The Australian AmigaOS 4 Roadshow has drawn to a close with the final event having taken place in Melbourne over a week ago. According to Tony Wyatt, one of the show organisers, “we had 144 visitors who signed in over the four shows”, although it is estimated three times that number in fact attended.
To find out what you missed at last weeks' event read the following report.
2.15pm: We arrive at the conference room and take a seat just in time to hear the speaker say "..and now we'll stop for a 15-20 minute break". I've just totally missed Ross Vumbaca's history of AmigaOS followed by the AmigaOS4 presentation, plus Tony Wyatt's Amiga development history.
Ok, so now we're in the break period and I go to meet a few people from AmigaWorld. I introduce myself as Steve to which I'm met with a look that says "And I care because....". Doh!! Then I try "I'm The Nothing". That follows with with a more pleasing "Hey, the Nothing. How are ya?" I got to meet the Bodie Boys, Pods, DJRJ (although I didn't get to do 'The Nothing' introduction to DJRJ so he probably still wonders who that Steve guy was), and a few other guys who I may or may not know from this website. I introduce myself to Doug Moir from Anything Amiga (the Steve introduction works on him first time, although I think I had to remind him that I bought an AmigaOne from him a week ago ). I have a look at the Anything Amiga stand and got myself a nice little Amiga badge for my A1 case. I was going to get a cold cathode tube for the inside of the case too but unfortunately Doug didn't bring them this trip.
Anyway, the break ends and then we go into a bit of background by Doug Moir on the Amiga Downunder User Group (ADUG), followed by Ross Vumbaca and the presentation of the AmigaOne hardware. This was a great bit of background on the board and what each part on the board is responsible for. Ross also demonstrated MOL which looked very impressive, as well as answering some questions about UBOOT. This was followed by another Q&A session and then it was time for another short break.
During this break, I got to have a little play with OS4 and I was very impressed with how quick and responsive it was. Double click on an icon and almost instantly a window was opened up full of more icons. I am by no means an expert on Workbench so I really can't say what everything in it does, but I was comparing it to Linux and I kept thinking that it will be so much easier to use. During this time I also had a little chat to one of the Bodie boys (not sure which one is which though I'm a bit embarrased to say - I don't think it was Bodie_CI5) but he was having some trouble getting his AmigaOne to display any video. I wished I could help but only being a week old A1 owner myself I haven't a clue
Anyway, after the break Doug Moir steps back up to the mike and shows off the MicroA1 and it's pros/cons and explains that he has an almost positive pre-order for at least 300 of these boards by Queensland Rail. They apparently are using A1200 machines for the train arrivals/departure anouncements and the MicroA1's are the logical upgrade path.
Doug also mentioned that the Bodie Boys are looking at three of the MicroA1's for home theatre use. These guys have to be the ultimate Amiga fan boys
That concluded the pesentations and then it was time to have a last look at OS4 in action. As was mentioned by DJRJ, Quake was fired up and distracted everyone with a bloodthirst! There was also the announcement of the Lucky Door Prize (drawn by my 4 year old daughter) and a quick note about some 'celebs' in the audience - Bernie Myer, and the President of the Australian PC User Group.
And so it ends. I was extremely disappointed to have missed the actual OS4 presentation (THE main reason I went) but it was great to be there for the other presentations and to meet the various people from AmigaWorld.
On the way out I had a chat with Michael Czajka (great guy) and I joined up with MAUG. Then it was back to the train station for a quick 15 minute ride back to the City, get the car, and then the 3 hour drive back home.
All up it was a great (although exhausting) day, and I wouldn't have missed it!
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