Does Hyperion own the rights to OS 3.1, 3.5, 3.9?

[tone007]

And it's still incompatible with non-PPC Amigas, which means people like me, with neither the money nor the inclination to move into the PPC country club or slap a boing-ball sticker on a Macintosh and pretend it's an Amiga, are shit out of luck.

I'd say you're in luck that it's not compatible.  Trying to run such an "NG" Amiga OS on an '030 might just drive you out the window.  I've watched web pages take over a full minute to load on an '030, and that's running OS 3.1!

..and if you're not into playing pretend, that whole blue butterfly thing just won't work for you.

[tone007]

After all, even Linux started off as a "hobby project" of one Swede teaching himself assembler...)

Ooo, that's gonna piss the Finns off.

[tone007]

I just find it difficult to understand why someone like yourself who's past has shown such a great passion for the Amiga feels now that the Amiga has no future at all...

Everything has a future, just some futures are brighter than others.

I look at it in terms of user base growth (or shrinkage) myself.  I can't honestly say I see the NG Amiga user base growing significantly given the current hardware offerings.  Some people bought SAMs when they were new and only slightly overpriced (compared to the X1000.)  They had their taste of OS 4.1, and maybe some will be back for more, but I'd bet many of them will think twice (or just laugh) before spending what the X1000 is supposed to cost.

I personally got a bargain-basement AmigaOne and used it for a few weeks, and I can safely say my OS4.1 curiosity is satisfied and does not require further hardware.