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Interview with Point Design

Description: 30.11.2001

Categories: [EN] Eng_Interviews

Link to this article: Select all

[url=https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/kb/viewarticle?a=285&sid=044938efe984ece791d1f4af0618b58e]Artikeldatenbank - Interview with Point Design[/url]

Interview with Jürgen Schober from "point.design"


Juergen schober is not only the last brave Amiga dealer in Austria, but also supervisor  for the "Open Amiga Southeast European show" (briefly O.A.S.E.), which takes place for the first time. "OASE" is a "point.design"-inhouse-fair on 1./2. December 2001. Among other things the "Amithlon", various Amiga PCI-solutions and with some luck also an executable "Pegasos"-system will be presented. I spoke with Juergen about this fair and how an Austrian Amiga-dealer can survive...
 
 
 
  Jürgen, could you introduce yourself briefly?

I am 30 years old and live with my wife Silke, two children (Lukas 3,5 years old and Oliver, 5 months)  and a dog;) in Graz (Austria).

How did you come to the Amiga? Which Amiga do you use currently? 

In 1986, when my brother and I bought an Amiga 500 as follower of the C 64. 1989 I chanched the A500 into an A2000. Later on I was a member of the ADSP (Amiga Developer Support Program from Commodore) and at that time I bought an A3000 dirrectly from Commodore Vienna, when the company was bankrupt (the A3000 is still here, serialnumber 13! and is used router in the point.design-office).
Currently I own beside the A3000 two A1200 with PCI-interface, one with 060, the other one with a 040/PPC-card. I owned some A4000, too, but I sold them.

You are the last Amiga-dealer in Austria (with a real shop, too). Why do you stay on the Amiga?

First I did not know so quite, what I should do. From time to time I had jobs as Windows-programmer. After a while I knew that MFC-coding cannot be my future. Afterwards I created "point.design" and begun to sell Amigas and Amiga-accessories. Actually I wanted to finance software developments with the commercial transactio. Probably only a dream...
1998 & 1999 the Amiga business was my exclusive occupation - however not profitabel. To the change of year 1999-2000 I resigned myself to say "good bye" to the Amiga, but then I heard of the Amiga transfer, and I wanted to know it again... 

Is it possible to survive as an Austrian Amiga-dealer?

Not really. Allthough I decided to stay in the Amiga-business, I knew that I couldn´t survive only with Amiga. Beside this my indebtedness was that high, that I was not able to spent more money for my company.
Since spring 2000 my main source of income is developing software, whereby I began there with data bases (Oracle, CORBA in C++/Java and things) and meanwhile I finally do ssomething creative and develop Casino machine software for "Atronic" (that is expressly mentioned, because "Atronic" thereby indirectly keep the Amiga market alive in Austria, s. also: http://www.atronic.com). Meanwhile Silke worries in the morning on the shop (despite of two children!). I am in my office in the evening (6:00pm - > = 7:30pm) 

You made with some other people your own Amiga online-magazine ("AmigaScene") till 1999. Can you tell me something about it?

The problem at the Austrian Amiga market is that we do not have a medium, which informes us about various Amiga request. On the one hand this is bad for a company, because we cannot recruit in our direct target market, and on the other hand the user is missing  the local reference to their special problems. The "AmigaScene" was an attempt to create a magazine in order to modify this circumstance. In addition I must thank the editors, who work for free. Unfortunately the market and too many time (job) stopped the "AmigaScene". We will see whether the "AmigaScene" in can be activated again in the future. Anyhow the will is there (BTW: http://amigascene.at) . Currently point.design will work togehter more with the GFXBASE in the future. (http://www.gfxbase.de.vu /)
The problem at the Austrian Amiga market is that we do not have a medium, which informes us about various Amiga request. On the one hand this is bad for a company, because we cannot recruit in our direct target market, and on the other hand the user is missing  the local reference to their special problems. The "AmigaScene" was an attempt to create a magazine in order to modify this circumstance. In addition I must thank the editors, who work for free. Unfortunately the market and too many time (job) stopped the "AmigaScene". We will see whether the "AmigaScene" in can be activated again in the future. Anyhow the will is there (BTW: http://amigascene.at) . Currently point.design will work togehter more with the GFXBASE in the future. (http://www.gfxbase.de.vu /). 

