🚀 go-pugleaf

: Scala, like so many other Amiga developers, has gotten too full of 
: themselves. They believe it was them, and not the Amiga, that was 
: responsible for their success. If you ask me, they are trying really hard 
: to go out of business by ignoring their roots and trying for the illusive 
: and non-existant PC pot of gold. The PC community will respond by doing 
: what it always does. It will almost completely ignore Scala because the 
: PC community only buys what everyone else already has. New companies to
: that platform rarely survive for long. It's a shame that we, the Amiga 
: community will have to suffer the loss from yet another ego and greed 
: based business decision.

: Commodore is Dead,                                                        
: Long Live the Amiga.                                         Joe Rothman

I'm sorry guys, but while I sympathize with your discouragement, and 
even frustration at the state of "things Amiga" over the last few years,
this attitude towards Scala is way over the top and I can't let it 
pass without rebuttal.

First, if you think you are dissappointed/annoyed/frustrated/out-of-pocket
by the damage done to our beloved platform over the last few years, just put 
yourselves in the shoes of guys like Dave Haynie and company who 
put heart, soul and career options into the Amiga for at least a decade!  
I beleive it's still true that the majority of Scala N.American empoyees 
are ex-Amiga people...maybe 'ex' is the wrong adjective, as many are 
still working for the advancement of the platform in very real ways. 
Guys like this have put more on the line and suffered far more for 
it than the sum total of a dozen user-groups.  But they still speak well 
of and support the Amiga at every opportunity.  As well, they continue to 
express publicly and privately their optimistic view of the Amiga 
future.

Scala -the company- itself (aside from providing astonishing software 
which allows even antique Amiga hardware to hold it's own with the most 
up to date PC) has recently released ScalaMM400 for NTSC at a very 
reasonable price, and has stated in this forum that the new BackBone 
code used for the Intel version is specifically designed with 'portability'
in mind and that if the Power Amiga debut is reasonably succesful we can hope
for a version which will make the PA shine above it's peers (my very rough
paraphrase).

Scala has demonstrated their continued interest in the Amiga 
by being involved in some of the A1200 software packs, even producing 
a 'dongle-less' version for that purpose, and their continued
contacts/consultations with AT.

They can hardly be blamed for wanting to enter a profitable market at the
same time...possibly they'd like to feed their children, who knows.  
And,while PC MM100 may be a lovely product it still takes massive 
hardware resources to run as compared to MM400. Thus we still have some 
market edge.  As well, when the PowerAmi and appropriate version of 
Scala become available, there will certainly be no harm to the 
Amiga in having crossplatform compatability of scripts.  The lack of this 
in other software has been a very real problem in selling Amigas in the 
past.

I don't (obviously) share your view that the PC market will ignore  
Scala.....like LW it's just too fine a program, and is a testament 
to those that worked on it.  It seriously outshines it's competitors. 
I hope it does very well, that everyone at Scala prospers, and that they
be alive and well fiscally to be there when the Power Ami comes to 
be!

Long live Scala, long live the Amiga!

My $1.25
Steve.

-- 
	Steve Bowie ad636@torfree.net 
	North York, Ontario, Canada
      << new sig imminent...honest!! >>