Whenever I mention "closed source commercial software" in this forum, I get an uproar as if this would be something morally wrong, undesired.
I have no moral issues, I just find it extremely cumbersome and impractical, as has been proven over and over again, and is the reason why we even have this long tedious discussion. The one screaming about moral all the time is ... you.
Unfortunately, "closed source commerical software" is the only option for AmigaOs, due to the contracts of Hyperion with Amiga, Inc, and Hyperion is the only option as far as advancing the classic Os is.
Exactly, extremely cumbersome and impractical. The OS has been pretty much dead exactly because "the owner" wanted it dead, they have even paid large sums of money to keep it dead. However, nature has a tendency to find its ways, the sources are leaked and people all over are making use of those sources.
Yes, Cloanto has a license for 3.1, but no license to extend upon it - at least none that withstood an investigation under a court. Hyperion did that. Does that mean that I trust them? No. Does that mean that they are the ideal business partner? No. Yet, only option, bad luck.
So what is OS3.X that Cloanto is selling, if not an extension on OS3.1?
So, what can we do?
We can do what people have always been doing, whatever the heck we want, with whatever the heck we can get our hands on. Abstract concepts like copyrights, patents and intellectual property were put in place for the benefit of the society. When these concepts are used against the benefit of the society, to keep knowledge and information hostage for no good reason, most people feel that there are no moral reason to adhere to them. I know this is not how you see it, or how you like it to be, but it is still true for a vast majority of people, not just in Amiga community, but in general.
I believe the community made a decision, or at least Gunnar made a decision for the community.
He made a decision for himself, not for the community as large. It's not as if every Amiga user around will get an apollo core, many are not at all interested, and the hardware doesn't exist for most users. I have two A600 systems that do not have Vampire2. Many are happy with Vampire1, and TG68 will improve too.
The signal is quite clear "Avoid AmigaOs classic, go AROS, ditch Hyperion.". Why? Because the unwillingness to pay for the closed source licenses that go with the closed source development model. And, that in the end, pay development hours. Unfortunately, that's what the legal situation is with AmigaOs classic, and there are no means to fix it.
They were not unwilling to pay for closed source license, or they would not have bothered asking for a license. It was the offer from Hyperion that was unreasonable, it would be a major economical gamble to accept Hyperion's offer. The apollo team is not a company, these are people doing things in their spare time, what you call "unwillingness" is merely "being sensible" - good on them! However, it makes the apollo core even less attractive, but hey... that is exactly what the owner of OS3.x want.
Then, so might it be. Everybody should know what the decision is, and everybody should be aware of the consequences, good or bad. For me it means that the history of AmigaOs stops right at this point.
So long and thanks for all the fish. Now take a vacation
