GPL MorphOS?

There are a lot more of "real open source" licenses than the BSD one, and I think you'll be surprised to know that GPL, for instance, is a "real open source" license.

Well said.

I think that AROS is poised to be much more widely used than MOS due to it's OSS licence.

Amiga died due to being closed.  You can't argue with that.

[Jope]

Amiga died due to being closed. You can't argue with that.

.. No, it didn't.

Amiga died because Commodore went bankrupt.

The controlling force behind the Amiga market disappeared, and all that was left was a bunch of diehards (some owned a company, some didn't), who all wanted to pull the block of stone called Amiga their own separate ways.

If Apple had gone under when it was going through rough periods, I bet the same thing would have happened to the Mac too in the end.

[olegil]

Amiga died due to being closed. You can't argue with that.

Facts, please. Amiga is closed source, but VERY open documentation. Just look at aminet to see how much software has been created by people in their spare time. If AmigaOS had gone GPL back then we would now have 25 different AmigaOS-versions, all incompatible and all dead. As it is, we've got only the 3, which might still work.

This is my personal theory based on how much cooperation I see on a daily basis in this "community", other people might have other opinions. Some people are terminally panicked by the thought of adding things they won't personally use ("oh no, not another bloated option like windoze" being heard every day on the AmigaOS4 yahoogroups list), so I don't really see how opening the source to AmigaOS would have helped in this case.

[alx]

[falemagn]

No, it didn't.

Amiga died because Commodore went bankrupt.

And how does that contraddict what he said?

[falemagn]

Like it or not MOS and AOS are both in a more finished/user friendly state.

MOS is more finished because it uses AROS code, AOS is more finished because it started with an already existing code base.

[Jope]

falemagn wrote:

Jope wrote:
No, it didn't.

Amiga died because Commodore went bankrupt.

And how does that contraddict what he said?

Well, my opinion is that the Amiga's progress wouldn't have been any better even if the OS had been open source.

What would the new developers have migrated to back then? x86? I don't think so, the anti PC opinions were even stronger and more common back in '94, no open PPC mobos were out there, etc.

I guess I shouldn't have voiced my opinion either - the subject in question isn't very straight forward and it's rather hard to know what alternate futures bring without living them out yourself. :-D

[iamaboringperson]

@mdma

you really have NO idea as to how the software industry works, do you?

Why would it be suicide?

with the source code out in the open, every damn programmer can obviously produce their own updates- add their own features. obviously this would mean that the makers of morphos would have no work to do - and therefore no sales - why buy form the makers of morphos when you can upgrade an os for free?

Q. What would they lose?

A. Customers. Cash Flow. Business!

Q.What would they gain?

A. Nothing.

Why buy AOS4 when you can download MOS-GPL for free. Run it on your old hardware for a while. Then, when it comes to buying new hardware, you buy a Peg2/3/4/5 (or whatever) as you are used to using MOS and all your software is written for MOS as it has the biggest user base. Is it suicide for RedHat, SuSE, et al releasing their code? No it isn't.

why release a good OS for free, if you can sell it?.
so once the user has bought the pegasos board, they already have MOS 1.0, they want to upgrade to 1.1 - "hmmm... to buy or modify the code?" they ask - i think you get the picture

[iamaboringperson]

Amiga died due to being closed. You can't argue with that.

erm.. well you can argue with that!
commodore died because of financial problems - of which, they would of had more if they had released amigaos for free - and continued paying the developers
- see the logic?

& the amiga is not dead... yet...

[Paul_Gadd]

@mdma

It would kill AOS4 dead if they released the code.

Releasing MorphOS and AOS4 code is just stupid especially in the tiny market like this, so your all for people releasing the source code for MorphOS but not OS4? very double standards.

amiga died because of greed and stupidity... I think thats enough said... the one thing that has always clung to the amiga 'name' has been greed (in my opinon)....

[Siggy]

mdma wrote:
Why would it be suicide?

Q. What would they lose?

Everything.

They make money from their hardware - and include an OS, at no additional cost
to run on that hardware.

If they open source it the first thing people will do is get it to work on
their hardware.
If it works on what I have already - why do I need to buy their products?
Answer - I don't.

And my selection for upgrades doesn't automatically go to them, why would it?
I'll choose the most cost effective solution for what I need.. and if I have the source, so doubt
myself and some other like-minded folks can expand it with what drivers we need.

It's suicide because it eliminates the need for you to buy their product.

For example
Why buy AOS4 when you can download MOS-GPL for free.  Run it on your old hardware for a while.  Then, when it comes to buying new hardware, you buy a Peg2/3/4/5 (or whatever) as you are used to using MOS and all your software is written for MOS as it has the biggest user base.
 

Your logic is seriously flawed there. Yes - you download MOS-GPL because it is *FREE*
Now how does this relate to automatically buying one hardware set over another?
If I follow the logic of the first statement - then I will be buying the cheapest
hardware -- not more expensive.. making the operating system open source eliminates
the need to buy a Peg setup.

Yeah I'm used to running software on an OS with a large userbase,
but that OS now runs on everything but the kitchen sink - which is part of the reason
it now HAS a larger userbase -- double edged sword.

  Is it suicide for RedHat, SuSE, et al releasing their code? No it isn't.

Apples and oranges - Redhat, SuSE, et al. are not hardware companies.
They are companies with business models based around the legalities of the software they're providing.
RedHat for instance makes money on support.

[Alkemyst]

MOS-GPL  Cool have it running on Amigaone in no time.

[Dan]

MorphOS is fully complying with the AROS-licence, which means they allways released any changes made to the used AROS-
modules and feeded them back to AROS.

Sorry, I didn´t know that.

you really have NO idea as to how the software industry works, do you?

Well seing as I have been a professional software developer since 1996, and been coding since 1988 I think I do.

with the source code out in the open, every damn programmer can obviously produce their own updates- add their own features. obviously this would mean that the makers of morphos would have no work to do - and therefore no sales - why buy form the makers of morphos when you can upgrade an os for free?

It's called market domination.  AOS would be dead in the water.  People would buy Pegasos boards (which is what Genesi make money off), as they are better/cheaper than A1 boards.

why release a good OS for free, if you can sell it?.

They already give it away for free (as in beer).

certainly, if i had my own OS i would not give the source away! it would put me out of business!!!

Well lets all say goodbye to RedHat/SuSE/Mandrake/Connectiva/SCO then shall we?