There's no single perfect answer to this question...
If I'm playing videogames, I get more out of using Windows.
If I'm messing around with coding or harware design (geda, icarus, Eagle PCB) I'm happier in Linux or Solaris. (I use Solaris for hardware stuff at work, Linux at home) I've got a MythTV box running on Linux, I had previously tried various similar software packages running under Windows 98SE, then 2000, and they proved too unstable to be suitable to the task, though I got into Linux before trying XP on that setup.
If I'm reading email, I prefer to use a platform we're not allowed to talk about on Slashdot lest a raging pile of "It's dead! It's dead!" monkeys go berzerk. I'm also involved with developing software for this un-named OS, and tend to boot into it for this specific development rather than cross-compile from a Linux host. This particular code is rather small and doesn't get any real benefit from being compiled on my Linux machines with faster CPUs.
>Native system theme integration (native widget rendering)
Does the descriotion for this mean that the user interface will now ACT like the native OS interface, or just LOOK like it now? My main gripe with OOo is that it seemed to try and emulate the MS Windows user interface in its operating window. While it seems the widgets drawn will no longer be trying to look like MS Windows widgets, I'm more interested in how I'll interact with the program.
If it's still an MS Windows-like _interaction_ then I'll still be less happy than if it used native OS style user interactions, in terms of actualy scrolling the scrollbars and other stuff that don't feel like they're Solaris or Linux interactions in 1.x versions. The user interactions in MS Windows is the major reason I don't get along with it well, and was disappointed to see older OOo versions trying to bring that baggage to different OSes that I otherwise got along with better.
Would you do us all a favor and not use your +1
bonus when you are dead wrong and don't even have
a clue what the discussion is about?
This isn't about windows, it's about office.
Then why did the article go like this:
Microsoft prioritised making its anti-piracy tool prevent users of Wine, an open source toolkit that allows users to run Windows applications under Linux, from downloading Windows updates, the software giant said on Friday.
Or the Slashdot summary go like this:
Microsoft Admits Targeting Wine Users
Posted by Zonk on Friday February 25, @12:58PM
from the why-wouldn't-they? dept.
Buddha Joe wrote in to mention that the lack of Windows updates for Wine users is the result of a Microsoft's active targeting of Wine users.
As far as I could tell, the "discussion" did seem to be talking about Windows updates as well as Office updates. My post addressed both... Quotes from this "discussion" that made me think commenting on Windows Update was OK:
Windowsupdate has simple checks in it to verify that it's updating actual installs of...wait for it...WINDOWS! "The spokesperson said users who are not running Windows XP or Windows 2000 natively can still download updates for Microsoft Office from the Office Update Web site." Indicating that Office is not the problem, that Windows is the problem
A legitimate copy of windows, running under a hardware emulator, or a virtual machine (like VMWare or VirtualPC) will continue to be updated.
Your troll is no reason for me to learn that I actually have a +1 bonus or how to disable it. But you told me the first part already, might as well finish the job with the second part... If you don't like it, don't read my ramblings, or mod me down, as the rest of Slashdot society will if they don't like what I have to say. And be glad I didn't go frothing at the mouth and start raving about Amiga stuff or how evil and fill of antitrust MS is for not porting Office to it... That would actually have been off-topic.:p
This is just something to get us pissed off. We have no recourse nor reason to do this. "The spokesperson said users who are not running Windows XP or Windows 2000 natively can still download updates for Microsoft Office from the Office Update Web site."
Running Linux/Wine is mutualy exclusive to running Windows. You also likely didn't buy a Windows license or service contract for your Linux/Wine system.
But it's quite possible that the version of Office you may be running is legitimately paid for, regardless of the host operating system. So you may have paid for the right to service updates to the Office product even though you most likely did not pay for the right to service updates to the Windows product.
That's one plausible difference between the two.
Or perhaps the next update to Office will bork at Linux/Wine systems as well, even those who did pay for the right to service updates to their copy of the Office product. Only time will tell...
>That is true. And if it required additional effort >to update the emulators, I would expect them not >to. But it appears as if they are are putting forth >additional effort to hamper emulators. And that >just makes them look like jerks.
MS provides these updates to their customers. Who actually use Windows. Who paid for Windows, and thus paid for the right to service updates. Did you pay for a legitimate Windows license for the machine you're running Linux/Wine on, and thus pay for service updates to your system?
If not, then what real expectation do you, as a non-paying non-customer who doesn't actually use Windows, have of them regarding their "MS Windows" software product? If you didn't buy Windows, and if you aren't running Windows, then how is it their problem to keep your Linux computer updated with various pieces of the product you didn't buy from them?
>One would think that humans getting such a handle >on the science of life and physics would have >obliterated religion, but it keeps on truckin' all >the same.
Even if science gets to teh point where it can in great detail disprove every "mystical property" of every religion, there's still reasons to keep religion around. If you boil off all the traditions, mysticisms, particular diety or prophet names, etc. all the religions I'm aware of, aat their very core, basically say "be nice to each other".
Don't steal, don't kill, stuff like that. It's a set of rules for decency in civilization. I would hope that science never does advance far enough to make those rules or ideas obsolete...
For the non-standard file format, that concerned me for a while. Then by chance I was fiddling around with disk sharing via samba to my Windows box in another room. Wouldn't ya know it, I could view my MythTV files without converting them. I have the Hauppauge PVR-250 tuner card with on-board hardware mpeg encoder, and this is the data in my files. It doesn't get mutated into nupple-native when being saved to disk...
So that could be one way around the format issue. But you still get the incomprehensible filenames.:)
I started my PVR PC project with Windows98. Using an ATI AllInWonder Radeon card the videp and sound were ALWAYS out of sync after a few minutes. XP didn't fix this problem, nor did Win2000. Turns out ATI's software cannot be made happy on any of my PCs. No diea why, or why other people can use it at all, or why it's never been fixed that I know of. After a couple years of on and off meddling with it I trashed the ATI software and tried Showshifter. Audio and Video magically were in sync finally! But Windows kept crashing and hanging and freezing every few days.
That's when I gave up and decided to try Linux and MythTV. Using Gentoo no less, and now I know way more about Linux than any "casual user" like I want to be should have to. But it's much more stable and usable than anything under Windows that I've seen, and I get more features than anything under Windows that I know of with all the game, music, etc. plugins.
There's too many people who are "comfortable" enough with what they've got. I've got a friend who's not willing to try anything other than Windows because he knows how to use Windows. He complains about the crashing and bugs and all, but he doesn't want to have to learn a new system. And avoiding that inconvenience is more important to him than getting a better quality product.
