The reason MorphOS has so many supporters is because they have shown a new OS running on new hardware which can run their old 3.x software very quickly.
What have we seen from the Amiga partnership? We have seen a demonstration of AmigaOS 3.x with some 4.x elements running on a A4000. It was very buggy and depressing. We have seen the AmigaOne displayed and sometimes running LinuxPPC. I don't know about you folks but I have zero interest in Linux.
What can we expect from Amiga Inc? I expect the AmigaOne with a G3 processor soldered on the board to be sold December this year. It won't run AmigaOS4 for a very, very long time. I expect that some form of AmigaOS 4 will be released for 68k machines late next year. I expect some form of PowerPC capability later than that which will run WarpOS, ppclibrary, etc. titles if you have an accelerator.
What is the absolute earliest we can expect AmigaOS 4 running on new hardware? I wouldn't expect it to arrive before 2004. I would be AMAZED if the 3.x libraries are PowerPC native by then. By then MorphOS ought to have superior compatibility with 3.x titles. In all honesty I don't see why anybody would be prepared to wait that long when we have a fully native OS which can run 3.x software well before then.
Consider this excerpt from the "Finnish Amiga User Group 2002 meeting held in Oulu, Finland on September 28th, 2002" report. From the ReadMe.txt:
vuosi2002_11.jpg: AmigaOneG3-SE motherboard, sadly missing a working BIOS.
Deliveries should start by Christmas.
vuosi2002_12.jpg: AmigaOne-XE prototype, which refused to boot. The user
group will demonstrate a working AmigaOne at a later date.
vuosi2002_13.jpg: Pegasos setup all ready to rock. Notice the gracefully
placed microphone used for Shoutcast streaming.
Please note that "Deliveries should start by Christmas" means the AmigaOne with the G3 soldered on which doesn't have an OS other than LinuxPPC. If, come Christmas, you want to run Linux why would you buy this board? Some people will suggest that buying this board will help support the development of AmigaOS 4. These people will be fools or liars.
The Amiga partnership has been a total and utter embarassment. They have been given the relatively easy task of rewriting AmigaOS into an AmigaOS-compatible OS. BPlan on the other hand wrote a completely new Amiga 3.x software compatible PowerPC-native OS from scratch on new hardware and it actually works.
Amiga Inc, H&P, put up or shut the hell up. If you expect me to believe that the AmigaOne will EVER run anything other than Linux you better demonstrate something better than your already befouled goodwill. Demonstrate AmigaOS 4 even if it's only running on a A4000. Demonstrate it running PowerPC native software. Demonstrate some useful new functionality like memory protection. Please stop showcasing hardware which isn't running AmigaOS. It's sad, it's humiliating, it's old. Stop showing us a friggin list of new features unless they have actually been implemented. In other words stop showing us your TODO list! I mean cripes I could show people MY TODO list and I would look like a young man who traveled the world, won sports championships, and spread peace and prosperity for all mankind!
Amiga users are tired of living in a fooking dream world. Where's the BEEF?!
