Future of Amiga

[bloodline]

Karlos wrote:

Golem!dk wrote:

IMO the only way for Amiga to once again become a mainstream OS is to port OS4.x to x86 and create classic card with a 68xxx based processor that could run all classic software.

How would that make it a mainstream OS?

Also, why would you need a card for backwards compatibility? It isn't as if modern x86/x64 hardware isn't more than capable of software emulating everything in a classic Amiga flawlessly.

Not to mention, the horrific sync problems of using a real board... best just do all the emulation in software. :-)

[Karlos]

@Matt

So, what's the status of "transparent" 680x0 emulation in AROS these days then?

There's supposedly a HPUX server at work somewhere which allegedly runs legacy big endian binaries under some form of emulation under the newer x86 based OS. I'm not sure of the details though.

[bloodline]

Karlos wrote:
@Matt

So, what's the status of "transparent" 680x0 emulation in AROS these days then?

Exciting:

http://o1i.blogspot.com/

:-D


<- -Edit-  Stoopid blogspot ;-)

[DiskDoctor]

don27dog wrote:
IMO the only way for Amiga to once again become a mainstream OS is to port OS4.x to x86 and create classic  card with a 68xxx based processor that could run all classic software.

I think AROS would be fine and enough as long as those people start making efforts for support of decent notebooks which are most people's PCs nowadays.

[Manu]

Aros runs fine on a couple of notebooks (tested myself), the problem is every notebook has different network card and sound card, and we have very few drivers ATM.AROS is also lacking support for wireless LAN on notebooks.

Put your money in AROS bounties and we are getting closer each day. ;-)  

[orb85750]

don27dog wrote:
IMO the only way for Amiga to once again become a mainstream OS is to port OS4.x to x86 and create classic  card with a 68xxx based processor that could run all classic software.

I don't think PC users are looking for another operating system these days, so it's not at all clear to me how porting OS4 over to that equipment is going to make it mainstream, especially if OS4 is not available for free (given the availability of Linux).

[DiskDoctor]

orb85750 wrote:

don27dog wrote:
IMO the only way for Amiga to once again become a mainstream OS is to port OS4.x to x86 and create classic  card with a 68xxx based processor that could run all classic software.

I don't think PC users are looking for another operating system these days, so it's not at all clear to me how porting OS4 over to that equipment is going to make it mainstream, especially if OS4 is not available for free (given the availability of Linux).

I think what you said in just a few words is a critically important opinion, ought to be killing this very x86 crusade.

Peace!

[quarkx]

I don't care anymore whether or not Amiga will become "main Stream" again. I am having fun with my Amigas right now! If it were to become mainstream, no mater who was involved, some big major corporation will try to suck any and all fun out of it, all in the pursuit of the All mighty Dollar. We will never have the Amiga "back" so why dwell on it. Just have fun and enjoy it NOW! in 5 or 10 years when the last piece of equipment dies, Then you can mourn over it.

Even when so called "Amiga enthusiasts own the Amiga name, they screw it up in favor of making a buck or 2 on modern platforms. No owner will ever cater to the classic users.

Face it, the only future is what people like "Jens" are doing. Any hope for a new "AMIGA" OS is a joke, because it will never run on an Classic Amiga. They won't even be developed on an Classic Amiga. It will be Amiga in name only.

[obscurepanic]

AmigaOS and its hardwares have already contributed so much in the whole computer industry and consumers. I admit that I did not grow during "the Amiga era" but there are streams of young people who are interested in Amiga because we see a very bleak impression on [cough, cough] M*cr*s*ft and willing to look into alternatives.

Anyway, I think Amiga will still survive in some forms or another. Perhaps the open source software and hardware movement will maintain Classical Amiga's legacy. Maybe some other company will make an operating system that has very much similarity with Classic Amiga with updated standards. I don't know but as long as we respect Amiga we will preserve Amiga.

[whoosh777]

AROS has never been, nor will it ever be, my new AMIGA OS. I don't like AROS, and certainly not any of the developers working on it (especially Matt Parsons)

well, although I have nothing at all to do with AROS

at least you can contact their developers and they will reply to your emails AND you can have a go yourself. I emailed Fabio once about AROS RAM: and he replied promptly, and I emailed Georg Steger about AROS par: around 2004. In response he wrote a utility which created some of the functionality of par:


Now I emailed the Friedens a number of times and NEVER received a reply.

When Commodore Amiga went bankrupt I tried to contact them about some idea and it was impossible to reach the decision makers.

They had a guy who told the developer audience at an Amiga show that if anyone had any ideas please contact him. I contacted him at the end of the meeting and he had no interest at all in hearing what I had to say despite saying he wanted to hear ideas!

and they had a whole group of apparatchiks running the company who had no interest in the company.



also I have Matt Parsons to thank for directing me to x86 and away from PPC.

Matt made it quite clear that x86 was the only option to consider.

I think you are a bit harsh about Matt, I am not aware of any bad behaviour by him.


I have never had any problems with the AROS developers but there are some characters on their developer mailing list who are troublemakers. Arguing and flaming incessantly and contributing nothing at all.

unfortunately ALL the Amiga projects including amiga.org attract some bad people who spend their entire time harrassing anyone trying to move the system forwards.


My own OS project has been greatly influenced by AROS. Their project is very pragmatic. And they have extended the Amiga paradigm to new hardware.

AROS is the only project definition which has a long term future for AmigaOS,

there is nothing to stop you starting your own branch of AROS.

Also AROS is hardware agnostic, the main work is x86 but there is also PPC AROS.

In fact I think people were looking at creating 68k AROS as a way to develop an opensource pseudo ROM for UAE.

its quite a major achievement to create a fully portable reimplementation of AmigaOS.

I think the ONLY future for AmigaOS is an open source unofficial reimplementation,
and that is what AROS is.

the official closed source path is doomed because its an inescapable legal web.

someone is sitting on the rights and will prevent any attempt at x86 AmigaOS.

but they are powerless to stop AROS, which means its a way through for the platform.

With Unix, the future of Unix is Linux. Linux is an open source reimplementation of Unix.

I was looking at installing todays version of the original version of Unix, until I found that they used Linux drivers for their graphics!

At that point I realised that Linux IS the future of Unix

[orb85750]

IMO the only way for Amiga to once again become a mainstream OS is to port OS4.x to x86 and create classic  card with a 68xxx based processor that could run all classic software.

Do you really mean Mainstream (i.e. millions)? or do you mean used by more than a few thousand, but still less than, say, tens of thousands or perhaps 100,000 at the upper limit?