There's also the public image issue. Everyone knows about Windows. Mac still has a stigma of being prone to crashing and annoying users with all those old "Are you rally sure you were really sure you wanted to click that yes you truely indeed did want do do that?" dialog boxes. You and I know those issues are no longer things to worry about, at least they're far smaller bothers than they once were, but the mass public doesn't know that, and they aren't willing to even have a look to find out, much like so many slashdotters here are unwilling to fairly evaluate AmigaOS4 last week or so what that article came up. The mass public echoes your "Amiga is dead!" chants only they point it at Mac instead, or point chants about "What can *I* possibly use Linux for?!" at the Linux crowd.
Linux has other public image issues to work though. Things like "It's hard to install or use" have been addressed reasonably well, but the public again isn't willing to discover that to be true. Linux also has the old reputation of having no applications or games or stuff normal people would use. I know many people that cannot fathom what in the world I could possibly use Linux or AmigaOS for, yet are unwilling to be shown all the everyday applications like OpenOffice, Mozilla, Doom3, Unral Tournament, etc. that exist for Linux or AmigaOS equivalents for many things, and insist on continuing in their incorrect belief that such apps and games do not and CAN NOT exist outside of Windows. Even though the Mac crashes chants are obsolete and Windows has the same reputation, the masses are not willing to bother with reasoning.
The fact that MS pretty much looks like it IS the somputer software industry also has a great hold on users. There are lots who simply believe that since they are so big, they must have the best product. Even with the obvious bugs and other problems they experience, many people believe that since everyone else is such a small marketshare that they must of course have even worse quality products than the market winner has. For example, I can not get my dad to use anything but MS products because of this. He uses MSIE and Outlook, and there's no changing that, no matter how many viruses or spybots or zombies his computer is infected with. The friend I mentioned above is unwilling to use anything but MSIE because he doesn't care to learn anything else, as trivial as that learning curve may be, he's simply not interested even after all of his own complaining about MSIE.
It's not a "problem" with a rational solution, I don't think it'sbecause people are "stupid" or anything like that, I think it's because the vast majority of people simply do not care enough to actually do anything about it. Having what they're used to or what 97% of the world uses is more important to them than having a higher quality product.
Interestig how they mix MythTV in with commentary about people sharing TV shows on the internet. I have a MythTV box, which occasionally actually works (gentoo emerge updates often mangle something in there and breaks the machine, I'm currently trying to recover from such a mangling now), but I have no filesharing programs for Linux. I haven't got Samba worknig right to my Windows box either, but I can't remember the last time I used one there.
Turned out a waste of time, I tried downloading episodes of shows I missed that week, such as the first episode of Alias this season when I did not know they moved to Wed. night instead of their old Sunday timeslot. I never get a complete file, so I quit trying...
But really, how is downloading the episode of a show I missed last night stealing? It ain't for sale on DVD yet, or I'd buy it like I already got the first three seasons of Alias. As for commercial DVDs vs MythTV recordings, I'd rather have the DVDs. I've got a PVR-250 TV card, but the quality isn't nearly as good as DVDs. The quality often is rather disappointing on my recordings.
I had for a while kept recordings of Futurama reruns, but ended up getting DVDs because they look so much better on my TV, and that's a freakin' cartoon that shouldn't be affected by quality as bad as live actors and stuff should.
I dont' often even bother to skip commercials. It still gives me a place to visit the kitchen or restroom. And while I have seen the quote from some TV executive that those things qualify as stealing TV, sorry dude, but when nature calls, that's more important than watching another instance of some ad I've already seen way too many times.
OK, they have a list of fraudulent DVDs they sold. They have a form you can fill out to exclude yourself from the lawsuit. They say you can pick a replacement DVD from a list, but I don't see that list, only the broken DVDs list. They also say that to claim anything, you need to fill out a "Proof of claim" form, but I couldn't find that on the web site...
So, if one were to file a claim, how would one do it??
Please explain to me why using my email client under AmigaOS, by definition, make my emailing experience "suck more" than your emailing experience under Linux or Windows or whatever does.
Please explain why my complete ability to read and post to the Amiga news sites I visit, cnn, Slashdot, and my completely usable and no bugs that I've notices online banking, "suck more" than if I was using Firefox instead?
Please explain to me why my word processor, FinalWriter 97, makes it so much harder and pales so badly in comparison to OpenOffice, when all I use it for is the occasional business letter or resume?
If you're judging purely by the number of users, then OpenOffics, Firefox, and Linux don't seem to be doing very well compared to MS Office, MSIE, or Windows.
If you're judging by specific features or bugginess, please detail what needs to be corrected so it can be done. I'll even accept answers regarding particular items already known and in process but which you don't know that to be so. I won't accept any answers that are already addressed to completion.:)
A friend of mine once bought me a copy of Heretic2 for Linux by Loki, found in a bargain bin after they had closed shop. He did this because he knows I also use Linux, but had never had any clue of what I could possibly be used for. Little did he know, I already had the retail-boxed AmigaOS/PowerPC native port made by Hyperion...
But I use Linux for other things like Firefox when I'm in the living room where my MythTV box is. I use it for geda EDA tools. Yet he thought as you think about AmigaOS, that nothing exists to actually do in Linux. I never did get Heretic2 for Linux to work, as it was old when I got it and the advances in Linux since Loki closed had become incompatible with the game. (See my requests for help on Heretic2 in Gentoo forums if you can help... I've currently got 2.6.9 kernel installed.)
Just as there are many things available for Windows and not for Linux, there are things like Java and Shockwave for Linux that are not currently available for AmigaOS. We do not currently have Java, in the JVM form. We do have a Java source to native binary compiler ala Kaffe, but that of course does not let us visit Java web sites. I don't know for sure about Shockwave, there is something calles SWplayer or something close to that, but I'm under the impression it's only for Flash, not Shockwave.
Lack of usefulness depends on your needs. As many many Windows users cannot imagine what they would use Linux for, you are quite happy with it, even if there are certain things you cannot do that the Windows users can. For example some games do not work very well under Wine/Cedega/whatever. Yet Linux continues to be useful for other things, and you and I and our other friends here at Slashdot and elsewhere continue to make good use of the Linux platform, and are quire happy with it.
But consider, the first few Linux releases did not have Java or Shockwave, or ipTables, or Bind, or KDE, etc... These all came in time, as they are features desired by the users.
The lack of a desired feature, such as AmigaOS lacking Java, Sockwave, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc... Well, isn't the lack of something you desire what motivates us to do anything at all in our lives?
Why did the first guy decide to implement Java on Linux? Because he wanted it, and it wasn't already there. Same for every single thing that Linux does today. Someone wanted it, and it wasn't already there, so he went out and made it.
And so it was for everything that people today use Windows, *BSD, MacOS, RiscOS, CommodoreOne, etc. for.
Some people think that making a new Commodore64 is crazy, but when it got builit into the base of a joystick, had some retro/classic C=64 games packed into a ROM, and sold on QVC, someone made a pile of cash...
