Even this blog author has never shared Barrys over-enthusiasm, and has constantly indicated
some of the mistakes, having the man gone is never a good news. Each man gone is a loss,
and company CommodoreUSA still has to prove itself as innovative.
This is my latest design; the X500 PLUS is a tribute to the computers of the ’80s and ’90s and generally inspired by the great Commodore Amiga 500. It’s an aluminium and plastic case with in-built, low profile USB keyboard. It offers space for a mini-itx or flex-ATX board, space for two 2.5″ SSDs or HDDs, it’s only 58mm high, it comes with a slim DVD-RW or Blu-Ray drive (on request), a 3.5″ USB card reader, a 40mm silent fan, and it’s also got a low profile expansion slot (for graphics cards for example). The X500 Plus allows you to build your own powerful computer, running AmigaOS, Windows, Linux, AROS etc…you can use it for your mini-itx x86 boards, PowerPC SAM boards by ACube, Raspberry pi, Natami, FPGAArcade etc…
Ideal for low power consumption mini-itx boards, requires a picoPSU 80-160W (not included).
Thanks to Klaus Badelt for the incredible music!
Have fun and thank you for watching!
Prominent features compared to other operating systems or previous versions of AmigaOS:
General
Instant off / fast reboot: An oft-touted feature is that AmigaOS can be switched off in an instant by just hitting the off switch (if the filesystem is not writing to a disk, which could corrupt entire system).
Appearance
Workbench screen in front, web browser screen behind.
Screens: You can have as many different screens as you like for any purpose, each with its own application on it; or you can open a public screen which several applications can share. Switching between different screens takes an instant, and you can come back to an application and find it exactly how you left it. It is even possible to drag the current screen down to reveal another screen behind it, (even if they have different display resolutions) so that you can view two screens simultaneously, or even drag and drop files and other content from one screen to another.[18]
Menuing: The menu bar appears at the top of the screen when the right mouse button is pressed down and disappears when it is not needed, thus reducing screen clutter and giving more room to work.
File handling
Descriptive file structure: Operating system files are divided up into clearly labelled drawers (folders). For example, all libraries are stored in „Libs:“ standard virtual device and absolute path finder for „Libs“ directory, Fonts are all in „Fonts:“ absolute locator, the files for language localization are all stored in „Locale:“ and so on.
RAM disk: A virtual hard drive, it acts like any other disk, and stores files and data in memory rather than on your actual hard drive. The RAM disk is dynamically resizable and takes up only as much of your memory as it needs to. It can be used as a temporary store for your own purposes or as a place for software installers to put temporary files, and is cleared out at reboot so you won’t be cluttering up your computer with thousands of unnecessary files that bog down your system. Additionally there is an optional RAD disk, a recoverable version of the RAM disk, which preserves contents after a reboot.
Datatypes: Recognises and handles file types: displaying a picture, playing a music file, decoding a video file, rendering a web page etc. Any application can access Datatypes transparently, and thus have the ability to use any file that you have a Datatype for.
Icon handling: A file can have a default icon representing the type of file or a custom icon specific to the individual file. Additionally icons can store extra commands and metadata about the associated file — which program to open it in, for example.
Assigning devices: Instead of assigning drives (devices) a letter or fixed label, each drive can be given a name. Drives can be given more than one name so the system always knows where things are, if it is the system boot drive it is also known as „Sys:“. Areas of hard drive can be assigned a label as if they were a virtual disk. For example, it is possible to mount MP3 players as „MP3:“ and external networked resources as logical devices.
Other
Booted from AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 Live CD.
Live CD: The OS4 installation CD can be used as a Live CD.
Dockies: It is a fully configurable docking bar for icons, allowing quick access to most used applications. These dock bar icons, „Dockies“, are fully dynamic, which means they can show real-time content and act as useful micro tools. A Docky might act as a magnifying glass, display the time, or show you the latest weather forecast or stock market information direct from the Internet.
Scripting: Implemented scripting as a fundamental feature. Using the AREXX scripting language and Python it is possible to automate, integrate and remote control almost every application and function of the computer. Function sets and tools from several applications can be brought together into a single, integrated interface to allow the most complex jobs to be performed with the utmost simplicity.
A visit from the Grim Reaper.
The Grim Reaper: The „Guru Meditation“ is replaced by „The Grim Reaper“, a crash handling system that attempts to catch crashes and attempts to stop them from getting out of control. It can provide complete information about the crash and optionally kill the offending task and free some of the resources it was using.
