Author: John (117.47.165.88)
Date: 01-02-2009 08:31
I haven't seen much activity on this thread, especially with no new posts from you, but I'll add my two cents anyway.
My main observation is that you are the only one talking about running the Atari OS directly on the modern common hardware platform, which is something I have been saying all along myself -- again, agreeing with you on the point of why run the overhead of windows or linux when we can run directly on hardware. If Mac can switch their OS over to Intel, then so can we.
The computer industry is on the verge of a major change right now. Just as in our Atari days we saw the industry transition from a single application hogging the computer to a multi-tasking environment, so we will soon see the end of the day that a single OS will take over and hog the entire computer. The time will soon come when you will boot up your computer to an OS manager which will give you the option of what OS you want to boot into.
In this scenario it will make it imminently more practical to use Atari software because it overcomes the problem of having to own more than one computer if you want to be active with Atari, and ends the age old debate over what kind of computer you should own because you will be able to run any kind of OS you want on your computer.
renegade wrote:
-------------------------------
Atari Eagle Project.
The Aims were originally to begin by updating TOS to a decent modern standard, probably in an emulation mode in windoze then to work up to a situation where TOS will be able to support a new GEM as a standalone OS on a standardised system made up of PC bits. Pretty much how the Apple Macs now run. At the end of the day the Mac is pretty much a PC with a different OS but the devices are standard across the range, reducing the need for 1000’s of drivers etc which is why people say ‘Macs just work’ and ‘PC’s are a pain in the ass!’
As an end user on an ST you knew where you stood. You bought a program for it and it worked. No min specs (apart from memory, but not often. Or only STE compatible). As a developer it was a challenge to write software that runs on the system, not wait for a system to come along that would run it!! I used to write routines for the STE and if they were too slow had to go back and optimise them until they were fast enough. 99% of the time it was possible to do what was asked. I have since done developing software on the PC etc. and if it ran a bit slow they just upped the minimum spec of the machine. We want to get back to those ways of thinking.
Imagine the power you could have without the overheads of windows or the other OS’s, have the programs you need running without all off the crap running in the background!!
The ideal is to get a boot option to boot to TOS/GEM on a standardised PC base, which would only need to be a low end PC option with optimised programming allowing for mass users to afford the system but all of the performance and more of the top end PC user. A good old Atari type system.
|
