New Amiga Hardware Runs Mac OS

Ethan writes: "A developer on the Yahoo Amiga One mailing list has successfully installed MacOS 9.2 using Mac On Linux. And it seems that adding OS X support is on the to-do horizon for the MOL developers. I think that it will be interesting to see the people at Apple lose some sleep now that a low cost, fast, off the shelf solution exists to run Mac OS, without any Apple hardware. If it doesn't do anything else, at least it will give the people buying the new Amiga One G3 PPC board an existing software base." Mind you, I've never even seen an Amiga One, but it would be a pretty silly thing to make up ;) Update: 07/05 07:03 GMT by T : Mike Bouma piped up with a link to a page featuring the same hardware, in this case running Debian, OpenOffice.org and Mozilla.

Comments

Who cares?

[ducasi]

How much would one of these machines cost to put together and how does it compare to the current generation of Macs?

There's not many Macs still using the G3, but the G3 iMac is very cheap and doesn't require any hacks to get Mac OS and Mac OS X to run!

I think it's cool that this is happening - it's always been clear to me that with Darwin being open it will only be a matter of time before Mac OS X is running on non-Apple hardware - but I don't think Steve Jobs will be shaking in his boots just yet.

That isn't true.

[autopr0n]

Ever heard of a company called Compaq?

All you have to do is write a work-alike rom that does the same things as the apple one. And since this is mostly being done for the hell of it, and you arn't limited by hardware you can make it as big and slow as you'd like.

You can also patch diffrent versions of the OS to run without the ROM if you want to. Or you can use a combination of the two methods (for example, taking out any verification code in the OS to make sure it's running with a genuine apple ROM)

Re:This isn't quite "running MacOS"

[Anonymous Coward]

>cracking Apple's bios

Oh for fuck's sake. the mac's firmware isn't fucking encrypted you retard. it's in software for all the newworld macs. or you could use romgrabber for older ones.

Businessweek on Gassee and BeOS

[joneshenry]

According to this article from long ago in Businessweek, BeOS would have been the foundation of the modern Apple OS had Gassee simply not wildly overplayed his hand. According to the article, Gassee's minimum asking price was rumored to be around a 200 million dollar stock deal. Considering that BeOS's assets were eventually sold for about 11 million, Gassee overvalued his property by about a factor of 20. Furthermore Gassee missed out on the opportunity to be Apple's savior instead of having the honor go to Jobs.

Something I've wondered about

[Mr_Silver]

If running OSX on a wintel box suddenly became very easy (and ignoring licence issues), would Linux on the desktop suddenly look rather doomed?

I've wondered about this and come to the conclusion that ignoring the sort of people that read slashdot and again I state for those people that didn't notice the first time ignoring the sort of people that read slashdot that you'd find that people would be more willing (and likely) to move to OSX because

• Nice interface brought to you by the people that know how to do interface design properly
• An excellent selection of software (iTunes, iPhoto etc. etc.)
• Easy to use for the point-and-click users, no need to go hitting the command line, but power users can if they want
• Office X. Enough said.
• Stability

(I'm definately not saying the Linux doesn't have some of the above, but the steeper learning curve and not as good interface wouldn't go in Linux's favour)

Of course, we know it wont happen, there are far to many issues that would prevent it from happening. But, if OSX could run on Wintel boxes , would Linux ever see a look in if joe public and general corporations decide to leave Windows?

Re:Something I've wondered about

[David Kennedy]

I wish I was moderating this - I wonder the same.

The reason that I wonder the same is that I, as a seasoned software developer and looong time Unix user, recently bought a Mac as my home platform. Everyone assumed I'd build a PC and slap Linux on there. I assumed the same until the 11th hour and then bought a Mac. It's pretty, easy to use, required me to learn nothing about the hardware (I'm a software person through and through) and yet I can run all my favourite apps and there's plenty of already ported Unix/Linux apps, and converting the rest is no more challenging than getting them to build on, say, an older HP or similar.

I'd very much like to have been able to get my folks a Mac rather than their troublesome Windows box.

Mac OS X on commodity priced hardware would be VERY attractive in the marketplace.

Re:Something I've wondered about

[blakespot]

If running OSX on a wintel box suddenly became very easy (and ignoring licence issues), would Linux on the desktop suddenly look rather doomed?

As opposed to the "future's so bright I gotta wear shades" prospect that desktop Linux is sporting now???

I was an Amiga user, and finally went PC when I realized I could use NeXSTEP on PC boxes, and I bought a high end 486 (at the time) to run it. Spent $4,500 on the machine. After 9 months I had to wipe NeXTSTEP and install Windows 3.1 as I needed the desktop apps. It was a sad day. I tried 4-5x over the next few years to run Linux exclusively (desktop use), but was forced to go back to Windows 95 becuase I simply needed the desktop apps Windows offered. I finally saw Jobs return to Apple and saw the plan for NeXTSTEP to merge with some MacOS pieces and become OS X. I bought a Mac, a Blue-and-White G3 400, in Jan '99. I jumped the gun a bit becuase OS X did not really get to rolling until March/April '01. But I had fun with the hardware while I waited (and noted OS 9's decent speed but terrible stability, etc.) Summer '01 I went out and purchased a dual processor G4 800 upon which to run OS X like a beast. I have never been happier with an OS.