AmiUpdate: Is an updating system designed purely for the latest incarnation of the AmigaOS 4.[20] It is able to update OS files and also all Amiga programs which are registered to use the same update program that is standard for Amiga. Updating AmigaOS requires only few libraries to be put in standard OS location „Libs:“, „Fonts:“ etc. This leaves Amiga users with a minimal knowledge of the system almost free to perform by hand the update of the system files.
Petunia just-in-time 68k emulator; Warp3D with support for Voodoo 3/4/5 and ATI Radeon models 7000, 7200, 7500, 9000, 9200 and 9250; Intuition supports screen dragging
4.0
The Final Update
24 December 2006
Virtualized memory and faster memory allocation system (Slab allocator); new icon theme (Mason icons)
Improved compositing effects (fading and drop shadows); New notification system Ringhio; DDC support; AppDir: handler and URLopen; new Startup preferences; new icon set; MiniGL V2.2
USB 2.0 (EHCI) support; Updated MUI (for easier porting of MUI 4 applications)
4.1
Update 4
22 December 2011
Emulation drawer with AmigaOS 3.x ROMs and Workbench files; RunInUAE contribution
4.1
Update 5
28 January 2012, 16 August 2012
First public release for AmigaOne X1000,[39] later for other platforms.[40] Improved Warp3D and IDE drivers; optimized DMA copy support for Sam440ep and Sam460ex systems; improved Classic compatibility (support for Catweasel)
,
AmigaOS dispute
Amiga, Inc
After Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994, its name and IP rights, including Amiga, were sold to Escom. Escom kept the Amiga products and sold the Commodore name on to Tulip. Escom went bankrupt in 1997 and sold the Amiga IP to Gateway 2000 (now only Gateway). On 27 December 1999, Gateway sold the Amiga name and rights to Amino Development,[3] who changed the company name to Amiga Inc once the assets had been acquired. The ‘Amino’ Amiga Inc and the ‘KMOS’ Amiga Inc are seen by Hyperion as legally distinct entities, contracts to one are of no relevance to the other.
Hyperion’s OS4 project
Hyperion Entertainment has released AmigaOS 4 (OS4) to the public in 2004. The five year development process led to accusations of vapourware and producing a modernPowerPC OS, given that Hyperion claimed that they had the original AmigaOS 3.1 source codes to reference (a claim later proven accurate). This was made worse by the apparent much more rapid progress and maturity of competitor and alternative AmigaOS clone MorphOS, which had been begun several years earlier. Perhaps the most important feature of OS4 as regards the legal dispute is the presence of an entirely new PowerPC native kernel. ExecSG replaces the original Amiga Exec is claimed entirely the work and property of Hyperion’s subcontracted developers Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden.[4] Neither Amiga Inc nor Hyperion actually own ExecSG, so technically cannot demand or hand it over, leaving the OS with fragmented and confused ownership.
The supposed rebirth of Amiga
AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1
In 2007 The Inquirer reported [5] that the Amiga was inching closer to rebirth with the long-awaited release of AmigaOS 4.0, a new PowerPC-native version of the classic AmigaOS (Motorola 68k) from the 1980s. This new PowerPC OS would run on theAmigaOne machines, now out of production, which could only run Linux while waiting for the new PowerPC OS to be released. The year after, Amiga Inc also announced a new AmigaOS 4 compatible system that would be available shortly.[6] The new machine was neither Genesi’s Efika, nor the project codenamed Samantha, (now known as the Sam440ep from ACube Systems). The new hardware was from a new entrant, the Canadian company ACK Software Controls, and would have consisted of a budget and advanced model.[7]
The dispute
Four days after Amiga Inc announced the new Amiga OS4 (OS4) compatible machines they sued Hyperion Entertainment(Hyperion). Amiga Inc stated that it decided to produce a PowerPC version of AmigaOS in 2001 and on November 3, 2001 they signed a contract with Hyperion, (then a game developer for the 68k Amiga platform as well as Linux and Macintosh). Amiga Inc. gave Hyperion access to the sources of the last Commodore version, AmigaOS 3.1, but access to the post-Commodore versions OS3.5 and 3.9 had to be purchased from the third party responsible for their development since Haage & Parnter (developers of OS 3.5 and 3.9) never returned their AmigaOS source code to Amiga Inc.