AmigaOS today may seem crazy to you, but we're working on adding the features you find missing today. It'll take a while. It may take a couple years to get around to some of them. But whevever is desired will at some point in time be missing, just as Java and Shockwave were once missing for Linux. You have them today, as will AmigaOS have them someday.
All I ask, is that when that day comes, and the Java and Shockwave situation making AmigaOS inappropriate for you today is rectified, that you then fairly evaluate AmigaOS at that time. If you find it still lacking on that day, fine, but at least please be respectful enough to check on things before complaining about them. After you've checked, then your complaints are valid, as are your complaints of Java and Shockwave lacking today. Or did you just get lucky with random choice of these two items?:)
If you do not actually require Java and Shockwave yourself today, but are merely using them as examples, would AmigaOS be otherwise suitable to what you actually use computers for? Or are there additional weaknesses and/or lacking features that we should make sure are on the to-do list so that we may someday hope to provide a suitable platform for your unique needs? This is an honest question, I'm sure the AmigaOS team would appreciate honest and constructive answers, and I ask it to all who read it, not just the parent comment's author.
Sure, x86 was a big part of my post, but you seem to have missed these pieces of it:
I asked about an iBook port. Somewhere there's business politics preventing this, and it sounds likw some of this isn't due to Apple corporate policy regarding documentation of their hardware. Someone has a contract or something that has the effect of disallowing this.
and this one:
There is an effort underway to license the IBM G5 reference (the kit including eval motherboard, schematics, software dev kit, etc. is about US$6000) but is currently in rather early stages.
Managment has in the past discussed the possibility uf a USB widget to hold the "custom ROM" part, which would make it possible to run on machines without it soldred to the motherboard, yet still retain that same level of piracy protection, whatever it's actually worth.
This would make it possible to keep the managers happy and the OS functional on Macs or Pegasos2 or whatever. Neither Apple nor Genesi of course want to get into the licensing of the custom USB widget and ship the AmigaOS CD with their card. I believe there were hints that a 3rd party could, as far as Amiga Inc. and Hyperion were concerned, buy a Mac or Pegasos2 from the respective vendor, license the AmigaOS and USB widget from Amiga/Hyperion, and sell the combination of the two products and have to support the hardware themselves as Apple nor Genesi would do so anymore. Similar in concept to if I were to buy a Dell with Windows, install Linux, and sell the result with a disclaimer that Dell will no longer support the machine, call me for help instead.
But the option exists, or at least did at one time. Obviously, no one has taken up that offer to date.
The remainder of the BIOS is Uboot, which you guys would be happy to know is GPL stuff. This actually POSTs the machine, and then hands control over to the custom ROM code to get the OS running.
Good observation, and I hope others notice as well.
Yes, I use AmigaOS because of personal preference for my gerneral day to day computing, email, web browsing, etc. When the admittedly aging IBrowse web browser fails ona web site, I do use Firefox on Windows or Linux, whichever is handy. I use Windows for HalfLife2. (I understand Transgaming's thing can supposedly run HalfLife2 udner Linux now, but feel Windows is still better suited to this particular task) I have not played Doom3 since before the Linux native binary was available, but when I have time I would like to try it out and see how it fares. I do use Gentoo linux as a firewall, for geda EDA tools, and for MythTV. Each is good for certain things, and not as good for other certain things. The general user interface in AmigaOS fits my personality better than Windows or Linux, so that's my first choice. But it is not as suitable for some tasks as Windows or Linux. And instead of doing without, I do use the better platform for the job. Windows is better for certain games than Linux, Linux is better for firewalling my whole LAN and doing EDA stuff than Windows is. AmigaOS is of course behind in games available, lacks many firewall features available in Linux, and there's no ports of geda EDA tools yet, but for email, there's nothing better than security by a combination of incompatibility and this level of obscurity...
I bought my mom a PC running Windows, as I live 300 miles away and it easier for her to get support when I'm not around. I bought my sister a PC running windows, for the same reason. My dad bought his own, but I'm glad he did for the same reason. My mom and sister both run Firefox. My mom has OpenOffice. My sister has it, but usually uses MS Office because she thinks she needs it for school and that OpenOffice is inadequate.
My dad will ONLY use Microsoft products. He's one of them Joe Average guys Bill Gates wants us ALL to be. He is NOT WILLING to consider any alternative product, PERIOD. He believes that the mere fact Microsoft is so huge is proof that no other product can possibly be worth looking at, that everything else must totally suck, and the people have thusly used their wallets to vote for MS as the only possibly worthy software maker. Yet he's often calling me to help him get his PC working right again when it starts to flake out. There's zero chance reasoning with the guy, PERIOD. I've tried... He's constantly trying to talk me into using Windows and Office instead. He gave me a copy of Office so I'd have it, because I didn't have it before and must therefore have been totally unable to do anything with my computer. Something about in the real world I absolutely have to hav eit and use it because everyone else does, and I'll never survive without MS stuff at work. In reality, at work, I use a solaris box an OpenOffice... But there's no convincing him.
If you evaluate and then don't want to use AmigaOS, then don't. But don't say it's dead just because you don't want to use it. Let those of us who do want to use it, do so in peace.
If you want to use Linux, by all means, please do so. I do.
If you want to use Windows, that's your personal choice as well. I do. Same for Mac, *BSD, etc.
My dismay at seeing Amiga related posts here is that Slashdot ueres are not interested in evaluating the thing, to find out if the new version 4 AmigaOS could possibly be interesting to them. You've all already made up your mind against it, without knowing what it is or what it can do, or what it feels like, etc.
Its the same situation as Slashdot accuses most Windows users of. Joe Normal Windows user will not give Linux a chance to find out if he could possibly like it or not. Joe Average will ONLY ever use MS Office, as he is not willing to gove OpenOffice a chance and find out if it would suit him. This for good reason aggravates supporters of those products.
But those same advocates asking Windows users to at least evaluate their products BEFORE making a decision, are unwilling to co
We're not out of business, and sales have gone beyond 500 long ago.
Those involved are looking to other markets, which are currently small but have future potential, which are not currently dominated by x86 or anything at all, and which may place more priority on things other than x86 compatibility or raw horesepower.
And the AmigaOne motherboards are not sole exclusively to Amiga users. They are also evaluation boards for the northbridge chip company running Linux, and marketed to embedded systems and industrial systems companies as a lower-power device than x86 boards. The ones that get teh Amiga sticker on them are likely lower numbers than the total of all boards produced...
Genesi did the same thing with their Pegasos2 PowerPC motherboard, selling some to Amiga users with their Amiga-like and related MorphOS software, and they are now the eval board for Freescale and partnering with Gentoo Linux...
> All that said, it's kinda sad to see you sitting here begging for whatever name-branded Amiga scraps you can get.
Huh? I'm not begging for anything. I have a good job designing chips for a living and can easily pay for whatever I desire.
