ATX PPC Motherboards from Eyetech

YttriumOx writes: "Eyetech Ltd, a UK based company now has the AmigaOneG3SE for prerelease to developers. Anyone who's been craving a PPC motherboard for either Linux or the New AmigaOS can put their orders in now. The developers prerelease board comes with a TurboLinux PPC CD. While this system is targetted at Amiga owners wanting new hardware, there's no reason for anyone needing a good PPC solution for Linux can't get their hands on one. You've got until the 24th of March if you want a prerelease board (note that the only difference between it and the final board is that the ROM chip in the final board will be an AmigaOS4 ROM where as it's an OpenPPC BIOS in the developers board. Exact specifications of the board can be found here." This is also a good solution for people who want to use Linux on a PowerPC but do not want to buy an Apple machine. Price for the "beta" board is $450 and final will be $500.

Comments

A bit expensive

[Metrollica]

Isn't $500 a little expensive for the board? A new iMac only costs $1,299.00 from the Apple Store and you get much more for the same price. There is also the matter of supporting Apple.

Re:History keeps repeating itself.

[Psion]

I've seen this behavior with every computer that has had any sort of a following. It doesn't matter what brand or OS: Amiga, Microsoft, Mac, Linux, TI, or TRS-80 -- what you describe is common to fanatics of any flavor.

Now the real reason Amiga died is because Commodore waited years before they even began to advertise the computer in any comprehensive way, and even that lasted only a handful of months. From acquisition to bankruptcy, Commodore had no clue how to handle a computer that was hands down superior to and cheaper than any competition.

Re:Apple was why I never bought a PPC based PC

[k_187]

Apple did an about face because the clone market was cannibalizing Apple's sales. The Clones made hardware that was just as good and was cheaper than Apple's own hardware. Pretty good deal at the time. I'm sure its said other places, but Apple is a hardware company first and a software company second. They couldn't survive as just a software company (or maybe didn't want to, Apple does have larger profit margins than most of the industry)

Secondly, you don't have to buy a whole new computer when you want to upgrade (ok you used to back with the Mac IIs and what not). You can buy processor upgrades for most recent Mac models (i.e. made in the last 6 or 7 years). When I get the money, I'm gonna take my 350 G3 up to dual 500 G4s, a full gig of ram and a new HD (prolly 80 gigs). Granted that's gonna cost an arm and a leg. but I do get to keep my spiffy blue case.

Re:Too expensive for what it is

[Afrosheen]

Before you bust out with a price comparison, consider the source. This is a short-run, small time manufacture, not a produced-by-the-billions-in-taiwan motherboard so many intel freaks are accustomed to. This is not Abit, nor Asus, nor Intel, nor Gigabyte. Of course it will be expensive. Have you priced manufacturing your own motherboard lately? Doubtful.

As the anonymous poster replied, a complete system with this board from these guys runs about a grand in US dollars. That's pretty price-competitive compared to Macs.

Microsoft is the exception, not the rule!

[alexhmit01]

Microsoft is an exceptional monopolist able to extract monopoly rents. I wish that Slashdot posters would stop suggesting that if Apple shipped an x86 OS, they'd become Microsoft.

Microsoft is the ONLY pure OS vendor. Redhat is a service/support company that also sells pretty boxes. Sun ships Iron. IBM ships Iron and does support. HP ships Iron. Until Compaq bought them, Dec shipped Iron.

Microsoft is the ONLY COMPANY, EVER, to establish itself as a large vendor selling the "virtual computer." They managed to make the hardware underneath them a commodity and provided a universal middle level that software rights to.

Forget the IE vs. Netscape web browser/middleware, Windows is middleware.

Most computer companies sell a whole widget. Microsoft functions like a hardware monopoly with outsourced production of hardware (its an economic model), you can't make money selling PCs unless you are the lowest cost provider like Dell, or you sell 'services' or 'addons' like Compaq/Dell/HP's enterprise server lines, etc.

Alex

Piracy

[Jace of Fuse!]

Can I buy a version of the board for running Linux PPC only? We are currently considering making this available. However you should note that it will not be possible to run Amiga OS4 on such a board without purchasing a special copy of OS4 which comes with a firmware update ROM. This is (obviously) to prevent OS4 piracy which is essential if Hyperion/Amiga Inc. are to continue to develop OS4.

What bothers me about that statement is that there will be people who still feel justified in pirating the OS anyway. "Software wants to be free. They owe me the OS. I don't pay for shit. I'm not buying it because it's just AmigaOS and nobody uses it anyway. It's not piracy if I don't sell it. Information wants to be free!"

The sad fact is that this OS is coming from a company that is trying really hard to keep an OS alive that was elegant in it's time, and had some concepts that still haven't been realized by operating systems of today. And even though AmigaOS isn't perfect, I'm very glad to see it develope further because with some modern touches it could easily be one of the best operating systems ever.

Could be, except there's that money issue. Amiga, Inc. isn't Microsoft. They're not even Apple. Hell, they're not even Redhat. They're just a few pennies and a nickle above what BeOS was a couple of years ago (if that much). So I think it goes without saying that pirating from this company is pretty fucking rotten, but that's not going to stop people from doing it anyway.

"But I'm doing them a favor by using the OS and making it popular." That's another argument I can already hear befor esomeone says it. To answer that shit before someone spews it... "Wanna help Amiga? Buy the OS. Punk."