As Austrian Amiga user (and beer-fan;)): What happened to the  "AMIGA table reserved for regulars" in Graz? 

It still exists (every two weeks). In the last time there are only few people, who visit it. Unfortunately I have to less time to come regularly, but there should be at least be one person (greetings to Bernd;)) 

How many Amiga-users are in Austria? I think bevore Escom "crashed", there were many Amiga-users in Austria.

Yes, I think so. As a dealer I have problems to judge this. I see only what we selling... and that is unfortunately not very much. However, I think that there are probably a few hundreds of  users and the number of people, who  would be interested in it is probably higher (people, who have an Amiga in the garage and would perhaps still  activate thir Amigas again, if they would hear that there is something new). 

Let´s talk about your current project, the "Open Amiga Southeast European show" (O.A.S.E., Info: www.oase.at), a "point.design"-inhouse-fair with free entry. When you get the idea?

The idea to the "O.A.S.E "  is three years old. But at that time I don´t dare. Meanwhile "point.design" is allready well known and the opportunity seemed favorably for a fair, even now, when it seems, as if the Amiga market could offer again innovation. I would like to say that this is now an attemp to place such a event on the legs. I think it is a first step. The name must be established naturally. Then perhaps it will be possible, that other manufacturers of Amiga products will come to Austria. 

What is planned?

You will see there: Amithlon on a Athlon 1200 (it´s  pretty fast, faster pc´s are possible,too, but we can´t buy a new pc every two moths;))
Then PCI-solutions for the Amiga: 
A1200/060 with MediatorPCI, Voodoo3, Soundblaster128
A1200/040/PPC with GRexPCI, Grex3D (Permedia2), Terratec128
A4000/060/PPC with GRexPCI 4000D, Voodoo3 and Terratec512/Repulse
and Amithlon on a notebook.
Also planned are presentations about Amithlon (maybe with  live-installation on a harddisk via video-beamer), AmigaOS 4.x  (Scala presentation from "Amiga2001"/Cologne, thank´s to Ben Hermans) and with some luck, we get a Pegasos till saturday.

You have really a PEGASOS there? How did you manage this?

I talked with someone from bplan on "Amiga2001"/Cologne. bPlan was very interested to show a Pegasos on "OASE". However this isn´t sure so far. In the moment it´s difficult to contact bplan ...and due to the crowding on Amiga2001 we could talk about details...we will see...

What do you think about the current plans of Amiga Inc.(Amiga OS 4,0, AmigaOne, AmigaDE)?

Amiga OS 4 is overdue since a long time and a step in the right direction. It is the only possibility to animate the current Amiga market again. AmigaOne is for me only a potential platform, not more. We should not concentrate too much on AmigaOne. If Hyperion succeeds to insert a good concept of HAL (harware abstraction layers), I think Amiga OS 4 can run on every PPC platform (that the Amiga chips not really necessary shows e.g. Amithlon). 

I think AmigaDE is hardly survivable.The PDA market has nothing in common with the Amiga market, so this market is not very interesting for us. In the embedded market blows a strong wind from the WinCE & Linux market (beside this  there are still other concepts, e.g. OSE etc).As java platform Amiga DE is also only one of many. For what reason we need  another OS layer, if  there is already everything there? (Linux, CE and then a javaengine on top?). Elate as basic OS-system is not used very often - although it has  impressing 2D-features and with Warp3D/Mesa for Elate also 3D-suppor finally. We will see... 

What do you say about Amiga OS 4.0/Amiga One vs. Morph OS/Pegasos? 

