The link you posted only proves my point. An embedded system with a 500Mhz Pentium running Linux? Might be okay for lightweight home-network services, like acting as a home router, but totally wrong for what I need.
A pentium chip uses absolutely incredible amount of CPU power, and my Athlon 750 can barely handle audio recording without having overruns. And there is not and never has been any commercial music software for Linux.
Also, Linux is a multiuser system for servers. Its a bit more complex than you need for a handheld device. Much of the speed you can get from an Atari you just can't do under Linux because of the intense amount of memory protection. Ever see what it takes to get audio recorded under Linux? Under the Atari, the hardware writes directly into application memory and fires an interrupt that the application recieves when a buffer fills. Linux apps don't get memory from a device driver, and they certainly don't get interrupts directly. There is quite a bit under the hood making sure everyone plays nice.
Atari had commercial support, and I see a better chance of getting commercial support for a new platform if a company can resurrect their older products than with a new and untested platform. You can also port Linux apps to the Atari (not easy, but it can be done), so you instantly have an existing software base. And we're talking probably 4 times the speed or better of the fastest Atari clones, and less power usage than nearly any laptop on the market.
I've yet to really look at dope and honestly, using an untested OS just sounds like hitting myself in the brick if I ever want to make my project a reality. I don't see DOPE/DROPS running on a coldfire as having anything to do with Atari.
