By Stephen Jacobs
The Commodore Amiga, dubbed "the world's first multimedia PC" by Byte, is back - again. Developed by Hi-Toro then sold to Commodore, the computer hit the streets in late 1985 and met its first public demise with the death of Commodore in 1994. Though the system disappeared from the mainstream, Amiga owners have kept the machine alive in a quasi-underground market. Meanwhile, the German clone manufacturer that bought the OS promptly went bankrupt, and - after two deals fell through - sold the technology to Gateway 2000 last March. When Amiga Inc.'s Darreck Lisle subsequently began popping up in several user groups, predictions of another "second coming" - including PDAs and set-top boxes based on the venerable OS - spread quickly around the Net. Gateway did not respond to the buzz, choosing to keep quiet until DevCon, a gathering of professional developers at the Midwest Amiga Exposition in November. Even if this revival fails, the faithful know the Amiga still has several lives to go.
ELECTRIC WORD
Sixth Coming
