Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 2720 from 2003/2/24
Quote:
amigadave wrote:
The only down side I see to this news is that having a second system which can dual boot AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS3.x, specially a system that is still available for sale as new hardware, could only be advantageous to the acceptance of MorphOS3.x by more existing AmigaOS4.x users, no matter how small that number may be.
Since MorphOS is so easy to try for free, I think that most SAM460 owners would at least try it for a while to see what it is like. Many of those owners would like what they were seeing, and if they noticed any performance increase and extra features while running MorphOS3.x, compared to AmigaOS4.x, there is a chance that they would begin using MorphOS3.x more often (possibly even convert to using it as their preferred choice).
Personally, I was very surprised that any work toward supporting the 460 was started, but I understand the feeling that some people have about wanting new hardware, instead of used systems, even though I do not share that feeling and am quite happy with all of my used MorphOS capable computers, but I am not discouraged by this news, as I don't think support of the 460 will make much difference, and not supporting it will not make much difference in the resources available for working on improving MorphOS3.3.
The threshold of trying out MorphOS isn't very high at all, not for anyone. As long as your scope of interest in your Amiga hobby is ever so slightly wider than "teh reel!!1!", then you can easily try out both MorphOS and AROS as well.
As seen on web forums like this and others, several "old timer OS4 users" has over the last few years become either dual or MorphOS only users. It's not difficult to get a hold of a piece of MorphOS HW for less than the cost of an OS4 license alone, and for testing purposes you will get very far with the 30 minute demo.
Problem is
"the rather sparse feedback we received from customers regarding our plans to support ACube's hardware"; I suppose that many of those who paid EUR 1,000 for a 460 system or USD 3,000+ for a X1000 in order to run OS4 simply lacks that "wider scope" in their Amiga hobby; I think many of them want OS4 or nothing. They invested in OS4, the HW was only a means to an end. Anyone who really is curious about MorphOS can easily try it as it is, no need for a Sam port for that.
I'm not against MorphOS supporting Sam per se, but I completely fail to see the point? MorphOS users certainly has no need for a Sam, and probably (or "obviously", given "the rather sparse feedback"?) most Sam owners who bought it to run OS4 lacks interest in MorphOS. Those interested in MorphOS or ever so slightly curious has probably already tried it by now. Or they can easily do it anytime they want,
regardless of a Sam port.
IMHO, a Sam port is nothing but a detour, a diversion of development focus that will bring nothing positive at all to the MorphOS platform in the end. Frankly, I was very surprised to see it announced in the first place. But not quite as surprised to see that it may be put on ice at this time.
Had it been
new HW from Acube ("new" meaning at least semi-modern, performance wise by 2013 standards, or at least a lot better than MorphOS has
right now with the Mac PPC HW, instead of the sub-Peg2 Sam), then it would perhaps have been a different matter. However, in the end, being tied to PPC means a zero-sum game of users within an ever shrinking Amiga community. The only way of attracting fresh interest is to migrate to some HW within "normal people's" reach...
MorphOS is Amiga
done right! 
MorphOS NG will be AROS
done right!
