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Poster | Thread | madtrekker
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Re: First round goes to Hyperion Posted on 13-Jun-2007 23:59:00
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Regular Member |
Joined: 11-Mar-2003 Posts: 271
From: Unknown | | |
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| @BillE
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I disagree 100%. The only interest the Amiga name has these days is to us diehard Amiga fans who have stuck with the system over the years. And as we all *know* that Hyperion OS is a continuation of Amiga OS, it does not matter one jot what it is called. |
OK, here's a scenario. Say you have a news site which carries two headlines. One says "Hyperion OS released" and the other says "Amiga OS 4.0 released". Do you really think the former will get more hits?
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In fact the Amiga name has probably harmed the OS more than helped. Most people that once knew the Amiga knew it as a system they loaded old games from floppies without ever going near workbench. Do we want the OS to be associated with blue and orange graphics on low resolution TV screens or a modern OS like that Hyperion produced ? |
That might work if OS4 truly was a modern OS, but while it had made massive strides to catch up with other OS' it also has a long way to go. Part of the reason that this has been so difficult is because Hyperion have striven to maintain backwards compatibility and to not throw away the unique design that makes Amiga OS what it is.
I bet most of the people who have these associations of Amiga as an archaic games system probably never used an Amiga (or if they did, it was solely to play games on and they never even booted Workbench). These people will probably not have any interest in OS4 as it stands now. Nothing less than Windows will satisfy these people.
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If the Amiga name is so great how come a hobby OS like Linux has hugely overtaken it. |
Largely, because it's free. Also, there is increasing anti-Microsoft sentiment, which has played directly into the hands of the Linux advocates. Amiga OS4 is not currently in a position to offer the necessary functionality to "take on" Windows, so it could not benefit from this even if it were actually available to buy right now.
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Though *we* know Hyperion OS *is* Amiga OS, I would bet that a new modern sounding OS like Hyperion OS would attract more interest than Amiga OS with its dated associations. |
But this pre-supposes people are going to go looking for a new OS. If you give the OS a new name, you have to fight to get every person to look at it. Only the kind of geeks that hang around sites like OSNews will hear about it otherwise, and I think they'll soon figure out that it's Amiga OS by another name, so you don't even gain anything there. Using the Amiga name provides masses of free publicity.
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And I say keeping the Amiga "brand" name is going to guarantee exactly that. Only diehard Amiga fans would ever consider it, |
Those associations with the past are a huge marketing advantage. Look at the new owners of Commodore. They bought the name and are using it and the names of old Commodore computers to sell MP3 players and similar gadgets (and more lately gaming PCs). Headlines like "Commodore to release new gaming PCs" have grabbed loads of attention among both the public and the media. If they'd just released their own brands of MP3 players and PCs do you think they'd have stood out at all from the 500 other companies doing exactly the same thing?
I think you need to ask yourself just who the initial target market for this OS is going to be. To my mind it has to be ex-Amiga users because anyone else would be totally mystified by an OS lacking basic applications and functionality that they have come to expect. I think most people who have really used an Amiga at any point will be attracted by the name and are most likely to consider picking up an Amiga if it can be sold cheaply enough to be an impulse purchase.
Once a stable base has been established you could start thinking about going beyond that, but you need some initial revenue to fund the massive work that still needs to be done to bring OS4 up to the level of most modern Operating Systems.
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Hyperion OS may stand a bit better chance of being rated on its merits without too much association with the past. |
Sure, stack it up next to all the other Operating Systems out there and see how it fares "on its merits". My guess is the answer would be "not very well".Last edited by madtrekker on 14-Jun-2007 at 12:05 AM. Last edited by madtrekker on 14-Jun-2007 at 12:04 AM.
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