Commodore USA's Final Challenge to the Community

[gazgod]

@CUSA

Don't make the mistake of going down the custom hardware route, its been done and its a just a hole to throw money in.

Choose off the shelf hardware whether that be X86 or Arm, and deliver a custom Amiga OS that fully supports modern hardware, whether this means buying into OS4 or Morphos  or chucking money at Aros and expanding them, or developing a new OS.

[gazgod]

OS dev costs are probably more than hardware dev costs when it comes to bespoke items.

Indeed, but once the development is done then its done otherwise you end up having to develop new custom hardware to move the OS along ala OS4 which is far from an ideal solution.

And a new OS does not have to be developed from scratch in fact I would say that is also pointless way to go, but rather to base the OS on existing technology ie the Linux kernel. I'm not suggesting that it should be just another Linux distro but to use the kernel would make a great starting point.

[gazgod]

Why would you start with the Linux kernel if you don't want Linux? It's not like it's made of unicorn concentrate or something.

I never inferred its anything magical!!

If you reread the post you quoted I gave the Linux kernel as an example. There are quiet a few alternative OS kernels that could also be used, any of the BSD's, QNX etc. The point is not to try and reinvent the wheel but use an existing OS kernel that can deliver all the hardware support that ANY modern OS should have ie. memory protection, SMP, etc. The kernel can then be used as a basis for an amiga like os, just like Amithlon runs 3.1 on a Linux kernel.

This is the only way move even think about developing an Amiga for the 21 century, OS4, Morphos and Aros will never (without serious investment) appeal to anyone who never owned a classic machine. And Natami whilst a cool piece of hardware is just a classic and should not be considered as a way forward, just a possible replacement for dead machines.

In all honesty after reading the posts in this thread the best thing CUSA should do is play the Bruce Banner walking away music, go their own way and leave the Amiga community to dream of past glories and what could of been.

[gazgod]

In other threads i reacted positive to the new offer of CUSA (even if there are still some doubts...) but when I hear "supporters" like you bashing on community projects I again start to doubt. If you want support by the community it would be better to be more politely. CUSA at the moment has nothing right now that justifies to stick "Amiga" on it. Have you read the reactions to the new "C64" in the web, they were devastating (and I do not speak of their own fan-website but from the public sites. So they need support and bad speaking of others (expecially when you obviously have not read much about that projects and no knowledge of hardware and concepts) will not bring much sympathie and no customers!

Was this comment aim at me? If so:-

I'm no CUSA supporter, I think their products and OS are laughable but if this offer is genuine then I'm offering my opinion of the only way forward that may offer a product that may placate the community whilst also offering a solution that could attract customers outside the current Amiga community.

I was not knocking any of the next gen solutions (I'm a registered Morphos user, have a dedicated Aros box and have owned OS4 twice (which I do think is ****)) or the Natami (hell I'll probably buy a Natami if they ever go on sale) but they are all limited by 80's API's and are not going to replace my Windows or Linux boxen EVER and all Migas are relegated to hobby computers in my shack.

I want to go back to the days that the amiga was the only machine I needed but without decent apps and/or the ability to easily port applications to it this will never happen.