Console style PC - familiar somehow...

[SamuraiCrow]

Marco wrote:
Not really at all, because an Amiga is a computer, not a console. Can you make artwork on a PS3? Or type letters, or make 3D art or surf the net, or send emails or chat with friends?.. It also has no keyboard or mouse and can't connect to a monitor.

It has USB ports for all of the above and comes with Linux on its hard drive.  Whether the PS3 version of Linux is usable remains to be seen but I think that it will have the same functionality of the version of Windows Media Ceter edition on the XBox 360.

It has an onboard GPU, but that GPU is still externally sourced, just like a PC, they just put it on the same bit of silicon as the processor instead of on a daughterboard. Also what is with people praising IBM for simply not being Intel? That doesn't mean they make good processors; I'm not disputing the revolutionary nature of the Cell architecture, but it's never gonna make it to a computer platform like Amiga or Mac or Windoze, the last desktop processor they made, the G5 is just ancient now.

The Cell is kind of like a C64 in the way that it deals with its local-store memory and DMA to access all of the expansion memory.  It's not that much like an Amiga but it has the capabilities to kick butt for the hackers who are willing to take advantage of it.

x86 won the war in 1981 when the clones arrived, people just refuse to accept it, sure we could deny it while everyone else in the industry was using 68k - Amiga, Atari-ST, Mac, NeXT, BeOS, etc. but it's been a foregone conclusion since Win95 that nothing is going to displace Intel clones - not even Intel could do it! Anyone remember Itanium?

Who really cares about the clones when the latest version of AmigaOS won't run on the PC anyway.  AROS is good but AmigaOS is better.  BTW the clones didn't stand a chance until Motorola licenced the 68000 archetecture to Intel for use in the 386 design.

That's why I personally think AROS is the only way forward left, MorphOS is nice, but its hardware dependance is just as much a death-sentence as that of OS4, AROS runs on cheap ubiquitous hardware that is constantly being updated and massively outstrips anything PPC can currently produce.

You've forgotten about the capabilities of the Cell processor already?  It will blow the doors off of a PC for anyone willing and able to remember how to program a RAM-expanded C64 or an Intel 8086 PC with expanded memory adapter.

[SamuraiCrow]

Marco wrote:

Exactly how is OS4 better than AROS? The only difference is OS4 is being made for antediluvian hardware with no forseeable upgrade path (don't anyone dare say cell-based A1, it's never gonna happen in a million ice-ages) and it's in a more finished state, purely because there is a team working on it as their job, they've been paid to do OS4, AROS developers are incredibly small in number, and only work sporadically on it because they have real life jobs/commitments, on top of which they have had to completely re-implement the OS from scratch with no access to the source code which AmigaInc think is still profitable

You've just answered your own question.  For an explanation of why I think AROS should be limited to a hosted environment and quit trying to be AmigaOS 4,
view this thread.

Consoles may have started to turn into home computers in the Commodore/Atari/Amstrad/Sinclair style but they've got a fair way to go yet before they actually become proper hybrids like the machines of the late 80s/early 90s.

Games are the hardest programs for any computer to run.  Once you have something that will run games, the rest will be easy to come up with.  This just depends on how much Sony wants to keep their promise and make a full-fledged computer out of the PS3.

[SamuraiCrow]

Marco wrote:

SamuraiCrow wrote:
You've just answered your own question.  For an explanation of why I think AROS should be limited to a hosted environment and quit trying to be AmigaOS 4, view this thread.

Right, so then Linux, Haiku, *BSD, etc. should all be ignored because they're made by people in their spare time and we should all use Windoze or MacOS then yes? AROS is not trying to be OS4, it's trying to do something much more important than that - be compatible with the only hardware that actually has a future.

Hosted AROS has a future because it can run on Linux using Linux's device drivers.  Hollywood scripts could be made to run on Linux using AROS.

Unhosted AROS has no more future than AmigaOS 4 since it has fewer applications and APIs than AmigaOS.  It doesn't have 3D support at all.

I don't know about you but when I sit down at my desk to us my favourite OS I'd like for there to be a computer in front of me to actually run an OS on first, before I worry about programs that run on it. Can I run AROS - yes, it'll run just fine on myx86 PC, it may not do much yet, beyond run old 68k programs through UAE but I can at least run a proper  Amiga-like OS on my computer. Can I run OS4? No because no one is selling hardware that runs it. Will I ever be able to run OS4? No because I'm not prepared to pay the sort of money KMOS/AmigaInc and Eyetech want to charge for hardware that is absolute garbage by today's standards. If I want to pay money for outdated hardware I'll buy a real Amiga, or a C65 if I really want to pay through the nose.

The fact that you can run AROS on a cheap PC is irrelevent if you can't run any applications on it that are unique to it.  EUAE doesn't count because you can run that on Linux without AROS.  What would help is if somebody wrote a version of EUAE that would have "Kickstart replacement" that would actually work independantly of Amiga, Inc.'s intellectual property.

So far everything that runs on AROS runs on AmigaOS 4 or has a reasonable equivalent.  I have AOS 4 prerelease 2 running on my MicroA1-c.  And I'll admit the hardware is junk but the prerelease was just for developers anyway so you shouldn't have to worry about that.  We'll see if we can come up with some affordable hardware soon, however.

We could be arguing till sundown but it seems you've made up your mind.  I'll see you on AROS-Exec sometime Marco.  Maybe I'll be able to run Hollywood Designer on my PC with AROS someday.