Amiga has the X factor?

[SamuraiCrow]

The reason I bought my A1200 back in 1993 was that it was a game console that supported multimedia computer activities as well.  It cost me $600 new when PCs were over a thousand, ran MS-DOS, came with standard VGA graphics maximum and sound cards were optional equipment.

Nowadays there really isn't much of an equivalent anywhere in the market.  Arguably a Playstation 3 with the optional Linux OS installed comes close except that there's no slot in the belly for add-ons such as RAM expansion and video capture equipment.  When Commdore went under they left a void in the market that has yet to be filled.

[SamuraiCrow]

The PlayStation 3 would fit the bill if it allowed homebrew free software to access all of the hardware without having to defeat the hypervisor first and if there was an expansion socket for added expadability.

The Wii would have it if it had a real operating system capable of running productivity applications.  It's anti-homebrew countermeasure is cracked so that's a moot point now.  It's also a little lacking in expandability.

The XBox 360 would have it if it weren't running a worthless Microsoft operating system, didn't require a PC connected to it to do homebrew games, and supported industry standard OpenGL APIs instead of DirectX.  The fact that it can't use the HD-DVD capacity for games is a real drag too.

Right now I'm leaning toward the LimePC since it comes with an integrated GPU on the same die as the processor for good integration.  If that GPU is well documented so anybody can develop their own operating system for it without having to shell out tens of thousands of dollars just to get a graphics driver for that operating system.  What I need is openness and tight integration.

[SamuraiCrow]

Hammer wrote:

It would be hard to beat AMD and INTEL because if you read their history (try Wikipedia), they have a lot of government backing.

Clone PC distribution model was considered to be superior compared non-Clone PC distribution model.

The X86 PC world is unified under a single standard against the fragmented 68K PC world.

It's a good thing we voted those bums out of office.  It's a pity we couldn't get them out a little sooner.