Amiga Inc also said that its contract allowed Hyperion to use Amiga trademarks in the promotion of OS4 on Eyetech’s AmigaOne and stipulated that Hyperion should make its best efforts to deliver OS4 by March 1, 2002. A port of an elderly Operating System (68k) for an entirely different processor architecture (PowerPC) in just four months, an optimistic target that Hyperion failed to meet.
According to Amiga Inc, the contract permits the purchase of the full sources of OS4 from Hyperion for US$25,000. The court filing says that Amiga Inc paid this sometime in April–May 2003, to keep Hyperion from going bankrupt, and that between then and November 21, 2006 Amiga Inc paid another $7,200, then $8,850 more which it says Hyperion said was owing.
Furthermore, in the filing, Amiga Inc. President Bill McEwen revealed that Amiga Inc still hasn’t received the sources for OS4, that he’s discovered that much of its development was outsourced to third party contract developers and that it’s not clear if Hyperion has all the rights to this external work. Eventually, after five years and $41,050, on 21 November 2006, Amiga Inc told Hyperion it had violated the contract and gave it 30 days to sort it out – to finish the product and hand over the sources. This didn’t happen, so the contract was terminated [8] on 20 December 2006. Hyperion claims in its defence that Amiga Inc rendered the contract null through dealings with KMOS, a company which acquired the Amiga assets and renamed itself Amiga Inc over 2004-05.[9]
Four days later, 24 December 2006, Hyperion released the final version of OS4 – although according to Amiga Inc, Hyperion claims that this was merely an update of the developers’ preview version of 16 April 2004. Since the contract ended, Hyperion had no rights to use the name AmigaOS or any Amiga intellectual property, nor to market OS4 or enter into any agreements about it with anyone else. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4 was still being developed [10] and distributed. Furtermore, ACube Systems released a series of Sam440ep motherboards, which run AmigaOS 4.
For a time, the case seemed deadlocked with neither side being apparently able to prove the point either way. Without Amiga Inc‘s permission Hyperion Entertainment(Hyperion) could not use the AmigaOS name or related trademarks. Hyperion’s defence centred around the potentially contract-voiding nature of the Amiga Inc/KMOS handover, the problems they faced in acquiring the post-Commodore OS3.x source code which Amiga Inc claimed to own and have access to, and the presence of new work and open components in the new Operating System.
Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement
On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted, „an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x.[11]
Jason Perlow interviews Barry Altman, the CEO and founder of Commodore USA, and discusses the rebirth of the legendary Commdore 64, the new Amiga product line, and the future of integrated keyboard PCs.
Around 10th of April I had to send my C64extreme back to Florida from Norway because it didnt work as it should. Barry, aka Digitex, promised they would fix it ASAP or send me a new one.
Now, over 130 days since I returned it, I still havent got anything back!
I have tried to call them around 100 times without any luck. They never answer. Or, in fact, 2 weeks ago I got in contact with Barry, and he told me that they already had shiped it, and he would send me the „tracking no“ from US Post to me in a email. I havent got any email…But I have sent them a lot of emails, but no answer except once that they told me to relax…!
I am wondering, what kind of company is Commodore now?? Over 130 days, and still nothing is happening!? I have never seen anything poor like this! Anyone else having problems?
I’ll have to agree. I really have high hopes for Commodore but I’ve seen several posts around the web with similar complaints about communication and customer service. There is one major aspect missing from Commodore that will make a HUGE difference and that is communication. Many people like myself want more than anything for this company to succeed. Apple for example has a HUGE following of extremely loyal customers that have stuck with the company even when it was on the verge of bankruptcy because they have great communication. If customers feel „loved“ and important they will do amazing evangelistic things for Commodore and withstand long turnaround times.
– Here is a simple solution.
Commodore needs to hire a full-time customer service representative (or two). If someone could just check a list of orders, Answer all incoming calls (important), Track RMA’s, shipment times etc and email/call letting customers know „Hey, Commodore is thinking about you“ this would go a long way and more than makeup for the cost of the employees.
Reading your post really concerns me. I have for a long time now been thinking about ordering a c64x supreme, and i live in Norway too. But if i am never going to get it back if something goes wrong, i think i might change my mind. But slightly off topic, do you remember how long it took for your c64x to arrive? I mean, since we both live in Norway.
