Which way do you prefer or "Have it your way."

[royalcrown]

Just wondering what you folks think.

Do you think it'd be better to have a closed hardware platform as the majority, or are you on the side of the typical PC with a mish mash of parts ?

I'll go first by incessantly rambling on and on, thereby boring you all to no end.

I decided to get into Amiga after building my PC a few months ago. Typical PC with all the higher end crap, ended up costing a BUNCH. I always wanted to own such a ridiculous machine, but now that I own it, am totally bored with it.

There seems to be nothing really good to do (as a home user) on such a machine. Many games that would use it are just over hyped crap. Short of Arma 3, there seems to be NOTHING coming out that needs a massive machine. Thanks to CONSOLES, a lot of the stuff is also just crappy ports. Even what is coming out seems to be more just point and shoot crap.

I think that all this massive power is going to waste and crappy programming is tolerated. Going to a single unified hardware configuration has some advantages in this day and age:

1. BUG FIXES - We might all have bugs, but then everyone would get fixes sooner as 1 fix would work for everyone.

2. Programming could be made more efficient - More optimized compilers and dev tools.

3. Programmers could optimize apps like no ones business - If a C64 could pound an IBM 5150 into the ground @ 1mhz due to integration and optimization, what could we do with a Core I7 and GTX 680 or Radeon 7990 platform ?

Software  developers could spend more time being creative with less platforms to have to master, and as the machines got pushed to their limits, things would have to be done more efficiently (see above).

4. Machines would be worth something when you sold them.

5. No more "My 'puter is better than yours.."

IMO old machines were more "fun" to use even taking into account the fact that that it wasn't all done before.

If it were up to me, I'd take whatever is a really high end platform and freeze it for 5 years as the standard pc. I owned an IMac till recently and IMO there are benefits to standardized hardware (now ppl should be free to know the inner workings however). I also owned a C64 and so I can see how programming efficiently can work.

IMO Jack Tramiel would have preferred the current PC ecosystem of cheap parts from everywhere.

[Iggy]

I thought about this for awile, and I can honestly say I can't reach a conclusion.
Today there are no PCs that can not be customized.
The only thing that comes close to a fixed configuration is a console.

[royalcrown]

I thought about this for awile, and I can honestly say I can't reach a conclusion.
Today there are no PCs that can not be customized.
The only thing that comes close to a fixed configuration is a console.

I think we should go to one standard PC config is my point, not low end either, high end and squeeze the most out of it we can.

[Iggy]

I think we should go to one standard PC config is my point, not low end either, high end and squeeze the most out of it we can.

But even Amigas vary, type of processor, amounts of memory, different hard drives (and interfaces), expansion buses (Zorro II, III, ISA, PCI), video (OCS, ECS, AGA, RTG). etc.












9

[commodorejohn]

I think we should go to one standard PC config is my point, not low end either, high end and squeeze the most out of it we can.

Why? The present system allows everybody to buy as much or as little in the way of hardware horsepower as they need, instead of forcing low-end users to overspend and constraining high-end users to less than they could otherwise make use of. And who would set such a standard, and why should anybody listen to them? It's just idiotic.

What we could really use is for software developers to start coding efficiently again, so that low-end systems are more usable and high-end systems get the full benefit of their hardware might instead of wasting it on bloat.

[royalcrown]

Why? The present system allows everybody to buy as much or as little in the way of hardware horsepower as they need, instead of forcing low-end users to overspend and constraining high-end users to less than they could otherwise make use of. And who would set such a standard, and why should anybody listen to them? It's just idiotic.

What we could really use is for software developers to start coding efficiently again, so that low-end systems are more usable and high-end systems get the full benefit of their hardware might instead of wasting it on bloat.

IMO commodorejohn...and only my opinion here, if we standardized and dumped the lowest of the low, for instance, it would raise the minimum standards for software quality. Kinda like android when you buy the super cheap phone, it doesn't run the "good apps".

I actually think the price could drop some if there was only one platform manufactured. Instead of spending R&D and time on the NEXT thing, designs could be improved as well as manufacturing, thereby lowering the cost somewhat.

Yes, picking the standard would be difficult, and we should leave it to the engineers and not marketing...hehe.

[royalcrown]

But even Amigas vary, type of processor, amounts of memory, different hard drives (and interfaces), expansion buses (Zorro II, III, ISA, PCI), video (OCS, ECS, AGA, RTG). etc.

9

True, but the base model was pretty much the same so devs could code to a lowest common denominator. I mean an A1000 was an A1000 except PAL vs NTSC, same with the base A2000.

Might make it easier to make use of modern resources and raise the bar if we did not have millions of configurations.

[commodorejohn]

IMO commodorejohn...and only my opinion here, if we standardized and dumped the lowest of the low, for instance, it would raise the minimum standards for software quality. Kinda like android when you buy the super cheap phone, it doesn't run the "good apps".

And, let's see, how has that worked out for the aforementioned Android devices? Oh, right, everybody who buys the cheap phones gets shafted, everybody who knows about this ahead of time winds up paying more than they otherwise would purely so they won't get shafted, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the actual quality of software. Yeah, that sounds like an arrangement we need more of.

Yes, picking the standard would be difficult, and we should leave it to the engineers and not marketing...hehe.

Yeah, that's totally going to happen.

[Iggy]

Yeah, that's totally going to happen.

Actually, I doubt it would be legal for all the PC companies to cooperate and reduce market competition.
While not a fully open system, PCs still represent a competitive market.
This type of collusion would likely result in an oligopoly.

[royalcrown]

And, let's see, how has that worked out for the aforementioned Android devices? Oh, right, everybody who buys the cheap phones gets shafted, everybody who knows about this ahead of time winds up paying more than they otherwise would purely so they won't get shafted, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the actual quality of software. Yeah, that sounds like an arrangement we need more of.


Yeah, that's totally going to happen.

Um, you do know that the reason so much android software sucks is because devs have to cater to the lowest common denominator crap phones right ?!?!

[NovaCoder]

Here you go, fixed hardware, open source development friendly and cheap too.

A very 'Amiga like' business model in fact.

Ouya

[royalcrown]

Here you go, fixed hardware, open source development friendly and cheap too.

A very 'Amiga like' business model in fact.

Ouya

If only it wasn't ...ack...android...

(I just prefer software written for the hardware vs a virtual environment. I'm not a programmer and still know what a resource hog java and dalvik (the android HAL ?) are.

[royalcrown]

And, let's see, how has that worked out for the aforementioned Android devices? Oh, right, everybody who buys the cheap phones gets shafted, everybody who knows about this ahead of time winds up paying more than they otherwise would purely so they won't get shafted, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the actual quality of software. Yeah, that sounds like an arrangement we need more of.


Yeah, that's totally going to happen.

Okay, I volunteer to pick then, with you co-picking 50/50. I say we meet at the Duluth Grill and write the specs on the back of a napkin

[commodorejohn]

Who am I to nail down fixed specs for every PC user in the world? Who are you?

And anyway the wait time to get into the Duluth Grill is long enough that anything we settled on would be obsolete by the time we got out...

[persia]

Android is now the most common operating system.