OS 4 hardware

[trekiej]

I have heard that OS4.X is under powered on Sam 440.
On what do you think it should be run?

[Gulliver]

It should be run on Macs to begin with.
The problem is not that OS4 is underpowered on SAMs, but the fact that the SAM is disgustingly expensive, and low powered, compared to its main rival, MorphOS.
The sad fact is that OS4 due to this, together with performance penalties and lack of features, it is notably loosing market share. Example: lack of USB 2.0 support and widely known bugs and crashes that are not quickly solved. It is that serious the situation, that AROS/IcAROS which has cheaper hardware and USB 2.0 support is even gaining territory, diminishing OS4 market share.
On the other hand, many classic 68k Amiga users, are reluctant to commit the huge amount of money on OS4, because it still lacks its "wow" factor, i mean OS4 is "just" good, and the hardware is a boring, unoriginal and underpowered PPC embedded design with the Amiga name on it. And of course, it has nothing to do with the original Amiga concept of innovation and/or great engineering.

My 2 cents

[trekiej]

I believe if the Sam440 could be low cost, it would not bother me if it was a niche. Low cost could mean more market penetration.
I bet Acube understands this.

[Gulliver]

I agree, but then the SAM should cost less than say 300 EURO for me to think of it seriously!

[trekiej]

I was thinking $100.00 to $300.00 US.

[Everblue]

They should just port OS4.1 to all possible hardware, suchas MACs, just like MorphOS team is doing. Then more people would be able to buy the OS.

[trekiej]

As far as porting to other platforms, it would not bother me if they did.
Terra soft solutions has a nice rig, but out of my price range. I do not know if porting to Macs has any legal problems.
I do not see myself getting a mac anytime soon. I have 4 of them and 3 are ppc oldworld.
It would be nice to use them.

[zylesea]

As far as porting to other platforms, it would not bother me if they did.
Terra soft solutions has a nice rig, but out of my price range. I do not know if porting to Macs has any legal problems.
I do not see myself getting a mac anytime soon. I have 4 of them and 3 are ppc oldworld.
It would be nice to use them.

Why do ppl repeat this claim "porting to Mac has legal problems" that often? To my knowledge (well, biased from being within the EU) there is absolutely zilch probem. Apple can - to some extend - forbid that their software is used on other computers, but they cannot forbit that other OSes run on hardware tey build. Or is that different in other countries?
Wouldn't matter though, since the both Amigaish OS companies are EU based (MorphOS: Germny, OS4: Belgium).

[cv643d]

I think you are right. You can run what you want on your Mac.

The legal problem was before the end of the trial with Amiga.inc I think. Problem is off course, if MacOS4.1 appears nobody will buy Acube systems anymore.

Do not forget that AmigaOSx86 is already here and available. You can download it yourself, just search for Icaros/AROS on Google.

[Piru]

I do not know if porting to Macs has any legal problems.

Unless if there is some DRM to circumvent to get your sw to run there is no problem. Macs don't have such DRM in place, and thus there is no problem. It's just like any other generic HW platform.

You must look elsewhere for reasons for the no show of the OS4 port.

[cha05e90]

"I believe if the Sam440 could be low cost"

The Sam is already low cost. A new high end PPC system would easily cost around 1000€ and up.

[spirantho]

"I believe if the Sam440 could be low cost"

The Sam is already low cost. A new high end PPC system would easily cost around 1000€ and up.

Exactly.

It frustrates me no end when people say that the Sam is horrendously over-priced.

The problem is that people these days are spoiled by the massive economies of scale on PC hardware and think that therefore it should apply to minority hardware like the Sam.

PC motherboards cost $60 because they're made in their millions. How many Sams are produced? If the makers of the Sam want to recoup their costs they need a higher unit price. If they sell at the same price as PC motherboards they'd make a massive loss, as demand is tiny compared to the PC counterparts. So nobody would make Sam systems, and then people would complain and yell about there being no hardware.

It's basic supply and demand:
PC hardware: Very high demand so very high supply. Profit margins per unit are small but quantities are huge, so a profit is possible.
Amiga hardware: Very low demand so very low supply. Profit margins per unit need to be very large otherwise the total revenue wouldn't recoup the manufacturing and design costs.


The SAM is not over-priced for what it is. Ask any GCSE economist student. You want low-priced hardware? Then you have to buy what everyone else does, i.e. PC hardware.

[Colani1200]

A new high end PPC system would easily cost around 1000€ and up.

The YDL power station costs $ 1250,-. That's € 830,-.

http://www.fixstars.com/en/products/powerstation/

And that is for a complete system, not just a mainboard.

[itix]

It frustrates me no end when people say that the Sam is horrendously over-priced.

I dont know but my Pegasos 2 G4 @ 1GHz did not cost as much as SAM.

[TCMSLP]

mmmMMMmmm that Powerstation would make a fantastic OS4 machine.  Assuming OS4 could handle multiple cores (which I suspect it can't) - and assuming we had useful apps that made use of all that power.  It certainly makes the SAM seem extortionately expensive though.