Most Amiga like experience on modern hardware

[KimmoK]

One thing I don't have very clear though is how the systems using PPC tech are better or closer to a real Amiga than the CUSA's Amigas.QUOTE]

CUSA HW has Amiga in name, nothing else.
PPC Amiga HW can run  real AOS, that has become PPC native.
Thats the main difference, IMHO.

[KimmoK]

What do you think offers the most Amiga like experience?

Perhaps AmigaForever gives the shortest path to get Amiga experience. (you can easily enchance it via AmigaSYS or Amikit package)
Then upgraded real A1200 might be nice to tinker with real state of the art Classic Amiga.

MOS and AROS will enable to test modern stuff easily.
For AOS4 you need extra HW, but perhaps it most resembles AOS3.x.

I have some experience of AOS68k,AROS,MOS and AOS4.
I still need real 68k Amiga for things like fully working Deluxe paint, genlockable output etc. (I have A4000D/T, A600HD etc...)

About next gen:
I've tried to use AOS4 as my main system, but so far it has required too much work to make it work perfectly (ok, if you have the time to just to tinker with it, but if you need to produce something...) AOS4 ships also with real 68k kickstart files and it's the first varian to head to multicore support. AOS SW development community seems very active, but perhaps it's just more visible. I have SAM440ep-mini and it's a little feels a bit too slow for serious use, but I think it's most mature platform for AOS4.
MOS seems the most mature NG variant. I believe that with it you end up faster in doing things rather than just trying to set it work perfectly. I definitely should use it more (I have MacMini HW).
AROS, when I last tried it, felt raw. I think with AROS you need most work to make it nicely running. But also for AROS, I should install latest version to try it more. For AROS I have 1.7Ghz sempron setups (desktop and laptop, but for laptop I need to figure out how to get AROS back on it, after DVD drive is broken and it does not boot from USB). AROS seems to need most HW performance to run OK.  AEROS (broadway X ?) might one day prove to be very interesting AROS distribution, it should enable running lightningly fast AROS+AROS apps+linux apps+68k apps, just via clicking on any of those application icons (it runs hosted on linux kernel, other NG variants are fully native).

For any NG OS you should get above 1Ghz CPU.

[KimmoK]

There is no real reason to spend that much money on a OS4 PPC system and get so little for the money.....

If person already owns compatible x86, sure, one should try AROS.
If person owns compatible PPC Mac HW, sure, on should try MOS.

Getting AROS system from 0 costs perhaps 300eur. (new or partially new HW)
Getting to MOS from 0 costs perhaps 400eur. (used HW)
Getting AOS4 system costs perhaps about 1000eur. (new HW)
So, yes, AOS4 experience is pricey for now.

But if one really wants to try & use "AOS" on above 100Mhz HW natively, only PPC Amigas can do it. That's the reason why I have SAM. I want to see where AOS is and where it goes.

[KimmoK]

@dammy
>Via UAE you can achieve running AOS on multi GHz level.

Yes, but it's not native. Only emulation on top of some other OS.

>If you are referring to the AmigaOne series, they are not an Amiga nor Commodore Amiga, just AmigaOne and nothing else.

By "PPC Amigas" I meant ClassicPPC, Pergasos2, AmigaOne, SAM. HW that are capable of running AmigaOS above 100Mhz natively.
(I could not care less about the actual name of the HW.)

[KimmoK]

@dammy
>The only thing that runs AOS natively on is a 68K Amiga, everything else has emulation/translation layer which isn't native by a long shot.

So, you are not aware that AmigaOS has been ported to PPC. LOL!

>Does that mean I should also be able to label AROS as AmigaOS if I can care less about the actual name of the OS?  

I was not talking about the name of the OS, actually.

But I do not care about the name of the OS either.
I'm interested to see the evolution of original AmigaOS codebase.
AmigaOS4 is it, the AmigaOS codebase, compiled to run natively on PPC.

The world has moved beyond 68k.

I like all variants of our AmigalikeOSs. I plan to use all of them also in the future.
(68k version because it is classic, PPC AOS because it's real AOS, MOS because it perhaps is the best (clone) currently, AROS (clone) because it seems to have the brightest future (develops perhaps fastest nowdays, even if it's still behind in general usability, but at this rate, it might catch up) and it's free, etc...)

[KimmoK]

Exactly what WB 3.x source code was ported?

Whole AOS3.1 that was available in C. (and you very well know it)
(AOS3.1 was mainly coded in C)
+ Most of third party code of AOS3.9.

The path of source codes can be tracked here:
http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141:twenty-five&catid=36:amigaos-4x&Itemid=18

+some of the old 68K AOS developers still develop it.

[KimmoK]

Well, he's obviously right. The fact AmigaOS 4 can transparently run 68K software does NOT mean it doesn't need any emulation layer to do that. ...

So, also you nowdays insist that AmigaOS4 is not AmigaOS? Only 68k version is AmigaOS?
Note: I have been saying that the only option to run real AmigaOS natively above 100Mhz HW is AOS4 (compiled and enchanced from original source files).

(without taking away the possible fact that other Amigalikes can be better than the original, I'm multicolour.)

[KimmoK]

"compiled and enchanced from original source files"

You know, I've often wondered how Hyperion dealt with elements introduced after 3.1

Nothing huge came in 3.5 or 3.9.

but, as I mentioned:
"+ Most of third party code of AOS3.9."

Hyperion made agreements with many third party contributors to get those additions ported.

[KimmoK]

"compiled and enchanced from original source files"

who cares? Users want to have a good computer at the right price and do not care what has originally used 68k code. At least one of the "copies" has avoided to make the same errors as AOS (to connect too tight to one hardware-platform). That was already the problem of the old AOS and it was repeated again.

As I mentioned, some do care. AOS totally changed my life 20 years ago, got me my first real IT job etc. I want to see where AOS is and where it goes.
Without AOS I would now be a building architect instead of embedded SW professional.
There's not much on top of that to convince to get AOS4. Well... except to play with new/weird/rare PowerPC HW. (I wanted to play with PPC440 as well, because at that time I was developing SW for it at work)

btw. I doubt there is any HW dependency left from 68k AOS. AOS4 seems to get to different HW pretty ok (currently Classic, A1 series, Peg2, SAM series, with and without cache coherency). IF THEY MANAGE to get the multicore support done without breaking everything, it should prove that they have abstracted the low level stuff pretty nicely)  I doubt any of the clones are easier to get (fully) on another HW than current AOS.

[KimmoK]

... I think competition is always good ...QUOTE]

I just wish there would be no competition over the very limited OS R&D people.
(if all variants were open source developed, perhaps more co-operation would appear)