MorphOS for AmigaONE

[Merko]

As for "porting" OS4 to Pegasos.. wake up, there's no OS4 for the A1
yet! Nothing to port!

In fact, it seems a long way to go, still. At least that was my
impression of what Ben said at the "OS4 on tour" in Sweden. He said
they were in the process of porting the AmigaOS modules from 68k to
PPC, but with custom hardware still present. He said they had done a
few modules, with about 40 to go. Each one would take about 2-3 days,
he thought. Maybe he or any of the Friedens could comment on whether
they have kept that rate so far?

Well, when that's done, I guess Hyperion will want to release OS4 for
PowerUP cards. Then they can start porting it to the AOne. This will
certainly be a lot of work.

I'm sure there are people who are willing to wait forever, but
speculating about ports to the Pegasos at this time is quite useless..
are we talking about the Pegasos 1, 2, 3, 4.. here?


As for porting (releasing) MorphOS for the A1, I guess there are some
issues. It might be a smart move from Genesi if they want to kill off
OS4, by getting the A1 people to run MorphOS "meanwhile". If
"meanwhile" is as long as I think it will be, they might very well be
convinced MorphOS users long before OS4 comes along.

The downside from the Genesi perspective is of course that there might
be some people buying an A1 (despite the price) because they believe
"it is the only system that will run both OS:es". I'm not sure how big
this group is. I don't know how many people bought an A1 yet. Ben
didn't want to tell at the "on tour" show, although he said it was
more than those buying a Pegasos (whether this included future A1
sales, or what number he was comparing to, I don't know). Well, not
too convincing if he can't even give a number out. Personally I think
about half as many A1 sales as Pegasos sales seems like a fairly good
guess, without having any hard figures.

[Merko]

Ben, you can argue all you want. But the fact is that OpenFirmware is
a standard that runs on PPC machines from more than one manufacturer.
U-boot does not, despite its open source status.

What this means, is simply that something made to run with
OpenFirmware can easily be ported to other hardware that runs
OpenFirmware. Meanwhile, something made for U-boot can easily be
ported to other hardware that uses U-boot.. well.. except that no
such hardware exists.

[Merko]

Who claimed, or even implied, that there would be an OpenFirmware
implementation available for anyone to install on their A1's?

The obvious answer to the question is "there isn't any", but why do
you ask it?

Yes, it'd take a little effort to port MorphOS to the A1. Genesi would
have to modify SmartFirmware to run on the A1. Who denied this? What's
the issue?

[Merko]

Ben, why would you need to reflash the ROM?

The Linux people don't need to reflash. The BSD people don't need to
reflash. The OpenBeOS people don't need to reflash. The QNX people
don't need to reflash.

Why would you want to reflash? To make sure nobody could use the
computer to run MorphOS/Linux/BSD/BeOS/QNX anymore?


Been listening too much to Häusser telling you that the flashrom is
part of a diabolic plan to put Amiga users under the dominion of
Laire/Linux/graverobbers from outer space?

Just for your information: No, using a computer containing a flashrom
programmed by Ralph Schmidt does not mean he's able to eat your soul.