Any new news on OS4 Release yet?

[Waccoon]

I don't see any problem with restricting AmigaOS to PPC hardware. Being on x86 didn't do BeOS any good, even when it was free. People downloaded it, played with it on their PC for ten minutes, then rebooted into Windows and forgot about it. This is exactly what would happen to AmigaOS if it went x86.

If the OS was any good, they wouldn't forget about it.  Buying a whole system for $800+ is a lot harder than downloading a trial copy.  I really wish people would stop thinking that x86 and Microsoft are inherrintly welded together.  Linux runs almost exclusively on x86 and that OS it doing just fine in both free *and* commercial trims.

BeOS was nothing special.  The hardware had nothing to do with it.  They could've easily made a proprietary x86 system instead of selling it boxed, thereby cutting Microsoft out of the picture and future-proofing their architecture.  Instead, they went head-on against Microsoft and whined when they got flattened.

BeOS really was the Amiga of the 90's.  They didn't learn anything, and there was no way Be development could reach critical mass with the way they ran things.

[Waccoon]

at my job I'm a programmer, we have deadlines.

For individual features or major releases?  I find it unthinkable to work on a team where deadlines are really enforced.  I'd go crazy!  I just release a little at a time when I'm sure it's stable.  Almost everything is a work in progress, so why hold back?

You're an employee of the company that produces the software products. Most, if not all, of the OS4 programmers are not Hyperion employees. They work on OS4 in their spare time.

Then I take it at least some of them have experience with Open Source?

"Release Early, Release Often"

I've always been disturbed how they've been building-up for a big release with little to no activity in between.  In fact, I'm rather surprised a "pre-release" was delved out at all.

Then again, OS4 is definately not UN*X.  I'm learning more about UNIX-style architecture every day and I'm starting to really hate the essential design of everything else.

No - they're not welded together *YET* - but they're working hard towards that:

As they have been for the last decade.  Devices with "built-in" support only for Windows are nothing new.  I'm not saying I'm not concerned, but I find it impossible to believe that without big Linux fans like IBM, any standard will hold.  The more I read about Longhorn (specificly, functionality and organization), the more I think Microsoft is really losing it... fast.

Then again, Linux people just copy everything Microsoft does, anyway.  It pains me to see just how much KDE looks and works like a Windows box.