Alternatives to Tabor (from New ppc board by Acube/A-Eon: A1222 "Tabor")

[Iggy]

1. I don't like AROS
2. Not comfortable buying big old MACs that weigh a ton and have them shipped from halfway Europe (these are impossible to find in my country) and I want something better than a Mac mini...

Well, obviously a Mac Mini is not going to be as fast as an X5000.
And the systems that would be, like the PowerMac G5 do weigh a LOT.

A Mac Mini's processor would be more powerful than the one in Tabor, but the graphics are not upgradable and they have only 32 or 64mb of video ram.

A toss up except for price in which the Mini would probably win.

However, the Mini can only run MorphOS, not OS4.

If OS4 is coming to PowerBooks, I CAN recommend those as they run MorphOS extremely well.

But running MorphOS on Tabor?
Why? My iBook would beat the processor benchmarks for that and it cost me less than $100.

If you want to run MorphOS, the 1.42 iBook is a dirt cheap way to start.

[Iggy]

... I have pondered getting a G5.... but as I said, shipping is expensive, and I doubt it will arrive in one piece.

I have had very bad luck getting G5s shipped without damage to the handles/legs that are at the top and bottom.
But other than that, they handle shipment pretty well.

I currently have two, one an AGP model and the other a PCI-e model (in case support  is introduced for the later).

The AGP model can use one of the fastest video cards that has 2D and 3D acceleration under MorphOS, the Radeon X1950.
While not tested, the PCI-e model (if supported) should be able to go one better by supporting the Radeon X1950XTX with 512MB of GDDR4.

No one but the developers knows if later upgraded revisions the Radeon HD drivers (with 3D acceleration) will function without relying on firmware like the R500 driver, but should they the G5s could potentially support all graphic cards used in PCI-e OS4 systems.

[Iggy]

...I already own an iBook and I played around a bit on it to test Morphos (even though I am not a fan of laptops). Also, this machine is not in a great condition so I didn't bother to register it.

I must admit that the iBook is not the most durable Apple product I've used, and some are pretty rrrrough.

But as hardware goes, I'd rather have an iBook than one of those Lime laptops.

Oh, and Zylesea has mentioned, the PowerBooks are also a great option.

So far I have shipped two of those to fellow MorphOS users in Europe.

There is a 1.67 GHz 128MB vram version that offer higher resolution that can be had in the US for about $200.
Definitely worth having.

[Iggy]

you do not like Aros?

too bad

Frankly, I'm thinking AROS 68K just might be the future for advanced legacy re-implementations.
Useless everyone WANTS to pay Cloanto for an OS that hasn't been updated in decades.

And X86 AROS looks like a very slick package.

We do own you on the PPC platform though. :lol:

[Iggy]

not "the team" but one developer (as I understand it) and it is still years away (geit)

More than one for sure, since Mark "Bigfoot" Olsen has mentioned working on it.
And the defacto team leader Frank Mariak is undoubtedly imvolded.

Jacek, Piru, Andre...I don't know but I'd be willing to bet have some involvement.

The actual 'team' involved?
Really a complete unknown, except that it is definitely more than one individual.

[Iggy]

I did consider making PPC ABIs for AROS compatible with MOS and OS4 (e.g. ppcmos and ppcos4) but I don't think this competition of an open source and free OS competing with the paying ones will be welcomed by all in the Amiga community.

I do still plan one day to support all Amiga OSes from the AROS shared library support tools and code and that will bring PPC AROS compatible with OS4 and MOS much closer.

That would be very cool Staf.

BTW - Since you know me (this is Jim Igou), could you offer YOUR opinion?
Do you really think I'm that hostile to other OS' in the community?

After all, Nick and I both are quite blue, but I think we thrive on the competition.
Wouldn't want anything untoward to happen to them.

[Iggy]

I was burned out on the whole Amiga programming thing and with a burn-out the cure is to wait long enough before restarting.Also I am now in another project that has to be finished before I think about restarting Amiga dev.I'm always available for public or private discussion on the topic though or for helping somebody who wants to start the work.

Yes, burn out, I was warned about that be an elderly programmer I knew in from the '60s to early '80s.

He suggested the same thing. Drop it for awhile and come back when it feels fresh again.