>...(re)start of the G5 port ?

Yes! Please.
Any other option seems pointless.

It depends what you mean by effective:

There are a number of reasons given by MorphOS devs for not supporting the SAM4x0, AmigaOne or X1000 systems. In summary, the ones I've read are:

1) That these systems are too exotic, there are not enough out there to be worth the porting effort.

- A fair point on the surface, but when you consider that almost 100% of the ownership base is aware of MorphOS already, if not fully aware of how good it is, this point becomes less valid.
Admittedly, there are some AmigaOS4 users who would not even contemplate trying it, let alone buying it, but there is a good proportion who would do both.
The current strategy of supporting hardware which exists in the gazillions has sold only around 750 licenses since Mac hardware support was introduced (based on the latest graph from Koszer).

2) That anyone wishing to try MorphOS can do so on more powerful, more proven hardware at a fraction of the cost.

- Also a fair point, but who wants/has room for another system to hook up? Additionally, one of the most important strategies in sales is reducing the barrier to entry, and we are talking of a market which already owns the hardware.

3) That the devteam would not want to follow a strategy that would profit Ben Hermans to the tune of a single penny.

- Valid enough, and not one to argue against. Each to their own.
However, a) this excludes the Sam systems which are available without AmigaOS; b) even if BH gets any profit from the sale of a SAM system who would buy one just for MorphOS given point 2)?; and c) once production of the X1000 ceases this would also exclude this system also.

I'm not trying to influence any decision making here, but I think it's important to point out that support for these systems is not at all analogous to supporting Mac systems, since the userbase is more-or-less 100% aware of MorphOS as an alternative.
Also, as there seems to be no existing (or potential) strategy to make owners of supported G4-based Macs aware of MorphOS (at least, I've not seen the ads), or any realistic way to make it an attractive choice for them (since they could pay £50 for an x86 Linux system if they wanted to migrate to anotherOS), this seems an attractive potential market for MorphOS (purely from the point of view of additional licenses sold) by comparison.

Of course, it all comes down to what the MorphOS team want to do, so this is a pretty arbitrary analysis...

> I have the feeling that the MOS team fear to port MOS on a computer
> where AmigaOS4 is

Don't know about fear, but the MorphOS Team's reluctance to port MorphOS to any OS4 hardware is a known and admitted fact.

> it's the same Fight than for Sam440EP & Sam460 à 1Ghz from Acube ..
> These computers are enough powered to run MorphOS more than correctly ...

True, MorphOS itself may run good enough on almost anything with at least a three-digit MHz number, but using an OS is about running third-party applications as well. You may now argue that the Efika 5200B is slower than even the slowest Sam440, which may be true, but then Genesi paid for the port.

> Mos Team will *never* port MorphOS to these boards ...

It all depends on the right amount of money I guess ;-)

boot_wb,
Quote:

Erm, yes ..... and how many SAMs and X1000s do you thing have been /will be sold ?

I wager that that number is lower atm and won't get much higher in the long run. All of them in the hands of people clearly in the red camp and even expecting 10% of them to purchase an additional MorphOS-licence seems like a stretch to me.

So we would be talking bout <100 licences spread over 3 very different HW-platforms.... heck I even Peg1s and eMacs are probraly registered in higher numbers !

@amidark

PowerBook with MorphOS would likely bring more OS4 users to MorphOS than porting MorphOS to SAM platform.

Porting MorphOS to SAM platform is only waste of resources. There is no great market to explore, new non-OS4 users are not interested to it, their availability is tricky and hardware (SAM460) is also burden to support (poor onboard video, different audio hardware). And it is still a low-end desktop computer sold at 1000 euro.

PowerMac is for power users and Mac mini for those who want desktop computers without huge case. SAM460 competes in Pegasos G4 class but with higher price and less power.

The SAM platform just isnt suitable for MorphOS.


[ Edited by itix 21.01.2012 - 09:17 ]

These recurring discussions about a MorphOS port to OS4 HW is as pointless as the HW itself. It won't happen, for good reasons. It's been discussed to death time and time again, but some people just don't seem to grasp it...

I'm an X1000 beta tester, and would buy MorphOS for it, in like a heartbeat.

I'm sure at least 20 other people would as well

I really like, and appreciate the Peg2's dual boot ability, I'd love to see it on something faster, but, heck I can understand that given the power/amount/price of Powerbooks, relative to X1000, I can understand why they're not the top priority right now. Bring on the G5 Powermac version of MorphOS, before any Sam/X1000 version.

[ Edited by stephen_robinson 21.01.2012 - 08:40 ]

@stephen_robinson

There is a much higher probability (like a 100%) that the MorphOS Team will rather spend their time and resources towards migrating MorphOS to a different architecture altogether, rather than porting it to OS4 HW, after all the relevant PPC Mac's has been covered!

