From: "fleecy moss" <fleecy@netreach.net>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: A critical point for *all* to consider.
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 18:32:15 -0400

Jim Collas wrote in message <7mb0j8$5df$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...

>Fleecy,
>
>As you know from personal conversations we have had in the past I
>respect your opinion tremendously. I don't want to undermine your
>opinion because it is valuable but your are making some assumptions
>that aren't accurate. I know it is a result of not having all of the
>facts and this is partly my fault. I just wish you had given me a
>personal call before forming an opinion. My office has always been open
>to you. In hindsight, I should have called you but my schedule has been
>a bit hectic. I think you would have a different opinion of the
>situation if you knew more. Let me give you one example:

Jim,

I have a lot of respect for you as well, and I wish you well, but
what you have to convince me is that you have the best wishes of the
existing community at heart, and that you understand them.

1. The Amiga community arose around the classic Amiga - whatever
that was - we know our OS and HW intimately - we pride ourselves on
a simple motto, elegance through simplicity. That is why we stuck
by it, because it empowered us, it wooed us, it allowed us to get into
its very guts.  Your new machine is not, and never will replace that.
It may be wonderful, and form its own community around it, it may not,
but we have very specific ideas about what  we want.

2. Your target has and always will be the digital convergence mass
market. Gateway knows it will be in trouble soon, and needs alternate
revenue streams. I wish you all the luck in the world in that, but that
requires a very specific product, one targeted at OEMs, giving
them the pieces they need to quickly build and ramp up their products.
This fits in very well with your description of an Operating Environment,
and your statement concering the underlying OS - although if
you think Linux is better than QNX for this then you are in so a surprise.
The only reason you could think this is if you were going to hope for a
HW boost with the Transmeta chip, the chip both Sony and Nintendo
rejected as being too underpowered and which, from all the rumours
flying, is a pretty big disappointment. Still, my poin here is that if
you really are after the DC market, just tell us. Amigans want work
stations, they want an OS they can thoroughly rip through, not an
OE that tells us how to look at the world. We are drivers, not passengers.

>
>With or without Amiga, QNX has been planning to release the "personal"
>QNX OS. This was started before Amiga contacted QNX and wasn't done
>specifically for the Amiga community. Amiga was just going to use the
>QNX OS kernel and key pieces of "personal" QNX as a foundation for our
>new OE. The same thing we are planning to do with Linux. QNX's desires
>to launch a new O/S for everybody and anybody not just the Amiga
>community. They got the Amiga community intro from us so they want to
>capitalize on it. QNX is doing a good job putting their own marketing
>spin on this situation to attract the Amiga community and some of you
>are buying it. In my opinion their statements are misleading. It was my
>assessment that QNX would have launched personal QNX into the Amiga
>community even if we had reached an agreement with them. You can see
>where I would have an issue with this. It would have confused and split
>the community as they are attempting to do now.

How about I paint you another picture. You can rip this one apart if you
want,
and Dan may never answer it, but here goes.

Amiga Inc and QNX come to a loose agreement just before the Cologne show,
allowing Dan and crew to stand up at the show and make their promises.
QNX go back and begin their part whilst Allan goes back and tries to begin
his, but for some reason, he can't, a blockage that has only just been
removed
in the past few months.  The reason is because Gateway want to climb on the
Linux bandwagon, but they can't do themselves because that would
jeapordise their relationship with MS. They thus begin to pressure Amiga
to drop QNX and use Linux, but this is difficult since you have already
signed
an agreement. So instead of telling QNX, you let them proceed, whilst
checking
out to see if the Linux path is feasible, not whether it is a technically
superior
solution, but whether it is just feasible. QNX, poor dumb sods, just proceed
onwards. This is where it gets foggier. Something triggered QNX announcing
that they had finished, probably finding out that you were going to drop
them.
Quite how you kept them going for so long is beyond me, but "difficulties"
in negotiations can always be manufactured and drawn out to one,
benefits. Anyway, they now have all this code, the interest of the Amiga
community, and what are they supposed to do; and maybe, maybe they
even thought that by announcing, you may reconsider, but of course not
knowing the real reason. But now Amiga Inc is mad because the
community, as technically savvy as it is,  knows that any technical
excuses given would be hard for them to swallow. So now a charm offensive
begins, with vague suggestions of mispractice against QNX, but not
enough to incur any legal challenges.

Of course this is all pure speculation.

Personal QNX - I would expect that after having spent all that time and
money
developing the pieces for Amiga Inc that they would do something with it.
If they do have a product called that, then I'll try it. I've apparently
already
tried the NG Amiga because I have Red Hat on my machine. When the
Amiga Inc OE application layer comes out, I'll try that as well.

But Jim, to be honest, this isn't really about OS choices, or partners.  If
QNX
thought they had to make that announcement, that means they knew you had
dropped them, so when were you going to tell us, the poor saps who've been
drooling over the QNX specs for the past nine months? You have a great PR
guy in Bill McEwen, one who really understands the community. You
should use him a lot more.
>
>I just wanted to give you a taste of how much there is to know about
>this situation before taking sides. It is impossible to make an
>accurate assessment of this situation from the outside because it is a
>complex situation that we are not at liberty to discuss. I apologize
>again for not talking to you personally about this. Please give me a
>call early next week.

It is not about sides. It is about where the community wants to go,
and who will best honour that. If you want to build an DC
middleware for Linux then good for you - god knows it needs one -
but the Amiga is a platform, not an application that runs on someone
elses. We just to have atomic arguments about whether Amiga
was HW, or SW, whether the chipset or the OS, or both made it
an Amiga. Now we find you want to make an OE layer where the HW
and the underlying OS doesn't matter.

It may be a computer Jim, but not as we know it;-)

Send me lisa's number again. I haven't got it anymore.


>
>Sincerely,
>Jim
>
>
>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Share what you know. Learn what you don't.