This page is dedicated to the Amiga family of computers. This machine has fallen out of the public's eye with all the hoopla about Windows and Macintosh machines. However the Amiga still lives, giving joy to those who still appreciate what it has to offer.
The Amiga was first seen in 1985. A small corporation called Amiga Inc started making a game machine. It was financed using veture capital from local dentists in Los Gatos, CA. They made additional money by making joysticks and keyboards. A man named Jay Miner saw the potential the machine had and convinced the group to turn the game machine into a computer.
Financial difficulties prevented them from going any farther. They decided to look for a buyer to keep them going. Atari almost bought them but in the end Commodore Business Machines was the buyer. Commodore , flush with funds from the popular C64, was able to produce the machine. They bought the rights and produced the Amiga for a number of years. Due to bad business practices, Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. A little over a year later, Escom from Germany, bought the computer and the rights. This was a hopeful sign that the Amiga wouldn't become extinct.
In the meantime many companies left the Amiga marketplace. However a few companies thrived, even creating brand new Amiga based machines. They were supported by a large and vocal user base. Many programs came from individuals who saw a way to do something better and made it themselves. This has established a large programming base and tens of thousands of freeware and shareware programs.
Unfortunately, Escom also went out of business in approximately one year. The outlook for the Amiga was quite dire. Less than a year after that, Gateway Inc, purchased all rights to the Amiga and seriously talked about bringing the family of Amiga computers back. Gateway created two divisions. The first was Amiga International, the sales and marketing division of all existing Amiga computers. Next came Amiga Inc, the overall holding company and R&D organization. For once there was a true plan for the future of the Amiga and a sound business plan. The future of the Amiga had never looked brighter. Right up to the time that Gateway pulled the plug.
Gateway decided they really didn't want to get into the business of the Amiga. They took the patents they wanted and ended up selling the rest of the rights and Itellectual property to whoever wanted it. That company turned out to be the new Amiga Inc. Founded by Bill McEwan and various others of the Amiga Old Guard, the plan has changed a couple of times. Originally intending to make the Amiga a hardware independant OS, that plan has been modified. Currently the most common news is about Amiga Anywhere. This is software to use Amiga content on various platforms starting with cell phones and PDA's. The idea is to incorporate Amiga Anywhere into the eventual new Amiga Desktop OS. That OS is currently designed for a Power PC processor. The new OS, OS4, is anticipated to be released in the fourth quarter of this year. This will take the Classic OS3.9 and convert it to native PPC code as well as implement a number of up to date touches that a modern OS needs (like memory protection). In future steps, new abilities will be added until it eventually incorporates Amiga Anywhere and is supposed to become platform independent at that time. For the latest news, visit Amiga Incat their web site.
For an indepth history of the Amiga, go to these sites.
