Petition: AmigaOS distribution policies and PPC hardware

[ShadesOfGrey]

I'm hoping that pretty much what you've described will eventually happen.  For right now though I'm going to give Amiga Inc. the benefit of the doubt.  I believe Amiga and Hyperion need the current license to protect themselves.  I would think it irresponsible of Amiga/Hyperion to not insure that a hardware vendors products designed and licensed to run Amiga OS will support Amiga OS.  I also don't think it utterly unreasonable for Amiga Inc. to ask a hardware vendor, initially, to bundle AOS with their hardware product.

I expect that by AOS version 4.5-4.6 Amiga/Hyperion will include support for non-Amiga branded hardware with OEM licensed copies of Amiga OS with hardware dongle.  By AOS version 4.7-4.8 there should be a retail copy that allows users to install AOS on any PPC hardware meeting the "zico" spec with or without hardware dongle.

If Amiga OS 5 is the AA/DE enabled version of AOS (who knows, we may not see AA/DE integration 'til 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, or X - diez - 0x000A - 1010, or whatever).   Then I suspect x.0 will have full PPC support, partial (beta) X86 support, experimental (post-alpha/pre-beta) MIPS, SH4 and StrongARM support.  Later revisions would of course providing greater support based on which CPU platforms are in most demand...

If this doesn't come to pass and Amiga Inc. shows no signs of relaxing their license(s).  Then I'll sign a petition, join a mail campaign, or whatever it takes to make Amiga Inc. change its license.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Actually, if you take a look at this Technical Update, you'll find that the "zico" spec is now specifically for Amiga OS 4.  

[ShadesOfGrey]

Only thing is, Moto got burned by Apple during the whole Mac clone fiasco and are really only focusing cell phones these days.  And IBM is happy turning out Wintel boxes.  Tthe only place you find PPC is in their high end servers (if at all).  

It also doesn't help that the Amiga desktop market is currently like a rain drop in a vast ocean.  Or rather a single H2O molocule in a vast ocean.  Even if they are interested in a alternative PPC desktop platform and are secretely rooting for any of the many alternative OS'es.  They'll wait for smaller firms like Eyetech or bPlan to get the ball rolling.  

It would be nice to see Amiga Inc. working harder to promote the Amiga OS and Amiga One initiatives instead of the AA Entertainment Pack.  So far everytime Bill McEwen shows up on TeccTV's Screen Savers he only really mentions AOS and A1 as an afterthought or as an answer to a direct question.

[ShadesOfGrey]

First off, we have no idea of what the cost is to a hardware vendor/manufacturer.  So we cannot speculate as to whether or not any manufacturer/vendor would find this cost exorbitant.  

Second, if the only necessary change to their hardware is a change to a systems firmware, I don't see how or why this would be terribly expensive.  This isn't taking into consideration other means of hardware based copy protection like a USB or serial port dongle.  I would suspect if any such dongle were required, Amiga Inc. would be responsible for their manufacture.

I most assuredly believe in the freedom of choice.  But one thing you may not recognize is that besides Eyetech and bPlan, I have found no other manufacturers of open PPC desktop systems.  I did find these three manufacturers, Total Impact, SBS Technologies Inc., and AG Electronics on the OpenPPC Project web site.  They all make interesting stuff, but none are desktop solutions...  Not unless you count SBC's as desktop solutions.

[ShadesOfGrey]

As I said earlier in a response to comments made by EyeAm.

If this doesn't come to pass and Amiga Inc. shows no signs of relaxing their license(s).  Then I'll sign a petition, join a mail campaign, or whatever it takes to make Amiga Inc. change its license.

But for right now, I don't believe Amiga Inc. is being unfair or unreasonable.

[ShadesOfGrey]

 

Could you please shut up about OS5 this OS5 that.
I nkow about nothing about it and would be surprised if you know more. not even Amiga
knows for sure. Hasnt history proven time after time
that theese things evolve over time and may take any
direction (hopefully a good one). And why do you
put = between AA and DE, they are not the same thing. I belive the DE is described in the Amiga World
aticles.. its quite a bit to go yet. From my understanding, the DE = OS5. If OS4 even will be
used as basis for this or not, we dont know.
it could be somethng completely different.
Nothing against that if that should proove
necessary (how is that word spelled ?)

No I don't know anything more about Amiga OS 5 than anyone else.  I only have what Amiga Inc. have said they will do.  If Amiga Inc fully integrate or combine AA/DE into Amiga OS 5, then I have to assume that they will also have to relax their OEM license and include a retail copy (and license) for Amiga OS 5.  As for how Amiga OS 4 will play a role in Amiga OS 5.  As you say, AOS 4 may be part of AOS 5 or Amiga Inc. may choose to do something completely different.  It's happened before and anything is possible.

But I can speculate and voice my opinion.  I personally believe that AOS 4 will play a greater role in AOS 5 then Bill or Fleecy may currently believe.  Lets face it, the real reason AOS 4 exists is because elate just doesn't have what it takes to be a full fledged desktop or server OS.  We could very well see ExecSG from AOS 4.x rewritten in VP and become a processor agnostic kernel for delivering intent.

In my response to EyeAm, I acknowledged that Amiga OS 5 may not actually result in the full integration of AA/DE.  In fact I personally am doubtful Amiga Inc. will achieve such a goal.

If Amiga OS 5 is the AA/DE enabled version of AOS (who knows, we may not see AA/DE integration 'til 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, or X - diez - 0x000A - 1010, or whatever).

Why do I put a "=" between AA and DE?  Actually I put a "/", but that is beside the point.  As far as I understand it, Amiga DE has become Amiga Anywhere or AA now encompasses DE.  I'm not sure anymore...  That's why I refer to AA and/or DE as AA/DE.  They certainly are related and if AA is DE or DE is AA, mentioning both covers all bases.

So why not just enjoy the ride. The future will take
mysterious ways anyway

Yes, but what fun is simply waiting for the future to become merely the present?  Using the past and present to imagine the future is what makes the ride fun.

[ShadesOfGrey]

> I thought AmigaAnywhere was the DEplayer...

Yeah, thats about what it is.

The Amiga DE Player is still called the Amiga DE Player on the Amiga Anywhere site.  

Whether this means that Amiga DE is Amiga Anywhere or that Amiga Anywhere is Amiga DE.  I have no idea.  But it would be nice to know for certain which is which.