AmigaOS 4 on Tour - How it began
By Jürgen Schober

I think the idea of the AmigaOS 4 on Tour materialized back in February or March when Ben Hermans asked for someone to have a PPC native Exec on display in Spain. I had created the O.A.S.E. Amiga shows in Austria a while back (starting 2001) and having this show on tour in Slowenia in Autum 2002 the first time. So at that time I thought about doing another "Tour" but especially doing presentations of the OS4. Also, Uros was asking me if I am planning to have some preview of OS 4 in Spring and there was also Michael Bab whom I met back in 2002 at the O.A.S.E. 2002. He had the idea of the Amiga Alpe Adria, a user meeting in the area of Austria, Slowenia and Italy (this region is also called Alpe Adria - between the alps and the see, the "Adria"). Bye the way: The Spain event never took place.

I'd been registered as a Betatester just in February (or so) and I got the information ExecSG was running the first time. This, Ben's request and my own intention to have some sort of OS4 preview before the summer led to the kick off of the AmigaOS 4 on Tour. I also wanted to have an event before the summer because I thought the Amiga community has a right to know what is all about the current state of the AmigaOS4. I did realize, that we wouldn't see it before the end of the year. So some sort of a teaser was necessary. And I think even in the current state the OS4 has a lot of potential to impress people around. We have to "save" momentum before the market gets lost which I think would have been possible if we have had been quiet over the summer. Now things are looking different. In a positive manner, I think.

While launching the event I tried to increase the range of people we could reach. One problem is the physical range I could go, by car or any other vehicle. I had a good business relation to KDH in Germany and it was easy to ask Günter for his support for the show. He'd help me a lot with preparing the web site, the merchandising and even the posters we use for the entrances, etc. He also provides the Banner at ann.lu.

Finally I asked Rose Humphry whom I knew from the early days at the AmigaOne developer mailing list. She was a contact in France so I could have events in Austria, Slowenia, Germany, France and Italy. We talked with Ben Hermans and Fleecy about how we could handle such an event and eventually we got public. While we did that others got interested in the event. Rose could not hold the 21. June, at the same time I got a request from Switzerland and also from Sweden. We talked about having a time shift for Rose's event, and if it makes sense to have two events at the same time. The decision was yes, and that also gave us the opportunity to add Sweden to the calendar. Switzerland did fit well at the now free 21st June.

By now, we have three events passed. I have mixed feelings about the progress so far. But I think that's normal in the current situation. I had times asking myself why I am doing all this stuff, because of some public comments appearing here and then. I also have a normal 9-5 job. So, this whole stuff is a lot of work for me. But I do not regret it at all. I think we had to. And we haven't had any negative comments at the shows. Well, nobody denies the OS4 is not ready yet. This is mostly respected by the audience. Of course, the current 68k version is not the "eyecatcher" a ppc native version would be, but we now have an estimated timeframe of a ppc release for the CyberstormPPC, we also have an impression when an AmigaOne version could appear, and the new intuition gained some momentum, too. Over all I think it was worth the effort. I hope we can have some more ppc native stuff until the end of the shows, at July, 5th. I might also be able to have a nice surprise for the Udine event (but that's very risky yet). We'll see.

I'd like to thank all the supporters of the AmigaOS 4 on Tour so far, thanks to all visitors so far and I'd like to invite all other to take the opportunity to visit one (or more) shows left to come. A big thank you goes to my family while they stand beside me in these busy times.

Best Wishes,
Jürgen