So I was on a crusade to do what no man has done before, and that is, write a tutorial for Amithlon in regards as to what to do, once you got your system booted and need drivers and updates in there place to make all work as it should.
Once again I got side tracked, actually I'm waiting on hardware to arrive for this task and I got side tracked.
On the side of the Amithlon project, working on customer's computers, and what have you, I started experimenting with Puppy Linux, Puppy Arcade, Slax, and other distrobutions to see what the most light weight, multi purpose Linux experience could be had on some of the old and newish hardware I've got laying around.
During this investigation I came to realize that while cool and while light weight, they were all out of date or restricted in one way or another. After a while I began to realize that what I really wanted was yes, a computer devoted to a fast Amiga like environment, but also, a computer that thought it was a modern day game console, with heavy backwards compatability.
The latest update to Aminux was recently released, though currently it is HUGE (dual layer DVD huge) and only works correctly on my primary laptop, but I need this laptop for work so I can't afford to sacfrifice it. I was hoping it would work on one of the many other computers in my house, but it only works successfully on them to varrying degrees.
I tried installing the Amiga Forever live CD, but it crashed upon first boot.
I then took a break from them and began into looking for the most ligth weight, stripped down version of Debian Linux I could find, as I am getting fairly handy with Debian as of late.
I wanted something that could host an Odamex Server, run Retroarch, XBMC, and Steam, and nothing else.
Upon my searches I came across two things, the first is a work in progress called Lakka, which is the most awesome Linux distrobution I have ever seen, with the easiest installation of any OS EVER!
It aims to be a distro that boots straight into a Retroarch, complete with it's own PSP inspired joypad driven menu, that essentually makes it into a full on Libretro arcade. Cave Story, NES, Super NES, Sega CD, PS1, PSP, N64, Saturn, 3DO, and on and on and on.
I picked up one of these used just for the occasion:
Zotac ZBOX ID41 PLUS:
http://zotacusa.com/zbox-id41-plus.htmlI believe they intend to merge this with XBMC/Kodi and provide hardware like Thin Client PC's, the Pi2, etc. a means to behave like a game console. Again all I'm saying is they lack they ability to play Steam and Odamex, other than that, they are set in my book and on the right path! You guys should check it out, it's a little buggy, but they are working it out, the concept is there! You forget you are on a PC all together!
On that note, I think a distro like OpenElec, is exactly what a dedicated UAE distrobution needs at it's core. Again, try out Lakka and Openelec, and you will see just what I mean. They are Linux distros with ALL the crap cut out, but maintain a GUI. They can't be beat for what they are! I've love to see an Amiga project formed around this sort of thing, for both Pi and thin client PC.