So as most of you saw probably, we now offer a package called OS4 OpenLinux + Amiga Forever. I saw some questions in another forum post that I thought I would answer.

First, why are we offering this package? Because some of you have asked us why not carry Amiga Forever. We contacted Cloanto, got the package and we were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the product. That coupled with our best of breed Linux distro seemed like a slam dunk and even though 13.5 wasnt shipped with any kind of emu tech, on our shipping release we did. So that the user wont have to go back and install what they need its built in.

Second, as they release new versions of Amiga Forever we will bundle those. It wont be just an Amiga Forever 2013 -- FOREVER type scenario. We are also planning a specific hardware based product that revolves around Amiga Forever, but we will talk about that later when MCB and I have a chance to discuss it. I dont want to make promises I cant keep and I hope others can allow themselves to be distracted for just one second so we can discuss the others that we hope to fulfill

Third, yes some of you have said that you can go get a 500 dollar box, install Linux and download UAE and buy Amiga Forever and you can do that but, remember for 500 dollars you get a 500 dollar PC. I suggest our 500 dollar PC, the BriQ, which is perhaps the best high quality 500 dollar PC. OS4 OpenLinux is fully integrated and all you have to do is buy Amiga Forever, that way you dont have to worry about downloading Linux Mint and wondering if it will support every piece of hardware in your 500 dollar PC. On a side not, I installed Amiga Forever on the BriQ as thats one of my main test machines and it runs blazingly fast.

Fourth, what the value add of buying OS4 OpenLinux with Amiga Forever. Very simple, goodbye Windows. You get a Linux distribution that is super easy to use, super fast and it looks GOOD. On a more serious note more and more of our users are telling us that what they need to run on Windows is diminishing and they are more and more working totally in OS4 OpenLinux. We worked with H&R Block during tax season, we will do that again it was lots of fun. We are bringing that power and usability + Amiga Forever to you guys. And we are doing it FOR the Amiga community and those that WANT to use that technology. Its there if you want it, I dont lose any money by offering it

Fifth, how far does our support of AROS go? full speed ahead. Once we get the ball rolling, no pun intended, AROS will have our full support. Now, we look at AROS as forward looking technology on x86 hardware not just an emulation layer to run classic apps. As its popularity grows, and we want it too. We encourage development on that platform. If it grows that it displaces OS4 OpenLinux on our hardware and sales, unlike other companies who would pull the plug just to protect their offering, we wont. Our hope is to get OS4 OpenLinux and AROS on x86, and OS4 PowerLinux and AmigaOS on PowerPC, to be complimentary to one another not to displace one with the other and definately not to run the AmigaOS over with a steamroller. True bipatisanship. On our PowerPC offerings, when they come along, the AmigaOS will be the primary choice to customers. Our Linux distribution, OS4 PowerLinux will be the enterprise choice and an alternative for desktop customers.

Now, onto our hardware. I have constantly heard feedback from you guys regarding our hardware. Some of you say its too expensive, others have said its just a ACER box what makes it so special. Well, we are not that super expensive. We are cheaper than CUSA was, also the way contemporary hardware works is that the manufacturer tells us how much we can charge for the box. ACER supports OS4, any other release of Linux shipped back to ACER, it voids your warranty or they tell you to reinstall Windows and send it back. With OS4, they fully support it. They have restore media so if you need a hard drive or SSD replacement, they replace it with OS4 OpenLinux and or OS4 Enterprise Linux. We are the ONLY distribution of Linux they support on their consumer hardware. Not Linux Mint, not Red Hat, not Debian. Thats what myself and a few others spent last November doing, helping to train their support staff. Our deal with ACER is that any warranty work, they honor it. They dont resell OS4 OpenLinux yet, will they ever? I hope so. Now, Cybernet is the same. They support us all the way, if you decide to order direct from them and request OS4, they will preinstall for you as they do with Red Hat and SUSE, they preinstall OS4 Enterprise Linux so you do have to download a few programs you MUST have. But some of you guys consistently have this belief we build in this HUGE profit into our hardware and you would be shocked if you knew how false that assumption was. Oh and the feedback that we charge shipping, surprise EVERYONE charges you shipping, but here is a standing promise to just you, the Amiga Community, if you order at least 3 machines from me, shipping is FREE, sound fair?

