@Codesmith
DMCA is an US-law, and Hyperion a belgian company .....
But ...
There is no need for reverse-engeneering as Apple themself released that
info to the public (with the Darwin-sources).
"industrial systems" does spell Linux, and would contradict statements that
the "feature" ain't no bug cos linux isn't the target, but putting that aside, it would
still be very hard for Eyetech to get a foothold in that market without a global
player backing them, and with the reputation that MAI have earned themselv
in that market. It's also rather questionable why they would go with Eyetech
instead of directly contacting MAI.
We also have to wait wether a ITX-A1-G3 will fair good against VIA's next generation
of C3s (which will be much cheaper and are just as cool), or a G4 against a board with a mobile Pentium (again cheaper and about as cool).
Kiosk can mean a lot of things, but I would guess at info-terminals in supermarekets
and suchlike. No lets say that Walmart would order 2 of these for every one of their
shops. Would be something like 2-5000 boards, still far to little to mean a descent
income for Eyetech,AInc,Hyperion and MAI.
China:
That must have been the most hillarious plan in Amiga-history (sorry).
Now, why are the Chinese so eager tpo drop Windows ?
Cos it does cost so much, and is controlled by a foreign company.
How dos AOS fit into that equation ?
My guess is that they will take a linux kernel (x86), and built their own closed-source
OS ontop of it, securing the goverment complete control over every PC in the
country.
Genesi's plan is a bit different:
1) Sell Pegasos2 in low quantities (<10000) as small servers and to special-interest
groups (like us, or "we hate x86"-Linux/BeOS/BSD-freaks).
Would be enough to recoup Genesi's R&D-costs, but offcourse not Marvell. But that
isn't neccesary as Genesi are not Marvell's only costumer ;-)
2) Sell costum HW with costum SW for costum needs.
(what follows is what I gathered in rumours bout the STB-deal).
A pay-TV-company wants to sell their programms in a country that we would consider
part of the "2nd world", a country where people do have enough money to buy a
real good TV set (or just want it sooooo bad), but not enough to put a PC and/or a
modern game-console next to it.
Now, this company would offcourse fear someone cracking their code, and thats
why they want it to only run on non-standard-HW, and offcourse it also has to be
closed source.
Add to that that mass-producing of a board built around an embeeded PPC
(403 if I'm not mistaken) may actuall be cheaper than doing the same with a x86.
I don't have much trust in any of both side ever being more than a footnote in the
history of computing, but I do see much more resources (and resources spend
wisely) n the blue side than I see on the red, which still seems to think having the
"name" means guaranteed market-success.
