Would you buy a new PPC laptop, if A-Eon made one?

[guest11527]

This makes really no sense at all. First all, the PPCs you get nowadays are not really designed for mobile applications. 68K never was to begin with. They draw too much power, and computing performance is comparably poor.  

Given the price point, this makes the whole idea unrealistic (or rather "what have you been smoking?" (-; ). If you want to go mobile, use a platform that is suitable for that. For small computing loads, ARM (yes, really), for complex computing, x64. I would believe running an emulator on a standard laptop is probably more power efficient than fitting a PPC into such a machine and run "something like AmigaOs" on it.

[takemehomegrandma]

@amigadave

$2500 is way into the very high end x86 laptop range; to even consider this price tag for anything PPC in 2014 is laughable. And considering E-eon made plain desktop systems out of standard PC components and that the price for these exceeded $3000 by some margin, it's not very difficult to imagine how the price for something entirely custom made (and where engineering challenges are so much higher) such as a laptop could indeed push up towards that $5000 figure you mentioned. And that is so insane that no words are enough to describe how insane it really is...


@Yasu

Considering how little AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS demands of the hardware and still feel fast

I don't really agree. Sure, the OS itself and the old 68k applications etc is very snappy. But I see many areas (such as heavy web browsing, heavy media usage, rendering, compiling, etc) where CPU power is essential, and where a PPC is not really an option today, especially not a "low end" (what is that today really in terms of PPC?) one, and especially not at the cost of $5000...

[takemehomegrandma]

Nah.  I run MorphOS..I can buy a PPC laptop already for cheap...besides I have more important hobbies that I spend good money on :-)

That pretty much sums it up IMHO.

[carvedeye]

No. Would a 68k based laptop be possible?

"Only Amiga makes it possible"  

[zylesea]

I have my ppc laptop already. 1.67 Ghz G4. Runs MorphOS like a charme. Hard to beat.

[billt]

Yes. I don't care if it's from A-Eon or from someone else. While I have my own preferences regarding specifications, I would buy othe rthan that, if that's the only way to get an OS4 machine I can use. Being tethered to a desk away in "the computer room" is an obstacle to using OS4 these days for me. (I already have an iBook G4, and once I get the LCD/backlight fixed I'll have a MOS machine)

[Heiroglyph]

For a PPC notebook, I'll just stick with a dirt cheap MorphOS Mac.

If I want to support a dead CPU line, I'd rather use 68k. I'm not paying any real money for PPC.

[danbeaver]

The PowerPC (Power architecture) is not dead at all; it is alive and well supported by about forty companies; it is not promoted for home desktops nor laptops, but servers, mainframes, and super-computers.

http://openpowerfoundation.org/

I kind of feel that my X1000 is special in that way, but as a need for laptops with a Power CPU?  That seems silly.

[agami]

Considering how little AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS demands of the hardware and still feel fast I could consider buying a really low end, low power consumption PPC laptop. Even a 400 MHz with 512 MB RAM would be enough. A 12" screen would also be enough (not 8", that's too small for me).

That might also attract people outside our camp. Some people just like a challenge, like getting the most out of such a weak computer. Not many people for sure, but at least enough for a bigger batch of laptops in one go, lowering the price.
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Yes, but you don't want a laptop just to run the OS. Even tablets and smartphones have processors capable of much more than 400MHz. It would have to be 1GHz or more to be practical and attractive to people outside our camp; Most of whom would run Linux.

[agami]

The PowerPC (Power architecture) is not dead at all; it is alive and well supported by about forty companies; it is not promoted for home desktops nor laptops, but servers, mainframes, and super-computers.

http://openpowerfoundation.org/

I kind of feel that my X1000 is special in that way, but as a need for laptops with a Power CPU?  That seems silly.

Wow, forty companies. Talk about "glass half full". Whatever you are on I need me some of that.

When you go from one or two companies to forty, sure that's a thing worth celebrating, but when you go from hundreds to forty, well, it may not be dead but the buzzards are certainly circling overhead.

And most of those forty aren't doing anything near as fancy as servers or supercomputers. More like communications switching gear and climate control units. Your X1000 has more in common with a thermostat than it does with a missile targeting system. Still, controlling temperature is special; in its own way.

[fishy_fiz]

No. Would a 68k based laptop be possible?

Considering they exist I'd have to say yes  


Regarding the poll however I didn't answer as there was no option that matched my thoughts.
Yes, I'd buy an OS4.x laptop, and I'd even pay a bit more for it vs. other hardware, but I still have my limits. Unfortunately this premium is unlikely to get to a level I'm willing to pay. Give me x1000 or x5000 or thereabouts spec for $1k, or sam460-ish level for up to about $700 and I'd probably bite. $700 to $1000 I think is still pretty expensive for netbook type specs, but given the niche I'd still pay it.

[SamuraiCrow]

I voted no.  Too little, too late.  Not enough PPC software to justify it.

[alphadec]

Why not make something that every amiga user wants a amiga clone based on the classic amiga but with improvements.... this sound like something we all have talked about before!

Thats what we want.

[som99]

Why not make something that every amiga user wants a amiga clone based on the classic amiga but with improvements.... this sound like something we all have talked about before!

Thats what we want.

Yepp that's exactly what I me and many others want

[Niding]

In principle I would like to say yes, but Im assuming the price would be out of this world,  so in reality Id end up on "not likely".

[redfox]

I would not pay $2500 US for a PPC laptop.