Good News Is Here (OS 4.1&SAM440 amigakit.com)

[amigadave]

ferrellsl wrote:
That IS good news but the price of a SAM440ep motherboard is $691 US at current exchange rates. That doesn't include the price of OS4.1, case, power supply, hard drive, mouse, keyboard, or CD/DVD drive. At that price I can easily get a COMPLETE x86 system WITH a decent LCD monitor.

Unless Acube and Hyperion can come up with some kind of discount/bundle then OS4 on the SAM will remain out of reach of most Amiga enthusiasts.

Sad, but TRUE!

How can they justify $691 for the Sam mobo?

I just helped my Dad find a Core2Duo 17" iMac for $610 with wireless mouse and keyboard, and Macs are "feakin' EXPENSIVE" aren'they?  Whole Dual Core 64bit PC systems with 19" or better LCD's can be found for around $450 to $500!

Sorry, but it just seems way out of the realm of reality when you can get an EFIKA mobo for $99, why is the SAM440 almost 7 times more expensive?  Okay, it has a 64mb onboard graphics capability, but my 128mb Radeon 9250 was only $39 at Tiger Direct.  I feel sorry for all the AmigaOS4.1 fans that have been waiting for this to happen and now are getting screwed again, just like the A1 owners did when they bought their systems.  Do all our hardware developers think they can "Gouge the stupid Amiga users"!

End Rant: :madashell:

[amigadave]

TheGoose wrote:
$800.00. !@#!@$$!^&

We really need some kind of bundle deal or something in the US. Our money is like no good anywhere. How about:

America's in the Crapper Super Sale (US loosers only):

SAM440 & AOS4.0 - $650.00

or

SAM440 & 512 MB RAM $650.00

 :-D  :idea:  :crazy:

Vesalia has a bundle sale for you.  Only $952.99 for a SAM440ep mobo plus OS4.1.  Then you still need a hard drive, optical drive (CD, or DVD), case, PSU, keyboard, mouse, and you will probably want a better graphics card with more GPU RAM than the onboard chip has.  So, a conservative estimate for a total system would probably be close to, or over $1,100 without a monitor.

If I had the money, I would seriously consider it, and hope that it does not have any of the troubles that the early A1 buyers suffered through, but that should not happen again as OS4.1 is much more mature now.

I know it is VERY expensive compared to what you get power wise, but AOS4.1 does not need the same power that a Windows computer needs.  Green is "IN" these days.  :-D

I don't like the price, but I really can't complain about it too much, because we have all been waiting and wanting a new Amiga, and this certainly qualifies, so I am not going to complain about the cost anymore (how's that for flipping 180 degrees in 24 hours).  :lol:

[amigadave]

My advice for anyone interested in AmigaOS4.1 on the SAM is to buy the OS at least, as soon as it is available, just in case it is pulled from the market in a week, or a month, or 6 months, by A.Inc.

Then, if you don't have the money for a SAM board now, you can wait and hope that the price will come down, or the exchange rate for your currency will go up.

How many OS4.1 for SAM's will be sold, I wonder?

[amigadave]

AeroMan wrote:
Just take into account that the PS3 is the best cost benefit solution available. Can you buy a bunch of GPUs  and make them work for the same price?

Besides this, the PS3 still has a blue ray, and really cool games.

I can´t think about a better port. Price is nice, performance is nice, it has nice games, can run Linux (if you wish) and it is already PPC. You might not like the PPC, but OS4 is already written for it, so it means porting is easier than to x86.

If you want to stick with x86, them supporting AROS is a better alternative. It is already running with this processor and it is free also. Give it a try

I agree, PS3 may not be the best we can get in the long run, but it is the best we could get quickly and at a good cost to benefit ratio.  Blu-Ray is a big benefit, having PS3 games is also a plus, Linux for those who want to bother with it, PS3 just seems to make the most sense for the next step.  Then, if there are still any developers that want to continue coding for AmigaOS beyond to an x86/64 architecture, have at it.

My feeling is that with the efficiency of AmigaOS4.x, the PS3 could make it fly and perhaps those coding for the AOS could switch to writing code for applications that are badly needed, instead of having to continually work on the AOS.  Yes, I know that to keep up with some kind of semblance of being a "Modern" OS that continuing work must be done, but if they could complete a good port to the PS3, perhaps they could take a break from the OS for a few months and help complete a browser that can compete with Firefox3, Opera, Safari, etc.  Just something that works and has most of the bells and whistles that other browsers have.

After that, if they could help get Open Office ported, we might be able to use this new Amiga as an everyday computer without need to boot into Windows, MacOS, or Linux for anything.

