Is the current PPC Amiga development the right direction?

[Harrison]

With the recent announcement of another project to develop and produce a PPC based Amiga, similar to the Amiga One, do you think this is the right direction that the Amiga as a platform should be heading?

If so, how would you like to see it develop and evolve?

If not, why not, and what would you like to see instead?

[Stephen Coates]

Yes.

Things would get very boring if yet another machine was to switch to Intel processors, and there would be more piracy of AmigaOS.

And I can't think of any other suitable processors, since the Amigas have been using PPCs as upgrades for years.

And I really can't imagine Bill wanting to use a different processor either.

[TiredOfLife]

I think they should be sticking to the original idea of utlimately making the OS, hardware independant.

[AlexJ]

Taking a realistic view, the market for non-IBM Compatible computers today is very small and already pretty much filled by Apple. If AmigaOS is only going to run on it's own hardware then it's going to sell in very small numbers indeed. Even platform independent it would be difficult. I mean they give Linux away and it's market share is single figures on desktop computers. Personally I don't consider Amigas with PPC Processors as real Amiga. The real ClassicAmiga has a Motorola 68k inside it.

[TiredOfLife]

To be honest, the outlook is more hopefull than it has been for a while for new OSes.
There is a lot of resentment in the UK from businesses because of the way they are forced to upgrade the OS by MS and as a result the hardware.

A small efficient OS running on power efficient hardware, running a half decent office suite could quite easily take the market by storm.

People are more aware of the alternatives like Linux and Mac OS, so there would be no great leap to introduce something new.

I'm sure MS will be aware of this.
I believe this is something they have already done in the lab.

[Harrison]

It is quite hard to see any new Amiga OS becoming popular these days outside of the existing dedicated Amiga fan base. It has been too long now since the last of the real Amiga's existed in the marketplace.

Personally I think it should go platform independent. Other projects such as AROS and Amithlon have already gone down this route and have proved popular with Amiga fans.
The problem with the current development of OS4 is that the hardware is proprietary and very rare. Anyone buying into such a system will not have the hardware support or the security of knowing they can get replacement hardware further down the line.

And these days you have to question what the point is of developing your own unique hardware platform, when PC hardware is already very advanced and available cheaply with a lot of support. Would Linux be as popular if it had to be run on a dedicated Unix computer? Of course not.

Linux may be free, but companies still sell support and commercial versions of it and this works well and makes them a lot of money. They wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't.

Personally I think the best route is open source development with a commercial side running in parallel. This works well for Red Hat who run the free Linux distro Fedora alongside it. The development of Fedora feeds directly into the business grade commercial Red Hat. And the same is true of Apple with Mac OS X, as much of that is based on open source code, including the Safari browser.

I think for Amiga OS to survive a similar route needs to be taken, and for it to jump ship and become Intel CPU compatible. PPC CPUs are quickly becoming a dead processor in the PC market now that Apple have abandoned them. It isn't the end of PPC. The PS3 Cell CPU is based around the technology for example, and many PDAs and utilities in the house are using them, but for desktop systems I think they are currently gone.

[Stephen Coates]

I think they should continue as they are.

OS4 shouldn't be limited to the Amiga One as there are other systems in development that it should be able to run on, and it is also possible to use it on a Mac Mini, although, I should think that the software for that has been released. If it has, please tell me so I can go and buy a Mac Mini.

If I need a new computer in the future, I won't hesitate to buy an Amiga, be it a PPC upgrade, or an AmigaOne or similar provided that I can afford it. (And hopefully I probably will be able to afford one this year at the expense of all you tax payers )

[Tiago]

As harrison said, I think it should go platform independent.

But what i really would love to see, is a new Amiga 68K... imagine a Amiga 1250 or a Amiga 700... something like that... with capabilities to run old software...

[Harrison]

Who remembers that Amiga on a chip project? Someone was developing an A500 on a single chip. That would have been brilliant. Imagine how small the system could have been. Even an A500 on a PCI card! Anyone know what became of the project?

[AlexJ]

The creator wrote a guide on how you can build it yourself. See http://home.hetnet.nl/~weeren001/