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Please introduce yourself (name, age, job, where you come from etc.)

My name is Gregory Donner, I'm 33, and I work for a mission organization called "HCJB World Radio" (www.hcjb.org) as a computer-aided draftsman at their Engineering Center in Elkhart, Indiana. If you've ever heard the "Voice of the Andes" on the radio, this is who I work for.

I was born in Salem, Oregon (USA), and since my parents were missionaries with Trans World Radio at the time, we moved to Swaziland (a tiny country north-east of South Africa) in 1973. We lived there until 1984. We then moved to Pinetown, South Africa in 1985, and I matricuated from high school in 1988. We came back to the United States at the end of 1988, and I've lived here in Elkhart, Indiana since August of 1989.

Which amiga system(s) do you use?

I have an Amiga 4000 power-towered system with a GVP 4060 '060 accelerator, Prelude, PicassoIV, ioExtender, Spitfire SCSI, 64MB of FAST, 4.5GB IDE hard drive, EZFlyer removable hard drive, ATAPI CD-R/W drive, OS4 beta (see below),and various asundry peripherals

How long are you active on the Amiga?

I first heard about the Amiga in South Africa in 1986 from my good friend Eugene Wolff. His father owned a computer store, so Eugene got his hands on an Amiga 500, and I was very envious. Shortly after I returned to the USA, I bought my own Amiga 500 and 1084S monitor, and have been upgrading ever since. I've owned an Amiga 500, 2000, and now a 4000 (I also have an A3000 that needs a new hard drive.

You have created the famous Amiga Workbench Nostalgia page containing lots of very detailed informations regarding the Amiga history especially the OS. What made you think of creating such a huge project?

I remember sitting at my Amiga one day (after searching for information on Workbench), and there were no sites that covered Workbench in it's entirety. Having been (and still am) a Workbench fan, I decided to start building the framework for one. The result you see is nothing more than a compilation of all the data I received from dedicated Amiga users who contributed the content. Workbench Nostalgia is far more a tribute to their effort than mine. Of all the visitors to my website, Workbench Nostalgia still accounts for the majority of hits.).

Tell us a bit more about the content of your website. What can we discover there?

Besides some personal links, I host our local Amiga User Group website (Amiga Computer Enthusiasts of Elkhart), a support site for owners of GVP 2060 & 4060 accelerator cards, the official OS 3.5 and 3.9 FAQs, an illustrated review of AmigaOS 3.9, some 'Rant & Rave' pages, and of course, Workbench Nostalgia.

How much time went into the creation of your pages (scanning images, preparing FAQs, etc.)?

Collectively, I really don't know--it's been a labor of love for four or five years now. I've spent a good amount of time on my evenings and weekends working on it, and I've enjoyed the results of my time spent on it. Many users have actually saved me time by sending me images and data that I can easily drop into the pages; this has saved me a good deal of time, and I'm grateful for that.

For years I was an Amiga 'leech'; I never contributed anything to the Amiga community while enjoying the hard work of others. In a small way, I hope to have changed that.

One huge section of your page is dedicated to the OS3.5 and OS.3.9. You have created a very detailed FAQ featuring bug-reports, tips and tricks and descriptions of undocumented features. Have you also been an offical betatester of OS.3.5 and OS.3.9 before it had been released?

The original author of the (at the time) unoffical AmigaOS 3.5 FAQ had left the Amiga, and I requested permission from him to pick up where he left off. After much of the 3.5 FAQ was done, Martin Steigerwald at Haage & Partner liked what he saw, and kindly invited me to be a betatester for AmigaOS 3.9. I was asked to do the FAQ for OS 3.9 as well, and was happy to oblige, although it was a bit of work keeping up at times. (Incidentally, it's still getting updated now and then.)

How did you discover all those undocumented features and bugs? Have you been involved into the work on OS 3.5 or 3.9 somehow?

