Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!coplex!dannie From: dannie@coplex.uucp (Dannie Gregoire) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: KS2.0 release Message-ID: <1991May29.161601.28693@coplex.uucp> Date: 29 May 91 16:16:01 GMT Article-I.D.: coplex.1991May29.161601.28693 References: Organization: Copper Electronics, Inc. Lines: 63 phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick) writes: >Congratulations to C= for *NOT* releasing KS2.0 to the general public >yet. This might sound a little strange, but the guys at C= have spent a >lot of time making sure that it is reasonably compatible with KS1.3 and >before. I guess us A3000 owners are not the "general public" but some elite superficial group of people hired by Commodore to do their beta testing ;-) >If you don't think that this is particularly significant then go have a >look in comp.sys.mac.system and you will see about 500 messages which >almost *all* gripe about bugs in the new Mac System 7.0. But there are 500 (give or take a few hundred ;-) messages griping about 2.0 problems before the general public has it. The problems are much less frequent now, and 2.04 is supposedly the cure all for most of the current OS ailments. I think part of the problem is the fact that Commodore HAS released the operating system to the "general public". Version 2.0 (was 1.4) was due to hit the streets for ALL Amigas 1.5 years ago, and continual promises of "any day now". Instead they released "beta" versions of the software on their high end machines. These are the same machines that they are trying to push as business class machines. If I were a business client new to the Amiga world, and was going to shell out ~$4000 per machine with a buggy unsupported OS I would honestly have to pass. "You're not forced to use 2.0," you might say. Well, why the hell did the A3000 ONLY come with 2.0 manuals. And, the 2.0 diskettes were sealed in the same manner (license agreement) as the 1.3 diskettes -- implying the OS's are equally solid. Additionally the fact that only some Amiga owners have 2.0 running has further angered the rest of the Amiga community, and has even led to mass pirating of the operating system (as noted by the many people posting questions to the net about difficulties with 2.0 on their A2000's). I am in *NO* way criticizing Commodore or the Amiga as a whole -- I have been a Commodore owner/user since the days of the PET, and currently a very happy A3000 owner. I am however, questioning the convoluted method in which Commodore has gone about testing and releasing their updated OS. It has angered many current Amiga owners, possibly hurt their sales, and has significantly delayed software development. Several top name developers have said that they will *NOT* offer upgrades until 2.0 is solid and in ROMs!!! (Spectrum Holobyte for one). Why should a software company support an OS that is in beta anyway?? Perhaps in the future Commodore should have a fully organized PRIVATE beta testing program, and not depend upon the general public to do so. Furthermore release dates should NOT be mentioned until the product is NEAR completion. Six months overdue is somewhat standard for software developers but 2 years?? The word on the streets is that the finalized version of the OS (2.04) is complete and KS2.0 ver 37.?? is in ROM. The official release date as far as I know is "3rd quarter of this year." I would assume that would mean we would all have 2.0 by October and the second phase of 2.0 beta testing will be in full gear ;-) ;-) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dannie J. Gregoire \\\\//// dannie@coplex | | Copper Electronics Inc. ////\\\\ !uunet!coplex!dannie | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+