TronPlayer: I agree! I really loved my C64 in the 80´s so I really hope they will be sucessfull now, but with this service……
SalsaYop: I was in Florida in october, so I got it directly delivered to the place where we lived on the holiday. I guess it normally should take 7-8 days to get it from Florida to Norway, depending on how fast custom(Toll) is in Oslo…
Just when you thought the Amiga world was finally getting its act together, finally making things a little less obtuse for outsiders, this happens. So, we have the AmigaOne X1000 coming up, a brand-new PowerPC computer, running the real deal – AmigaOS 4. In the meantime, Commodore USA – the one with the sketchy website – has apparently secured rights to the Amiga hardware brand, and is planning to release Amiga-branded computers running AROS. In the meantime, Hyperion, the Belgium company behind AmigaOS, who is working with A-eon on the AmigaOne X1000, claims this is a clear violation of the settlement between them and Amiga Inc., and has notified its US lawyers.Commodore USA sent out a press release yesterday in which they state they’ve reached an agreement with Bill McEwen of Amiga, Inc. (one of the two companies named Amiga) in which Commodore USA may use the Amiga hardware brand on computers running AROS, the open source Amiga-inspired operating system.“We are ecstatic to be partnering with Amiga Inc. in this new, exciting product launch,“ states Barry Altman, President and CEO of Commodore USA, „The legacy of the Commodore and Amiga trademark brand, reunited once again after so many years, and our reintroduction of the legendary All-In-One computer keyboard form factor, combined with the twenty-five year anniversary of the introduction of the first Amiga computer by Commodore International, is a once in a lifetime opportunity.“My first thought was – wait, doesn’t this violate the settlement agreement between Amiga Inc. and Hyperion, which finally settled all the legal mumbo-jumbo in the Amiga world? It appears Hyperion believes that this is indeed a violation, and as such, they have asked their lawyers in the US to investigate the matter.
„Our American lawyers will take action against this,“ Hyperion states, „This is blatant violation of the rights Hyperion Entertainment secured in the settlement agreement with Amiga Inc., Itec and Amino.“
The facts here are that if there’s two companies I would blindly trust in the Amiga world, it’s Hyperion and ACube. These are the only two companies that have kept their promises and delivered actual working products we can buy today. Everyone else – including A-eon (until they ship the X1000) – are fair game.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that my initial distrust of this Commodore USA thing was more than justified. Their website (shoddy doesn’t even begin to describe it), their rebranded products, their unilateral press releases which can’t be confirmed anywhere else but on their site… It all reeks of a massive con. Are their products even shipping, after months of promises?
Unless proven otherwise, I’m assuming for now that Commodore USA is, at best, a hoax, and at worst, a very inept con. They are properly registered as an LLC, though.
posted by Thom Holwerda on Wed 1st Sep 2010 20:24 UTC
Well, this was rather unexpected. As it turns out, Commodore USA’s CEO Barry Altman isn’t particularly pleased about the article I wrote earlier today in which I placed a considerable amount of scepticism with regards to Commodore USA and its business (and website). He (not his lawyer) sent us a threatening email demanding we take down the article, post a new correction article, the whole shebang. The entire email – as an image, you’ll want the original formatting – after the break. Our reply? We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.
posted by Thom Holwerda on Thu 4th Nov 2010 21:22 UTC
A little over two months ago, OSNews had a bit of a run-in with Commodore USA’s CEO, about how I felt about the company and its rather dubious business practices. This led to alegal threat we laughed away here at OSNews, but laughable or not, a legal threat is a legal threat, and it never sat well with me that it was never retracted or apologised for. Well, that changed today.I received this statement today from Barry Altman, Commodore USA’s CEO.
Like many forum members, tech writers, and people in general, who sometimes react to statements in an inappropriate manner, I would like to:
retract the idiotic legal threat
apologize for the legal threat
ship something
Certainly a phone call would be considered appropriate before you print something, so you can have all the facts before determining your position.
The three points above came from me – before I would even be open towards changing my position on Commodore USA, the idiotic [my words] legal threat had to be retracted and an apology had to be made. The last point, about shipping something, refers to the fact that I believe Commodore USA should actually ship something as well.
My original opinion of Commodore USA, the opinion that started all this nonsense, still stands, and nothing has happened between then and now to soften that position (in fact, the threat only made it worse). We’ll have to see what the future brings, but in all honesty, I don’t have high hopes at this point.
