• Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    OlafSch
    Posts: 186 from 2011/11/16
    Quote:

    amigadave schrieb:
    Quote:

    Jim wrote:
    I don't expect the first X64 releases to contain all these advanced features that everyone keeps mentioning.

    Initially I'd expect the ISA change to just jetison the legacy limitations like 31 bitmemory addressing.

    Like all previous versions, we can probably anticipate gradual evolution, not abrupt change.


    You might be right, given the very limited programming resources (free time and number of developers on the team), the first public release of MorphOS for x64, might only have a couple advanced features, and almost zero software to run, if the Dev. Team does not provide beta versions to interested third party programmers, so they can port their software to the new architecture, API, ABI, and OS.

    Personally, I think that approach would be a mistake, and lessen the chances for MorphOS for x64 to become as successful, or more successful, as the current PPC version of MorphOS. I believe geit's post mentioned that the switch to x64 hardware would further fracture the community. I believe that if the switch is not done right, the move could possibly be the beginning of the end, instead of a chance to get things right, and gain thousands of new users, possibly even moving MorphOS into the "mainstream", to compete head to head with Linux distro's.

    Granted, the chances that MorphOS for x64 will be that huge of a success are very small, and perhaps the Dev. Team does not even want that much growth and success, I don't know. I do believe that there is a void in the desktop and conventional laptop computing world, that could possibly be filled with something new (like MorphOS for x64), if that something new were created the right way, to solve all, or most of the current short comings found in all Linux and Unix distro's.

    I doubt that the MorphOS Dev. Team is ambitious enough to attempt to create a new OS that surpasses all current Linux and Unix distro's, but they might get lucky and do things right without even knowing all the advantages built into what they have created, until many months, or even years after it is first released, if they will only strive for perfection during the creation process, and not settle for too many compromises.

    Regarding WINE, I think it would be something desirable to have eventually, but running Windows software on MorphOS for x64 should not be a concern of the MorphOS Dev. Team, during the creation process. In my mind, I foresee MorphOS for x64 to be more like an improved Linux or Unix distro, and not a copy of Windows or MacOSX. I'm hoping for something more than a port of our existing MorphOS for PPC, with only the elimination of the design decisions which held it back, to make it compatible with the Amiga 68k API and software library.

    Perhaps the Dev. Team should ask the MorphOS community for feedback, on what new features are most important to the community, before going too far down a path that does not satisfy most of the user base?

    I doubt they will ask for such feedback though, and I also doubt that they will announce a feature list of what will be included in MorphOS for x64, before it is ready to be released, or at least until before it is ready to show beta versions of it at some computer shows in the future.


    I read "mainstream" somewhere... sorry to be negative but name just one reason why a external (new) developer should invest time in supporting morphos? Anyway in game development most indy devs use ready-to-be-used engines and special development software that is mostly commercial or open source but then only supporting linux, Mac and Win and of course Smartphones (iPhone and/or Android). To port that and remove dependencies is a huge effort. Commercial development is done mostly using modern tools and frameworks. If you look at free pascal port done by Alb and how long he needed to get somewhere you can imagine how much work would be needed. In short, perhaps it helps to gain some users as long people do not need to buy dedicated hardware for it but it will hardly become mainstream again or at least really add thousands of users. Expecially if you take into consideration that MorphOS software has to be recompiled (and propably adapted to 64bit) and 68k software runs in emulation (what many users used against Aros in recent years). Also not all software is available in sources, not every dev (if still active) is interested in X64 propably and software activity in recent years was very limited on morphos so I assume only very limited number of applications available at start, propably only from MorphOS team with almost no 3rd party software.


    [ Editiert durch OlafSch 28.11.2017 - 08:43 ]
  • »28.11.17 - 08:39
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