MorphOS on x86???

[warpdesign]

Problem there is that you must drop all existing software.

There is a wonderfull piece of software called UAE... And guess what, it runs on x86! And guess what, it allows to run more software than any AmigaOS will ever run natively...

Next problem ?

We can't support every x86 piece of hardware.

Who says you need to support every piece of hardware ? Does the PPC version runs on every PPC version outthere ?
No: motherboard has been selected, and software is stick to it. Why would it be different for x86 ?

We would compete with Windows

Really ? Is MorphOS competing with Linux on PPC ?
Guess it doesn't... Why would it be different with x86 ?

x86 is evil

Once upon a time Steve Jobs said Apple would never use intel microprocessors... Today the x86 is faster and cheaper than any other desktop class processor... Steve Jobs decided to switch to x86. Apple has never ever sold so many Macintosh than today. Yes: maybe x86 isn't the reason... But for sure x86 has nothing to do with evil...

The primary reason we won't see MorphOS on x86 any time soon is simply demand related.

Really ?
170 million x86 computers are sold each year. That's more potential users than the Amiga ever had, even in it's golden age...

There are like what... 5 thousand Pegasos outhere ? As much Efikas ?

Do the maths...

It would take a lot of time

The sooner it is started, the sooner it is finished then... And as for the software, most NG software are already available for x86 (mplayer, emulators, SDL software, compression libs, png libs,...) and could be recompiled with some changes...

No, the reason we won't see any AmigaNG OS on x86 is because they are closed source, and leaders don't think it would be a good idea/doable and/or don't want to see it on x86...

[warpdesign]

Plus there would be the requirement to not only rewritete the 68k emulation (two of them in fact!), but to write PPC emulator aswell.

Why ? Did Apple include a 68k emulator with OSX-Intel ?

It's the opportunity to remove these stupid emulations layers... And improve this old operating system. I see it as an opportunity more than as a problem...

As for the PPC emulator, again, most software could be recompiled...

Of course, software wouldn't magically appear, same goes for the developpers. But at least there is a huge potential. By staying on PPC, we don't even have such potential...

Of course this would be huge work... But doesn't it worth it ? Or should we stay forever running OS3.x software ??

I'm really wondering why developers do not look more in the future... It would be so great to have a true *modern* OS... And the worst thing is that everything is ready for that with Quark/QBox... I wonder why you didn't take Hyperion's approach and directly base the OS on Exec since it seems you're not taking advantage of all the features provided by Quark/QBox...

[warpdesign]

 don't think they're stupid, nor I think they could be removed. We wouldn't have any software then.

Yes. And we could start writting software...

Do we have that much software right now ?
If we exclude 68k software (that tend to crash, hit hardware,.. anyway), do we have that much native software ?
And aren't already all native software available in x86 ? Provided the OS and some third-party libs (SDL,...) are available, wouldn't it be possible to easily port these apps on an hypothetic x86 MorphOS ?
And most software is still in the works anyway... So what would it change ?

   most software could be recompiled


You live in a dreamworld.

Maybe, maybe not. But seems like people writting the original Quark/QBox also lived in such a dreamworld... I doubt Quark/QBox was only meant to run ABox... Or what a waste!

I'm really wondring what's the fear of moving forward...

This could not work at all, so what ? It's not for the money, right ? so...

And no I couldn't write my own... Designing an OS is a huge work... And you need to be experienced in both OS design and programming. I'm in neither...

[warpdesign]

Who exactly? I don't see that many devs around anymore. And it would be really hard to attract anyone to platform with zero existing

There aren't, but quite difficult seeing there's no hardware to run MorphOS, don't you think ? With massively available hardware anyone could potentialy try MorphOS and/or develop for MorphOS. Right now, no one but people having spent a lot of money can...

So I guess I can just ignore your comments in the future?

Not being experienced in OS design doesn't mean I cannot make any interesting remarks...

But you're free to do so of course... If you feel so superior to non experienced people...

[warpdesign]

Obviously you're entitled to have your opinion, but I don't agree with it. If you feel I'm wrong, you can always prove me wrong by starting your own x86 OS and making it successful. Good luck.

What's the definition of "successfull" in that context ?
Do you consider MorphOS currently successfull ? Why (not) ?