Many people have asked me to write a show report about the recent AmiWest 2010 Show, from a MorphOS user's point of view, as I was one of the very few people that attended the show who primarily use MorphOS2.6 as my "Amiga" system of choice. (Please leave any arguments or flames about your opinion that MorphOS2.6 running on a Pegasos, Efika, or PPC Mac computer is not an "Amiga" for another time and place. Most members of THIS forum site regard any computer running MorphOS2.6 to be just as much an Amiga as any AmigaOne, SAM, AROS x86, or UAE x86 computer)

One of the many reasons I have not written an AmiWest 2010 Show report before today, is because there was so little to really tell that has not already been written on the many other Amiga forum sites...

The AmiWest show this year was very much an AmigaOS4.x event due to the guest speakers and display of both the SAM 460 and AmigaOne X1000 computers running AmigaOS4.1.2, plus the recent port of Rebol3.0 to AmigaOS4.1.2 and having it's author and member of the original Amiga team, Carl Sassanrath as well as another original Amiga team member, Dale Luck, present at the show and the banquet dinner.

I had originally thought of presenting the release of MorphOS2.6 in a more verbal and perhaps even competition sort of way during the show, sort of like standing up in the middle of the room and shouting that MorphOS2.5 & 2.6 had also made great progress over the last year since I had last shown 2.4 to the AmiWest attendees. Fortunately I realized that such an attitude and attempt at "show-boating" to steal attention away from the AmigaOS4.x announcements and displays would not only not work, it would make myself look like a troll and do more harm for MorphOS than good.

I did take 4 G4 PowerMac towers, 1 G4 eMac, 1 G4 MacMini, 1 Efika and my G4 1.67GHz, 17" PowerBook laptop to the show and set them up in a way so everyone at the show could come by and try them out. I donated the G4 eMac and an A500 as prizes for the Amiga Game Competition and made sure everyone knew that the MorphOS Development Team was donating the MorphOS2.6 License Keyfile for the G4 eMac to the winner. My friend, Tim Waite, had our own wireless network switch setup to serve all the MorphOS2.6 computers at our display table, so we probably had the best network connection at the show, which encouraged several show attendees to come visit our table and use OWB1.9 on MorphOS2.6 to write live show reports/forum messages and of course they were impressed with the smooth and fast performance of MorphOS2.6 when run on a 1.25GHz to 1.67GHz G4 Mac computer, compared to what most of them are used to on their AmigaOne's and SAM's. I also had Papiosaur's "Pack Ultimate" installed on a couple of the MorphOS2.6 computers, which several of the show attendees made note of. Thanks Papi for your work on the Pack Ultimate and to all the MorphOS software developers who contributed their programs for inclusion in the pack.

I also raffled off one of the three G4 PowerMac MDD towers, as a way to increase the show awareness of MorphOS2.6 being recently released with support for G4 PowerMac towers. This raffle had me worried at first, as the number of tickets for the raffle was very low, until the very last 5 minutes before the drawing. But then, with the help of a couple announcements over the SACC microphone & PA system, I was able to sell enough tickets to recover my purchase cost of the system and it was clear that everyone left in the room was aware of MorphOS2.6 for G4 PowerMac towers. The other two G4 PowerMac towers sold (at a great price for the buyers) as I was packing up everything to leave the show, so at least I did not have to pack them and cart them all the way back home.

A big thank you to one of our fellow MorphZone.org members, "pampers", for offering to donate a MorphOS2.6 license keyfile fee to the winner of the G4 PowerMac tower raffle. That was a very generous offer and is greatly appreciated by myself and the winner of the raffle. (he will be contacting me after he installs MorphOS2.6 demo and runs the RegTool)

As many of you already know, I have organized the Amiga Game Competition at the AmiWest 2009 & 2010 Shows. This year I gave most of the work of setting up the computers and choosing which games to play to my good friends, Tim Waite and Chris Chapman. I literally could not have done it without them, and more accurately should say that they did it this year, not me, as my involvement in the game competition was only a fraction of theirs. Thanks guys, it was another great trip up to AmiWest and the chance to hang out with a couple of Amiga friends is always one of the best parts of the show. Unfortunately, there were very few Amiga gamers at this year's AmiWest show and the number of game competition participants was very low. It did not lessen the amount of fun we all had in the playing of or watching the games and the exciting finale of the two top scorers going head to head playing Street Fighter II on the huge projector screen to determine who would win the G4 eMac w/MorphOS2.6 license donated by the MorphOS Dev. Team! In that regard (not number of participants), the Amiga Game Competition was even better this year than last year, and with the probability that SACC will choose the same hotel location for next year's show, I can anticipate that the Amiga Game Competition will be a fun part of the show again next year (though I think I will encourage someone else to take over the reigns of running it next year).

As always, the time for the show goes by far too quickly and then it is over. Even with the two day format, there is not enough time to see everything I wanted to see and talk to everyone that I would like to meet during the show. I want to extend a huge thank you to the MorphOS Development Team for all of their assistance in getting me ready to show MorphOS2.6 AND a beta version of MorphOS2.x for the G4 PowerBook. Even though they were able to release MorphOS2.6 prior to the beginning of the AmiWest 2010 Show, the Team helped me to have the opportunity to install and test it before the official release and as always, I am more than happy to present MorphOS2.x at the AmiWest shows to make sure that they all know that they have another choice.

Sorry for the delay in getting this report written, but contrary to popular belief, I am not really a public relations type of person, I am just another satisfied MorphOS2.6 user.

Until next year,
AmigaDave

P.S. My offer to house and transport any MorphOS Developer Team members and/or MorphOS users to and from the AmiWest show next year is still open, as well as welcoming any of you at other times of the year. Enjoy your MorphOS2.6 and beyond experiences, and those that don't already know how, teach yourself how to write some apps or games for MorphOS2.x. If we don't do it, nobody else is going to for us!