Not likely, I know, but not impossible either.  :-D

Edit: If AmigaOS4.3, or 4.5 were ported to the PS3, (and it worked at least as well or better than 4.1, with continuing work to squash any bugs) I would gladly spend up to $250, or $300 just for the OS and find a used PS3 somewhere. And I am currently a MorphOS user! (Of course that may change if MorphOS3.x is released for my PPC Mac PowerBook  :-o )

[amigadave]

persia wrote:
Yes, the Amiga is a niche market and will always be one. Think of it this way, a successful OS4 debut will be sales in the 100s and lifetime sales won't be much over a thousand.  It's a tiny point compared with Mac or PC.  So I think you are paying for that as much as anything.

I don't know if the developers of AOS4.1 will agree that a couple hundred sales is "Successful" launch, but I wish they would realize that they would have a much greater chance to sell over the 1,000 mark in sales, if they would complete the Moana project and get AOS4.x running on as many PPC Macs as possible.  They have shown that they are not afraid of A.Inc at the moment by releasing AOS4.1 on a platform that is not covered by the contract they claim is void due to A.Inc's insolvency, so why not port AOS4.2 to a platform that will triple or quadruple their sales overnight?

That would most likely provide the funding and incentive to port AOS to another platform (like the PS3, or x86).

AOS4.x on PPC Macs would also increase the number of Amiga users by at least a few dozen, if not a few hundred returning Amiga users of old and curious users from other platforms.

If we gained just 10 new developers for the AmigaOS community, it would be a good success.

[amigadave]

DavidF215 wrote:
amigadave wrote:
>If we gained just 10 new developers for the AmigaOS community, it would be a good success.

So grab a C/C++ book and start coding. Then there's only 9 more needed.  :-)  Even small programs and games would be beneficial.

I would, but I have already spent my little bit of money on the EFIKA and I am supporting the MorphOS group by registering MOS2.1 and will be learning to code for that platform.  If anything I do code can be easily ported also to AmigaOS4.x by using a cross compiler on my MacBook, or my Dell XPS tower running Linux or Windows XP, I will gladly support the AmigaOS4.x users by porting my work.

In other words, a few weeks ago I decided to put my money and time where my mouth was and picked MorphOS as my future Amiga-Like OS of choice to buy and code for.  I did not want to be a hypocrite anymore, by telling everyone to support our developers and not doing it myself.  At the time I felt that Hyperion and AmigaOS4.x would still be tied up in court for who knows how long and I liked the progress that MorphOS has made and the affordability that the EFIKA has given us, so I took the plunge.

I might be persuaded to support AmigaOS4.x in the future as well as MorphOS2.1 and beyond, but for now, the SAM is too expensive for me and as I am just learning more about programming, I will stick with just MorphOS.

[amigadave]

persia wrote:
What is the global Amiga market place?  It's tiny, Hyperion would sell more if Moana would be finished, but how many more?  And the cost would be Acube.  Who'd by Sam when they can get more than twice the power at less than half the cost by getting a used G4 mini?

I would love to not have to buy a Sam board and just go with a cheaper Mac, but nobody is building PPC equipment anymore, so in a way the Sam board is supporting the continued building of Amiga compatible PPC computers.  We are at the end of the line, if ACube goes there will be no-one to take it's place.  Is that worth having a few dozen more users?

I don't think the Hyperion developers of AmigaOS4.1 have anything to do with ACube, nor any obligation to NOT port the AmigaOS4.x to any other computer.  It obviously would be terrible for ACube's sales of SAM boards if Moana was finished, but it would be great for us and for Hyperion.

Hyperion and the developers need as many sales as they can get and the Amiga community needs any new users we can get, no matter how small the gain.  AmigaOS4.x on PPC Macs would not guarantee that we would get any new users or developers, but it is one of our best chances for that to happen.

[amigadave]

I probably should not comment on that comparison, as
I do want those that can afford a SAM/AOS4.1 system
to buy one, but I think you chose a bad way to compare
the two.

The system on eBay is very complete and has several
nice pieces of hardware.  It could be a faster model
of PPC Blizzard card, but other than that, I think
the price of a similarly equipped SAM system would be
considerably more money, for the added speed.

In other words, I think the price of that system on
eBay was high, but not unreasonable for what you get.

The hardest part for me to get past, and maybe for some
others here, is comparing the SAM against other hardware
for Windows, MacOSX, or Linux.  The cost vs benefit factor
where you really need to throw out all other OSes and
just compare the SAM/AOS4.1 system against what is
available to run the AmigaOS (or Amiga-Like MorphOS),
because that is what we are all interested in, or we
would not be here.  Thinking that way, the SAM
becomes a more interesting and acceptable answer.