Now, Im going to answer the question regarding the Vision 64. No, the BIOS screen does not flash a picture of Barry Altman. Completely false. Its a standard PC that we codenamed in honor of Barry. Its got no secret CUSA stuff in there. We felt that this keyboard AIO was an awesome deal and its an amazing machine, and yes Cybernet sent me one, I havent set it up yet but at least Im not waiting like I am for my 64x.

Once again, my e-mail rjdohnert_at_gmail.com and we will be on Ashachat tomorrow night after 6 pm US Eastern Time if you guys want to speak to me directly. I also want to thank those of you who have been friendly and offered us feedback and have been positive about our involvement. You have helped us on our journey and have definately gotten our creative juices flowing and have brought the excitement back for us. For those of you that have sent me e-mail that you hope that my children die of cancer and that I drop dead or get rolled in a fiery car crash, I want to thank you too. Even though you arent very fond of the things we are doing to help the community, and you despise our involvement in the Amiga community. You opened a dialog with us, and ALL dialog is good in my book. Thank you to EVERYONE, we appreciate you and we look forward to offering you great software and hardware, whether Linux, AROS or the Amiga OS.

http://www.os4online.com

http://www.os4online.com/2013/07/licensing-amiga-forever-and-fs-uae.html

Last edited by RobertJDohnert on 14-Jul-2013 at 08:08 AM.
Last edited by RobertJDohnert on 14-Jul-2013 at 08:05 AM.

_________________
http://www.pc-opensystems.com

@RobertJDohnert

Quote:

Third, yes some of you have said that you can go get a 500 dollar box, install Linux and download UAE and buy Amiga Forever and you can do that but, remember for 500 dollars you get a 500 dollar PC. I suggest our 500 dollar PC, the BriQ, which is perhaps the best high quality 500 dollar PC. OS4 OpenLinux is fully integrated and all you have to do is buy Amiga Forever, that way you dont have to worry about downloading Linux Mint and wondering if it will support every piece of hardware in your 500 dollar PC. On a side not, I installed Amiga Forever on the BriQ as thats one of my main test machines and it runs blazingly fast.

I would be more interested some sort of Core i5 or Core i3 (or something that uses that technology) computer that fully supported AROS and came with a working AROS with everything fully functional. That means Ethernet 1000Mbps, audio, 2D accelerated gfx.

AFAIK AROS can't make use of the 4 cores in my core i5 machine so a machine like that but with only 1 core would be ok for AROS.

But if you have invented a way to use the other cores as helper cores to perform some function in AROS then that would be great too.

If a 4-core chip is only slightly more than a 1 core chip then you should just go ahead and do a 4-core chip. It seems like ARM is handing out extra cores for free these days maybe Intel will see the writing on the wall and do the same.

And fyi, I would rather run Linux and AROS on Arm. That means Ouya, that means Raspberry Pi, that means various Tablets. And there is a lot more coming. Arm is taking over.

_________________
Wanna try a wonderfull magical Amiga strategy game?
Total Chaos AGA

@RobertJDohnert
What a load of crap, get a banner ad if you feel you need advertising.
And keep in mind this is a global forum and what you're stating about Acer is simply not true (at least not for Denmark) and would be illegal here.

Quote:

..is that the manufacturer tells us how much we can charge for the box

Quote:

ACER supports OS4, any other release of Linux shipped back to ACER, it voids your warranty or they tell you to reinstall Windows and send it back.

_________________

http://www.os4online.com/2013/07/progress-report-on-aros-support.html

_________________
http://www.pc-opensystems.com

@RobertJDohnert

Does your OS4OpenLinux distro include the following commands with full source code?

List
Copy
Sort
Info
Frags
If
EndIf
Else

I often write DOS scripts (AMIGADOS).

I refuse to use primitive stoneage linux dos that stopped evolving in the 1970s.

I would not mind buying a linux system that had AmigaDOS style cli commands. As long as they came with source code so I could fix all the bugs I find.

Take care that List and Copy operate on your OS4OpenLinux exactly as they do on AmigaOS. Like English.

_________________
Wanna try a wonderfull magical Amiga strategy game?
Total Chaos AGA

@Troels

Well, Acer. I speak with them on a daily basis, probably the second or third phone call every morning. Im sure that if they have a problem with what I state anywhere, Im pretty sure they will get back to me and correct me on it.

Thank you Troels

_________________
http://www.pc-opensystems.com

@RobertJDohnert
I'm sure they couldn't care any less.
Still your statements are simply not true.

