Two New Full Systems Based on Sam440ep-Flex

[Duce]

How many people claiming the 440 is too underpowered have even tried one?

I mean it's no powerhouse, but I've only ever had ONE SINGLE time where I wished my 440ep had more grunt, and that was with Blender.

Then I realized that buying a PPC board to do actual production rendering tasks on would be complete stupidity, and I rendered the scene on my PC within 1.5 minutes.

I'm quite happy with my old 440ep with dual SATA SSD's, but I guess I don't ask a heck out of a lot of it.  It runs my BBS and compiles code like a champ, and is cool and quiet as a churchmouse in the process.

[Duce]

Don't care for 'em, don't buy one, lol.

As far as requiring being able to watch HD video, it could also be argued that virtually any free with contract smartphone can do that better than any Amiga-like OS variant/hardware can.

I've got an AROS box, a MOS box, and OS4 box - and my Galaxy S2 ($0 on contract) work phone can watch youtube vids at 720p better than any of them...

[Duce]

Hate to be the proverbial turd in the pool, but...

You could make a 8ghz 64 GB RAM Amiga like variant and the world as a whole would not care about it in the least.  You and I would, sure - but everyone else?  They would say "uhh, Amiga what?" like they have been for the last 15 years.

Game devs would never flock to the platform, nor would the power apps mystically just appear.  There will simply never be the masses of users to warrant the big guns ever getting involved.

It's a niche platform.  There's very few applications even maxxing out or taking the power we have at hand on these system to full throttle.

It's an enjoyable hobby, but I still do get a kick out of the people that figure if you were to re-invent the spirit of the original Amiga it would make a dent in the market.  It wouldn't.  Computers are appliances now for 99% of the collective world.  Even our old niche of rendering and video work that came with the Toaster is long, long gone and all the good intentions in the world won't change the fact it's a Windows and Mac world now.

I enjoy it for what it is, but it's never going to be a worldbeater of a platform.

"Give people the hardware, they will find a way to max it out "

The power is there and has been for some time, and the fact is there's very few applications that really use it.

[Duce]

The game devs are not going to look in our directions anyways.  Amiga gaming, commercially - ended in the 90's.  You could sell a $500 4 ghz Amiga like OS machine and it STILL would not get the big guns coding for it.

We are small fry.  Appreciate what we actually do have.

You are more likely to see an official big name mainstream game running on your toaster than you are an Amiga-like system.

If you really think the guys behind the Unreal Engine are just chomping at the bit for someone to re-invent some obscure old OS from the 90's, EVEN IF there was insanely powerful and dirt cheap HW to run said OS, you're on glue.

[Duce]

Nah, you aren't in the minority, Spirantho.  You pay what you pay because your platform (s) of choice bring you enjoyment that is beyond being measured in dollars and cents, and I find anyone with a passion for a hobby like that very respectable.

There are people willing to pay 700e for an OS4 machine.

There are people willing to buy second hand Mac's and register MOS, even though in the grand scheme of things a MOS license is about 40% higher priced than an OEM copy of Windows.

There are people willing to put together cherry picked commodity PC components for AROS or Amithlon, and neither of those solutions just "work on all PC hardware".

Others will spend $1200 on kitting an old A1200 or A4000 out.

Some will even pay a higher cost for commodity PC hardware with the C-USA logos on it.

None of these people are wrong in their choices as long as they get a kick from the systems they use, I figure.

I collect old cars and vintage motorcycles and scooters.  I've seen friends pay as much for a rusted out shell of a vintage auto, when the truth is they could have bought a fairly modern used car with the same amount of cash.  This hobby is no different than that, the Amiga is still living and breathing solely due to the passion of the userbase in my books.

[Duce]

I haven't paid more than $70 for Win 7 64 bit oem (Pro/Ultimate) since the day it came out, and Win 8 (assuming anyone wanted to use that mess, lol) will be cheaper yet.

WHS 2011 is $50, OEM.

Nice to see MOS coming down in price, though.  That also being said, OS4 is not cheap either.

[Duce]

Man does this place suck, lol.  I figured this thread would go to hell in a handbasket, but I never thought I'd see a thread get so jacked that it starts resembling a religious holy war, with TMHG calling for Mass Extermination of OS4 products like Hitler did with the Jews....

Seeya around, A.org!  This place has become damned near useless.  Off to AW.net.

[Duce]

okay in an argument about super niche operating systems that most people have never heard of, it's propably a bit over the top to pull out the hitler stuff

You get back to me when you've received personally harassing PM's from people "from other camps" should one try and promote more tolerance for all Amiga platforms.  I won't try and defend the Hitler comparisions, but do read the below and it might be a little more understandable as to why I made them.

The first time I apparently patently offended people by claiming that tolerance should be shown for ALL flavors, I was called a "retard" in PM.  The next time, after someone found out I have a vision impairment, I was called a "blind retard".  I wish I was making this up or otherwise exaggerating, but sadly I am not, and I suspect I'm not alone.

A bit hard to keep your cool and keep taking it on the chin in those cases, and why?  I made the deadly mistake of saying there's room for all flavors, and strengths and weaknesses in *all* Amiga-like OS variants, so you'll have to forgive me if I do chime in when people start pounding the pulpits about their divine vision of what "THE GRANDE AMEEEGAH OS!!!!11" is while thoroughly preaching outright disdain for anyone not using "The Holy OS".

It's a platform that's essentially been a grave-robbed, bloated corpse for nearly TWENTY years, yet you know - nothing has really changed.  Still the elitist horseplop there always was, only difference is back in the day our enemy was the PC user, now we are essentially cannibalizing each other over stupid "color camps".  That's sad beyond words, and even sadder that it's a seeming holy war here when we're all in the same damned boat.