Ben, you ignore my point, even if someone else than Mai had anything whatsoever to do with Mai's product development, what would that matter? What matters is that there is not only valid alternative designs to the "licensed" hardware option, there's even an identical option. This is of course not very surprising, what's mind-boggling is that we AmigaOS users will still only be allowed to buy specifically selected hardware from (a) specially selected redistributor(s).
(Not that the plural "s" will ever become reality, but to satisfy the nitpickers...)
Hyperion is in constant contact with MAI's top-brass as developers of the Teron CX/AmigaOne Bios.
So you said, and that is still not hardware design or hardware production, and it has no bearing on that either.
Don't you think we have a better insight into the situation than you?
Actually, no, and I'm certainly not saying that I would have any special insight into Mai's product strategies and development.
Saying "hi Jason, hi Vasudha, we've modified a GPLed firmware for your product, wanna have it?" doesn't mean that the already produced and available product Eyetech is buying will become... umm... produced and available just because of that.
The very person who designed the hardware and who demonstrated it running YDL at LW does not yet know what firmware will be shipped pre-installed by default. Who cares? Switching firmware is usually a matter of two minutes of grinding from the floppy drive.
II'll reiterate it again: MAI had no intention of mass-marketing these boards prior to the Eyetech deal.
If the numbers Eyetech can be expected to distribute can be described as "mass-marketing", I'd say Mai already had some serious mass-marketing going on, both by themselves and that Inguard distributor.
Ever heard of the need to source parts in quantity to keep costs down?
Sure, but you were talking about "minimal production runs". It's not as if these puppies are suddenly mass produced and CHEAP, or use brand new hard-to-get components like the latest G4s, or custom components other than their own Articias, is it? Reaching a "minimal production run" order level is just not necessary to have the fab you hired push the Start button on their assembly line with already purchased components and a ready PCB design.
But as I said, Sure. Sure there is always a price difference between many and few. And sure, AmigaOS needs to run on exactly the same hardware from exactly the same distributors as the "rest of the world" uses for this effect to benefit AmigaOS users and the commercial attractiveness of AmigaOS to the largest extent - like it i for ANY OS.
And please don't start with the Linux PPC nonsense. Fact of the matter is that Linux PPC is marginal compared to Linux x86 and underdeveloped in quite a few areas.
What are you on about now? Why are you comparing Linux PPC with Linux x86 now? Linux x86 doesn't run on a Teron CX. AmigaOS will run on a Teron CX and Linux PPC runs on a Teron CX, compare the current market size of Linux (and every other desktop PPC OS) with the current market size of AmigaOS4. Which pulls the most weight in PPC hardware development, AmigaOS or every other OS? AmigaOS simply cannot afford to differentiate itself from an already small hardware market, and most certainly not by silly artificial means for no valid technical reason whatsoever.
