Quick Gary Hare IRC report, no more 3rd party AmigaOS after OS4.0.

[Glaucus]

new/old Amiga Inc. Everything about the Amiga scene - including AROS - seems frozen in time. Nothing has changed, nothing's moved on or evolved at all. You could cut and paste any old thread from the past four years into a thread on the same subject today and it would still make perfect sense. It would be virtually impossible to tell the comments were years apart.

Yeah, that's why I don't bother posting on these types of threads any more...

Btw, nice to see you back Bill.

  - Mike

[Glaucus]

@Wayne,

That doesn't mean that I wish the platform harm in any way. I don't. It's simply that no one to this day has demonstrated to me a clear and honest vision of how the Amiga PPC desktop is supposed to thrive and survive when there are better supported and cheaper platforms out there.

There is one chance, and it's a long shot...  I heard rumors that MS is interested in re-releasing their OS on a PPC chip. If true (which I doubt, but anything is possible) it could totally change the PPC market and finally allow AmigaOS to run on semi-mainstram hardware for once.

Anyway, I pretty much agree with everything you've said, except that I'm just not that bitter about the whole thing. :-) I can see a PPC based OS4 making some profits in the hobbyist market, but it will depend greatly on the marketing behind it. The name Amiga can still stir up some great nostalgia, and most ex-Amigans probably have no clue about the current in-fighting or even of OS4's existance. Some clever marketing could exploit the brand name, but of course, the technology needs to be there as well...

  - Mike

[Glaucus]

Seehund wrote:

So? That semi-mainstream hardware would still have to be sold by a "special" licensed vendor outside that semi-mainstream, if you want to run AmigaOS on it.

Maybe, maybe not - if what I said happens the market could change so drastically that today's Amiga hardware policies may be forced to change. Secondly, even if they don't, PPC technology will become more competetive on all fronts against the x86 line. Even if Eyetech still charges us more then Apple would for the same hardware, the overall price will still go down for both systems.

And there is semi-mainstream PPC consumer hardware today. Macs. Though that doesn't help us. Not because it can't help us, but because it's not ALLOWED to help us, and then I'm not talking about Apple but the compan(y|ies) that supposedly would have an interest in improving AmigaOS sales and market size.

Well, Apple certainly won't help us, and they would need to do so to make iMac's a viable option for Hyperion to invest their time and effort in porting any OS to it. But not only that, try buying an iMac without OSX pre-installed.

Don't get me wrong Seehund, I've been a strong advocate for porting AmigaOS to the x86 line right from the beginning. I fought bitterly with Ben on ann.lu years ago, but that battle was lost.

Regarding "in-house development" of "an Internet OS" or whatever, I'll believe it when I see it, and right now there is no reason whatsoever to believe that anyone will ever see it. That's unless you count "bbbbut AInc said so!" as a reason...

Honestly, who cares? I wish them the best of luck. All I care about is OS4.X, why even bring up AA?

  - Mike

[Glaucus]

I've jokingly stated that I'd trade it all for a Canon Digital Rebel XT kit (like the big kits you see on e-bay), and to be honest, the more I think about it, maybe it's not such a joke.

Okay everybody, let's pitch in and buy Wayne a nice Canon Digital Rebel XT kit. I think he deserves it! Hmmm... come to think of it, so do I!  :-D

  - Mike