History / 2015-06-06 19:33:03

A complete guide to the history of the Amiga computer and OS is available on-line.

Home Computer History

Home computers were made popular by several early (and incompatible) computers who really change the face of computing and introduce computing to the masses... Here is my take on this early history of the home computers.

Amiga Team in 2007

The following photo was taken at Dale Luck's wedding in June 2007.

This photo features most of the original Amiga design team, with:

• From left to right, front row:
  • Glenn Keller - HW: Paula chip
  • Dave Needle - HW: Agnus chip, system boards
• Back row:
  
  • Carl Sassenrath - SW: Exec kernel
  • Dale Luck - SW: Graphics (and here, groom)
  • Sam Dicker - SW: Sound
  • RJ Mical - SW: Intuition (GUI)
  • Bob Burns - SW: Printers & input devices
  • Hedley Davis - HW: "Representing" Commodore
• And some missing engineers:
  
  • Jay Miner - HW: Team leader, Agnus chip (deceased)
  • David Dean - HW: Denise chip
  • Bob Pariseau - SW: Team leader
  • Neil Katin - SW: Devices
  • Jim Mackraz - SW: Graphics, devices
  • Bart Whitebook - SW: Graphics

Ars Technica

Ars Technica also features a multi-part story of the Amiga:

1. Genesis;
2. The birth of Amiga;
3. First prototype;
4. Enter Commodore;
5. Postlaunch blues;
6. Stopping the bleeding;
7. Game On!;
8. The demo scene.

It also published an article about the fight between IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows, featuring praises for the Amiga.

The Digital Antiquarian

Jimmy Maher, the Digital Antiquarian, also wrote a fantastic book on the Amiga, The Future Was Here, and discussed about the early years of Amiga in a two-part article:

1. The 68000 Wars, Part 1: Lorraine;
2. The 68000 Wars, Part 2: Jack Is Back!
3. The 68000 Wars, Part 3: We Made Amiga, They Fucked It Up

In a Nutshell...

What is the Amiga all about in one picture...

... and in Details

The following images summarise the past and current state of the Amiga computers and of their operating systems. The first figure includes also the release years for each Amiga computer and the company who manufactured it. If no company name is given, it is the same company as the "main" company on the horizontal timeline.

This second image show the evolution link between releases of the Amiga OS. AmigaOS 4 the most recent release of the AmigaOS is mostly a descendant of AmigaOS v3.1.

A-EON

Since 2009, A-EON has been the driving force behind the renewal of AmigaOS and hardware (with Hyperion Entertainment), here is an interesting interview of Trevor Dickson, its (co-)founder.