Open Source Amiga OS

[Madshib]

Hello everyone. I have been silently watching this web space for quite awhile and only recently decided to jump back into the conversation with the hopes of an A1200 purchase from Petro T. in July.

I stopped using my Amiga when I moved out in 2000 and my dad bought me an Athelon64 based PC. I think it was his way of sending me into the cruel dark world
I used Windoze for the next few years(still do at work, but that's a different life) and discovered Linux and it's community back in 2008. I now use it exclusively. I like the ideas behind the community and the development process that goes into the big hitters like Red Hat and Debian.

Since I've resumed my boyish interest in the Amiga community I've noticed the nature of the development is from those that love the platform with little help. I'm not talking about the PPC route here, I like the idea behind OS 3.9 being continuously developed by fans and gifted (and patient) programmers.

This leads me to my discussion point/question.

Would the Amiga community enjoy seeing the OS Open Sourced for the community to continue development? This would be the original 68k code released into the wild, so to speak.

Also, what type of governance would need to be in place to control and manage it's growth in the right directions? (committee, OS Dev Board, etc.)

Finally, do you think that it would attract more programmers (both beginner and advanced levels) to help revitalize and/or expand the platform as with Linux?

[Madshib]

It's funny how the questions asked brought about a separate discussion on it's own about open software. I don't know enough about the organizations referenced to make any arguments for or against. I do like using Linux though.

One thing is for sure, I like using Amiga OS much more! Reading everyone's comments, I knew AROS would come up eventually. I have tried to use it in the form of Icaros Desktop and that is partially why I asked the questions of everyone in the first place.

AROS may be an alternative that is modern to AOS, but it just doesn't seem as fast and responsive as AOS. Now that I know that AOS was written in Assembly(I thought it was C and Asm combo), I suppose that the genuine 68k code really doesn't do anyone any good since the instruction sets are different.

I just can't help but think that the mechanical concepts behind what make AOS work so quickly could be re-implemented in another form, or clone, of AOS.

So regardless of what everyone thinks about this organization or that group or whether or not Hyperion will release the code, what would the community do with it once it was released?

(If anyone can help and show me how to make AROS as fast as AOS, I'm all ears. I tried it and was completely lost from the door, so I didn't really give it a fair shake, so to say.)

[Madshib]

So basically, if AOS was released as an Open Source project, no one has given a clear idea as to where they want it to go. AROS is not AOS but that seems like everyone's easy answer.

Put the key in the door and retire this thread.