"Hyperion and Cloanto allegedly close to finalizing settlement"

[OlafS3]

Thomas why on earth would a person with sane minds change existing APIs all the time just for fun and to make software developers unhappy? Even open source developers are normal people (to a certain degree )

You cannot say open source is always better, the same is true for closed source. But in a small market where nobody can really make money and investing money is not reallly attractive only open source guarantees existence of a platform. If your product depends on the interest of one person and this person f.e. looses interest the product vanishes. That already happened with lots of amiga software and that can happen to the OS of course too.

It is not relevant if you are happy about the Aros 68k branch, it exists and will continue to exist with Vampire as main hardware target (and UAE).

BTW standards are set by the leader.., that can be the official version but must not. Regarding forking... we are talking about a theoretical danger here. You must find developers with both skills and willingness to invest time in it. A rare requirement. I do not expect much forks "if" AmigaOS would be open source.

[OlafS3]

+1

Aros 68k never had the problems f.e. X86 had

it was always the same ABI

[OlafS3]

at the moment the main activity is to make it as compatible to 3.1 as possible (f.e. changes in keymaps and datatypes at the moment)

and the API always was very compatible (obvious if you run amiga software on it)

[OlafS3]

and I never cared about the other platforms

I was always sceptical about "NG" running on different hardware and only interested in 68k

[OlafS3]

very funny

and when do we see new features in AmigaOS a OS today needs in it? In 2100?

[OlafS3]

yes...

and I am serious about 2100 too

[OlafS3]

BTW why do you think Aros 68k developers have the desire to imitate the features of 3.2 (like Reaction)

both platforms are in competition in future and users will decide what they want to use (depending of course on the hardware)

[OlafS3]

3.1.4 introduces memory protection? 

it is not possible, at least not without breaking most of the software

But there are still other features like RTG, Network, USB that are needed on a useable system

[OlafS3]

and who defines how the API is advanced?

In a open source environment f.e. developers of patches or libraries can take part and contribute (if they want)

Closed source only the maintainer (and owner) decides

I prefer the first one

And the danger of forking is (as I wrote) in reality not that big because you need very skilled devs to do that who are willing to invest time in that

BTW to general make it clear to all... Aros on 68k needs no special compiled software but runs normal amiga software. Of course both 3.1.4 and Aros are now in competition on 68k (at least on vampire)

[OlafS3]

not everyone is using that other distribution

Amigans are purists and individuals

And yes at the moment Aros is mainly targeting vampire (besides UAE)

that is where the growth currently is

[OlafS3]

what is transparent about 3.1.4?

2 developers in background decide

And what will happen with 3.1.4 if f.e, Cloanto wins?

[OlafS3]

now I am a little confused... you mentioned 3.1.4 several times as the new leading 3.X version unifying the different 68k  versions (3.1/3.5/3.9/Patches and so on) as far as possible to set the new standard

The others (3.1/3.5/3.9) are not in development and only patched

Other than that you are "splitting" the market too because not everyone is interested to buy and use 3.1.4

Or do I understand something wrong?

If the discussion is not about 3.1.4, about what it is about? It is the only one that is changed currently on the 3.X branch

[OlafS3]

I understand why you prefer a model where the control is one hand on the other side lots of software vanished because the owners left the market. That could even happen to 3.1.4 now (depending on both Hyperion and Cloanto). A platform not controlled by one entity (or even one person) can guarantee survival. And it is much easier for people to contribute not needed to sign NDAs.

But there we will always have different views 

Time will tell (and users will decide)

BTW the standard will always be set by the leader. If it would be (as a example) Aros on Vampire then the standards for new software on Vampire is Aros. On a unexpanded Amiga certainly AmigaOS will stay the standard. Aros is dedicated to 3.1 so as long you not introduce incompatiblities to 3.1 there should be no problem.

[OlafS3]

thanks for being so considerate 

[OlafS3]

What "critical mass" can we loose? 

for commercial software development? When yes what commercial software development?

Most software developed right now are games and those bang the hardware and do not use the OS

For commercial software you must offer some kind of future, new chances

"preserving" the old platform is not enough