title says it all ...

i understand that for (developing) people interested in MorphOS, they need a machine to develop on. So maybe our small comunity can provide somehow ? A low end powermac and a license is all it takes I suppose ?

I don't mind donating somehow, digging up old powermacs in Belgium for little money isn't a problem ?

When I upgrade to a G5, I could see donating my G4 to someone for that purpose.

[ Edited by Jim on 2011/1/18 20:33 ]

Altough that would be a nice gesture, it doesn't help us today... G5 port isn't even sure to happen.

Maybe you can reflash Radeons for "the" cause

I willing to reflash video cards, and to dig up, refurbish, and other wise assemble systems in the US.
Now how do we encourage developers to ask for hardware? And how do we review/qualify those applications, and what do we ask of the recipients?

How to encourage ... we get our first machine to donate, make a website and make some fuzz about it.

If you ask me who should qualify for receiving the hardware ... taking up a bounty on this website or being a developer on OS4/AmigaOS/AROS willing to port your software to MorphOS should do. That's a win-win situation not ?

Maybe MorphOSteam can produce an iso that works longer as 30 minutes or stops after some time tied to the machine so it can't be spread ofcours... just some ideas

[ Edited by Oepabakkes on 2011/1/18 22:37 ]

I like your ideas. You seem to have the basics worked out. I think, if we can get the support of the MorphOS development team, we ought to proceed. I'm even willing to consider it without the support of the developers (except it might have to move forward a little slower).

We only would have to get a license somehow/raise money for it... it's mandatory because developing on a "30 minute machine" isn't really working I think.
I honestly do not know what it takes to develop for MorphOS, so some ideas/toughts from people that already develop would be welcome maybe... and ofcours people who would like to benefit from this: please send a message.

@ Oepabakkes

We generally never had a problem with giving free keys out to developers, the only condition must be that the developer is capable and has previous experience in Amigaoid programming. I personally see no point in giving free keys to people just 'willing to learn C'. They too often end up not doing anything.

Well I do not see a point in giving MorphOS capable machines to people that just want play with it either.... but I suppose there exceptions ?

For that we have more developers, the MorphOS team has to sell more licenses.

To sell more licenses, the MorphOS team must lower the price of the license

I go out

Well that's a chicken vs. egg problem.
They need to make some money, but is the 111 euro license fee stifling purchases?
Personally, I'd like to see a $75 price level, but I can live with the current price.

As far as I know, the price has already dropped +/- 40€ ? And if you want it to develop, start with something that has a bounty and it pays for itself.

Anyway anyone that has something usefull to contribute please contact me or Jim.

Quote:

I agree that the current price of MorphOS (which has already been lowered after many requests/complaints) is not the problem. I do agree that it would be in the "Teams" best interest to donate license keys to proven Amiga developers (which the "Team" has already done in the past and will probably do again in the future).

I am teetering on the edge of donating more MorphOS equipment to this cause of getting more MorphOS developers and could probably be talked into parting with one of my machines, but only if the right developer comes along and wants to show me that he is truly interested in developing on and for MorphOS and has past projects that he can show as examples of his work. I have already donated one MorphOS computer during the last AmiWest Show and raffled another at a very low price, in an attempt to gain a couple of more registered MorphOS users. I should have saved those two machines and used them for this project to send them to potential developers.

DaveAE & Audio Evolution was a good example of someone who we knew was capable and would complete a port of his work to MorphOS in a timely fashion.

donating the hw by the community and free keys by the team for realibe developers seems to be a very good idea.
i suppose if there would be a website for the story then it should be available in different languages and should contain sections sorted by the location of the donated machines - ie. europe (then uk, france, poland, etc..), america (north, south - usa, canada, mexico), asia (india:)). this would help interested developers to look for a machine near to their location to keep postage low or even collect it in person.
of course this wont stop anyone to donate a machine to a developer from the other site of the planet (or even outside of it, who knows:), but would help all interested parties imho.
any thoughts about this?

also the donations shouldnt be limited to whole systems but parts as well, so if say so someone has a suitable soundcard, which could work with morphos and want to find a developer who are willing to write a driver for it (and already has a morphos system) then the card could be donated via this program/website to the developer (if theres any). same goes for any other peripherials, like gfx-, i/o-, tv-, whatever cards, usb stuff, midi, etc.... you get the idea.


jacadcaps: is it public how many free keys has been given to developers by the team and whom they are? i know about daveae, noone else comes to mind ritenow....

I've already contacted Oepabakkes about shipping him a video card and an NEC based USB 2.0 card to complete his MDD.

Like Dave I'd like to look at donating a whole system too.

Do we need a website or can this be managed as a thread(s)?

