 1000 was it!


Hmmm ... this should go to Commodore, I think. Amiga Report should make
a survey to ask
1. how many Amiga users are there? (at least)
2. what Amiga models do they have?
3. how much money would they spend for a new, perfect Amiga model?

In my case I would spend about DM 5.000 ($ 3.500) for it. What about you?

Have a nice day!   :-)


-   I, personally, am not in a position to spend $3,500 on a new Amiga
    system...but I'll gladly take one for review.

From: Paul@Grafix.wlink.nl

After reading numerous AR's and many enthusiastic letter from fellow
Amiga-lovers I decided to add my own two cents, (sorry to coin that corny
phrase). Why? Because I finally accepted that if the Amigian  doesn't talk
about Amiga's himself, no-one will. I the past I always assumed the 'big-shots'
from C= would do that work for me, reasoning: "It's their job, I suppose they
know more about it than I do". Unfortunately my trust in the people that were
leading the company that produced the machine I lost my soul to weren't the
kind of people I held them to be. While C= was in it's death struggle I, for
some time, still didn't lose confidence that it all would get well. Then there
was a period of time that everything went black, C= seized to exist... I must
add that at that time, I could not care less, since a lot of the people that
would loose their jobs apply to the saying: "Good riddance to old rubbish".
Unfortunately also a lot of good people lost their place in the future of the
Amiga and were forced to join other companies; Scala to name one.

But now, a sprinkle of hope is finding its way back with the plans of C=UK, or
rather "Amiga International" trying to get the Amiga back on track again. Let's
hope that finally rising from the ashes of C= a company comes to existence with
management that really believes in the Amiga, and does the marketing for the
Amiga that should have been done ages ago.

A lot of things have been said about David Pleasance, and he has said quite a
few things himselve in the past that should better not be repeated here (he
tends to see things a bit too much on the bright side) but one thing can be
said for him; He sure believes in the Amiga, he's certainly not in it for the
cash. Further more, he's our only hope for the moment, and he is somebody who
_does_ act now to try and secure the Amiga's future. If he gets the deal, I'll
be very glad, for two reasons: The first one being that at least there will be
hope again, and last but not least, finally a man that believes in the Amiga
will be at the helm of the company. His statements about renaming the company
to Amiga-international, sub-licensing the architecture and keeping in touch
with the users ensure me that he is a man of vision, I hope he also is a man of
his word. That we'll have to see in the future.

Love a machine? Get real!

Some people find it hard to understand the love that I have for something as
lifeless as a machine. I can understand that, it must look very silly to other
people to see a grown man so involved with what they consider a
"big-boy's-toy". It's more than that though. Studying computer-science I
stumbled upon the Amiga now more than eight years ago as it was introduced to
me by a schoolmate.

Since that moment this machine has been a constant factor in my life. If
anything, a computer is a accumulation of abstract thoughts, from the ideas
that the hardware-scientist had when dreaming up the chipset up to the visions
of the software-guys while creating the operation system. Getting to know your
computer, all you do is find one idea after another, some might even be
compelling, like MS-DOS is to me. But once in a while you find something that
makes you go "Hey.. that's _smart!_". You will understand what my overall
feelings were when I started exploring the Amiga and started programming it.
Finding one jewel after the other made me fall in love with this computer.
Wouldn't you? If you met a pretty, slim and smart lady, that even has her
moments of humor (remember Fred and Wilma?) in a world of fat gray dressed
women wearing ties only talking about work? I guess I've proven my point ;-)

As of this moment I can do nothing but sit and wait... will the return of the
Amiga be a victory? WILL there be a return? Will it finally become a computer
that is regognised for its power and ease of use? Will it be marketed?

Or will my next computer be a SGI...
(Don't expect me to take a step back!)

David, you are my last hope.. Please(ance) go ahead, and make my day!

-    There are other people involved than Pleasance...but it's your
     opinion and now everybody else knows it.  :)