MikeB on 21 September 2008
@ Alby_da_Wolf
I guess AmigaOS could anyway have a restart easier than Linux in its early years, as now, with the source code available, it could have OOo, Gimp, and so on, a complete set of indispensable SW tools. And there is Wine too that could plug holes in the same measure it does for other OS'.
Yes, open source software can help. But AmigaOS is so different the devs first had and still have to develop suitable middleware to simplify porting. There are efforts to bring over Mozilla/Firefox and OpenOffice.org. But without some much needed parts which only recently have been added, too many software adjustments (making something very Amiga-unlike, Amiga like) were required.
AmigaOS4 itself, PPC native or emulated 68k Amiga software fly on under-specced hardware. We have gone from 1 GHz+ G4 systems and soon we will get back to 667 Mhz 440s as the most powerful available Amiga system. Have to wonder how useful some of the bloatware will be on such systems.
Currently AmigaOS4.x is very much still a developer system, hopefully someday the OS will be ported to PS3. Cheap, mass available and far more powerful hardware. At least the under powered specs push the devs to ultimate efficiency (AmigaOS4 can already be used on 166 Mhz Amigas with 64 MB RAM).