Also, when other Amiga users were drooling over the shiny new Voodoo3 drivers, I was scratching my head not understanding the obsession when Radeons and GeForces were on their second generations. Instead of begging, I made a proposal to Nvidia for an NDA, I'd do all the work, support,e tc. all they'd have to do was put hardware on the shelves at the local PC emporium, which they already did. They didn't even respond with a polite "no thank you", they completely ignored us. ATI responded to my proposal with an NDA contract and some documentation. We do all the work, support, etc. and all they have to do is put Radeons on the shelves at te local PC emporium, which they already do.
I didn't beg for anything. I made a business proposal acceptable to ATI, and AmigaOS4 now runs nicely on Radeon cards.
I discussed the convenience of AmigaOS on a laptop, and thus iBook hardware with other developers, but there doesn't seem to be a business agreeable to all involved there. I'm now investigating the feasability of developing a PowerPC laptop of my own, which if it is a viable product will make an open-platform system as much as I could, and allow anyone write their own OS, drivers, etc. which is an obstacle to some extent when looking at Macs. Is this a feasable idea? It may not be, but this hasn't been proven to me yet.
Hey, Gentoo and Freescale seem pretty happy with the "other Amiga motherboard", the Pegasos2 AKA "Open Desktop Workstation" PowerPC motherboard. Wouldn't they be happy with a more easily portable PowerPC board as well?
> Nor does it have virtual memory, or makes any other use of MMU present in every modern processor.
AmigaOS 4 DOES have virtual memory built-in. This can exist without memory protection features, which are not present in the form that Slashdot readers would recognize it. There is some limited memory protection of kernel-space, but nothing in user-space.
There HAS been use of the MMU in the past. Mostly development stuff, debuggers and whatnot. The old VMM virtual memory tool you mentioned, which added VM to the older OS, used the MMU.
Elbox used it for their Mediator PCI bus drivers for the Amiga 1200. The mediators for other Amiga models did not use it, but the A1200 computer only provided 24bto address lines for them to use. The 3000 and 4000 Amiga models provided all 32bit address lines. For the drivers on the A1200, they used an 8MB (or 4MB depending on jumper settings) window, and they in more recent versions fo their software use the MMU to keep track of where the drivers are going and can automatically map the window to the proper addressing fo rthings to work, as if the driver was talking down a full 32bit address bus. www.elbox.com
A small number of poroductivity apps had a minimal sort of virtual memory features built-in to them as well, and required MMU to run.
Do you know if this driver even is based on the GPL sources from Linux? I'm an Amiga user, have read about this wireless driver, and do not know. It hasn't been stated anywhere I've read about it. It may nto be based on GPL sources, making your paranoia grossly unfounded.
If it IS based on GPL sources, do you know if they provide sources or not? I haven't got one, so haven't myself seen what's included on the driver CD. It could very well already be there, making your paranoia grossly unfounded. If not on the CD, has the seller received any requests? If no one has asked for sources, your paranoia is currently grossly unfounded.
Trust me, there are GPL zealots in Amiga land as well. They've made quite a fuss about a couple things, and through these public discussions brought about corrections to the valid compaints. If there actually is any GPL issue to be concerned with, it will be fussed about in the not very distant future as people start purchasing these driver/PCI card bundles.
There's also great interest in these drivers from the MorphOS community. They will be making a bug fuss if they discover these are GPLed drivers and no sources are available for them to port it to their "other AmigaOS" of choice.
One reason is that if you run on x86, people will be too impatient for certain applications or games to be ported, and end up dual-booting with Windows. Over time, the user is likely to spend more and more time in Windows, and less and less time in the new OS, reducing NewOS's market. NewOS application/game developers wil suffer even more because the users got tired of waiting and bought the Windows version of their thing instead, and won't buy it again as NewOS-native.
Another reason is that Amiga had begun a shift to PowerPC years ago, and the more modern Amiga apps/games software is all PowerPC based now. Going x86 would throw those things out the window.
There was a project called Amithlon at one time that would have lended itself to migrating to x86 native, but apparently some people involved with that got in a 3- or 4-sided licensing war and killed the thing. It began as a 68K Amiga emulation where you did not see the underlying OS at all, like you do with the UAE emulator. It had an API to write x86 native code, and a small number of apps did just that. It could have extended to an eventual completely x86 native AmigaOS platform, pity it failed to do so. The main drawback is that Amithlon only emulated the 68K CPU, so the more recent and more powerful PowerPC-native apps would not be usable, and some of those that were highly desired were no longer supported and would not have got an x86 port.
Another reason spouted is that to support the x86 platform, many many many drivers for different motherboard chipsets need to be made. The developers can't keep up with all of that. If they did a certain specified subset, you guys would still complain that it's not enough. So why bother?
I asked about an iBook port. Somewhere there's business politics preventing this, and it sounds likw some of this isn't due to Apple corporate policy regarding documentation of their hardware. Someone has a contract or something that has the effect of disallowing this.
Another reason is that documentation cannot be had for a number fo chips to write drivers for. As this is a commercial product, simply using the GPLed Linux driver sources is not a good answer, as the corporation does not want to give away their product sources. (It's their right to make that business decision to remain proprietary, regardless of the open-source ideology popular at Slashdot) Though this decision does make it harder to support a larger variety of popular and cheap hardware.
For example, Nvidia won't even reply to emails asking for an NDA agreement to give a polite "no thank you". ATI on the other hand has granted the company I'm involved with an NDA and documentation to write proprietary Radeon drivers for AmigaOS. Regardless of what we'd like to do, with the limited resources for programming, and the limited number of chips we can get documetnation for, it makes more sense to do a small set of hardware to start with.
I agree with some of these, I personally do not agree with them all, but these are the ones I can think of at the moment explaining why the decision makers have done what they did.
Eyetech, an Amiga dealer for years and an industrial electronics supplier got together with a PowerPC northbridge chip company to sell boards for embedded and industrial systems. They skim some boards off the production line and put an AmigaOne sticker on them for us to use, Eyetech and the northbridge company support us ebtter than some chipset companies do, so that's our starting point... AmigaOS now has a pretty decent HAL layer, so other things can be supported when it makes sense to do so, but those making the decisions don't think it makes sense to do so at this time.
There is an effort underway to license the IBM G5 reference (the kit including eval motherboard, schematics, software dev kit, etc. is about US$6000) but is currently in rather early stages.
Slashdot Mirror
There's no single perfect answer to this question...
If I'm playing videogames, I get more out of using Windows.
If I'm messing around with coding or harware design (geda, icarus, Eagle PCB) I'm happier in Linux or Solaris. (I use Solaris for hardware stuff at work, Linux at home) I've got a MythTV box running on Linux, I had previously tried various similar software packages running under Windows 98SE, then 2000, and they proved too unstable to be suitable to the task, though I got into Linux before trying XP on that setup.
