Commodore USA LLC founder Barry S. Altman dead at 63

redrumloa

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As reported by Amiga.org, Commodore USA LLC founder Barry Altman is dead at age 63.

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Glaucus

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Can't say I've heard of him. 63 is too young these days. What was he up to at Commodore?
 

redrumloa

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Can't say I've heard of him. 63 is too young these days. What was he up to at Commodore?

Barry happened to live local to me. I met him once and AFAIK Dammy a few times. You missed quite a stir it seems. He was seen as the devil to many in the Amiga "Kommunity". Barry started off by getting a license to use the Commodore name AND the Amiga name. He re-branded some all in one PCs with names like "Vic-Slim" and later mac mini style computers as "Commodore Amiga". He offer "CommodoreOS" which was a modified Linux Mint Distro.

Commodore USA did have one splash product, the C64x. He obviously pulled some strings and paid some money to have a MAJOR advertising campaign. For a few days shortly before launch, news of the new C64 was on every major news source and tech site.

Barry was a colorful character and didn't mince words. When he arrived on the scene to offer "blasphemous" computers that were not "teh real", he was attacked by cultist name followers. He wasn't one to ignore attacks so he would shoot back. At the peak, certain lowlife individuals on Amiga.org were wishing he would die painfully.
 

Glaucus

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He dared go against the Amiga Kommunity? I'd check for ricin in his blood.

heh, just kidding. Btw, what does it mean when you spell community with a K?
 

JoBBo

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Barry was a colorful character and didn't mince words. When he arrived on the scene to offer "blasphemous" computers that were not "teh real", he was attacked by cultist name followers. He wasn't one to ignore attacks so he would shoot back.

This is true except that plenty of non-name followers have criticized Commodore USA's and Barry Altman's business behaviour and tactics. Rightfully so.

Just as a reminder, Barry Altman started to use the trademark Commodore for his company name and on websites a long time before he eventually finalized a licensing agreement. He later attempted to justify this highly questionable behaviour as a strategy to find out who the current owners of the trademark were.

Commodore USA have also been repeatedly caught using third-party artwork on their website without proper licensing from the original authors.

Plus, the company made claims about a 30 million dollar advertizing budget which were completely and utterly false.

Last but not least, the company attempted to lure members of the AROS community into supporting Commodore USA hardware for free. When asked to contribute financially to AROS bounties as a good-will gesture, the interest in AROS suddenly dropped and Barry insulted the very same OS project that Commodore USA had praised and had announced to be a key part of its future software strategy shortly before.
 

redrumloa

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heh, just kidding. Btw, what does it mean when you spell community with a K?

You have to go back all the way to the late 90's when Barry "Fleecy" Moss was fired by Gateway 2000's version of Amiga and started KOSH, which was Kommunity Operating System and Hardware. The only thing of KOSH that ever stuck was the term Kommunity in reference to online Amiga users.
 

redrumloa

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Just as a reminder, Barry Altman started to use the trademark Commodore for his company name and on websites a long time before he eventually finalized a licensing agreement. He later attempted to justify this highly questionable behaviour as a strategy to find out who the current owners of the trademark were.

I had a long conversation with Barry on this. There was no way to contact the owners of the name "Commodore". If you research this you will see it is true. It was a strategic strategy to get their attention and it worked. You may not have heard but some time after Barry got a license, ultimately he secured the name Commodore (though last I heard there may have been some legal wrangling, I haven't been following).

Commodore USA have also been repeatedly caught using third-party artwork on their website without proper licensing from the original authors.

I never agreed with Barry on this and told him so. He was trying to get Kommunity interest by doing this. This issue alone though did not justify the venom he received.

Plus, the company made claims about a 30 million dollar advertizing budget which were completely and utterly false.

It was indeed false. Later on he claimed this was at the advice of the advertising people he had hired. While $30M was false, there clearly was some big bucks spent on advertising early on. To be vetted and become an advertising partner with Disney takes money. To get the type of media coverage he had a few months before the launch of the C64x take serious money. The news story peaked at #1 on Yahoo trends and was on every major news site and tech website. That doesn't come free.

Last but not least, the company attempted to lure members of the AROS community into supporting Commodore USA hardware for free. When asked to contribute financially to AROS bounties as a good-will gesture, the interest in AROS suddenly dropped and Barry insulted the very same OS project that Commodore USA had praised and had announced to be a key part of its future software strategy shortly before.

I really don't think this is true. He did dismiss AROS later on, but IIRC the option had been eliminated due to legal issues from the Amiga Inc / Hyperion settlement. He couldn't use an Amiga-like OS on a computer branded "Amiga".

You didn't have to like the guy, but the venom he received in the forums was too much. The reason behind the venom was largely due to teh name(s).

Back on the money issue, Barry was a wealth man. If you look at the list of Madoff victims, Barry S. Altman is near the top. The money he recouped from the settlement and of the claw-back of Madoff's assets is more than most people would see in a lifetime. Barry could personally finance CUSA as much as he wished.
 
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