First I would like to say, that I hve very high respect for people, which think themselves capable of creating  such a thing like MorphOS (and also Pegasos). From the technical page Pegassos/MorphOS is impressing. However, fact is, that there is only one Amiga OS.. Amiga OS existed in the current form and serves as base for future versions. Morphos is in the present form a (very good) AmigaOS emulation, not more. Which thereby is forgotten: Additionally to MorphOs you must also have/buy Amiga OS (in the present form and probably in the sales version). Amiga OS 4.0 is not bound on the AmigaOne (it will appear also for CyberStormPPC ), and hopefully it will run on the Pegasos, too. For me the ideal combination would be AmigaOS4.0 on Pegasos and the chances are good, that it will be available until February/March 2002. 

Findest Du es gut, dass Hyperion jetzt die Leitung der Amiga OS-Entwicklung übernommen hat?

Yes. I think, there are people behind the project, which are capable for the technic conversion -and they understand existing concepts. What I like not so much, is their almost "blind" refusal of a x86er-version. In my opinion, both  (x86 & PPC) can survive togehter and the final PPC-version will be better than the x86erversion. (I say only: "diskchange pc0:").

Which project has in your opinion better chances for the future: The "official" OS (Amiga OS 4.0) or the "alternative" OS (MorphOS)? 

AmigaOS4.0

What do you think about the new Amiga-emulators "Amithlon" and "AmigaOS XL"? 

Amithlon is a very good beginning toward Amiga OS x86. Many people, who own a PC, but wont measure the Amiga (and wont buy a second computer) can have the "Amiga feeling" again - with extreme speed, too. Only one small example: Despite GHz  processors the system "freezes" under Windows, if you copie data or format a disk. Under Amithlon/AmigaOS the same process occurs rather unnoticed in the background - despite same hardware! Not quite clearly is me the positioning of the Amiga OS XL/QNX. There are also still the AE(JIT)/AmigaForever 5.0 , which offers the same under Windows - however without OS3.9 license. I would arrange XL/UAE/AmigaForever rather emulators-area, Amithlon rather in the area Amiga OS x86. I would see that also not as alternative, but rather as supplement of Pegasos / AmigaOS4. 

Do you think that there will be a future for the Classic Amiga? 

Yes, if "Amiga" then only the Classic market. Everything else is no Amiga market, but used only the name. 

Do you think, that the AmigaOne will be finished finally? Makes this really sense, because of Amiga OS 4.0 for Pegasos?

That will decide the market. I think there will be further (CHRP/POP) power PC machines with Amiga OS4.x sooner or later. Additionally don´t forget the different PPC solutions such as SharkPPC, DCE MicroServer or also G3/G4+ on Prometheus. 

Will you buy an AmigaOne or Pegasos? 

Yes, both - for professional reasons ;)

Do you think, that there will be a brighter future for the Amiga after the positive signs on the "AMIGA 2001" (Pegasos, Hyperion ports Amiga oS for Pegasos, too.)?

I always believed in the future of Amiga. So I see it only more positive now.

To something different: What are your favourite Amiga games currently?

I haven´t much time to play, but when I play, I prefere strategy-games: Napalm, Earth 2140, etc. Currently I miss simulations like "Alien Nations" or "Settlers".

What are your plans/projects for the future? 

The reorganization of point.design is not yet completed yet; However it will be finished, soon. Afterwards I see potential at the Amiga market again. The "O.A.S.E." was the first step to animate the market again. This event should take place in the future annually, whereby I would like to invite different manufacturers and dealers in the future, too. Next year the Amiga market should be stabilized and perhaps developed. Then we continue and see. 

Thank you for the interview and good luck for "O.A.S.E." (1./2. December)!

Thank you, too. And warm regards form Austria - to all Amiga-friends out there!
 
 

Das Interview wurde geführt von Anton Preinsack.