*WARNING* Let's port OS4 to $machine type thread

[Jethro_Tull]

I know this type of thread has been done to death, but after reading about the impending launch of the Nintendo Wii, I just could not resist!  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii

Come on, the only viable hardware for running OS4 is currently a PPC processor coupled with an ATI graphics card. The Nintendo has both, will be available in December and is prices at around $200, complete with a DVD Drive, built-in Flash RAM, Wireless LAN and USB ports.  It can connect to both a standard television and a DVI/VGA monitor.  

Immagine booting OS4 from the internal flash ram or from an SD-Card (which the Wii can also accept) in a jiffy, and having a nice last generation console.  The Keyboard, Mouse and Hard Disk (if needed, SD cards can go up to 2Gb) can all be connected to USB ports.

It beats the overpriced DIY vapourware on offer (or to be offered) hands down in my books.  Amiga Inc. seem to have come out of their closet, so if we lobby them and the Frieden kids hard enough, maybe we could have our powerfull, commercially viable, $200 Amiga after this rather overdrawn dark age of crap hardware, legal wars and dubious practices.

So long, Cheerio..........

[Jethro_Tull]

@colfish

The clear warning in the title should have warded you off if originality is what you're after.  Now, as far as I know, the PPC core in the Xbox360 is a severly watered down version, making it quite slow for general use. Besides, Microsoft won't be falling over themselves to allow OS4 to run on their machine, and see it outshine their slow, bloated OS.  

Also, PPC Macs are now obsolete, and the last thing Amigans want is once again to resort to dead hardware to run their favourite OS.  

On the other hand, the Wii is very cheap, right in the middle of the public's attention and readily availalbe. With Amiga Inc. flogging AmigaAnwhere to all mobile/pda/whores on the planet, they might as well do the same with OS4 and Nintendo.

Cheerio

P.S. From your Avatar, it seems you're having a rough time, why don't you sit down, relax and have a nice cuppa?

[Jethro_Tull]

@chiark

Can't agree more! While I opened this thread on an impulse after reading about the Wii on Digg, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense, really.  More so in the light of Bill's recent Q&A session. Also, it is clear that Nintendo is also targetting the retro market, since it plans to offer a wide selection of NES, SNES and N64 games via the internet to run on the Wii.

If Amiga Inc. are earning their keep selling AmigaAnywhere (which is practically unknown) and a selection of mediocre games for cellphones/pdas, immagine what they could do with the real Amiga legacy!

Immagine for a moment, OS4 bundled with EUAE and the creme de la creme of Amiga games and applications, all ready to run, all on a single CD, with the option of buying more from the internet!  If it's well executed and marketed it would be a hit with mainstream ex-Amiga owners, and instantly spread OS4 to the masses again!

Yep, my immagination might be definitly taking off here, but with the current outlook for the Amiga market being a dearth of homebrewed overpriced underpowered mainboards still in vaporland, this looks more attractive to me, and if Amiga Inc. play their cards right (instead of spewing off litigations left right and center) it might actually turn into reality.  

All we need is optimism and a bit of luck!

Cheerio

[Jethro_Tull]

@coldfish

My whole answer was tongue-in-cheek colfish.  Nintendo are building the Opera browser right into thw Wii, and offering community sites and channels for it, so no, the Wii isn't exclusively a games machine.  

Also, I'm not pinning anything on anyone here.  The Amiga was a revolutionary machine for it's time and it's been a hell of a ride, but that's all.  It's certainly not a life and death matter!  Still, optimism lad, optimism!

Have a drink then!  But don't count on me to pay!!

[Jethro_Tull]

@justthatgood & @chiark

Couldn't agree more! I think porting OS4 to Wii is a good option in the light of the current situation.  The Friedens have repeated that a port to X86 architecture is out of the question.  

Of course, Amiga Inc. could use the buy-back clause and give someone else the task of porting OS4, but it certainly won't be trivial, and at the rate things have been going lately, X86 and humainity as a whole will be obsolete by the time it's released.  

Therefore, an OS4 port to an existing PPC platform is currently the most realistic, less problematic option we have. The cheapest, most readily available PPC platform will shortly be the Wii, so it's simple logical to port OS4 to it.

Now, to make obtaining a licence from Nintendo less complicated, and the product more appealing, rather then sell OS4 for Wii on it's own as yet another operating system, I would use it as a platform to run some Amiga classics under EUAE.  In effect, smuggle OS4 in an Amiga  retro classics DVD.  

The package would boot into the OS4 Workbench desktop to give the 'player' an authentic Amiga feel and experience, and represent the EUAE games as icons on the workbench screen.  But of course there'll be much more to OS4 then just running the games!  Extra games and applications to use OS4 to the full would be made available on the Internet in an e-shop managed by Hyperion and/or Amiga Inc.

Cheerio