As I make preparations for building myself a cheap Linux box for the home office, UAE was mentioned to me as a great way to provide a back up Amiga should anything ever happen to the A4000. At first it was a case of dismissal, but now the idea is certainly looking like a possibility - if only to dip my toes in the emulation waters and see what it's like to experience the Amiga purely in software.
Browsing the Cloanto site, purveyors of the widely acclaimed Amiga Forever package and arguably the only developer in the world distributing an Amiga purely on a single CD-ROM, I discovered the fact that they had obviously come under pressure from some of the more fanatical, over-zealous Amigans. It appears some consider them helping Amigans to jump ship, promote the PC as an alternative and effectively kill off the Amiga.
What nonsense! I confess I used to have similar feelings about Siamese, until I saw their demonstration at World of Amiga '98. These weren't people trying to kill of the Amiga or provide a migration path to the PC... these were people using what little resources they had to keep people with the Amiga, keep the passion alive and maybe even entice a few more people to discover the Amiga in the process. If anything, projects like these have probably provided more tangible innovation than elsewhere in the Amiga market, and maybe done more than their fair share of keeping people who would otherwise have left the Amiga a long time ago.
The way I see it, you have two possible reasons for emulation of any computer system. There's the nostalgia aspect, old C64 and Spectrum users reminiscing over classic games, or maybe restorations of early computer systems to try and preserve software for hardware long since gone. I don't see the Amiga in this section do you? Nope, it's a living platform still... not a footnote in computing history just yet.
The other possibility is when people don't have access to the hardware necessary. Just look at the many Amiga users running virtual Macs via Shapeshifter or Fusion, or the people running DOS and Windoze software with PC-Task or PCx. They need the software, but don't have the hardware. I used to run the demo of PC-Task at incredibly slow speeds on my A500 using a borrowed copy of MS-DOS 5 just to access a program for converting some obscure formats to ILBMs. It worked out cheaper than buying a new computer or an expensive graphics package - when I bought the A4000, the emulator was promptly ditched as the need disappeared.
Emulation allows people to continue using the Amiga, buying its software, enjoying its power and flexibility, even though they may have been forced to seek alternative hardware. If you want an Amiga laptop, the only chance you'll have of that happening at the moment is to stick UAE or Amiga Forever on a PC laptop. If it runs the software, legitimately obtained software I might add, what is the problem? If it looks and feels like an Amiga - it is an Amiga, albeit a virtual one.
When the new Amiga hardware arrives, and people feel able to fully return, the need for emulation diminishes. Or does it? It's highly likely that emulation will be a necessary evil in the new Amigas, particularly for hardware-bashing stuff like games and certain applications. The new Amiga is a break with the past, so hardware support for old stuff is unlikely, and downright distasteful in my opinion - software emulation is the best possibility. As long as it doesn't impose too much baggage this could be included within the new OS as standard, but more likely third party support in the form of Amiga Forever is going to provide the most likely combination. After all, you could end up with the same situation the Macintosh had when it made the transition from the 680X0 to PowerPC architecture - not everyone needed emulation of older software, but everyone was hindered by that baggage. It's only just been completely removed after many years - long after most/all apps and users had made the transition.
My latest Suite101.com article has been up for almost a week, and appears to be as popular as ever (averaging about 1000 hits per day, which is a very satisfying figure - ranking above the other OS topics like Linux, Macintosh and Windows). It's about the "Amiga Kyoto" sketches, and has appeared on the various news sites (including the ever-supportive Czech Amiga News), plus as diverse sites as the ICOA and Honorable Mention (thanks guys!). The Honorable Mention site deals with comments about the Amiga in the non-Amiga press, which leads me towards some comments about the way the Amiga editorial on Suite101.com is perceived. I have no problem with this, just want to make some observations.
I get a lot of mail regarding the Suite101 editorial, many of which seem to believe Suite101.com is exclusively an Amiga site, and is my own doing. I'm afraid this isn't the case. Take a look at the home page: http://www.suite101.com/ and you'll find it covers many, many topics. You can start one yourself, if you want, just fill out the application form and submit a test article - if they like you, they'll let you in. It's as simple as that - and you get a modest amount of cash per month (I earn the princely sum of $15, paid in UKP, per month which is enough to cover my Internet related phone calls). I don't do it for the money, by the way!
Suite101.com approached me after seeing this very column. They'd heard about the announcement at the World of Amiga '98 and wanted to know more about this new exciting computer called 'Amiga' (which was quite sweet), little realising it had quite a history. In fact, as it turns out, quite a few editors (including the current Managing Editor of the Operating Systems section) at Suite101 either own or used to own an Amiga - I know, because they've told me. Many didn't realise it was still going, so the column has proved very educational for them, and they seem more open about mentioning their Amigas now!
However, I also get a few people who don't realise I do this all the time, or think I'm an outsider covering the Amiga. It's quite nice to reply to mail thanking me for mentioning the Amiga, then getting a response of surprise when they find I'm using an Amiga to send mail. I'm not bothered, it's a common mistake. It's quite flattering in a way, and I guess I'm actually writing the article for non-Amigans as much as, or even more than, Amigans. I'm certainly not writing for a company affiliated in any way with the Amiga community. It's education of the masses - I try not to assume anything much on the reader's part, though sometimes I have to.
It's fun, I enjoy it, and I get mail from lots of interesting people - not all of whom have an Amiga. The one thing I haven't had is a message from someone proclaiming the Amiga to be dead. In fact, the unanimous response seems to be very much that the Amiga was a very great machine with an unfortunate past, but one which many people would certainly be interested in using once again, assuming they are not still using it of course. This gives me high hopes for the future.