Open source for amiga?

[iamaboringperson]

voytech wrote:
Lets write a petition!
(think that there is one already, but am not sure) :-)

/hide mode ON

Look in SeeHund's sig.

[iamaboringperson]

And what's wrong with AROS ? :-)

[GreggBz]

Mr. Serious is here.. Is this a topic already seen? If not then why NOT?
Honesly, why not make OS4 open source?
Do that, spread the word GIVE IT TO US NOW,  and it would brethe more life into the Amiga world then any attemps to commercialize it.  Releasing OS4 as open source would generate more downloads and more publicity.. and perhaps an army of developers drooling to sink their teeth  into something exotic(yes, I said exotic!) and fresh!  How much money are the developers making now anyway?
I'm just seeing a flawed business model here..
Perhaps Amiga just need to stop trying to be a business,.

[amiga2000power]

FlagshipAmigaLover wrote:
To iamaboringperson:

Well, it would depend on the software, wouldn't it?

Why are you such a smartallic?  Try to actually HELP people here on Amiga.org.  I have only been here for a few days and I am already getting tired of your stupid remarks!  If you are not going to actually help folks here then SHUT THE F**K UP !!!!     :-x

That wasn't very nice! Iamaboringperson hasn't said anything that should upset you! You should not be so rude to people!  :-x

[voytech]

schizophrenia or what??

[Brutus]

Mr. Serious is here.. Is this a topic already seen? If not then why NOT?  Honesly, why not make OS4 open source?  Do that, spread the word GIVE IT TO US NOW, and it would brethe more life into the Amiga world then any attemps to commercialize it. Releasing OS4 as open source would generate more downloads and more publicity.. and perhaps an army of developers drooling to sink their teeth into something exotic(yes, I said exotic!) and fresh! How much money are the developers making now anyway?   I'm just seeing a flawed business model here..   Perhaps Amiga just need to stop trying to be a business,.

I could not agree more on that point...

[HotRod]

Yes lets set it free! And maybe it will be dead for good like BeOS (and don't say "it's still alive"). That would mean that MorphOS would still be commercial. Hmm... you don't happen to be into MOS? ;-)

[Fats]

KennyR wrote:
No, but seriously - AmigaOS4 is commercial, unlike Linux.

Sorry to be picky but commercial is not the opposite of open source. The opposite of open source is proprietary. The opposite of commercial is non-commercial, hobby.
You can have commercialy supported open source or non-commercial proprietary software (freeware).

Staf.

[raddydaddy]

"And maybe it will be dead for good like BeOS (and don't say "it's still alive")".

Well, from a commercial perspective BeOS is very much alive. BeOS is open source and can be coded for, modified and released without any drawbacks. Just because it is open source does not mean it cannot be commercial - check out yellowTab for an idea of the kind of freedom that the BeOS model offers.

Now "dead for good like BeOS" is an extremely naive POV. BeOS has more active developers and users than Amiga does - the development of the OS has kept it more up to date than AmigaOS [asking for flames now!] even though there is no official development team.

IMHO for Amiga to ever get back into the limelight, it has to offer things that other OSs do not, and at a competitive price! Do you honestly think that people will pay for amigaOS when they can get for free a more developed and more advanced OS? Honestly?

Open Source amigaOS would allow the active [and admittedly devoted] world network of developers to improve and add features to the OS as they are required and needed, fixing bugs along the way. A world team of a 100 interested developers are more capable than a small crack team of paid enthusiasts (hyperion).

If you dont believe me, cast your minds back 8 odd years when gif was to be 'taxed' and so the world created PNG. The amiga SDK and its datatype system allowed the community to create native support for this format before any of the other platforms! Imagine if the whole OS was open source, evolving and adapting to cope with the ever changing world of computing.

ps. my chips are on Aros - give them the sourcecode! :-P

[dammy]

by Brutus on 2003/12/27 20:16:44

I wondered, is amiga software open source, like Linux? Fx OS 4

No, but AROS is. =)

Dammy

[KennyR]

Mr. Serious is here.. Is this a topic already seen? If not then why NOT?
Honesly, why not make OS4 open source?

Oh dear, not the old "open sourcing will save everything" argument.

Why not make OS4 open source? Well, here are some reasons:

* Users don't want fifty different OS4 distros all with a heap of bugs each;

* Users don't want to be left on their own to deal with incredibly poor human interfaces left by the coders, such as in Linux.

* Amiga hasn't got many developers left at all. What makes you think people demanding they put all their work in for free will make them more motivated?

* Users don't want the old open-source reply to bugs, "Well, you have the source - why not fix it yourself?"

* Users don't want OS4 become bloated as people add in lots of useless features they want but nobody else needs, rather than a concerted plan of advancement.

And finally:

* Open sourcing never saved anything. Linux survives because of its geek factor, not because it's open source.

[mikeymike]

Largely in agreement with KennyR's last post, but I would add to it that the open source movement has revitalised the software industry which was very much in stagnation.

A variety of opensource and commercial software is what's needed.  The advantage of OS4 being commercially-based is that its development will be much quicker than if it were opensource, unless all opensource developers everywhere for some random reason decided that OS4 was the "next big thing".

I think an opensource community developing anything for new Amiga platforms (A1/Peg) is a good thing.  Even Linux.  It gives the platform greater visibility to the techie community.

[dammy]

by mikeymike on 2003/12/28 10:36:45

unless all opensource developers everywhere for some random reason decided that OS4 was the "next big thing".

Which of course would lead to OS4 being ported to, gasp, x86.

Dammy
AROS, no schedule and rock'n.

[lempkee]

this must be the biggest non moderated thread ever on amiga.org , and seriously its about time it get moderated..

in this thread we have personal attacks , flames and lame speeches..


moderate at will..

pps:of this thread doesnt get moderated asap then i will for sure make some noise next time if i see a thread gets moderated ..

[KennyR]

Which of course would lead to OS4 being ported to, gasp, x86.

And gasp, that would result in tens of thousands of sales, developers, and an explosion in software.

Or not.

[mikeymike]

this must be the biggest non moderated thread ever on amiga.org , and seriously its about time it get moderated..

I think Christmas still has some time to wear off me yet, I'm still feeling half-asleep :-)

Guys, play nice, or I'll have to start editing your posts. I'm in far too good a mood to do this.  Don't break my good mood, because then I'll be annoyed.  And when I get annoyed, Mr Bigglesworth gets upset, and then people DIE!

(even edit your own posts if you now feel you went a bit overboard)