If I'm reading email, I prefer to use a platform we're not allowed to talk about on Slashdot lest a raging pile of "It's dead! It's dead!" monkeys go berzerk. I'm also involved with developing software for this un-named OS, and tend to boot into it for this specific development rather than cross-compile from a Linux host. This particular code is rather small and doesn't get any real benefit from being compiled on my Linux machines with faster CPUs.
>Native system theme integration (native widget rendering)
Does the descriotion for this mean that the user interface will now ACT like the native OS interface, or just LOOK like it now? My main gripe with OOo is that it seemed to try and emulate the MS Windows user interface in its operating window. While it seems the widgets drawn will no longer be trying to look like MS Windows widgets, I'm more interested in how I'll interact with the program.
If it's still an MS Windows-like _interaction_ then I'll still be less happy than if it used native OS style user interactions, in terms of actualy scrolling the scrollbars and other stuff that don't feel like they're Solaris or Linux interactions in 1.x versions. The user interactions in MS Windows is the major reason I don't get along with it well, and was disappointed to see older OOo versions trying to bring that baggage to different OSes that I otherwise got along with better.
Would you do us all a favor and not use your +1 bonus when you are dead wrong and don't even have a clue what the discussion is about?
:p
This isn't about windows, it's about office.
Then why did the article go like this:
Microsoft prioritised making its anti-piracy tool prevent users of Wine, an open source toolkit that allows users to run Windows applications under Linux, from downloading Windows updates, the software giant said on Friday.
Or the Slashdot summary go like this:
Microsoft Admits Targeting Wine Users Posted by Zonk on Friday February 25, @12:58PM from the why-wouldn't-they? dept. Buddha Joe wrote in to mention that the lack of Windows updates for Wine users is the result of a Microsoft's active targeting of Wine users.
As far as I could tell, the "discussion" did seem to be talking about Windows updates as well as Office updates. My post addressed both... Quotes from this "discussion" that made me think commenting on Windows Update was OK:
Windowsupdate has simple checks in it to verify that it's updating actual installs of...wait for it...WINDOWS!
"The spokesperson said users who are not running Windows XP or Windows 2000 natively can still download updates for Microsoft Office from the Office Update Web site." Indicating that Office is not the problem, that Windows is the problem
A legitimate copy of windows, running under a hardware emulator, or a virtual machine (like VMWare or VirtualPC) will continue to be updated.
Your troll is no reason for me to learn that I actually have a +1 bonus or how to disable it. But you told me the first part already, might as well finish the job with the second part... If you don't like it, don't read my ramblings, or mod me down, as the rest of Slashdot society will if they don't like what I have to say. And be glad I didn't go frothing at the mouth and start raving about Amiga stuff or how evil and fill of antitrust MS is for not porting Office to it... That would actually have been off-topic.
This is just something to get us pissed off. We have no recourse nor reason to do this. "The spokesperson said users who are not running Windows XP or Windows 2000 natively can still download updates for Microsoft Office from the Office Update Web site."
Running Linux/Wine is mutualy exclusive to running Windows. You also likely didn't buy a Windows license or service contract for your Linux/Wine system.
But it's quite possible that the version of Office you may be running is legitimately paid for, regardless of the host operating system. So you may have paid for the right to service updates to the Office product even though you most likely did not pay for the right to service updates to the Windows product.
That's one plausible difference between the two.
Or perhaps the next update to Office will bork at Linux/Wine systems as well, even those who did pay for the right to service updates to their copy of the Office product. Only time will tell...
>That is true. And if it required additional effort
>to update the emulators, I would expect them not
>to. But it appears as if they are are putting forth
>additional effort to hamper emulators. And that
>just makes them look like jerks.
MS provides these updates to their customers. Who actually use Windows. Who paid for Windows, and thus paid for the right to service updates. Did you pay for a legitimate Windows license for the machine you're running Linux/Wine on, and thus pay for service updates to your system?
If not, then what real expectation do you, as a non-paying non-customer who doesn't actually use Windows, have of them regarding their "MS Windows" software product? If you didn't buy Windows, and if you aren't running Windows, then how is it their problem to keep your Linux computer updated with various pieces of the product you didn't buy from them?
So, will the RIAA now hire people to stand around inthe woods to make sure that falling tree gets heard?
>One would think that humans getting such a handle
>on the science of life and physics would have
>obliterated religion, but it keeps on truckin' all
>the same.
Even if science gets to teh point where it can in great detail disprove every "mystical property" of every religion, there's still reasons to keep religion around. If you boil off all the traditions, mysticisms, particular diety or prophet names, etc. all the religions I'm aware of, aat their very core, basically say "be nice to each other".
Don't steal, don't kill, stuff like that. It's a set of rules for decency in civilization. I would hope that science never does advance far enough to make those rules or ideas obsolete...
For the non-standard file format, that concerned me for a while. Then by chance I was fiddling around with disk sharing via samba to my Windows box in another room. Wouldn't ya know it, I could view my MythTV files without converting them. I have the Hauppauge PVR-250 tuner card with on-board hardware mpeg encoder, and this is the data in my files. It doesn't get mutated into nupple-native when being saved to disk...
:)
So that could be one way around the format issue. But you still get the incomprehensible filenames.
I started my PVR PC project with Windows98. Using an ATI AllInWonder Radeon card the videp and sound were ALWAYS out of sync after a few minutes. XP didn't fix this problem, nor did Win2000. Turns out ATI's software cannot be made happy on any of my PCs. No diea why, or why other people can use it at all, or why it's never been fixed that I know of. After a couple years of on and off meddling with it I trashed the ATI software and tried Showshifter. Audio and Video magically were in sync finally! But Windows kept crashing and hanging and freezing every few days.
That's when I gave up and decided to try Linux and MythTV. Using Gentoo no less, and now I know way more about Linux than any "casual user" like I want to be should have to. But it's much more stable and usable than anything under Windows that I've seen, and I get more features than anything under Windows that I know of with all the game, music, etc. plugins.
There's too many people who are "comfortable" enough with what they've got. I've got a friend who's not willing to try anything other than Windows because he knows how to use Windows. He complains about the crashing and bugs and all, but he doesn't want to have to learn a new system. And avoiding that inconvenience is more important to him than getting a better quality product.
There's also the public image issue. Everyone knows about Windows. Mac still has a stigma of being prone to crashing and annoying users with all those old "Are you rally sure you were really sure you wanted to click that yes you truely indeed did want do do that?" dialog boxes. You and I know those issues are no longer things to worry about, at least they're far smaller bothers than they once were, but the mass public doesn't know that, and they aren't willing to even have a look to find out, much like so many slashdotters here are unwilling to fairly evaluate AmigaOS4 last week or so what that article came up. The mass public echoes your "Amiga is dead!" chants only they point it at Mac instead, or point chants about "What can *I* possibly use Linux for?!" at the Linux crowd.
