I should know better than to start a thread like this one given the current "Heated" discussions going on in one or more threads here on MorphZone.org, but I have made stupid mistakes before, and will no doubt make many more in the future.

My point is simply this; is MorphOS, it's users and developers, better off because Hyperion and AmigaOS4.x are still alive and attempting to sustain what remains of the original Amiga community, or would MorphOS, it's users and developers be in better shape, if for any reason AmigaOS4.x stopped development completely and faded into only a memory?

I'm not proposing that this would or could happen, just trying to get MorphOS users to consider what might happen, if there were no AmigaOS4.x any longer.

We all know that most AmigaOS4.x users would not switch to using MorphOS just because they no longer had the choice to use AmigaOS4.x, or get any new updates for their systems. Just as many AmigaOS3.x users have never switched to using AmigaOS4.x, or MorphOS, or AROS. We might gain a few new users, but not many more than we are already gaining from curious AmigaOS3.x and AmigaOS4.x users who want to find out more about MorphOS.

What I wonder is could it be possible that losing AmigaOS4.x might actually be harmful for MorphOS users. It is possible that if there were no AmigaOS4.x, perhaps there would be no A-Eon and no X5000 for MorphOS to be ported to. Some will say that this is no bad thing for MorphOS, and that it would just speed up the switch to X64 and leaving all PPC systems behind.

I don't know? The one thing I wish the MorphOS Dev. Team would do a better job of is directly competing with Hyperion to gain more of the NG users to the MorphOS side. As someone recently pointed out, most shows, meetings and events, are usually focused more on AmigaOS4.x than MorphOS, or AROS. There appear to be just as many, if not more, 3rd party programmers, who prefer to create games, applications, and utilities for AmigaOS4.x, than there are for MorphOS, or AROS. The Amiga name still carries lots of weight with the remaining user base, even if it has to be changed to AmigaOne on the hardware used.

For me, MorphOS is clearly the superior OS and supports better and more hardware choices, but those facts don't seem to convince hundreds of users who still prefer to follow and use AmigaOS4.x systems, as well as the thousands who are still using their original Commodore Amiga computers, or emulators (software, or FPGA hardware).

Why don't we enjoy a larger lead (if any) in users and 3rd party programmers, after producing a usable OS for many years longer than AmigaOS4.x has been available, having better performing hardware that is available in high quantities at low cost, and a fairly clear lead in performance of the OS, features, and 3D hardware acceleration?

Maybe the MorphOS Dev. Team made a mistake in not trying to bury the competition years ago, when we enjoyed an even larger edge than we do today. Easier written than done, and I understand that these guys are just coders that don't want to mess with such crap, or worrying about what the other side is doing, they just want to write the best code they can and add the features they want to see and use.

For those of you who like to waste time hypothesising their days and nights away, this is my "What If" question for you. What would happen to MorphOS if there were no AmigaOS4.x?