ReportMy Trip to the OS4 on Tour event in Bath, UKMe and a couple of friends, Nick a.k.a Slackbladder and Liam a.k.a Cyka(_Delik) had been planning on going to the Bath event for weeks, but after cyka dropped out, the train became far too costly and Nick's car decided not to play ball it looked as though we weren't going to get there. For 2 days I frantically posted to news sites on the internet looking for someone close by to give us a lift, and I thought we were all out of luck, then someone by the nick of the-elf popped up and offered to take us, if we could get to Grantham, which we duly did. We made it; we had managed to get to the show!The ShowAfter a slight oversight on my part, completely missing our turning for the M5, we arrived at the show slightly late, at around 1:30 in the afternoon. The event was already fairly crowded, and I got ticket number 53. I immediately set about trying to meet up with everyone I already knew for previous shows as well as some new faces I knew were attending, after about an hour of pure madness I eventually had chance to breath and survey what was to be seen, and I liked what I saw. Although the venue was small, there was much to see.Alan Redhouse had 2 micro A1's on show, one running Linux and the other one mounted in a DVD case to give us some idea of how it could be used in the commercial market. I was immediately impressed with it. The Linux box was running what I assume to have been Boch's, which was playing an mp3, and Alan was trying to load up MOL but Linux wasn't playing ball. To which I heard many a funny comment being uttered under Alan's breath, I don't think he likes Linux too much . There was also yet another A1 running close to the micro A1's that also had Linux on it. I believe that to have been an A1-XE G4 model, but I could be mistaken. Opposite that was free caffeine in the form of tea and coffee, at least I assume it was free… if not Oooops, sorry guys. Around the corner was fleecy and a little sprog, which I assume to be his son, Fleecy didn't stop speaking once to people, I don't think I even saw him breath… I just don't know how the man does it…. Oh I'd also like to point out that the Articles in the great Total Amiga mag titled “Fleecy Speaks” really should be renamed to “Fleecy squeaks” after hearing him talk again . Anyway I digress…. Round yet another corner was Peter “xeron” Gordon's AmigaONE and JurrasicCampers A1, both were busy playing around with them, lucky gits! Next to them was formatt selling a collection of software and other little bits, pity I was brasic, I always like to show my support for retailers when I attend shows . Continuing along the row of tables next came the Total Amiga and SEAL group, with yes, yet another AmigaONE, this time running Quake2, and looking very nice! Having beta tested Quake2 on my Amiga I can tell you it was running a heck of a lot faster on the AmigaONE, and the OS isn't completely finished yet, it will rock when it is! Next to the SEAL stand there was a beard…. No sorry, I mean yet another AmigaONE with a nice bearded man stood behind, who greeted me (sorry I didn't catch who you were). Next came the Amiga North Thames table with yet another AmigaONE. I don't know about you guys but I've already lost count.... Next to all that was heaven, in the form of a bar… where I later replenished myself with a nice pint of Guinness, lovely stuff! Following on from the bar, was the Stellar Dreams stand, with yes, you guessed it, yet another AmigaONE running, with more AmigaONE motherboards sitting on the table, if only they were giving them away…. Stellar Dreams had a collection of software and some odd bits of hardware on sale, all I could afford though was a business card, since that was free… And that brings us back round to the entrance. I spent a good 2 hours walking around, taking a look at things, talking to people and generally having a real good time. I met loads of people, most I cant remember there names, but I did get a chance to meet up with a few from AmigaWorld, and a few from both the IRC channels I frequent. I also noticed the celebrity was also there, sorry I mean Mike Bouma and his Camera Man (who I got a rather dashing photo of). He still scares me, and I got the distinct impression he was ignoring me… Not to worry. I tried to speak to fleecy, I really did, but I never got a look in, that guy is just far too busy! At approximately 3:30pm the speeches began, which I was really glad about because I knew I had to leave at 4. The SpeechThe first and only speech I got to listen too was by Alan Redhouse concerning the AmigaONE, and it was all extremely interesting. Nothing groundbreakingly new, but good to hear from the horses mouth all the same. He spoke about why it is priced as it is, as well as how he hopes to bring costs down with the micro A1's and subsequent models. He also spoke briefly about OS4 and how it will be released in beta form to early bird owners. All I can say is that saying is so true, the early bird does catch the worm, and what a worm OS4 is . All in all the speech was interesting, straightforward and occasionally funny. I have to point out I did struggle to not laugh when the guy sitting next to me kept falling asleep, whether it was he'd got carried away at the bar, or he suffers from some sort of sleeping disorder it was very amusing, especially when Alan noticed, and apologized for being boring. Unfortunately I was un-able to stay for the next part of the speech which was about china, as we had to leave otherwise the-elf would get an ear full from his missus, and we wouldn't want that now would we…Overall ConclusionI had an excellent day and I would go through it all again in a heartbeat to attend. OS4 has come on leaps and bounds since Benelux, and I eagerly await a final release, oh and my very own AmigaONE… The organizers and all the groups who attended the show made it a great event, and I look forward to the next UK show, which I will try my best to attend. I shall now put my entrance ticket (which by the way was created by me) safely with the rest of my Amiga show tickets and bring this report to a close. Here's to many more happy Amiga days.ThanksI would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who did their level best to get me to the show. I would especially like to thank Kevin Tiernan a.k.a the-elf, for giving both me and Nick a lift to the show and back, without you this report would not have been possible. |
