PearPC

[Matt_H]

I think this is terrible news for the Amiga community. The Amiga community is so small that the AmigaOne and Pegasos need every sale they can get; every sale matters. By eliminating the need for such hardware to run AmigaOS or MorphOS, it simply opens up the market to piracy from outside the community - hardware sales decrease, driving up prices, and CD images of OS4 and MorphOS find their way to P2P clients.

Soon enough, there could be people looking for AmIGa ROmZ - not a good thing.

[Matt_H]

The dongle code present in the AmigaOne isn't infallible (nothing is). It's only a matter of time before someone cracks it, whether the intentions be "good" (OS4/MOS on Peg/A1) or malicious (d00d! l33t h4x0r g33k5).

From what I understand, OS4 won't be available in a standalone package (Cyberstorm and Blizzard PPC versions excepted), only through the purchase of an AmigaOne. It can't be good if that version leaks out onto the internet.

How many "test drivers" does it take before we have a piracy problem on our hands? And while there might be a small boost in sales for the Cyberstorm/Blizzard version, net Peg/A1 hardware sales will suffer: x86 chips are getting faster and faster, and this emulation will get faster as development continues. Therefore, this emulator could eventually become a hardware replacement solution in software. We're really in for it then.

I'd prefer it if work on getting MOS/OS4 booting under emulation was halted until the market "recovers," but if KMOS/Hyperion/Genesi were to work with the developers of this emulator to create a low-price MOS/OS4 "demo" for x86 machines, that would be kinda cool.

The Amiga market is too small to be taking chances with.

[Matt_H]

@ macto

I don't expect the Amiga to "recover" to its former position, but I'd hate to see the best chance the Amiga has had in a decade go up in smoke due to piracy.

[Matt_H]

You just need to look at how WinUAE has renewed and is sustaining an interest in the classic Amiga to see that emulation isn't a bad thing. Many people like myself will have purchased OS3.9 to run purely under WinUAE.

Unlike the classic Amiga hardware, however, The A1 and Pegasos are in production - sales matter. By the time Amiga Forever, which is licensed, hit the scene, stocks of Classic Amigas were long gone.

The problem is that you won't be able to buy AmigaOs4 or Morphos without the Hardware, so there's no legal way of running these in emulation.

Exactly!