AmigaOS3.999 or OS4 for 68k?

[neongod]

As everybody knows, AmigaOS4.0 development goes on 68k processor. The full OS is written in C, so its now compiled to PPC, to run on CSPPC.

My question is, why not release OS4 to 68K, if it already works on 68k???
It could be 3.999...

Why discrime the Classic Amiga users from the new features of the AmigaOS4?
Many people, like me use his old Miggy, because they love it

So, is it bad for Amiga to have some more customers for OS4?

Can somebody answer this question?

regards
 

[4pLaY]

If i remember right someone asked that question before and the awnser was something like "its time to move on" and i have to say i agree its time to leave the old behind and no 68k version might get a few more to update even if they lose a few sales on it! its a move in the right direction IMO.

[Madgun68]

Hard to let the little beasties go, isn't it? As much as I still love my classic machines, they're just too old and slow to make it to the new future for the Amiga.

[KennyR]

OS4 on 68k would probably craaaaaawl....

[alx]

To begin with, remember that the new kernel certainly won't be able to be ported to 68k - it definitely wouldn't be OS4.  And Amigans would certainly be laughed at if the new OS (or even part of it) would run on ancient 68k processors.

The world has not stood still - but the Amiga has.  IMO we simply cannot expect a new OS to run on early 90's hardware.  "Classic" Amigas are falling to bits, and we need a clean break from the past.  Of course, you can still upgrade them to PPC to run it - what other new OS would you upgrade from 60 to 200Mhz to use it :-)  Perhaps the naming of OS3.9 was deliberate - aside from a recurring decimal, nothing else could have indicated better that it was the last ever 3.x OS.

Besides, there are other issues - I doubt that Hyperion would have the resources to co-ordinate and support OS3.9999 or whatever.

[pVC]

Yeah, I'd love to see OS4 for 68k. If it wouldn't be difficult to release it for 68k too, why wouldn't they do it? There are many people who won't go to new Amigas anyway and many who still want to use classic Amiga even if they have new Amiga too. So what would be better for them than having updated OS in it. I guess it would run fine on 060 with gfx-card for example. I guess it wouldn't be loss to anyone. Those who buy the A1 will probably buy it because of the power and new hardware, not mainly because of the new OS...

[neongod]

OS4 runs on 68k at the moment. its developed on it. So it wont be much slower than OS3.9. On a 66mhz 060 it would be useable.

If I want to upgrade to A1, I will. Its not depends on 68k version of the OS I think.
I just dont want to leave my old miggy away...

[jeffimix]

The full OS is Not written in C, there are something like 30,000 lines of Asm code being re-written IIRC.

[neongod]

It runs on 68k belive me

I have OS4 betatester friend, who testing the OS on his Classic Amiga with 060 + Gfx card. And making locales for the OS.

So it RUNS on 68k. And now compiled to PPC to be presented at OS4 tour.
But It still NOT run on AmigaONE, because the very different hardware. They need time to make it use the A1 hardware.

So AmigaOS4 runs on 68k and CSPPC at the moment.

Why not release then the 68k version too? not only the csppc version...

[alx]

It runs on 68k belive me

I have OS4 betatester friend, who testing the OS on his Classic Amiga with 060 + Gfx card. And making locales for the OS.

Oh no it doesn't ;-)

OS4 is made up of lots of modules.  Some of them are unchanged, such as the Workbench.  Others are very different or new, such as AmigaInput.  The lowest level part of any OS is the kernel (eg the Linux kernel).  The new kernel for OS4 is called ExecSG, and as jeffimix said, this will only run on PPC.  AFAIK what the (lucky) betatesters have is various modules compiled for 68k - the kernel itself will never be 68k, and as a consequence OS4 will never be 68k.  The modules certainly could be kept as 68k, but I really don't think they will be.

[magnetic]

I doubt if Hyperion will release oS4 modules for 68k (notice I say modules - like said earlier the core is PPC so you will never run OS4 native on 68k) You must also remember that Hyperion has a liscense with Eyetech with all A1 boards sold - so it is in their interest to have "Classic" 68k people move to PPC. The Cyberstorm version is a standalone commercial release. These people have to be paid for all the great work they have done!
 But its only IMHO - Hyperion should post an official response.
magnetic

[magnetic]

I doubt if Hyperion will release oS4 modules for 68k (notice I say modules - like said earlier the core is PPC so you will never run OS4 native on 68k) You must also remember that Hyperion has a liscense with Eyetech with all A1 boards sold - so it is in their interest to have "Classic" 68k people move to PPC. The Cyberstorm version is a standalone commercial release. These people have to be paid for all the great work they have done!
 But its only IMHO - Hyperion should post an official response.
magnetic

[PulsatingQuasar]

The things that the beta testers are testing are indeed normal programs. Because most of the API is still the same between 3.9 and 4,  testing of the locales and the stability of the programs can be done on 68K.
A recompile will then make them PPC native.

It is indeed time to move on. See my signature; allready did.

I will keep my old Amiga though with it's 3.9 install. With any luck, I might even run OS 4 next to it on the PPC. But that all depends on how many people indicate to Hyperion they want to buy it for the BlizzardPPC.

[HyperionMP]

This questions keeps coming up and I have answered it many times before.

Here we go:

1. Hyperion does not have a license to produce a 68K version of Amiga OS 4.

2. One of the core components of OS 4 is ExecSG which has some PPC ASM in its hardware abstraction layer. Could it be converted to 68K? Sure. Would it be worth the effort? I don't think so.

3. OS 4 is simply too slow on 68K systems (especially the new Intuition and the new Antia-Aliased Fonts) with the exception possibly of top of the line 68060/66 Mhz machines. How many are there of those?

4. It would be a big waste of time and money to maintain two different branches of the same operating system.

Let's face it, the 68K architecture is dead.

It has served us well over all these many, many years but it is time to move on.

[redfox]

--- edit ------

I agree with Ben.

It would be too much bother to support all versions of "classic" Amiga.

My own "classic" Amiga 2000HD does not even have an accelerator card.  It still relies on the original 68000 CPU.

--- edit -------

On the other hand, it would be nice to try out Amiga OS 4.0 before I fork out the money for an AmigaOne.

--------------
redfox