What should i buy as my christmas present?
The thing is that i have 300 USD burning a hole in my pocket, and are in the fate of becoming my Christmas gift.
So basically i am having some problems on deciding where should that money be spent. I have narrowed down the choices to:
1-Buy a mediator for my 040 Amiga 1200
2-Buy a mac mini (Maybe install Morphos)
3-Buy a Power Mac G4 (Double mirrored drive) (and maybe install Morphos for it when available)
4-Spend only 40 USD in expansions to make my old PC AROS capable
5-Sell my Amiga+accelerator+miggy stuff to buy a SAM (This option is the most underrated by me)
6-Something else
What would you do?
It really depends on what you are interested in doing with a computer?
1st thing to do is "ignore smerf", he constantly spouts the only good Amiga is an emulated one with Linux, or Windows running underneath it on new PC hardware that will be out of date before you can get it home and will probably break down within the first year or two. Unless you choose his suggestion to run Linux, you will be asked to upgrade the Windows OS every couple of years or so, with the promise that this version has fixed all the past problems and that it will make your life wonderful because you can now do what most competent computer users could already do a few years ago already, if they only took the time to learn how to do it. (now before you come on here and laugh at my "out of date before you can get it home" remark compared to how out of date any Amiga is, they are obviously two completely different things. One is supposed to be modern and up to date and the other is either a retro-classic antique computer system, or the "Next Gen" versions are a tiny, almost non-existent niche hobby system that can in no way shape or form compare to any modern PC, or Mac system. So, now on to your list.
1) Mediator for A1200 - if you currently enjoy your A1200 and want to expand it so you can use cheap Ethernet cards, a better graphics card, a sound card and maybe a TV tuner card, then the Mediator might be a good choice, though not a cheap choice (nothing in the World of Amiga purchasing is a bargain, nor has it been for a very long time, although I personally think getting a used G4 MacMini at a good price and purchasing MorphOS2.4 license is very close to being a bargain compared to the rest of the Amiga market).
2) MorphOS2.4 on a G4 MacMini - I have a 1.5GHz G4 MacMini with a licensed copy of MorphOS2.4 running on it and have to tell you that it is the closest thing to feeling the same excitement I felt when I bought my first used A1000 in 1987. It still needs more apps and games (needs more developers and users), but it is really very usable for many things now and the OWB browser is rather good and pretty fast on my G4 MacMini. It runs most Classic Amiga software very well if it does not bang the hardware, and it can run EUAE for those programs and games that do bang the hardware. I can easily recommend this option without any reservations.
3) Buy a used G4 PowerMac and wait for MorphOS2.x to support it - I can't fault this choice for most of the same reasons for #2 above, but I don't see too much advantage for the wait, unless you can get such a PowerMac for a lot less than you can find the G4 MacMini. It has been confirmed that MorphOS2.4 runs very well even on the slower models of the G4 MacMini and even with multiple screens open, the lower 32mb graphics card models do not seem to have any problems running out of VRAM, but this may not be the case if you want to run every screen in 24bit and you have a very large LCD and are using 1920x1080 resolution. I do not know, as I have the 64mb VRAM model, but I can say that running at that 1920x1080 on my 23 inch Acer LCD, or 1600x1050 on my 20 inch Dell LCD, I have had no issues with low VRAM at any time with many screens open at the same time. That being said, having the option to use a 128mb VRAM 9000, or 9250 graphics card in a G4 PowerMac is an attractive option to have for the future, so I have already started keeping an eye peeled for a REALLY LOW price for a G4 PowerMac and will probably get one some day, unless the MorphOS Development Team announces that they have decided to support the G5 PowerMac models before I find a free, or very low priced G4 PowerMac model to buy (they have already said that this will probably never happen, so don't take me wishing for it as any indication that it ever will happen).
4) $40 upgrade to PC for AROS - I can't really say anything one way or the other about this choice, as I am not up to speed on anything to do with AROS, or it's Sister ICAROS. I have never run either of them, though I have downloaded the ICAROS iso and plan to take a look at it in the near future. This is your lowest cost option and many would say the smartest choice from a monetary point of view. I can't disagree with that logic. The OS is free and the hardware is lower than any of the other options.
5) Sell your existing Classic Amiga collection to purchase a SAM440 system - Like you, this is the least attractive option to me, but there are many others that love their SAM440 systems and would disagree with both of us very vigorously. I am hopeful that AmigaOS4.x will prosper and continue to improve over time, as although I would rather have all AmigaOS4.x, MorphOS2.x and AROS users and developers back together working on and for one common OS, instead of having our small community split into even smaller sub-communities, it just isn't going to happen (not in my life time anyway). So, with this being a fact of life, I actually see the competition between the three different OSes as a good thing, as it drives each group to try to out do each of the others, because programmers (at least most of the ones in our small community) are prideful ego driven ba$tards who want to show that they are better than their counterparts in the opposing OS development teams. I can't wait until I have learned more about programming so I can become just like them, :roflmao:but I am getting off topic. Unless you are hung up on having the "Official" Amiga trademark attached to your OS, I think that AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x are very similar in what they can do at this point in time. The MorphOS2.x benchmarks have been shown to be faster than AmigaOS4.x on the same hardware and to give MorphOS2.4 an even bigger edge in terms of speed, the architecture of the G4 MacMini has been shown to be almost twice as fast as a similarly clocked G4 Pegasos2 machine. This coupled with the low price that you can find G4 MacMini's for makes the choice between an AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 system and a G4 MacMini MorphOS2.4 system a very easy decision to make, but your mileage may vary and I know that many AmigaOS4.1 SAM440 users are very happy with their decision and I don't fault them for their happiness in that choice.
6)Other - PC's are very cheap now and if you can't afford the space for two systems, or you can't afford to waste money on having two different kinds of systems, doing as smerf said and getting a new PC, or even an almost new PC and putting AmigaForever/AmiKit/AmigaSys/WinUAE/Linux & EUAE on it is a valid option.
As I started this long post with, it really depends on what you want to do with it. There are still some things that a Classic Amiga is best for, if you still enjoy that retro world and running all those thousands of apps and games on something you can only get that old feeling you once had from again. I guess Amiga mod music is one thing that having a Classic Amiga is still good, if not best for. Hope you got some help from my long reply, or at least some entertainment value.