Linux has other public image issues to work though. Things like "It's hard to install or use" have been addressed reasonably well, but the public again isn't willing to discover that to be true. Linux also has the old reputation of having no applications or games or stuff normal people would use. I know many people that cannot fathom what in the world I could possibly use Linux or AmigaOS for, yet are unwilling to be shown all the everyday applications like OpenOffice, Mozilla, Doom3, Unral Tournament, etc. that exist for Linux or AmigaOS equivalents for many things, and insist on continuing in their incorrect belief that such apps and games do not and CAN NOT exist outside of Windows. Even though the Mac crashes chants are obsolete and Windows has the same reputation, the masses are not willing to bother with reasoning.
The fact that MS pretty much looks like it IS the somputer software industry also has a great hold on users. There are lots who simply believe that since they are so big, they must have the best product. Even with the obvious bugs and other problems they experience, many people believe that since everyone else is such a small marketshare that they must of course have even worse quality products than the market winner has. For example, I can not get my dad to use anything but MS products because of this. He uses MSIE and Outlook, and there's no changing that, no matter how many viruses or spybots or zombies his computer is infected with. The friend I mentioned above is unwilling to use anything but MSIE because he doesn't care to learn anything else, as trivial as that learning curve may be, he's simply not interested even after all of his own complaining about MSIE.
It's not a "problem" with a rational solution, I don't think it'sbecause people are "stupid" or anything like that, I think it's because the vast majority of people simply do not care enough to actually do anything about it. Having what they're used to or what 97% of the world uses is more important to them than having a higher quality product.
Interestig how they mix MythTV in with commentary about people sharing TV shows on the internet. I have a MythTV box, which occasionally actually works (gentoo emerge updates often mangle something in there and breaks the machine, I'm currently trying to recover from such a mangling now), but I have no filesharing programs for Linux. I haven't got Samba worknig right to my Windows box either, but I can't remember the last time I used one there.
Turned out a waste of time, I tried downloading episodes of shows I missed that week, such as the first episode of Alias this season when I did not know they moved to Wed. night instead of their old Sunday timeslot. I never get a complete file, so I quit trying...
But really, how is downloading the episode of a show I missed last night stealing? It ain't for sale on DVD yet, or I'd buy it like I already got the first three seasons of Alias. As for commercial DVDs vs MythTV recordings, I'd rather have the DVDs. I've got a PVR-250 TV card, but the quality isn't nearly as good as DVDs. The quality often is rather disappointing on my recordings.
I had for a while kept recordings of Futurama reruns, but ended up getting DVDs because they look so much better on my TV, and that's a freakin' cartoon that shouldn't be affected by quality as bad as live actors and stuff should.
I dont' often even bother to skip commercials. It still gives me a place to visit the kitchen or restroom. And while I have seen the quote from some TV executive that those things qualify as stealing TV, sorry dude, but when nature calls, that's more important than watching another instance of some ad I've already seen way too many times.
OK, they have a list of fraudulent DVDs they sold. They have a form you can fill out to exclude yourself from the lawsuit. They say you can pick a replacement DVD from a list, but I don't see that list, only the broken DVDs list. They also say that to claim anything, you need to fill out a "Proof of claim" form, but I couldn't find that on the web site...
So, if one were to file a claim, how would one do it??
Does this sticker go on top of, or underneath the antenna signal improvement sticker?
The shameless plus was offtopic as a reply to my comment, and thus didn't make sense in that location of the forum.
My own contributions? Is an ATI Radeon driver worthwhile? If not, then I appologize for getting one to happen.
My Braun toothbrush and Panasonic shaver both have such cradles as well. All inductuve, no metal contacts anywhere.
Please explain to me why using my email client under AmigaOS, by definition, make my emailing experience "suck more" than your emailing experience under Linux or Windows or whatever does.
:)
Please explain why my complete ability to read and post to the Amiga news sites I visit, cnn, Slashdot, and my completely usable and no bugs that I've notices online banking, "suck more" than if I was using Firefox instead?
Please explain to me why my word processor, FinalWriter 97, makes it so much harder and pales so badly in comparison to OpenOffice, when all I use it for is the occasional business letter or resume?
If you're judging purely by the number of users, then OpenOffics, Firefox, and Linux don't seem to be doing very well compared to MS Office, MSIE, or Windows.
If you're judging by specific features or bugginess, please detail what needs to be corrected so it can be done. I'll even accept answers regarding particular items already known and in process but which you don't know that to be so. I won't accept any answers that are already addressed to completion.
A friend of mine once bought me a copy of Heretic2 for Linux by Loki, found in a bargain bin after they had closed shop. He did this because he knows I also use Linux, but had never had any clue of what I could possibly be used for. Little did he know, I already had the retail-boxed AmigaOS/PowerPC native port made by Hyperion...
:)
But I use Linux for other things like Firefox when I'm in the living room where my MythTV box is. I use it for geda EDA tools. Yet he thought as you think about AmigaOS, that nothing exists to actually do in Linux. I never did get Heretic2 for Linux to work, as it was old when I got it and the advances in Linux since Loki closed had become incompatible with the game. (See my requests for help on Heretic2 in Gentoo forums if you can help... I've currently got 2.6.9 kernel installed.)
Just as there are many things available for Windows and not for Linux, there are things like Java and Shockwave for Linux that are not currently available for AmigaOS. We do not currently have Java, in the JVM form. We do have a Java source to native binary compiler ala Kaffe, but that of course does not let us visit Java web sites. I don't know for sure about Shockwave, there is something calles SWplayer or something close to that, but I'm under the impression it's only for Flash, not Shockwave.
Lack of usefulness depends on your needs. As many many Windows users cannot imagine what they would use Linux for, you are quite happy with it, even if there are certain things you cannot do that the Windows users can. For example some games do not work very well under Wine/Cedega/whatever. Yet Linux continues to be useful for other things, and you and I and our other friends here at Slashdot and elsewhere continue to make good use of the Linux platform, and are quire happy with it.
But consider, the first few Linux releases did not have Java or Shockwave, or ipTables, or Bind, or KDE, etc... These all came in time, as they are features desired by the users.
The lack of a desired feature, such as AmigaOS lacking Java, Sockwave, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc... Well, isn't the lack of something you desire what motivates us to do anything at all in our lives?
Why did the first guy decide to implement Java on Linux? Because he wanted it, and it wasn't already there. Same for every single thing that Linux does today. Someone wanted it, and it wasn't already there, so he went out and made it.
And so it was for everything that people today use Windows, *BSD, MacOS, RiscOS, CommodoreOne, etc. for.
Some people think that making a new Commodore64 is crazy, but when it got builit into the base of a joystick, had some retro/classic C=64 games packed into a ROM, and sold on QVC, someone made a pile of cash...