Do you know how much $$ (hardware, purchase of NeXTSTEP) and time (installing Linux 5x over the years, only to uninstall and reinstall Windows) I spent trying to get a UNIX solution on the desktop that worked? It became a hobby in and of itself, the quest for desktop UNIX. But the apps always kept me away.

As I type this, I sit downstairs, away from my "machine room," using my new iBook 700. I am typing this on IE 5 (which now uses Apple's Quartz text smoothing for so-nice aa fonts) connected to the net via my AirPort base station (WiFi), I have Silverado on DVD playing in a small window, and have Photoshop 7 running in the background because I've been doing some color correction on some digicam images I've imported, via USB, into iPhoto, Apple's free photo management package. I could not be doing these things on the Linux platform. Nor any other UNIX platform. OS X has brought together the best desktop interface I have encountered, the most stable UNIX variant that I have encountered, mainstream application support that leaves the user wanting of nothing, and a company behind it all that has a clear and compelling vision and direction.

So...would Linux be doomed on the desktop if OS X became available for the PC? Well, you'll have to make that call. It won't happen becuase Apple's main source of revenue is hardware sales and also they currently are able to hold up OS X to the crowds with the stability and ease that only comes from a company controlling both the hardware and the software. Having run NeXTSTEP both on that old PC back in the day (where motherboards / chipsets / CPU's come from one of many vendors) and on my NeXT machine, I can tell you that such dead solid stability comes only from having just that kind of control over both ends of the stick. But OS X is available for Macs--and looking at what one walks away with when they take the plunge into the current world that Apple has built, it seems that the appeal of "free" Linux and the ability to run on super-economy hardware becomes somewhat less mighty....

Oh....and did I need a new laptop when I already have a DP G4 800 in-house? No. I simply am so enamored of OS X that I wanted to be able to take it with me whenever I like. I've had a few engrossing and satisfying relationships with OS's in the past (AmigaDOS in the 80's, etc.) but nothing like this. This is just...right.

blakespot

Re:Something I've wondered about

[OwnedByTwoCats]

The reason why Macs have a great reputation for stability is that their hardware is standardised, there's no mucking around with strange devices.

Mostly false. Someone just published a story about taking a generic, two-year-old IDE hard drive out of a PC, dropping it into a generic IEEE 1394 case, and plugging it into two different PCs running flavors of windows, and into a Mac. Result: Mac found it, and offered to format it. The author had to dig and dig and dig and consult tech support to do the same thing on the PC. Can anyone find the article?

It's something that Wintel has been struggling with for years.

Yup.

Re:Something I've wondered about

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd very much like to have been able to get my folks a Mac rather than their troublesome Windows box.

Mac OS X on commodity priced hardware would be VERY attractive in the marketplace.

Okay, I was with you for the first sentence, then you contradicted yourself in the second.

Mac hardware isn't "non-troublesome" because of the software. It's because the software and hardware are integrated cleanly. Putting MacOS X on "commodity priced hardware" implies putting it on hardware Apple isn't involved in. How would this not cause "trouble"?

Re:The Amiga is coming back.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Recently? Already at the time Commodore went belly up Amiga was starting to show its age. Doom was the game to show that Amigas "superior" chipsets wasn't so superior."

I can't believe how accurate and true this statement is. The shifting from planar format graphics, which made scrolling look great, to the now essential chunky in the games industry was definately the falling point. The ability to plot pixels individually with a colour reference was exactly what you needed when texture mapping became the big thing.

"How do you create a modern OS in less than a year?"

If a design is modular enough, components can be written within secure test harnesses. This allows larger groups of people to get more work done individually despite working on a group project. Don't discount how well a piece of software will work just through development time - This is where experience in programming really counts.

"And what about software? There have hardly been released anything for the Amiga the last 8-10 years."

It has always been true that software sells hardware. Without killer applications or a very secure niche market, the hardware vendors will not get enough money to continue development. Drivers are also going to be a problem. A lot of people are lazy and will go out and purchase any old modem or any old GF2 MX. I don't want to go and have to look for a *special* PCI/AGP card to work with the system but I also don't want generic drivers which make my hardware look and fell crap.

If they could find a large sector of industry to sell components to then they may have a fighting chance. If a company requires a specific piece of software to a job, they will buy the hardware to run it, irrespective of cost and availability, the majority are only interested in support and uptime.

I will buy one when they become available which may make my opinion bias. Nostalga drives sales. Bugger, bought some Lego Technic yesterday, drove 50 miles to go and get it to, first time in 8 years. Girlfriend was pleased, she wanted a new dining table! Can't wait to replace the front door with a new Amiga One.

I am not an Anonymous Coward - I just don't have a login I can remember.

Chris Allen.

Re:Mac OS at great value

[mtec]

3 times better...
Then why did Amiga fail?
And can someone please tell me why this ghost still haunts?

Really! I'm not being facetious. What is on the minds of the Amiga people besides fond memories? Please educate me (sincerely).