Re: AmigaOne

[Tom Gall <tom_gall@vnet.ibm.com>]

Ole-Egil Hvitmyren wrote:

> Claas Langbehn wrote:
>
> >Hello Ole-Egil,
> >
> >
> >You said, you are already working on an AmigaOne.
> >I think it is a really interesting system which
> >just has been started to be shipped.

I think it depends on the goals that you have.  You can't compare one of these
things to a TiPB for instance or a Dual G4 system.  It's a reasonable G3 based
motherboard and could be a reasonable linux box in time.  More PowerPC hardware
to choose from is always a good thing.  But don't forget the AmigaOne is about
Amiga and the efforts surrounding that OS.  That's not a bad thing, but
obviously that's not an open source solution.


> >So, why don't you tell us about your experience
> >with AmigaOne and (Debian) Linux.

I've got YDL on mine. But no reason why Debian shouldn't work.


> >What about the hardware support with the current
> >2.4.19 kernel? Is already everything working as
> >expected? So can we already buy the mainboards or
> >shall we wait some more time?

Boards ask Eyetech.

On the kernel front,  it's not an openfirmware style based solution anymore and
falls more into the custom front.  Early on this is somewhat of a bummer from
the kernel perspective but in time it hopefully will work itself out.


> >And for the critics: If the AmigaOne is crap,
> >which system is better? Of course, we are talking
> >about PPC systems only.

Again depends on your goals.  If you wanna run OS X for instance as well as
linux then I'm not so sure this would be the solution for you and perhaps Apple
hardware might be the better choice. Wanna run the Amiga OS in time, then
obviously this is a good choice.


> Well, for now I can only say the linux kernel isn't ready. Tom Gall
> disappeared from our mailing list a month ago with the words "I'll start
> coding on the kernel now, look for patches on the POP page on
> penguinppc.org". So Hyperion (who is already doing AmigaOS PPC and was
> contracted from MAI to port PPCBoot to the boards) has been helping out.

Indeed.   I don't have PPCBoot in ROM like Ole does. Running PPCBoot out of RAM
booted from the softex of was turning out to be rather difficult. Without a real
ROM there wasn't much point.

> Anyway, I can't tell you to go and buy, but if you order now the board

> won't be sent to you for another month. So you might as well wait until
> they are in stock.
>
> Everything is NOT already working as expected. But it is coming along.
> I've come down with a severe case of real life work, and I'm trying to
> do too many things at the same time here.

Life happens.

Regards,

Tom

--
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