Motorollin's "Future of the Amiga" thread

[motorollin]

I don't normally involve myself with these discussions because they normally escalate in to flame wars. But after the recent posts about "OS4 should be ported to " which have resulted in discussions of the various Amiga and Amiga-like Operating Systems, I have felt compelled to express my opinion.

The first thing to note is that no matter what we all might like to think, there is no space in the desktop market for AmigaOS, no matter what hardware it runs on. This is because no matter what you tell people you can do with an Amiga, they will respond that they can do it faster, better and cheaper with an alternative platform. I'm not saying that they are necessarily correct, just that this is what they think. For this reason the vast majority of non-Amiga users will not seriously consider Amiga as an alternative OS, even if it runs on their existing hardware. Ergo porting the OS is futile if your intention is to recruit new end-users.

So Amiga software and hardware developers have to look to other markets. The corporate market is saturated with Windows, and it will stay that way. Accept it, deal with it, move on. Sorry but even Linux is not a contender in the corporate market with the possible exception of servers. Even in those environments, practically all workstations sitting on desks in companies are running a Microsoft Operating System.

What does this leave, when you consider that even video editing and music have been taken over by MS workstations? Multimedia Presentations. I strongly believe that the Amiga's software is an advantage here. A small OS which boots quickly, doesn't need to be "shut down" at the end of the day, and is easy to maintain, with MM software like Scala and Hollywood all mean that the Amiga is ideally suited to Multimedia Presentation booths and interactive displays (think Science Museum).

Of course cost is an issue. Nobody is going to spend hundreds on Classic hardware which is old and relatively hard to maintain, just to put it inside a cabinet and display a Hollywood presentation. Likewise nobody will shell out for a Pegasos, EFIKA or AmigaOne for similar reasons. The mass-production of x86 boards means this equipment is affordable, and well-supported. So x86 is the only option if Amiga (or whoever) want to get their OS out there. So there are 3 options:

1. Port MOS/OS4 to x86
2. Use OS3.x under emulation
3. Use AROS

Since 1. is never going to happen, 2. and 3. are the only options. And what's more - they're both available! so here's how I see the future of Amiga:

1. Amiga Inc put together packages of cheap x86 systems running AmigaForever KXLight or AROS, with Hollywood or Scala and touch-screen and TV/VGA support built in.
2. These packages are marketed to manufacturers of multimedia display booths and interactive displays.
3. Amiga get a name for themselves as providers of such equipment, without huge investment costs in developing hardware for OS4 or porting it to x86.
4. Once Amiga is once again a known and respected brand which can be taken seriously, AInc can reconsider their position in the market and possibly reinvest some of the money they have made in a desktop product.

Flame me!!!!! :flame: :lol:

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moto

[motorollin]

When I said "3.x under emulation" and "running AmigaForever" I was referring specifcally to KXLight, which doesn't require Windows to be running. Can you just power off KXLight, or do you have to shut it down?

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moto

-EDITED

[motorollin]

It won't damage the RAM. The only reason to shut down a Linux distro on a read-write filesystem is to make sure the filesystem is unmounted. On a read-only filesystem this doesn't matter.

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moto

[motorollin]

philipj wrote:
Hmmz, okay I'm going to say something here I'm not 100% sure about, but the Knoppix run of AmigaOS isn't strictly read-only is it?

It boots from a CD, so it is read-only. Therefore powering off without shutting it down will not damage the filesystem. Even if you install it to hard drive, you can still specify that the filesystem should be mounted read-only. Of course this means you can't save anything, but in a kiosk this is not a problem, as the same software will run all the time. If somebody messes with the kiosk, you just reboot it and it will be back how it was before. And at the end of the day you just turn it off. Also, this leaves the potential for ongoing consultancy in building the read-only system if the customer requires changes to the content.

philipj wrote:
It can write to certain types of formatted partitions? Doesn't it mount these on startup?

It can, but this is not not necessary for it to function. If you did mount anything RW, you would have to shut down cleanly.

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moto

[motorollin]

I'm sure buying licenses for AmigaForever would be a cheaper option than porting OS4. Once AInc have made some money selling products based on an emulation, they can invest this money in (a) porting their next-gen OS to x86 so they can continue to supply cheap hardware with their software, or (b) in developing hardware to run OS4 and supply that instead of the x86 system.

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moto

[motorollin]

TheMagicM wrote:
who the hell is going to buy a x86 machine from Amiga inc just to get it bundled with Amiga Forever?

My point that was that it would be a whole package: hardware, OS (emulated, but still AmigaOS), drivers for touch screen etc, and the presentation software (Scala/Hollywood.....).

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moto

[motorollin]

It's simple if you know how to do it. A bit like building a server. But most companies don't do that do they. They buy the product in from a supplier. See my point now? :-)

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moto


--EDIT
I should add that this is particularly true of AmigaOS which is not well known. I doubt most people running a kiosk in B&Q would know how to install Workbench, find, download and install Hollywood etc etc.

[motorollin]

But most companies would never think to use AmigaOS! If it's marketed as a fantastic multimedia platform listing all the features then they might use it even though they had never thought of it themselves.

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moto

[motorollin]

Starrunner wrote:
2. Get with a company such as Acer that produces reasonably priced desktops and off the AmigaOS with or without bundle.

Why would Acer want to do that? What would be the advantage for them?

TheMagicM wrote:
nobody is going to care to install a *emulator package* to run a presentation in a public area

They wouldn't know it was an emulator. As far as they are concerned the OS runs natively. At the end of the day, the customer doesn't car how the software runs, as long as it provides the services they are paying for.

TheMagicM wrote:
People nowadays are brainwashed with Microsoft. Thats all they know.

End users and corporates maybe, because they need to conform with what have become standards. But for a box which sits in the corner displaying a MM presentation or has a touch screen interface for people to make selections, and never interfaces with the outside world, the OS doesn't matter - it's the software that counts. And Amiga has excellent software in this field. And a cheap pre-configured box would be marketable to companies who can't/don't want to set it up themselves.

TheMagicM wrote:
The only way to make it work is to try it out yourself

Hmmmmm.... ;-)

TheMagicM wrote:
Then you need to have companies developing software for OS4..now that the OS and hardware is out we'll need software

That's the beauty of my idea - the software already exists (and is good).

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moto

[motorollin]

TheMagicM wrote:
Dont base your company ideas on a lie, that was the mistake AI made (lies, plural actually).  They will know because they will ask.  

Not a lie. The features and limitations of the OS would be made available to the customer. The only thing they wouldn't need to know (and probably wouldn't care about) is that it's sitting on top of an emulation layer.

TheMagicM wrote:
If someone wants a multimedia box sittin out at the mall then they will ask, what if I want to run/display this certain file..and the Amiga OS doesnt play it.  "Isnt that Windows", "it works on my PC at home".

Can you give me an example of a filetype which might be required in a MM box which the Amiga couldn't handle?

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moto

[motorollin]

ptek wrote:
The option "emulation" is not the best for multimedia presentation purposes I presume. Only if you're willing to forget about smooth animation,

Have you used UAE on a fast machine recently? :-) AROS would probably give much smoother results, but I'm not sure what kind of video/audio/picture filetype support it has.

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moto