Discussions about this is as pointless, futile and boring as they ever were, nothing has changed in this regard, and it won't change in the future either...

>I'm an X1000 beta tester, and would buy MorphOS for it, in like a heartbeat.

I'm sure at least 20 other people would as well



Which, in a nut shell, explains why the G5 route makes more sense.

Would the developers like to labor hard to create a port for 20 or so users (of hardware that assures the sale of one copy of OS4) or would they want to work toward supporting a much larger potential base?

Actually the 20 was sorta a joke (okey so it wasn't funny, but...) Actually, I think many, if not most Amiga OS4.1 users are also MorphOS users, it's just the haters, on both sides make the most noise.

As least I hope that's the case.

Mind you, those AROS people can go and get #$?!ed!

> I think many, if not most Amiga OS4.1 users are also MorphOS users

Is this "sorta a joke" again?

itix,
Quote:
The thing with Apple hardware is that is it is not new. For my *personal* use that doesn't matter. My used mini just runs fine and was pretty cheap and I am sure I will be similarly satisfied with my soon to purchase Powerbook. But I was actually thinking about using MorphOS for some small commercial product. Not a big thing, but I cannot sell new products containing used non RoHS parts. Still thinking about Efikas, but they are too limited and I guess supply is also drying out.
The Sam460 has its issues, price is only one of them, but still I consider it the sanest ppc hardware since the Pegasos. Plus, Acube always seemed rather open minded, friendly and also grounded to me. I wouldn't rule out Acube products completely.

No.

@Zylesea

Yes and hardware from Acube has been without major issues. As such I wouldnt mind having a choice to have new hardware available. But you never know when they go out of business or decide to discontinue current products... it is just gambling.

I'm guessing the road map is G4 Powerbooks, then G5 iMacs, to G5 Powermacs? Then onto the exciting world of intel?, or Atom CPU based, whatever?

I think the current "road map" for MorphOS will take a year, or two to complete (assuming that the Mac G5 models will be supported).

By the time they are finished with all G4 & G5 Mac models that they wish to support, there will either be some new PPC hardware that looks attractive to the MorphOS Dev. Team, or they may choose to make the switch to x86/64, or ARM architectures.

No need to discuss this further until they announce something worth discussing.

[ Edited by amigadave 21.01.2012 - 14:42 ]

Quote:

I admire your optimism!

@boot_wb,

Yeah, I am guilty of that all the time.

Well call me an optimist, but I hope to see a Powerbook version of MorphOS this (2012) year!

>>> I think many, if not most Amiga OS4.1 users are also MorphOS users

>> Is this "sorta a joke" again?

> No.

Then let me tell you that I believe that only a small fraction of the OS4 users are also MorphOS users.

Andreas_Wolf wrote:

Quote:

Andreas_Wolf? Belief? Without reference?

Never thought I'd see the day!

Although I could believe that a good 30% of AmigaOS4.x users are potential MorphOS users...

Not such a small fraction imho.

[ Edited by boot_wb 23.01.2012 - 01:10 ]

> Andreas_Wolf? Belief? Without reference? Never thought I'd see the day! :-D

Seems you missed some days during last year alone:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

;-)

> I could believe that a good 30% of AmigaOS4.x users are potential
> MorphOS users... Not such a small fraction imho.

Yes, if we talk about *potential* MorphOS users that may be. But in terms of *actual* MorphOS users, which is what stephen_robinson was talking about, it's certainly less than 10%.

> Then onto the exciting world of intel?, or Atom CPU based, whatever?

Atom is a line of x86(-64) CPUs that lives in the Intel world. The alternative to x86 CPUs that was mentioned by MorphOS Team member Fab is ARM.

@boot_wb,

Being the optimist that I am, I think 90% of all OS4 users are potential MorphOS users.

Actually, my guess about how many OS4 users would actually be interested in trying out MorphOS is closer to 50%, but the other 40% could become interested under the right conditions.

Since I am not yet an OS4 user (waiting for my X1000), I haven't spent as much time around OS4 users to know how many would never consider trying MorphOS. Considering the last 3 years I have observed MorphOS users here on this forum site, I would guess that the number of MorphOS users that would be willing to try out OS4 (even if the price to try it were exactly the same as it is for trying MorphOS), would be much less than 90% and probably less than 50%. More MorphOS users are less interested in sticking with the old ways of how the Amiga Workbench worked and they appreciate the changes that have been made in MorphOS. OS4 users seem to be more interested in keeping their OS closer to the same as the old Workbench was. I am not saying one is right and one is wrong, or one is better than the other, it is just different ideas for different people. Of course my observations may be way off base and incorrect for the majority of users of either system.

I know many Morphos user who use both, and others who say that Morphos is superior to AmigaOS 4.x, so they don't want it. But I know many AmigaOS 4.x users, who really hate Morphos. I think it is something religious.