Iwin - Wish or Reality?
Here you find the
german version
.
Some time ago a new company named
Iwin
appeared with a web site that promised
fully compatible Amiga-Clones.
Of course, there were immediate doubts regarding technical and
historical aspects, because the company never appeared before.
Martin Steinbach, author of the web pages and alleged CEO of Iwin,
asked the Amiga community to stay calm until the first computers
would be delivered. Since then, we try to verify the story or to prove
it wrong.
Pro:
Contra:
(The following things have been collected by miscellaneous netizens.
However, the most thorough investigations have been done by Tobias Walter,
Oliver B. Warzecha and Mathias Ortmann.)
-
The company is supposed to have more than 300 employees, but may
be contacted
just via some E-mail addresses and a single cell phone number.
-
The
search function
on the web site never worked. Note, that a full working Yahoo-Search-Engine
facility would cost some money!
-
The CDRs (with the Technology-Guide) that Iwin sent were
not readable.
-
The
files
one may
download from
the web site are Photoshop files or files that belong to Windows-NT.
-
Asking the mail server mail.iwin-corp.com (which responds with
"usahost.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.8.5/8.6.12") one finds out, that all
mail addresses are just aliases to one single address <iwin@usahost.net>.
A global company that collects all mail via one address and sorts it out
afterwards?
-
The web pages are hosted by a
very cheap provider
for
$19.95 per month.
Not exactly what one might expect from a real company, that uses it's
webspace to let people
download bigger files
from, but merely an offer for private customers. You can tell the
difference at the usual surf times, the site is slow.
-
The
domain
has been registered by the private person Martin Steinbach, and
not by any company
(which would do so, normally). Furthermore, the
registration
has been done on the 21st of Juni 1999. Under what name
has the company been on the net before? Or is
the online presence of the company really that young?
-
Some
photos
(pretended to be taken at Iwin) already
disappeared.
There are remarkably few employees to be seen on that images.
-
Some traces lead to a company named "Intersolv":
Do the photos from
Iwin
actually show an office from
Merant?
Lets see, how long we will have to wait for the
promised computers. 8-)
This page was translated by
Randolf 'RANDi' Schultz
Oliver B. Warzecha, Tobias Walter,
Bernhard Möllemann
-
iwin@kleinbus.org
Last changed: 13-Sep-1999
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