AmigaOS today may seem crazy to you, but we're working on adding the features you find missing today. It'll take a while. It may take a couple years to get around to some of them. But whevever is desired will at some point in time be missing, just as Java and Shockwave were once missing for Linux. You have them today, as will AmigaOS have them someday.
All I ask, is that when that day comes, and the Java and Shockwave situation making AmigaOS inappropriate for you today is rectified, that you then fairly evaluate AmigaOS at that time. If you find it still lacking on that day, fine, but at least please be respectful enough to check on things before complaining about them. After you've checked, then your complaints are valid, as are your complaints of Java and Shockwave lacking today. Or did you just get lucky with random choice of these two items?
If you do not actually require Java and Shockwave yourself today, but are merely using them as examples, would AmigaOS be otherwise suitable to what you actually use computers for? Or are there additional weaknesses and/or lacking features that we should make sure are on the to-do list so that we may someday hope to provide a suitable platform for your unique needs? This is an honest question, I'm sure the AmigaOS team would appreciate honest and constructive answers, and I ask it to all who read it, not just the parent comment's author.
Thank you.
Sure, x86 was a big part of my post, but you seem to have missed these pieces of it:
I asked about an iBook port. Somewhere there's business politics preventing this, and it sounds likw some of this isn't due to Apple corporate policy regarding documentation of their hardware. Someone has a contract or something that has the effect of disallowing this.
and this one:
There is an effort underway to license the IBM G5 reference (the kit including eval motherboard, schematics, software dev kit, etc. is about US$6000) but is currently in rather early stages.
Managment has in the past discussed the possibility uf a USB widget to hold the "custom ROM" part, which would make it possible to run on machines without it soldred to the motherboard, yet still retain that same level of piracy protection, whatever it's actually worth.
This would make it possible to keep the managers happy and the OS functional on Macs or Pegasos2 or whatever. Neither Apple nor Genesi of course want to get into the licensing of the custom USB widget and ship the AmigaOS CD with their card. I believe there were hints that a 3rd party could, as far as Amiga Inc. and Hyperion were concerned, buy a Mac or Pegasos2 from the respective vendor, license the AmigaOS and USB widget from Amiga/Hyperion, and sell the combination of the two products and have to support the hardware themselves as Apple nor Genesi would do so anymore. Similar in concept to if I were to buy a Dell with Windows, install Linux, and sell the result with a disclaimer that Dell will no longer support the machine, call me for help instead.
But the option exists, or at least did at one time. Obviously, no one has taken up that offer to date.
The remainder of the BIOS is Uboot, which you guys would be happy to know is GPL stuff. This actually POSTs the machine, and then hands control over to the custom ROM code to get the OS running.
Good observation, and I hope others notice as well.
Yes, I use AmigaOS because of personal preference for my gerneral day to day computing, email, web browsing, etc. When the admittedly aging IBrowse web browser fails ona web site, I do use Firefox on Windows or Linux, whichever is handy. I use Windows for HalfLife2. (I understand Transgaming's thing can supposedly run HalfLife2 udner Linux now, but feel Windows is still better suited to this particular task) I have not played Doom3 since before the Linux native binary was available, but when I have time I would like to try it out and see how it fares. I do use Gentoo linux as a firewall, for geda EDA tools, and for MythTV. Each is good for certain things, and not as good for other certain things. The general user interface in AmigaOS fits my personality better than Windows or Linux, so that's my first choice. But it is not as suitable for some tasks as Windows or Linux. And instead of doing without, I do use the better platform for the job. Windows is better for certain games than Linux, Linux is better for firewalling my whole LAN and doing EDA stuff than Windows is. AmigaOS is of course behind in games available, lacks many firewall features available in Linux, and there's no ports of geda EDA tools yet, but for email, there's nothing better than security by a combination of incompatibility and this level of obscurity...
I bought my mom a PC running Windows, as I live 300 miles away and it easier for her to get support when I'm not around. I bought my sister a PC running windows, for the same reason. My dad bought his own, but I'm glad he did for the same reason. My mom and sister both run Firefox. My mom has OpenOffice. My sister has it, but usually uses MS Office because she thinks she needs it for school and that OpenOffice is inadequate.
My dad will ONLY use Microsoft products. He's one of them Joe Average guys Bill Gates wants us ALL to be. He is NOT WILLING to consider any alternative product, PERIOD. He believes that the mere fact Microsoft is so huge is proof that no other product can possibly be worth looking at, that everything else must totally suck, and the people have thusly used their wallets to vote for MS as the only possibly worthy software maker. Yet he's often calling me to help him get his PC working right again when it starts to flake out. There's zero chance reasoning with the guy, PERIOD. I've tried... He's constantly trying to talk me into using Windows and Office instead. He gave me a copy of Office so I'd have it, because I didn't have it before and must therefore have been totally unable to do anything with my computer. Something about in the real world I absolutely have to hav eit and use it because everyone else does, and I'll never survive without MS stuff at work. In reality, at work, I use a solaris box an OpenOffice... But there's no convincing him.
If you evaluate and then don't want to use AmigaOS, then don't. But don't say it's dead just because you don't want to use it. Let those of us who do want to use it, do so in peace.
If you want to use Linux, by all means, please do so. I do.
If you want to use Windows, that's your personal choice as well. I do. Same for Mac, *BSD, etc.
My dismay at seeing Amiga related posts here is that Slashdot ueres are not interested in evaluating the thing, to find out if the new version 4 AmigaOS could possibly be interesting to them. You've all already made up your mind against it, without knowing what it is or what it can do, or what it feels like, etc.
Its the same situation as Slashdot accuses most Windows users of. Joe Normal Windows user will not give Linux a chance to find out if he could possibly like it or not. Joe Average will ONLY ever use MS Office, as he is not willing to gove OpenOffice a chance and find out if it would suit him. This for good reason aggravates supporters of those products.
But those same advocates asking Windows users to at least evaluate their products BEFORE making a decision, are unwilling to co
> This strikes me as the same failed BeOS strategy that failed with the BeBox.
Be was doing well in the BeBox days. They were doing well in the "runs on Macintosh hardware" days.
Be died after they went x86...
We're not out of business, and sales have gone beyond 500 long ago.
Those involved are looking to other markets, which are currently small but have future potential, which are not currently dominated by x86 or anything at all, and which may place more priority on things other than x86 compatibility or raw horesepower.
And the AmigaOne motherboards are not sole exclusively to Amiga users. They are also evaluation boards for the northbridge chip company running Linux, and marketed to embedded systems and industrial systems companies as a lower-power device than x86 boards. The ones that get teh Amiga sticker on them are likely lower numbers than the total of all boards produced...
Genesi did the same thing with their Pegasos2 PowerPC motherboard, selling some to Amiga users with their Amiga-like and related MorphOS software, and they are now the eval board for Freescale and partnering with Gentoo Linux...
