This is incredible. I'll quote the executive update
again.
[color=6600CC]"the AmigaOS
only being available to licensed solution providers for the
shipping of combined hardware and software solutions"
"AmigaOS4 and all future versions will
ship only on those hardware products to which Amiga Inc has specifically granted a license"
"The
only exclusion to this policy is a temporary measure to support the community members who have invested heavily in existing PPC accelerators" -[/color]
and, as pointed out recently by Alan Redhouse, those who pre-ordered an A1G3-SE from Eyetech without AmigaOS and AmigaOS-perverted OpenFirmware BIOS ROM chips.
[color=6600CC]"we will require, as part of the licence conditions, that
a copy of Amiga OS is purchased with all boards sold that are capable of running it"[/color]
I can't help but wonder how some people possibly even can begin to form the notion that we will be able to purchase Amiga OS
separately to install it on hardware of
our choice (NOT only on CS/BlizzardPPCs and pre-ordered A1G3-SEs) after reading this Executive Update and Alan Redhouse's clarifications. Are you all living in a parallel universe where common sense still applies in the Amiga market?
If we
will be able to buy AmigaOS (and ROMs) separately that can only mean that:
1. Bill McEwen lied in this Exec. Update
2. Amiga Inc. needs to hire someone who knows English well enough to convey what they
actually mean with their public statements, press releases and Exec. updates.
3. They changed their minds, which I hope so intensely that it hurts. Imagine that, common sense, reality as perceived by The Rest Of The World and normal business rules applied to the Amiga market!
Allen wrote:
You do have a point. But maybe Amiga should walk before it can run...by that I mean we all (almost) agree that the hardware of the AmigaG3 is dated...
Exactly. That is just
one of the reasons why we should be able to buy the OS separately and install it on hardware of our choice.
What company would want to be seen to make dated hardware?
So far, just the single licensee there is. Though they don't make or design it, just distribute it.
We know that the hardware must have a ROM chip licensed from Amiga Inc.
What company would want to make proprietry hardware?
We know the market for this item is tiny...
What company would want a piece of this small market?
Who really cares about/is interested in/is investing in the Amiga OS 4.0/G3 anyhow..? Anyone from outside the community..?
Precisely. There's no incentive for distributors to become Amiga licensees, and becoming an Amiga licensee is the only way they'll be able to offer their products to the Amiga market as well as their other markets. We, the Amiga OS users lose. The hardware market that's interesting for us loses competition.
Everyone, please stop talking about the A1G3-SE all the time. Aren't we interested in the future and other, competing hardware? As I said before, there is no "Amiga" anymore, and there shouldn't be one. There should be Amiga OS, and hardware which we pick to run that OS of ours.
Rodney wrote:
You'll still have a great choice of hardware in the comming months/years and at present.
Ah, yes, look at all those licensees from all over the PPC hardware world breaking down Amiga Inc's doors. Eyetech and... Eyetech. Oh yes, two distributors of some PCI expansion cards and Merlancia with their fabulous... vapourware... are on the list of possible licensees under negotiations.
I really wouldn't care if there were 10 or 20 more licensees on that list, even though that's an utopia. What matters is that licensing should be a way to provide the licensor, the licensee and customers choosing licensed hardware with what the licensees and customers would perceive as advantages suitable for them - not to lock out any other customers and the non-licensed market.
My point exactly, there will be so much hardware we wont know what to do with it!
Unless the manufacturers/distributors get a license, all I know we'll be doing with that hardware is not running Amiga OS on it.
That is, a lot of copmanies/persons in the hardware industry that are sticking behind the platform, such as Eyetech/Merlancia/Elbox/KDH, just to name a few...
I want to buy my hardware from the ones who sell me the best hardware at the lowest price. If they don't give me that I don't care if they're an "Amiga" company or if they're licensed. They won't get my business. That's at least what things should be like, if Amiga would let the consumer choose.
And why on earth would a "non-Amigan" interested in buying Amiga OS and PPC hardware care if the company they buy the hardware from has sold A1200s in the past?
And bplan, if they ever decide that AmigaOS running on their machiens is a good thing 
... All looks good.
In that case they or another distributor would have to apply for a license and be deemed a suitable licensor by Amiga Inc, and rebuild the Pegasos mobos to accept socketed ROMs, then sell two different product lines - one with Amiga OS and modified ROMs for Amiga OS users, one without OS and ROMs for everybody else, and this would raise the price of the Pegasos. This is valid for
any current or possible future hardware.
We know that OS4 will run on the Pegasos, according to Hyperion and Thomas Frieden, they only need a developer's board, but even when it runs on the Pegasos we despicable consumers won't be able to buy one to run with OS4 unless bplan or a distributor decides to be licensed, and then we'd only be able to buy from that distributor. How can some people say that this is good?
These conditions are totaly different to the conditions of use of the classic Amiga hardware.. That is, Anyone can make an Amiga now, it justhas to be certified and their company has to be approved once, they have gone through an Amiga Inc Auditing so that Amiga Inc may assure quality!
The new conditions is another reason to why
compulsory licensing combined with
compulsory bundling of the OS is Evil and Harmful. Licensing in it self is not bad, it's even Good, but there should be choice, damnit!
Anonymous wrote:
You all get upset about having to buy a new motherboard for each OS.
Where did you get THAT idea from? There can be plenty of solutions to get AOS copy protection to work.
The idea came from the Executive Update and the clarifications from Alan Redhouse.
In a normal OS market there can be plenty of solutions for copy protection, but now you'll have to buy a licensed motherboard/computer to get the OS and ROMs.
(another?) Anonymous wrote:
Quote:
- To put this in hard-coded, socketed ROM at a specific address in the PPC memory map, rather than in Flash ROM, which could easily be pirated/updated
Sounds to me like a socketed rom.
Yes, but to get that ROM you have to buy a licensed motherboard, in this case an A1G3-SE! Sheesh!
SlimJim wrote:
Or in the words of Alan Redhouse (another post on the
AmigaONE ML):
"You can buy OS4 without an AmigaOne board but it will only work on hardware
that has a dongled ROM or an original 3.1 kickstart chip (in the case of
CyberstormPPC accelerators)"
Ties this subject up quite nicely, I'd say.
It opens up a new can of worms. Firstly, this was mentioned in a post where he was talking about the possibility of a "LinuxOne" sold by Eyetech (i.e. the same board as A1G3-SE but delivered without OS4 and dongled ROMs). In that case nothing has changed - you can get OS4 + dongled ROMs separately only if you bought a pre-ordered A1G3-SE or "LinuxOne" from Eyetech.
He said nothing about the end-customer being able to purchase the OS and dongled ROMs separately from hardware, to install on hardware of the end-customer's choice, but if that's what he means - then Amiga Inc. have changed their minds from what
clearly without room for different interpretations is presented in the Executive update, and all would be well!
P.S: Argo (and others), please quote or make clear whom you're replying to. There's no way of telling that, and your posts look like blurted out random thoughts from a "stream of (sub)consciousness".