Quote:

I don't think we need a separate website for this project, as I don't see it as being anything too large, or happening too often that we could not just handle it here in the forums, or perhaps the webmaster of MorphZone.org would consider setting up a new area that remains on the front page of this site for developers to request donated equipment and submit their qualifications and development accomplishments and future intentions/projects, so the people who are donating the gear can evaluate the worthiness of each request and developer on a "case-by-case" basis.

That is just my idea on this topic and others may feel differently. Further discussion will be useful, and then spreading the word on many other forum sites will be needed to draw the attention of potential developers who would be interested in creating new, native MorphOS software, but have difficulty in affording the needed MorphOS compatible computer gear to work on such projects.

[ Edited by amigadave on 2011/1/19 21:19 ]

@sadddam

I have no idea how many - many people got their keys even before we had the registration system up and running, so I'd have to check several sources. A rough guess would be something between 30 and 50 keys, but many of them went to people that have lost interest in hobby programming a long time ago.

I like the idea of splitting the hardware side of the story up between continents. Sending a GPU or a soundblaster across continents isn't that expensive ... but a whole system is another story. Excessive shipping costs, taxes, ... it's cheaper to have machine on every continent. For an example, I could have brought that machine in person to DaveAE. Also shipping time to the USA from overhere takes very long (thanks to the people that stuff plastic explosives in their printer).

I would like website for it... but I am not gifted with that knowledge to make that happen.

So I suppose Jim and AmigaDave can team up for the USA, I can prepare a machine for Europe ...

And let us wait with bothering the team for free keys untill everything else is up and running... as an alternative we can also try to raise money to buy one, MorphOSteam does deserve some money for their work. In the end it must be a win-win situation for everyone.

- Developer gets a licensed machine
- Community grows
- Users get software
- MorphOSteam sells keys

That's more or less in short what should be achieved.

[ Edited by Oepabakkes on 2011/1/20 11:06 ]

I was just answering a PM from dave and I tink we're all in agreement that exchanging/donating parts from different locations is fine. I can send a USPS Priority Mail flat rate box to Europe for only a couple more dollars then it takes to ship it anywhere in the US.
I've offered Oepabakkes one of my video cards and a USB 2.0 card to add to the machine he has and I still have a few spare components lying around.
Dave's already given away hardware in California last year, so I think I'll step up next after Oepabakkes and put together a system for someone on this side of the Atlantic.

For now, I think we can coordinate this via postings and PMs. A website or a additional area devoted to this would be nice, but its not essential to get the ball rolling.

I don't want to place too much of a burden on him, but as he's offered to start this, I think we ought to let Oepabakkes come up with ideas as to who his system ought to go to.

BTW - Thanks fir the good idea, Oepabakkes.

Well I got to fix that MDD 1.25 Ghz first, broken PSU ... well that is if nothing else passes on the local second hand websites or who knows what.

I would like a webpage for it.. here or on the amigaclub.be server, I don't care. It's easier to point people (devs, contributors, sponsors, ... ) to a dedicated webpage and makes it also easier to post about it on various other websites and point to it. So if someone has the knowledge, time and motivation .. you know where to find me.

As mentioned, we don't have to wait for that. So if anyone feels himself in need for a machine .. send us a message and we will see how we can help.

Why don´t you just create a page in the MorphOS Library that outlines what requirements a developer must fulfill in order to qualify for hardware and who should be contacted?

I have to think about this, I don't really know it myself.

"would like a webpage for it.. here or on the amigaclub.be server, I don't care. It's easier to point people (devs, contributors, sponsors, ... ) to a dedicated webpage and makes it also easier to post about it on various other websites and point to it"

i can agree 100%. the project can roll on w/o the webpage but the sooner it has one the better chance to get it be succesfull. heck, this kind of stuff can even be "advertised" to outside of this community to get some more developers interested (maybe with amiga past or just a good coder who wants to try him/herself with a new system - ofcoz the person must have the required skills and proven track record what hes done or can do). i bet there some devs out there who hasnt played with morphos only coz he aint got any system to run it on but if he could get one for free and all he have to do is to code some ass-banging app then he would surely apply:)

i also have a powermac (lowest model, 3,1 w. g4/400) which i would donate for some really interesting project (duh it surely needs a faster cpu card to make it usable) so i can take the central-european region:)

Quote:

I think that this is an excellent idea! General guidelines for what would qualify a developer could be outlined, but specifics would be hard to pin down. Let the developers asking for the equipment sell themselves, their past accomplishments and abilities to us by writing a short description of their past work, proposed future MorphOS compatible project(s), etc.

Anyone want to volunteer to write and layout such a page for the MorphZone Library? I don't think I am up to the task at this time, or I would volunteer to do it.

Then we could link to that page and advertise the free hardware on many other sites and see if we get any good developers interested.

What do the rest of you that support the idea of donating gear to developers think of this idea?

I will try to compose a text this weekend and send it for review to you and/or Jim. So you can give me your toughts and also to convert it to plain English since it's not my native language.