Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 2794 from 2006/3/21
From: Northern Calif...
Leo,
BEGIN EDIT:
Sorry, wrong quote, it was not the one I was thinking of when I wrote this post.
But I will ask this quesion of Leo, what makes you think that moving MorphOS to x86 and/or ARM will lead to memory protection, or SMP?
Why is MorphOS going to be different on those platforms, than it is on PPC. If providing memory protection and SMP on PPC will break all compatibility with Amiga 68k software, then how are you going to do it on x86 and/or ARM without it breaking compatibility just like it would on PPC?
And, if you are proposing a complete break from compatibility with Amiga 68k software (and probably MorphOS PPC software too), then you are going to have an OS with very little native software to run on it and you are losing the connection with the past, which is where MorphOS came from. Unless you have figured out how to solve everything by "Sandboxing" for compatibility and you have it all figured out already?
END EDIT:
I agree that the users who want x86 or ARM as the next version of MorphOS after support for the G4 PowerBook's should not be excluded, just because of their preferred choice.
But what do you think about MorphOS Dev. Team joining forces with AROS when/if they decide to move to x86 and/or ARM?
Doesn't that sound like a great idea? Or at least a good idea. Some of the AROS programmers might not want to merge with the MorphOS Dev. Team, but some will. I think that a lot of them will, as the MorphOS Dev. Team will bring a lot of talent to the AROS table. This may cause another fork of AROS to come into existence, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The MorphOS Dev. Team could pick up some new programmers (hopefully a lot of new programmers) that have experience on x86 and/or ARM already, which will help enormously with the switch to a different architecture.
The MorphOS Dev. Team is already well acquainted with at least some of the AROS developers, so it is not a great stretch of the imagination to think that both teams, or at least parts of them could join together and be very productive. Such a merger would probably be the fastest way to get MorphOS moved over to x86 and/or ARM.
Personally, I think it would be good for both MorphOS and for AROS, for the two to join together.
Also, personally, I hope that the move to x86 and/or ARM does not happen until, or at the same time as, support for several G5 Mac models is completed for MorphOS.
We will all just have to wait for the MorphOS Dev. Team to make their decisions. They are all very busy guys and they have said that money, such as a bounty for supporting a port to the Mac G5's will not make it happen any sooner (if at all).
I wonder if that is true though, if a large sum of money could be raised that would allow some of the team members to work on MorphOS G5 support full time? Probably only some of the team members work for them selves, or have enough flexibility in their regular jobs, that would allow them to work full time, or increased hours on porting MorphOS to several of the Mac G5's. The rest of the MorphOS Dev. Team members are probably tied to jobs that will not allow them to work more than 2 or 3 hours a day, or 10 to 15 hours a week on MorphOS.
Raising enough money to pay for a port of MorphOS3.x to the G5 PowerMac, or the G5 iMac, would not be an easy task. First we would have to find out if the MorphOS Dev. Team would agree to doing such work for a set amount and then we would have to know what that set amount would be that is acceptable to them, before we could even think about trying to raise it, or determine if it is feasible to raise a bounty to have MorphOS ported to any G5 models.
If the amount seemed possible to raise and enough MorphOS & potential MorphOS users & developers showed interest in a port to the G5 and were willing to donate their money toward making it happen, I would definitely be willing to donate $200 to $400 toward such a bounty.
(hopefully, if the port was done using funds from a bounty, the people that contributed at least 111.11 euros to the bounty would get a registered keyfile for their donations)
I would pay the same, or even a bit more to get a port of MorphOS on the X1000, but I don't know think I could get many other X1000 owners who would pay that same amount to get a port of MorphOS on their X1000's.
[ Edited by amigadave 09.03.2012 - 20:25 ]MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.