I didn't. All the undocumented features have come from other Amiga users over the years. My work with AmigaOS 3.5 only involved the FAQ; for OS 3.9, it was betatesting and the 3.9 FAQ.

Do Haage&Partner or Amiga listen (and maybe react as well) to your complaints regarding bugs and advantages of the OS?

As a betatester, I'd filed a number of suggestions and bug reports for OS 3.9, and the OS development team did their best to work them out within the confines of their limited budget for AmigaOS 3.9. Budgets determine to a great extent what can and cannot be developed or fixed; developers need to be paid, and good software takes time and lots of financial resources.

What do you think about OS 4.0? Are you involved into the work on the future AmigaOS? Maybe as a beta-tester?

As you might have guessed, I'm a part of the OS 4.0 betatesting team. OS 4.0 is a good upgrade, and IMO will be worth the wait. It has a lot of practical improvements and features that will speak for themselves when it's released.

Do you think that OS 4.0 will be just an improvement of the OS 3.9. or do you think it will be something really ground-breaking - ready to beat WindowsXP or MacOSX?

Where do I start? Let me just say that OS 4.0 won't be perfect, but in many ways it will still hold it's own against XP or MacOSX by being smaller, leaner, and packing more punch with fewer bugs and even fewer lines of code.

Which features do you really wish for the new AmigaOS 4.0?

New and improved printer drivers would be my first choice, but I'm not complaining, seeing as many things I've wished the OS would have in the past will be in OS 4.0. Something to look forward to.

Which features do you miss for the current AmigaOS?

Improved printer driver support, and more closely integrated graphics and audio card support in the OS are what I miss the most. To some extent, the PC has leap-frogged the Amiga in this area, but efforts are being made by some very talented Amiga developers to address this..

Will you buy an AmigaONE?

If OS 4.0 were completed, and I could afford one, yes! In the meantime, I enjoy my A4000PT, and hope it lives a long life yet. There's something to be said for a 50MHz Amiga that still does what I need it to do, when I have a 667MHz Pentium III at work that could use some upgrades...

Do you think the AmigaOS is (still) the best Operating System ever?

Philosophically, yes. Practically, it's showing it's age, but it's still my favorite OS. I like how it looks, operates, and gives the user so much control. I can't say that about any other operating system I've used or know. It also doesn't assume I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm doing (although some people will debate that.

Will there be an OS 4.0 FAQ when the new OS is out?

Amiga Inc. has given me verbal permission to do it, and I'm all for it. I just hope by then I can afford an AmigaOne system to make my work even more enjoyable.

What do you think about the future of Amiga computers?

As long as there are Amiga users who still believe and fight for it, the Amiga will never die. The Amiga is only as strong as it's community. This is what sets the Amiga apart from every other operating system out there. I've always held to the statement that there's a big difference between "dead" and "competitive." The Amiga may not be competitive (at least for the moment), but it's certainly not dead.

Your opinion on the 'Amiga Community'?

I love it. We're a unique group of computer users who've been through fear, frustration, and anger together, and have still held to our dreams and kept a vision of what we know computing should be like--not a shrink-wrapped box of buggy software that a corporation dictates to us.

What do you love to do in your freetime?

At the moment, I'm working on a review of IBrowse 2.3 for "The New Amigans" magazine. I also get a number of requests for replacement Workbench disks from Amiga users who are either missing disks, or have had theirs go bad over the years. You'd be surprised how many Amiga users are still using Workbench 1.3 with a single floppy Amiga 500. No Amiga user is insignificant, and I'm glad to be of help to them.

When I'm not using my Amiga (rare) I enjoy music, movies, biking, swimming, and am still holding to the hope that one day I will meet my soul-mate and marry her. That's my greatest desire right now, with my Amiga a close second.

Thanx for the very interesting interview, Gregory!

Thank you for interviewing me! You have a great website, and I wish you the best as you continue supporting the Amiga community.