Amiga OS4 final release now available (for existing Amigaone hardware)

[coldfish]

Well done, I guess.

Perhaps now Hype' can get on with porting it to x86 or maybe PS3 or some other brilliant idea?

C'mon, you hafta laugh at the breathtaking futility of it all.

 :-P

[Seehund]

@mikeymike,

Well, saying that a product has now hit 'release' status', then not doing anything about shipping it would certainly be a new business tactic

For this "market" and product, I'm afraid it's not really new. In practice, nothing has really changed with this announcement, I'm sorry to say. It's the decision to stay exclusively dependent on "special" licensed hardware that has held and still does hold back a real release and actual sales of the OS.

(aka. Seehund, your cynicism knows no bounds - pressing CDs or even just ripping them is a lot easier than mass-producing hardware... christ, I could do it).

I don't think that anybody needs a particularly well developed sense of cynicism in order to see how ridiculous the situation is. By "actual delivery" I wasn't just referring to pressing/shipping CDs or uploading an ISO image -- so far all they can do is just that, and only as a Christmas gesture to those few who have already bought and paid for their product together with an "AmigaOne".

Kudos to Hyperion, it looks like they actually finished it. I'm a little surprised myself.

Yes, my kudos too! Though I'm not surprised they finished it. It's been basically "Done" for a couple of years now, and could have been done even earlier if they hadn't had to waste time on working around the... ahem... peculiarities of the chosen target hardware, firmware, and the dodgy hardware vendor. Some commercial motivation would probably also have helped speed up things, if their product had (also) been made for sellable hardware. Futility isn't the greatest of motivators. Now it's sorta-kinda out, but from a commercial and survival-of-AmigaOS viewpoint, this achievement is rather pointless.

Of course, hardware yadda yadda yadda, but now that apparently there's a ready-to-sell OS for it, a proposal to sell hardware for it looks more rosy than a proposal for hardware without an OS other than Linux.

Will this version run on anything but an "AmigaOne"? If not, then there's still no ready-to-sell OS for anything else. And that can't happen, no matter how small a development effort would be required, unless someone gets that idiotic licence.

Like some others, I wonder about the motive behind calling this release "Final". An "OS4-DPR Update 5" would probably have worked equally well as a Christmas present to existing customers. The Hyperion guys have stated the obvious so many times; that a final "release" without hardware would be pointless, nothing will come out until there's someone selling hardware that the OS is allowed to run on, the pomp & circumstance needs to be carefully planned, et c.
I smell lawyers.

[adz]

I noticed in their official release statement that there was no mention of x86 compatibility, what a shame.

[DavidF215]

Good job, Hyperion. I am suprise as OS4 is finished but also not surprised as your track record is encouraging.

Thoughts regarding other comments:
* Hyperion said they would deliver, and they have delivered. After multiple bankrupt companies, I would say this is worth appreciating more.
* And 'Final Release' doesn't mean that it's all over. I don't think they would do all that work knowing something wasn't in the works already. People said the A1 would never happen either, but it did regardless of what is thought about it technically.
* Hyperion shouldn't waste time porting to another architecture but instead they should help develop new or existing applications for OS4. Partnering with Sony for a PS3 port might help Sony as I hear PS3 isn't easy to program. Aros can handle the port to x86, and use Amiga Forever if you want Amiga on PC. And I'll take AmigaOS over Linux any day.
* If you think porting to x86 would help, then reconsider what happened to BeOS. BeOS was on x86, but Be, Inc couldn't survive.
* I agree that $700 for an A1 is too costly. I'm hoping the next board is more reasonable or a PPC accelerator for my A1200 will surface.
* People buy solutions not necessarily technology. I've thought of a few solutions using it, but need something less expensive than a $700 mobo to make it more reasonable.

[adz]

* If you think porting to x86 would help, then reconsider what happened to BeOS. BeOS was on x86, but Be, Inc couldn't survive.

*cough* Open source *cough*

And don't give me any of this s*** about Amiga OS being a viable commercial venture, those days are long gone.

[pixie]

* If you think porting to x86 would help, then reconsider what happened to BeOS. BeOS was on x86, but Be, Inc couldn't survive.

Strange, when you consider that it came from PPC... wasn't it enough for its survival?

[pixie]

And don't give me any of this s*** about Amiga OS being a viable commercial venture, those days are long gone.

At most as viable venture as any if driven with competence...

[adz]

At most as viable venture as any if driven with competence...

Key word in that sentence is "competence". I'm not saying I could do a better job, but if you look at some of the decisions that have been made over the years, competence is something Aming Inc. lacks.

[coldfire]

Will this version run on anything but an "AmigaOne"? If not, then there's still no ready-to-sell OS for anything else. And that can't happen, no matter how small a development effort would be required, unless someone gets that idiotic licence.

That's what is driving me crazy.  How I wish this would run on any other ppc hardware.  Apple G4's are getting dirt cheap now...if only OS 4 would run on them.

coldfire

[DavidF215]

*cough* Open source *cough*

And don't give me any of this s*** about Amiga OS being a viable commercial venture, those days are long gone.

There is an open source clone of BeOS, but AmigaOS is more promising that it as Kaiku hasn't gained in popularity. Amiga still has more software and is more usable than Haiku/BeOS/Zeta.

There are viable commercial ventures, but not everyone can see them. It definitely won't be a PS3, Xbox 360, PC game challenger for sure, but that doesn't mean there are no other potential markets. Futhermore, the release of OS4 is evidence that it is viable.

[adz]

There are viable commercial ventures, but not everyone can see them. It definitely won't be a PS3, Xbox 360, PC game challenger for sure, but that doesn't mean there are no other potential markets. Futhermore, the release of OS4 is evidence that it is viable.

Earth to David!!! Give me one example of a viable commercial venture, just one.

And exactly how is the release of OS4 evidence that it is viable? Currently the only people who can use it are the A1 owners and there aren't that many of them. Even if they do produce new hardware, how much is it going to cost and who in their right mind would replace all their current infrastucture to use it.

My beef with OS4 is the fact that its limited to obsolete over priced proprietary hardware thats no longer in production, how on earth anyone could even consider this "viable" is beyond me.

[DavidF215]

Earth to David!!! Give me one example of a viable commercial venture, just one.

And exactly how is the release of OS4 evidence that it is viable? Currently the only people who can use it are the A1 owners and there aren't that many of them. Even if they do produce new hardware, how much is it going to cost and who in their right mind would replace all their current infrastucture to use it.

My beef with OS4 is the fact that its limited to obsolete over priced proprietary hardware thats no longer in production, how on earth anyone could even consider this "viable" is beyond me.

The connection was bad.  :-)

Actually, at this time the commercial ventures I have would only work with that new Efika card with MorphOS. An example? A web server running microsoft.com. Ha!  :-D

We're partially eating the same meat. It is old and definitely pricey, but newer stuff is coming. And $299 for an Efika is a decent deal, and might be hard for AmigaOS hardware to beat. Depending on the application, not an extreme amount of processing power is needed. It is currently only viable with existing systems; plus, it's viability is dependent upon the next hardware release.