> All that said, it's kinda sad to see you sitting here begging for whatever name-branded Amiga scraps you can get.
/ webapp/sps/site/overview. jsp?nodeId=018rH3bTdGZj9N58582822
Huh? I'm not begging for anything. I have a good job designing chips for a living and can easily pay for whatever I desire.
Also, when other Amiga users were drooling over the shiny new Voodoo3 drivers, I was scratching my head not understanding the obsession when Radeons and GeForces were on their second generations. Instead of begging, I made a proposal to Nvidia for an NDA, I'd do all the work, support,e tc. all they'd have to do was put hardware on the shelves at the local PC emporium, which they already did. They didn't even respond with a polite "no thank you", they completely ignored us. ATI responded to my proposal with an NDA contract and some documentation. We do all the work, support, etc. and all they have to do is put Radeons on the shelves at te local PC emporium, which they already do.
I didn't beg for anything. I made a business proposal acceptable to ATI, and AmigaOS4 now runs nicely on Radeon cards.
I discussed the convenience of AmigaOS on a laptop, and thus iBook hardware with other developers, but there doesn't seem to be a business agreeable to all involved there. I'm now investigating the feasability of developing a PowerPC laptop of my own, which if it is a viable product will make an open-platform system as much as I could, and allow anyone write their own OS, drivers, etc. which is an obstacle to some extent when looking at Macs. Is this a feasable idea? It may not be, but this hasn't been proven to me yet.
Hey, Gentoo and Freescale seem pretty happy with the "other Amiga motherboard", the Pegasos2 AKA "Open Desktop Workstation" PowerPC motherboard. Wouldn't they be happy with a more easily portable PowerPC board as well?
http://www.gentoo.org
http://www.freescale.com
> Nor does it have virtual memory, or makes any other use of MMU present in every modern processor.
AmigaOS 4 DOES have virtual memory built-in. This can exist without memory protection features, which are not present in the form that Slashdot readers would recognize it. There is some limited memory protection of kernel-space, but nothing in user-space.
There HAS been use of the MMU in the past. Mostly development stuff, debuggers and whatnot. The old VMM virtual memory tool you mentioned, which added VM to the older OS, used the MMU.
Elbox used it for their Mediator PCI bus drivers for the Amiga 1200. The mediators for other Amiga models did not use it, but the A1200 computer only provided 24bto address lines for them to use. The 3000 and 4000 Amiga models provided all 32bit address lines. For the drivers on the A1200, they used an 8MB (or 4MB depending on jumper settings) window, and they in more recent versions fo their software use the MMU to keep track of where the drivers are going and can automatically map the window to the proper addressing fo rthings to work, as if the driver was talking down a full 32bit address bus. www.elbox.com
A small number of poroductivity apps had a minimal sort of virtual memory features built-in to them as well, and required MMU to run.
Do you know if this driver even is based on the GPL sources from Linux? I'm an Amiga user, have read about this wireless driver, and do not know. It hasn't been stated anywhere I've read about it. It may nto be based on GPL sources, making your paranoia grossly unfounded.
If it IS based on GPL sources, do you know if they provide sources or not? I haven't got one, so haven't myself seen what's included on the driver CD. It could very well already be there, making your paranoia grossly unfounded. If not on the CD, has the seller received any requests? If no one has asked for sources, your paranoia is currently grossly unfounded.
Trust me, there are GPL zealots in Amiga land as well. They've made quite a fuss about a couple things, and through these public discussions brought about corrections to the valid compaints. If there actually is any GPL issue to be concerned with, it will be fussed about in the not very distant future as people start purchasing these driver/PCI card bundles.
There's also great interest in these drivers from the MorphOS community. They will be making a bug fuss if they discover these are GPLed drivers and no sources are available for them to port it to their "other AmigaOS" of choice.
Business politics...
One reason is that if you run on x86, people will be too impatient for certain applications or games to be ported, and end up dual-booting with Windows. Over time, the user is likely to spend more and more time in Windows, and less and less time in the new OS, reducing NewOS's market. NewOS application/game developers wil suffer even more because the users got tired of waiting and bought the Windows version of their thing instead, and won't buy it again as NewOS-native.
Another reason is that Amiga had begun a shift to PowerPC years ago, and the more modern Amiga apps/games software is all PowerPC based now. Going x86 would throw those things out the window.
There was a project called Amithlon at one time that would have lended itself to migrating to x86 native, but apparently some people involved with that got in a 3- or 4-sided licensing war and killed the thing. It began as a 68K Amiga emulation where you did not see the underlying OS at all, like you do with the UAE emulator. It had an API to write x86 native code, and a small number of apps did just that. It could have extended to an eventual completely x86 native AmigaOS platform, pity it failed to do so. The main drawback is that Amithlon only emulated the 68K CPU, so the more recent and more powerful PowerPC-native apps would not be usable, and some of those that were highly desired were no longer supported and would not have got an x86 port.
Another reason spouted is that to support the x86 platform, many many many drivers for different motherboard chipsets need to be made. The developers can't keep up with all of that. If they did a certain specified subset, you guys would still complain that it's not enough. So why bother?
I asked about an iBook port. Somewhere there's business politics preventing this, and it sounds likw some of this isn't due to Apple corporate policy regarding documentation of their hardware. Someone has a contract or something that has the effect of disallowing this.
Another reason is that documentation cannot be had for a number fo chips to write drivers for. As this is a commercial product, simply using the GPLed Linux driver sources is not a good answer, as the corporation does not want to give away their product sources. (It's their right to make that business decision to remain proprietary, regardless of the open-source ideology popular at Slashdot) Though this decision does make it harder to support a larger variety of popular and cheap hardware.
For example, Nvidia won't even reply to emails asking for an NDA agreement to give a polite "no thank you". ATI on the other hand has granted the company I'm involved with an NDA and documentation to write proprietary Radeon drivers for AmigaOS. Regardless of what we'd like to do, with the limited resources for programming, and the limited number of chips we can get documetnation for, it makes more sense to do a small set of hardware to start with.
I agree with some of these, I personally do not agree with them all, but these are the ones I can think of at the moment explaining why the decision makers have done what they did.
Eyetech, an Amiga dealer for years and an industrial electronics supplier got together with a PowerPC northbridge chip company to sell boards for embedded and industrial systems. They skim some boards off the production line and put an AmigaOne sticker on them for us to use, Eyetech and the northbridge company support us ebtter than some chipset companies do, so that's our starting point... AmigaOS now has a pretty decent HAL layer, so other things can be supported when it makes sense to do so, but those making the decisions don't think it makes sense to do so at this time.
There is an effort underway to license the IBM G5 reference (the kit including eval motherboard, schematics, software dev kit, etc. is about US$6000) but is currently in rather early stages.