Still, that silly threat has been retracted and apologised for, and that’s something I’m very happy with. No matter how silly it was, having a legal threat hover above your head simply isn’t something I particularly like.
SinclairUK are proud to announce the immediate availability of the first Sinclair QL computer in about a billion years or something, the QL mini. We did intend to launch yesterday but feared that it may be seen as an april fool joke and not an actual real product so delayed for 24 hours.The new Sinclair QL mini is the only computer with comparable specs in it’s price range, no other computer comes close and no other computer at any price allows you to do so much with an official Sinclair sticker on the front.
The new QL mini is only available in traditional Sinclair kit form as it reduces the cost to the consumer and to save you even more money we have decided that you would be better off sourcing the parts yourself as it means we don’t need to pay for a huge warehouse to store everything, therefore passing the savings on to you.
To obtain your new Sinclair QL mini please follow these instructions.
1, Purchase these parts from your favourite vendor.
* ZOTAC Z68ITX-B-E
* intel core i7 2600K 3.5GHz
* 1TB SATA hard drive
* 2 x 8GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs
* intel mini-PCIe wireless card
* wesena HTPC ITX2 case
*Sinclair Badge for the front of the case (only available from SinclairUK for just £1000+VAT)
2, Assemble all the parts, training courses should be available in your area if you don’t know where to start.
3, Send the receipts for the parts you purchased to SinclairUK so we can verify that your new computer meets the QL standards.
Once all these steps are completed, you have affixed the Sinclair sticker to your case (this is the most important part) and installed Sinclair OS you will now be the proud owner of a brand new Sinclair QL mini, the greatest mini desktop computer with a Sinclair badge available today.
You will receive a Sinclair UK welcome pack containing warranty information (only covers sticker peeling) and a CD-R disc containing a couple of emulators we downloaded.
Why buy a bog standard PC that doesn’t say Sinclair on it when you can have a Sinclair QL mini that does.
I used to try to post in their old forums and also tried to be fair about my suggestions and improvements they could make.
I say ‘try’, as a large percentage of my posts were edited or deleted entirely. It became pointless to even post on their forums, as one had to dance around certain subjects very carefully, then hope one’s post didn’t simply just vanish.
I can understand editing obscene, vulgar or combative posts, but that isn’t what commodore’s forums are about. They are about increasing sales for them, and when someone says something like their computers may be overpriced, or perhaps they should include an Amiga-like OS on their Amiga system, they tend to not like that very much.
It’s really incredibly silly and makes an open discussion impossible. I also was always baffled by the ‘rah rah’ posts, where CUSA would make a somewhat lame post, like ‘super secret announcement coming!’… or ‘COS will now have even more screen effects!’… and they’d get odd followup posts gushing over their ‘non-announcements’, and like half a dozen thank yous per post. I am guessing they were mostly just employees doing those followup posts, but it made their forums look even less professional than they already were.
I never took screenshots or anything like that, if that’s what you are asking. And since the forums aren’t there anymore, it’s not like I can point to my previous posts on the forum. You don’t really need proof of censorship on their old forums, as it was common knowledge. I recall one moderator stating that even his posts had been deleted at one time or another. Everyone who used that forum eventually realized that posts were censored.
My basic experience was something like this…
I recall someone posting constructive criticism on a thread when the amiga minis first came out. He went of his way to say his post was meant as constructive, but he had some issues with the pricing. I followed up in agreement, also comparing prices to iMacs and Alienwares, saying how it’s even more expensive than them and if they want to be competitive, they really need to lower their prices.
Next day entire thread was gone. Myself and the other poster put up a thread asking why a thread on constructive criticism was censored — and also pointing out that we were polite, no arguing or anything like that. And our thread on censorship was also deleted entirely.
As for other situations… I recall a thread about their OS or why AOS should be ported to CUSA… several posts were deleted from that one, including a rant against Barry from someone with a moderator tag (I could at least understand deleting that specific post). Basically any posts that pointed out the fact that their Amigas were lacking in Amiga-like features or were too expensive, had a good chance of getting edited or deleted entirely.
My last post was in a thread with an eager pro-cusa person, where I was trying to stress than their Amiga should have some unique features (either software or hardware) and not simply be a run of the mill PC with Linux installed. I was polite, but that post got deleted too. After that, I just said goodbye and good luck…
Originally Posted by meltedcheese 
On the Edge: Spectacular rise and fall of C=USA 