IMO there's a point as long as the terms that the guy's able to negotiate for buying out the current rightsholder make it financially sustainable to keep the business running solely by inexpensively licensing the Commodore brand name to the niche market of aftermarket C64/Amiga projects. I think it would be cool to see stuff like the Mega 65 or the C64 Mini with the actual Commodore brand name on it. I agree that if he has bigger ambitions to "bring back Commodore" then that's a fool's errand, the brand means basically nothing to anyone under the age of 40 and slapping it on modern stuff with little association to Commodore would just further dilute it.
bbarnett · 30d ago
Not sure if you remember MUI, but I was thinking about how extensible the OS was with lib patching.
I mean, how is it that MUI is still superior to every window manager I use, decades later??
There's surely been changes with all the OS updates over the years, but I wonder what a modern amigaos would have been like.
And if MUI was possible, what else could be with backwards compatibility? Imagine a modern AmigaOS. It could be neat.
But I agree, that battle is lost. And sadly I bet if it wasn't, Commodore execs could have turned it into an online nightnare like Windows is these days.
Oh well. It's a nice memory at least.
vintermann · 30d ago
It has happened so many times that an old name with good associations gets auctioned off to the highest bidder. The highest bidder inevitably is the one with the greediest plan to cash in on whatever goodwill is left in the name by utterly betraying it. No one buys an old name to build a good name.
So to me, at this point, it's a counter-signal when yet another entity wraps themselves in the musty pelt of of Atari, Commodore etc. It's a reason to avoid them.
I bet it happens in other areas as well, I only know old computers best for obvious reasons. So maybe there's a broader consumer protection case here to simply ban the transfer of trademarks, or at least put some heavy restrictions on it.
unwind · 30d ago
Wow, I had an Amiga while growing up (in Europe) and certainly thought I knew the platform and its history at least decently well, but I had no idea about the Hombre RISC chipset plans [1].
Very, very cool and yet another great source of that unique "oooh if only ..." feel that Commodore/Amiga nostalgics are so great at! :)
Sure there is, if you're talking about the real Commodore products.
But Commodore hasn't existed for a long time now, and won't ever exist again. The brand may live on, but that's just someone else wearing a costume. It's not actually Commodore.
I mean, how is it that MUI is still superior to every window manager I use, decades later??
There's surely been changes with all the OS updates over the years, but I wonder what a modern amigaos would have been like.
And if MUI was possible, what else could be with backwards compatibility? Imagine a modern AmigaOS. It could be neat.
But I agree, that battle is lost. And sadly I bet if it wasn't, Commodore execs could have turned it into an online nightnare like Windows is these days.
Oh well. It's a nice memory at least.
So to me, at this point, it's a counter-signal when yet another entity wraps themselves in the musty pelt of of Atari, Commodore etc. It's a reason to avoid them.
I bet it happens in other areas as well, I only know old computers best for obvious reasons. So maybe there's a broader consumer protection case here to simply ban the transfer of trademarks, or at least put some heavy restrictions on it.
Very, very cool and yet another great source of that unique "oooh if only ..." feel that Commodore/Amiga nostalgics are so great at! :)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Hombre_chipset
But Commodore hasn't existed for a long time now, and won't ever exist again. The brand may live on, but that's just someone else wearing a costume. It's not actually Commodore.