_________________

@Troels

Yeah, they are pretty accurate from my standpoint. So I guess we can agree to disagree.

Thanks again.

_________________
http://www.pc-opensystems.com

@Troels

i think if some help to bring back amiga i love amiga back in 80`s and still do it only computer that i miss i now use amiga forever and amikit and aros on ibm and aros on my new raspberry.pi .
we need bring back amiga back to life with help from good hardwhare and softwhare if it meain help from ibm apple or linux so be it ....

p.s sorry if i have spell something not right

_________________
maybe i am dyslexia

An Apple a day keep bill gates away

@RobertJDohnert

if you install and configure AROS 68k I would recommend you to preinstall WHDLoad there.

More informations on it:
http://www.whdload.de/

It fully works and if you use the replacement ROMs in it (you can look at my distribution how to) many games work (without needing ROMs from Amiga Forever). You must only copy the ROM replacements (aros-rom.bin from boot) a couple of times and copy it in Devs/Kickstarts.

They must be renamed in: kick33180.A500 kick34005.A500 kick40063.A600 kick40068.A1200 kick40068.A4000

http://www.aros-platform.de/html/compatibility.html

Ignition (a spreadsheet) is another nice program

Last edited by OlafS25 on 14-Jul-2013 at 10:03 AM.
Last edited by OlafS25 on 14-Jul-2013 at 09:39 AM.

@RobertJDohnert

Sounds like a reasonable plan wrt AROS (ie achievable).

Regarding the abusive e-mails (wishing harm to you and your family) - is that for real? One would expect that in the last two decades Amiga fans would have grown up. Sadly not it would seem.

I'm curious though as to why you never mention MorphOS for PPC hardware (excepting the one comment on your Q&A when you mention possible driver development as an afterthought 'maybe even for MorphOS')? You do realise it is made by some of the greatest coders from the Amiga's heyday (example: Frank Mariak, creater of CyberGraphX), has the best support for web browsing (ie the key user technology of today) of all the Amiga-oid OSes (eg included browser has better html5 support than Safari 6 & IE 10, supports Google docs, Youtube, etc, even has a basic flash plugin).

If you have a PPC Mac lying around, I suggest you give it a try. For free of course.

Last edited by Boot_WB on 14-Jul-2013 at 09:45 AM.

_________________
Troll - n., A disenfranchised former potential customer who remains interested enough to stay informed and express critical opinions.
opp., the vast majority who voted silently with their feet.

@Boot_WB
Quote:

Regarding the abusive e-mails (wishing harm to you and your family) - is that for real? One would expect that in the last two decades Amiga fans would have grown up. Sadly not it would seem.

People should be old enough now to understand it's just a computer. Emails like that must be from some really sad individuals.

_________________

@Troels

"my children die of cancer and that I drop dead or get rolled in a fiery car crash"

my father died of cancer and I am ashamed for persons who call themselves "amigans" and send such emails

@RobertJDohnert

Popcorn !! Where is my popcorn ????????????????

_________________
- We don't need good ideas, we haven't run out on bad ones yet
- blame Canada

@Kronos
i can give you a coke.....;)

Last edited by netrot on 14-Jul-2013 at 11:28 AM.
Last edited by netrot on 14-Jul-2013 at 11:22 AM.

@RobertJDohnert

Quote:

. Second, as they release new versions of Amiga Forever we will bundle those. It wont be just an Amiga Forever 2013 -- FOREVER type scenario.

OK, nice license It would be good to work with Cloanto on Linux version of their AF interfrace and features. Until then it means legal ROMs and game library, right? But we do get AF Premium anyway?

Quote:

Third, yes some of you have said that you can go get a 500 dollar box, install Linux and download UAE and buy Amiga Forever and you can do that but, remember for 500 dollars you get a 500 dollar PC. I suggest our 500 dollar PC, the BriQ, which is perhaps the best high quality 500 dollar PC

Here in 500$ PC category that offers Linux, AROS and Amiga Forever you do compete with AresOne series.

Quote:

that way you dont have to worry about downloading Linux Mint and wondering if it will support every piece of hardware in your 500 dollar PC.

OK I understand its a choices of PC components that works well in Linux, in this case OS4 Open Linux . But Mint lately does even better automatic driver support then Windows, so chose your words wisely

Quote:

Very simple, goodbye Windows. You get a Linux distribution that is super easy to use, super fast and it looks GOOD. On a more serious note more and more of our users are telling us that what they need to run on Windows is diminishing and they are more and more working totally in OS4 OpenLinux.

