@geen_naam

Quote:

So you're suggesting that there's no hope at all.

Your straw man said that, not me.

My hope is that Amiga Corporation prevails in court and releases the source code. Mike Battilana has already indicated that he would be open to doing that.

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"Unix is supposed to fix that." -- Jay Miner

geen_naam Quote:

You completely misunderstood. Linux is open source and it is very clear who has been calling the shots from the very beginning until today. The companies behind the distributions also recognize the captain of the ship. (Linus) For AmigaOS, everybody wants to be in charge and no-one is accepted as captain. So the open source ship will never leave the harbour. That's my point.

The owner of the AmigaOS ship is now Michele Battilana even if the pirate Ben Hermans has tried to steal the ship after it was loaned to him by the previous owner. The owner of the ship is allowed to appoint (hire) the captain. It would be a good idea to discuss how the ship might make money before setting sail though. It will likely require investment to prepare and outfit the ship prior to the voyage. Investors should get some say in their investment.

geen_naam Quote:

You made it clear several times that this is your opinion. But that doesn't make it true. Reimplementing those commands seems odd and useless. But at least it's a copy in functionality. "Mr Amikit" Didn't decide that the copy command should erase your harddrive because he knows better than others. A 24bit color clock seems to be a waste of effort as well. Yes, there's a new multiview. But are you trying to argue that Notepad++ shouldn't exist as a third party prog because there's already Notepad? All the other components are extensions. But "Mr. Amikit" is not in control of the OS. So running those extensions is an option, not a fork of OS4. This situation is totally different when everybody start to write their own version of amigaos4. Imagine the mess on os4depot when certain programs and libraries only work on certain distributions or even processor architectures. See MorphOS vs AmigaOS as an extreme example.

AmiKit is a 68k Amiga distribution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmiKit

The AmigaKit Enhancer Software is fine until new functionality is added to AmigaOS modules with the same name. Hyperion may enhance the modules in a different way in the future causing incompatibility as only a minimum library number is asked for but the two modules may have different functionality. This has the disadvantages of a fork. AmigaOS 3.2 could be thought of as a fork of AmigaOS 4 too. Even though the API is becoming closer, they will likely not converge completely. This means some modules will be incompatible (at the source level) with a disadvantage similar to a fork. Porting AmigaOS 4 to another architecture like ARM and making it a proper NG desktop OS would also mean a different API with a similar disadvantage to forking. At least MorphOS called their OS something other than AmigaOS although they made the same mistake of not updating the AmigaOS API for modern desktop features from the start. It is easier and cheaper to develop for a single architecture and standard hardware than multiple architectures and a wide range of hardware. Expanding AmigaOS development to more architectures and adding modern desktop features are a dream of many Amiga fans but this is really difficult and likely not profitable anyway. There aren't very many profitable OSs, especially on the desktop.

geen_naam Quote:

Open sourcing will be the final nail to the coffin. The os will be at drift. There was no consensus about Hyperion as leader. There is no consensus about Aeon as leader. There will be no consensus about Cloanto as leader. The funny thing is that one of the most likely distributions will come from "Mr Amikit" anyways. Because he has proven with enhancer that he's willing to invest. Exactly the one that you critisize so much. Let's call it karma if it happens. That you don't agree with what either Hyperion or "Mr Amikit" are doing is exactly why I'm talking about all those captains who know it all better. And why it will become one big mess.

I would like to see the AmigaOS source open but with a license which discourages forks. I believe this is possible as that is the way the vbcc compiler is. I would not have helped develop that project if the source was not open and I believe this is true for others too. You have complained about lack of documentation for AmigaOS drivers in another thread and how the existing ones were behind a NDA wall. I don't believe open sourcing the Amiga would mean chaos (even though the Amiga evolved from CaOS which ironically had resource tracking). It would be helpful if a management and standards committee was created for a more open AmigaOS.

geen_naam Quote:

I know that you have a blind spot for what Aeon has actually been doing for AmigaOS4. But the biggest improvements in the past decades came from them. They have proven to invest literaly a million+ without return of investment. They have given us faster hardware and better gfx. You have respect for HDR and that's good. But do you think that we would be here today if Aeon wasn't actually funding that development? But Captain Gutjahr (the C cannot be a coincidence ) has a different opinion and would have done things differently. Like all those captains waiting for the os4 source.

Trevor Dickinson has likely been investing in the Amiga with the hope to turn it around, make it profitable and proliferate the Amiga. That is what investors try to do instead of looking for a tax deduction which is just a consequence of the failures. While his efforts should be appreciated for the benefits to Amiga users, I doubt they have been successful and likely can't continue indefinitely. It is very difficult for niche market computer hardware manufacturers to survive. Economies of scale are too important for computer hardware.

geen_naam Quote:

Even the suggestion that some big company will show up is false hope either. Trusting that all different camps and captains will suddenly agree to work together in the open source scenario is false hope too. So you're suggesting that there's no hope at all. I put my faith in those who are actually doing something at the moment.

In my opinion, there is not much value in the AmigaOS by itself and especially on the desktop because it can't be sold for much and isn't competitive. There is value is in the Amiga brand, the Amiga community (users and developers), the AmigaOS embedded in products and in Amiga 68k games for the retro (toy) market. There may be value in the embedded market for very small footprint systems.

The Amiga businesses will likely continue stepping on each others feet as separate businesses like they are doing now. They would be better off pooling their resources and working together. If the Amiga brand is put back together, the cooperators should consider a merger as "Amiga Corporation" along with allowing others investors to buy stock. They do need to decide where the ship will sail and the route to get to there.