Efika OS4.1

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Moreover, any PowerPC OpenFirmware compliant application or operating system should work out of the box or with tiny adaption.

  Does this mean that OS4.1 for the PegII will also (mostly) work on an Efika?  Even if Hyperion won't officially  support it, maybe all it needs is some community made drivers for sound and network and such.

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Lorraine wrote:
But supposing you want to swap machines (stop using the SAM in favour of the EFIKA, for instance). I'm pretty sure there's no law forcing you with retail copies of things to 'embed' it to that machine.

  Let's think about that for a minute.  Who's actually going to stop using a SAM to solely run Linux on it?  But if you're not going to run Linux on it, then why keep the SAM?  But if you're going to sell that SAM, why would you sell it without the AmigaOS 4.1 CD?  :-?

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@ Lorraine

  You are artifically complicating things intellectually due to OS4.x's unfortunate legal situation.  The problem only exists in the mind. Consider it this way.  When I bought an A4000 to replace my A1200, I didn't blow a fit to Commodore that I had to buy AmigaOS 3.1 AGAIN.  I didn't complian that I'd have to sell my A1200 at half price AND sell AmigaOS3.1 (A1200 Edition) at half price.  I never heard anyone demanding they be able to buy an A4000 without the OS so they could reuse the OS that came with their A1200. And even though the Workbench disks are interchangable, the Kickstarts aren't.

  The problem is that the SAM and EFIKA (and AmigaONE, CSPPC, etc) don't come prebundled with AmigaOS4.1.  If they did then this whole discussion wouldn't even be here. But does it really make a difference if you have to buy motherboard X, costing Y and OS A, costing B as opposed to motherboard/OS bundle (X+A) costing (Y+B)?  Because if we had a proper Amiga owner that's the only thing that would be different.

@ Trev

  Strickly speaking, I can't take the Windows version that came with my ASUS and go install it on another computer.  Sure, Microsoft sells a "universal" Windows CD that will work on any computer but that's different.  Again, this would be no difference than if there was a proper Amiga owner to arrange proper deals with hardware manufactures to bundle AmigaOS with it.  Then, LATER DOWN THE ROAD, when there's lots of different platforms on which AmigaOS can run, there can be a single "universal" AmigaOS4.5 CD which contains all the different versions for the various motherboards.

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Trev wrote:

You're confusing operating system code with OEM preinstallation media and an OEM license. Windows is Windows. Asus has not modified it in any way. What they have done is streamlined the installation of drivers and other third-party applications (yuck), so you don't have to worry about it. Whether or not you can transfer an OEM license of Windows to another computer is for legal scholars to debate and wasn't the point of my message. ;-)

I think you're confused about what I was trying to say. Let me try in your words:

AmigaOS is AmigaOS.  Genesi have not modified it in any way. Unfortunately, what they haven't done is streamlined the installation of drivers and other third-party applications (yay), so you do have to worry about it. Whether or not you can hack a PegII distribution of AmigaOS to an Efika is for legal scholars to debate and wasn't the point of my message. ;-)

You see the only problem is with that phrase "OEM license". And please note, I wasn't referring to the "license", I was referring to the actual files on the computer. The Windows version that came with my ASUS only contains the drivers for that particular hardware and won't work on a different computer.  Sure, I could probably piece together something that works using those files and drivers I download from the internet but how's that different than those people trying to hack together a version of AmigaOS4 for the MacMini using the AmigaOne OS4 distribution.

The way I see it is that, due to current legal issues and the idiotic company that owns the Amiga name, the OEM license and media is currently coming separate from the actual motherboard. Ideally, the motherboard and accompanying AmigaOS version would be released together and sold together but most of this hardware has been on the market long before the OS.

Alternatively, you would seem to rather Hyperion wait a couple years before releasing anything until they ported the OS to half a dozen different platforms and then release a "universal" version of the CD that will work on them all.  Well, I think there are quite a few AmigaOne and SAM owners that are thankful they have not had to wait for such a "universal" CD to come out.

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@ Trev

First off, please don't lose any respect for ASUS due to my comments.  I was just picking a brand as an example.

Perhaps things are different where you live but where I live computers don't even come with an OS CD regardless of the computer's brand.  I have bought several computers over the past five years for myself, family, and friends and have bought these computers from serveral different outlets.  AT BEST, the computer comes with a RESTORE CD that will restore the hard-drive to "factory settings" (many of these CD's won't even work if you upgrade your hard-drive since they basically only contain a compressed image of the drive).  Many computers don't even come with any CD and just have a secret hidden restore partition of the hard-drive.  If your hard-drive dies, you're screwed.  There are even some that require you to DOWNLOAD the restore CD and burn it yourself after registering online.

And believe me, I've asked, paying a little extra to get an actual Windows OEM CD isn't even an option.  If I want that, I'm forced to buy a full retail copy of Windows seperately.  I haven't found ANY brands that actually include a Windows CD with their computer. The ONLY exception to this is are the few stores that will allow me to build a system from scratch myself or have them build a system for me. (and you have to be careful with those places that will build a system for you as some will try to not included the Windows CD anyway since most customers don't know any better)