GPL MorphOS?

[Siggy]

mdma wrote:
Why would it be suicide?

Q. What would they lose?

Everything.

They make money from their hardware - and include an OS, at no additional cost
to run on that hardware.

If they open source it the first thing people will do is get it to work on
their hardware.
If it works on what I have already - why do I need to buy their products?
Answer - I don't.

And my selection for upgrades doesn't automatically go to them, why would it?
I'll choose the most cost effective solution for what I need.. and if I have the source, so doubt
myself and some other like-minded folks can expand it with what drivers we need.

It's suicide because it eliminates the need for you to buy their product.

For example
Why buy AOS4 when you can download MOS-GPL for free.  Run it on your old hardware for a while.  Then, when it comes to buying new hardware, you buy a Peg2/3/4/5 (or whatever) as you are used to using MOS and all your software is written for MOS as it has the biggest user base.
 

Your logic is seriously flawed there. Yes - you download MOS-GPL because it is *FREE*
Now how does this relate to automatically buying one hardware set over another?
If I follow the logic of the first statement - then I will be buying the cheapest
hardware -- not more expensive.. making the operating system open source eliminates
the need to buy a Peg setup.

Yeah I'm used to running software on an OS with a large userbase,
but that OS now runs on everything but the kitchen sink - which is part of the reason
it now HAS a larger userbase -- double edged sword.

  Is it suicide for RedHat, SuSE, et al releasing their code? No it isn't.

Apples and oranges - Redhat, SuSE, et al. are not hardware companies.
They are companies with business models based around the legalities of the software they're providing.
RedHat for instance makes money on support.

[Siggy]

I believe Genesi give support for MorphOS for free at the moment. If it was open source, they'd get money charging for support. Thats extra revenue on top of what they currently have coming in at the moment. More profits, helathier company. How would that make them go bankrupt as someone else mentioned earlier.

Because you're still counting it as 'extra' revenue, assuming that for some bizzare reason I'd put together a whole new machine based on Genesi hardware -- which would be additional cost for me, and
totally uneeded (as this new GPL version now runs on the hardware I currently have).

Genesi currently get :

$zero for MorphOS
$299 for Pegasos
$zero for MorphOS support

Because it is currently necessary for me to buy a Pegasos board in order to run
MorphOS -- It doesn't run on other hardware.
GPLing or otherwise Open Sourcing the code will put an end to that very quickly.

If MorphOS was GPL'd (Or some other OSS licence)

Genesi would get

$zero for MorphOS
$299 for Pegasos
$100 per year for MorphOS support (Or whatever they want to charge)

You're still counting on the fact that people have to buy the hardware - which they no longer have to do.
Also, where do people currently go for support atm - boards, forums and friends.
A more realistic projection for the most of us would be:

$zero for MorphOS - it's now GPL
$zero for Pegasos - I don't need it anymore, because it runs on my existing hardware.
$zero for Support - I'll ask around to get things working, and only call support as a last resort.

From that point of view, their current business model looks a lot smarter.


Siggy.

[Siggy]

mdma wrote:

Lets take AROS instead.. that OS fits your ideas more nicely.

Why buy an A1/Pegwhen I can AROS on x86?

Take it one step further :-
Why buy a Peg when (GPL)Morphos runs on x86?

Because it's not PPC.  Why else by a peg/a1?
 

To run MorphOS/Amiga OS4 ? I honestly can't see any other reason. Sure, you could probably run Linux on them - but then (see your argument above) why would I do that when I can run that on x86 hardware?

TheOS is largely irrelevant.

I respectfully disagree.

Siggy.