Relative merits of AmigaOne compared to Pegasos?

[MikeB]

@ mingle

I'b be interested in getting a new PPC system (as opposed to a PPC card for my old machine) and have noticed that there are currently two real choices: An AmigaOne/Lite or a Pegasos II.

Hhm, considering most people seem to be talking about the AmigaOne-XE instead of answering your question I should give it a try.

First you need to ask yourself do you want AmigaOS4, MorphOS or do you just want to use Linux.

If you have decided and you chose AmigaOS4 then the AmigaOne-Lite will be the right option for you. If you decide to run MorphOS wait for the Pegasos2. And if you want to run Linux wait for both the Pegasos2 and AmigaOne-Lite to be demonstrated in combination with Linux. The AmigaOne-Lite should already be demonstrated running Linux this Saturday in Austria.

My advise is to test before you buy or at least wait for a reliable review and maybe comparison tests if both platforms become available simultaneously. Note that in the past endless claims have been made about one platform performing much better than the other, but in the end real life tests showed this wasn't actually true.

The MicroA1 (AmigaOne Lite) pricing has not yet to be announced but should be significantly cheaper than the AmigaOne-XE.  IMO the AmigaOne-XE is an excellent platform for developers and power users with better expansion options than the other mentioned solutions.

[MikeB]

@ downix

There are development costs involved when producing new hardware. Commercial companies need to earn back these costs and usually try to make a profit as well.

As the AmigaOne-XE was only expected to sell a few thousand this drives the price up. Basicly the more you sell, the more development costs can be spread amongst more of your customers.

The AmigaOne-Lite is expected to sell in larger quantities. Why don't we see games like Doom3 developed exclusively for the Amiga today? The potential sales are no way near enough to cover the costs, etc.

[MikeB]

Oh, I forgot to mention one more factor and that's the form factor.

If you want to use a regular ATX case the following is pretty much irrelevant and you could just as well go for a full sized ATX board.

But the Pegasos2 has a MircoATX form factor and can be housed in a Micro-ATX case.

The AmigaOne-Lite is much smaller, but will have less expansion abilities. But the board's mini-itx form factor is also backward-compatible with both Flex-ATX and Micro-ATX.

Some example Mini-ITX cases you could build yourself:

An Atari 800 case:



A Commodore 64 case:



 8-)

[MikeB]

@ Seehund

If you examine his question again, you'll see that he's asking about "real" choices

So, have you seen the Pegasos2 run anything yet? Like for instance Debian or MorphOS. How exactly is this board at this stage a more real solution than the AmigaOne-Lite which will be demonstrated tomorrow running Linux and hopefully a beta or alpha of AmigaOS4?

Read his question again. He has apparently already decided on this ("hardware platform that can run an 'Amiga-like' OS, along with Linux and maybe even OS X").

There are significant differences between AmigaOS4 and MorphOS. Thus I think this person should check out the feature lists, screenshots and other information for both platforms and maybe even give both operating systems a testdrive at upcoming shows/fairs.

Running classic AmigaOS inside Linux is always a possibility as is currenty provided with the AmigaOne earlybirds. We will have to wait and see how well Linux will run on the Pegasos2.

Wow 400 postings, I did it!  ;-) See ya.