I suppose these reads as Linux is fast and WINE is included?

Quote:

Fifth, how far does our support of AROS go? full speed ahead. Once we get the ball rolling, no pun intended, AROS will have our full support. Now, we look at AROS as forward looking technology on x86 hardware not just an emulation layer to run classic apps. As its popularity grows, and we want it too. We encourage development on that platform. If it grows that it displaces OS4 OpenLinux on our hardware and sales, unlike other companies who would pull the plug just to protect their offering, we wont.

Good. Beside AresOne, AROS has no dedicated hardware line and bounty support or external developers. Lets see how that works.

Quote:

Our hope is to get OS4 OpenLinux and AROS on x86, and OS4 PowerLinux and AmigaOS on PowerPC, to be complimentary to one another not to displace one with the other and definately not to run the AmigaOS over with a steamroller. True bipatisanship. On our PowerPC offerings, when they come along, the AmigaOS will be the primary choice to customers. Our Linux distribution, OS4 PowerLinux will be the enterprise choice and an alternative for desktop customers.

This is kind of new goal, beside developing OS4 Linux for PPC.
a) Does it mean long term support to AROS PPC and porting x86 AROS apps to PPC AROS?
b) Does it mean agreement with Acube/A-EON?

Again, here you might compete with existing PPC distros (Ubuntu, Debian, light PPC MINT) as well as with AresOne PPC that should offer MorphOS too ...

Quote:

We are the ONLY distribution of Linux they support on their consumer hardware. Not Linux Mint, not Red Hat, not Debian

Bold statement, just the ACER or all other manufacturers from the store?

Quote:

Now, Im going to answer the question regarding the Vision 64. No, the BIOS screen does not flash a picture of Barry Altman. Completely false. Its a standard PC that we codenamed in honor of Barry. Its got no secret CUSA stuff in there. We felt that this keyboard AIO was an awesome deal and its an amazing machine, and yes Cybernet sent me one, I havent set it up yet but at least Im not waiting like I am for my 64x.

What is Vision 64? Used to be codename for unrealized CommodoreOS
Ah, its Cybernet, old friend from early CUSA days. And no wait time, like with C64x.
So the software vision became hardware vision ...

Quote:

For those of you that have sent me e-mail that you hope that my children die of cancer and that I drop dead or get rolled in a fiery car crash, I want to thank you too. Even though you arent very fond of the things we are doing to help the community, and you despise our involvement in the Amiga community. You opened a dialog with us, and ALL dialog is good in my book. Thank you to EVERYONE, we appreciate you and we look forward to offering you great software and hardware, whether Linux, AROS or the Amiga

Death threats? Hope there will be no more. On contact side, nice to see you have opened kind-of-dialogue with this community and we ll see how your company will fit this quite small pond. However, I do not plan buying a PC for couple of years, so good look in survival. Wise choices and much work, too ...

Last edited by vox on 14-Jul-2013 at 12:43 PM.

_________________
Future Acube and MOS supporter, fi di good, nothing fi di unprofessionals. Learn it harder way!

@RobertJDohnert

Is this a new CUSA ?

How many topics about your project are open ?

C'mon boys, give a popcorn too.

Last edited by ribdevil on 14-Jul-2013 at 01:46 PM.

@RobertJDohnert

Since I just realised I have only given you negative comment so far, I decided I should say something positive too. And dont get me wrong, I still am very unhappy that you were renaming your product to Amiga Openlinux without asking permissions first regardless if law technically lets you do it or not. But I guess you also backed from that already if i saw right somewhere.


Anyway. That thing aside Every reply you have given have been in very good manner, and your plans at least for most parts sound very sound.

So far I am thinking you cautiously positive. And I think what you have done even already, Amiga Forever and mention of Hollywood show both good intentions as well as good and tasty approach to matters. Doing the little you can without making things ridiculous but making them look professional and serious and not promising the moon to us.

Hope you succeed.

@netrot

Quote:

netrot wrote: @Kronos i can give you a coke.....;)

Of what type of "coke" are we talking about?

Last edited by Fransexy on 14-Jul-2013 at 02:25 PM.

_________________
No PowerPC, No Fun
Make Amiga Great Again

@Fransexy
Popcorn can hurts between the teeth , when you nothing have to drink :)