Amiga OS4 on old (PPC) Macs

[EDanaII]

ACube showed Bill McEwen a screenshot of it running during an IRC chat session. Unfortunately Amiga Inc. wouldn't give them a license, and ACube have had to suspend its development.

I have to wonder about this. If OS 4 can be made to run on a Mini, then it's a matter of supplying the proper drivers and, perhaps, overriding a protection scheme... any license needed should be from the purchase of OS 4, so all ACube needs to do is sell it as an "enhancement" to OS 4. I'm just not sure why they need to seek a license beyond formality, and, perhaps, not to incur the wrath of Amiga Inc.

Ed.

[Kronos]

@da9000

Well, with Hyperion refusing to honor their part of the contract there is hardly any money to made for AInc in OS4 on MacMini.

Mind, I doubt things would be much different if everything was o.k. between AInc and Hyperion, but atm their both big show-stopper when it comes to new HW.

[Hans_]

Kronos wrote:
@da9000

Well, with Hyperion refusing to honor their part of the contract there is hardly any money to made for AInc in OS4 on MacMini.

Mind, I doubt things would be much different if everything was o.k. between AInc and Hyperion, but atm their both big show-stopper when it comes to new HW.

This makes no sense to me. If ACube had a license, they would be paying royalties per copy of Amiga OS4 the same way that Eyetech was. Exactly which obligation is Hyperion not honouring that would prevent them from making money? AFAIK the only thing that Hyperion have refused to do is hand over the source-code on the assertion that Amiga Inc. haven't fulfilled their obligations yet. Hand over of the source-code was about developing OS 4.1+, not about OS 4.0 itself.

Hans

[Kronos]

@Hans

No need to start another lawsuit-thread, but ...

AInc thinks they have bought OS4 back in 2003, making every copy sold by Hyperion afterwards illegal.

Hyperion thinks that they now have a full/unlimited licence not just to the OS but also to all trademarks, meaning they don't have to pay royalities anymore (and neither would potential HW-partners).

If I were McBill I wouldn't even consider giving out licence until all that is cleared up.

[Tenacious]

I have no PPC Amigas.  I might look for a PPC Mini (probably inexpensive now) in the hope that someone finds a way to make this work.  I wonder how long OS4 will be available.

[sdyates]

I am just happy to see a new Amiga product on sale where there is existing hardware.

I wonder if there will be any other new products released before the year is done. We at least hard OS4.0 last Christmas.

[Hans_]

Kronos wrote:
@Hans

No need to start another lawsuit-thread,

I agree completely with you on this point. I just hope that they can hurry up and get the lawsuit over with.

In the meantime, it's good to see a few new users will finally be able to get their hands on OS 4.

Hans

[Damion]

I still think it would be cool to see a PPC Amiga (or Amiga-like) OS on Mac hardware. Maybe it would just make too much sense for amigaland?? :lol: As far as an official port, I recall the reasoning being along the lines of it being "impossible" to support *all* of the various Mac hardware out there (because supporting *all* Mac hardware would for some reason be necessary, as if supporting a small amount of A1 boards and kludged together PPC "classics" was somehow an easier or more reasonable task).

IIRC (this was years ago), I remember a rumor about MOS running on Mac hardware.

[pixie]

Not quite Kronos, buying back the source gives them just that, the code, nit doesn't cancel the Hyperion's license to sell the OS, the contract wasn't terminated at the time, although it was some time ago.

The way I see the only way that Hyperion could ever recover their development cost would be trough the OS sales, but since Amiga has denied all the possibilities for that to happen is only natural that Hyperion themselves don't ease the source code transfer, of which Amiga Inc didn't even menage to fully pay it... be it 250$, 2500$, or  whatever amount it may be.

[Amigamia]

How about PearPC the PowerPC emulator? I don't have the right hardware to run OS4 on it but if it would work, I would sure buy it.

I don't think it's fair that only people with the out of production powerpc cards can benefit from this. If we had the opportunity to buy a new board then I wouldn't feel so left out.

What OS4 from booting on other powerpc platforms?

[da9000]

@Spihunter:

Hmmmm...  :evilgrin:


@Kronos:

I see your logic, and it makes sense. What I don't understand is how does it *stop* Hyperion from releasing/selling such a (blockbuster, in my opinon) version of OS4, since they're now selling the same with the Clsasic version, right? The only way it would stop them, in my mind, is if A. Inc. is threatening even more lawsuits about it. While A. Inc. might not care about the Classic OS4, since they know that only like 500 (too much?) have a PPC equipped classic. Dunno...



@-D-:

I agree with your statements. There were other reasons for not doing it. I'm certain Mac hardware wasn't that hard to support, and actually most "new world" Macs are not quite unlike each other.

[Kronos]

@da9000

The "classic" is in the contract so Hyperion can still claim they are acting within it.

Releasing it for HW not listed in the contract would be the biggest favour Hyperion could do to AInc atm....

[da9000]

Kronos wrote:
Releasing it for HW not listed in the contract would be the biggest favour Hyperion could do to AInc atm....

Right. And by your last sentence, you mean that it will give a better reason for AInc to sue, right?

And if that's right, then my initial statement is still true: Bill & co (I'm beginning to doubt that there's anybody else except him - the company has got to be a front...) is causing me great pain for not allowing, indirectly as it may be, a PPC release of OS4 on Mac hardware.  :madashell:

[motorollin]

I'm not counting on Hyp/AInc/ACube doing anything official. And I too am worried that there will be no future releases of OS4. So I have ordered a copy in anticipation of an unofficial "fix" being released which will allow it to run on a PPC Mac.

--
moto

[persia]

Amiga Inc's soap opera is never ending, either they have exceptionally long outsourcing contracts or they've managed to survive the Amiga Centre fiasco.  Too bad Amiga OS isn't written in C# or they could put their programmers in India on it...

Seriously, kickstart is on the CD so there's really nothing "Amiga" that Amiga OS 4 requires.  There must be something that it checks for, some piece of hardware acting as a dongle.

What is needed is a minimal PPC linux that opens up a UAE that does not try to emulate a motorola chip.  

Flowerpot iMacs and PPC minimacs are abundant and cheap and would knock the socks off of antique 603s.  

[AMC258]

I'd settle for a 603 based Mac.  I'd settle for any computer <$1000 complete that I could buy another copy of OS4 for.  I'm dying to buy my other half a computer for Christmas that she can actually use.  This UAE on XP garbage just doesn't do the job.  And, as much as she liked Solaris 10 on my UltraSparc, I want my last remaining UltraSparc back.
I will probably settle for a new MacMini.  Someday when I can get her an OS4 capable machine I can always sell the MacMini.