[Rant] AmigaOS + POP/PPC petition official web site | ANN.lu |
Posted on 06-Jun-2002 04:30 GMT by Seehund | 280 comments View flat View list |
AmigaPOP.8bit.co.uk is finally online!
Here you'll hopefully find all information you could possibly want about the "AmigaOS distribution policies and POP/PPC hardware petition". I hope the background information and FAQ will be especially helpful to clear up any confusion surrounding these issues.
If you have not yet signed the petition, then please do so now! Please help spreading the word by linking to AmigaPOP.8bit.co.uk. It's not too late to save our favourite OS and a unified POP-based hardware market!
In other news, I have finally managed to get in touch with the PetitionOnline.com administrators. The few abuse and sabotage attempts so far have been removed from the signatory listings. Not that any garbage would ever reach the recipient of our petition, but I understand some thought that it didn't look too good...
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AmigaOS + POP/PPC petition official web site : Comment 234 of 280 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Donovan Reeve on 07-Jun-2002 18:42 GMT | In reply to Comment 174 (Anonymous): Even if the planned Amiga extentions were to go in the boot rom, which I
seem to recall reading was not the case but rather an additional rom, it
is VERY easy and inexpensive to flash a prom with two (or 100) different
sets of data. Allmost no extra cost to it. And also very easy and low-cost
to reflash a few of them to sell as the other option if need be. But, as I
said, I don't think they are planning on it being contained in a bios prom
anyway. Eyetech is planning to put the nessessary extentions in a seperate
(possibly non-reflashable) rom, which would definately make those boards
"Amigas" and sellable only as such if I understand what they have said
correctly. But that wouldn't stop them from also selling other boards made
in the same production run with that chip simply left off (say, make 2000,
then let the boards pass the station where the Amiga roms were added without
stopping for that feature for another 350 boards to be sold for use with
other OSes). On a modern production line boards with various options enabled
or dissabled are done all the time. You just have a board with some un-used
leads and solder-pads. Actually, it is even possible that they could make
available the option of adding the Amiga rom later when a customer desides
to buy Amiga OS. Of course, it would be more expensive to do later, but
cheaper than buying a whole new board. Amiga have shown themselves to be
flexible in accomidating the purchasers of previous PPC cards, and I immagin
they will also allow upgradeing of Amiga-One spec boards to support Amiga by
selling the rom with a copy of Amiga O.S. if Eyetech wish to make that
provision available. I bet they would also do the same for Pegasus if
B-plan would be willing to cooperate. But Amiga cannot spend the time and
resources to try and support just any board that happens to be available.
That would quickly make Amiga O.S. unprofitable. So they must work with
those hardware manufacturers who are willing to allow Amiga to make a profit
by cooperating with them so that they don't have to spend all their money
trying to write drivers for any old odd stuff a manufacturer may care to make.
What it boils down to is this... An O.S. maker cannot afford to support
many various standards. Even Microsoft expects the motherbord makers to
support thier standards if they wish for Windows to run on their MoBos.
They make no attempt to modify Windows to run on unsupported hardware
because that would be unprofitable. The same is true for any other for-profit
O.S. maker. So any manufacturer who will not support the standards detailed
by the O.S. maker can just expect to make no sales to that market. Someone
mentioned that x86 MoBo makers just did as they pleased and windows supported
them all. That person knows NOTHING about the industry. Microsoft dictates
nearly EVERYTHING about motherboards expecting to support Windows, for the
purpose of insuring compatability and also to insure their market. Apple
simply doesn't allow other manufacturers to participate in the Mac market.
Any other O.S. like lynux has to just deal with it. Amiga have the right
to form thier own platform in a way which they believe will be profitable.
Bplan has the right to do that with their platform as well, it just isn't
Amiga then which is O.K. Obviously Bplan has decided that their pegasos
will be a MorphOS motherboard rather than an Amiga motherboard. That is
O.K. They have decided to try to compete with Amiga for market share.
That is O.K. also. But just don't expect Amiga to try to support the
MorphOS platform, which are their competitors.
Donovan Reeve (bubby@inebraska.com) |
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