@umisef

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According to Hyperion, it was completed and released over two years ago. People supposedly have been using the completed (and occasionally updated) AmigaOS4 for the last 30 months. Tell me, how useful *is* it. What can you do with it that you can't do with another OS, and how does that compare to the things you can't do with it, yet can with other OSs?

As I said already, I don't think OS4 has enough applications right now to make it attractive to people outside the Amiga enthusiasts camp, and comparing it with other platforms in terms of available applications is a bit silly IMHO. Having said that I use it for pretty much everything I have a need for, e.g. EMails, downloading, viewing and processing pictures from my digicam, burn them onto DVDs, I recently updated my CV using AbiWord, I often go to IRC/ICQ/MSN to chat with friends and family, you can download torrents, play videos/DVDs, listen to internet radio, whatever. The main things I miss are a good web browser and video editing software.

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And let's not forget, your original claim was 20,000 users by now if hardware had been available from the time of the first OS4 release. That's 3 years. You have just conceded that the first year, you would not expect more than 1000-2000 users. Which leaves you a target of 18,000 to 19,000 in the next two years.

You're forgetting those who already have an A1 (around 1000-2000 people) but I agree that 20k is a very optimistic figure. And yes I do think that steadily available and affordable hardware would have had a very positive effect on software development for the OS. The activity of existing developers declined since there's no hardware available. What's the point in developing for a platform that you can't even buy and it is unclear if you'll ever be able to? I myself have been less enthusiastic since and it's evident from the slowed-down progress of DvPlayer development. The same goes for most other developers. Had there been something to look forward to, we'd have far more software available right now for OS4. And I do think that if the gaps in the software titles is filled in (e.g. if we'd have a good web browser, etc.) then demand for the OS would increase exponentially as it becomes a useful tool, rather than a geek-toy.

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If there were a 100,000 people desperately wanting to run OS4, do you really think there wouldn't be hardware available right now?

Are you suggesting that AInc denied to give license to sell OS4 for hardware other than the no-longer-produced A1, because they thought demand was too low?

Last edited by COBRA on 27-Jun-2007 at 10:51 AM.