Open Source AmigaOS?
transAM, even work on porting the damn thing... and I can't be the only one out there with a desire to run even a current incarnation of AmigaOS on a non-Amiga system (witness the number of people using things like Amiga Forever).
The potential of this would be enormous, and would help tide the Amiga community over until all that next generation technology is finally unveiled. At present, it appears that all but a committed core of developers are twiddling their thumbs or slowly packing up for pastures new... not exactly the situation we really want. By releasing the source code, developers would have a new project to get involved with - it might even go some way to drawing back old developers or enticing new ones. Best of all, it'll tap the community spirit that only projects like aMozilla or KOSH have succeeded in making use of recently - get people fired up for the new OS and hardware, get the Amiga name back into the minds of the public. Linux, BeOS and MacOS (while all excellent systems in their own right) are grabbing too much of the media attention, siphoning off markets the Amiga should really be trying to capture right now.
As well as generating media interest and stirring up some excitement and enthusiasm in the community, the open source arrangements would certainly improve the quality, quantity and richness of the current AmigaOS - the few bugs in OS3.1 would be fixed overnight; code would be optimised for different 680X0 and PowerPC processors by late-night, power-hungry programmers; datatypes would become 24-bit, with loading/saving as standard; RTG and RTA support would be added; the desktop would probably end up coming with the variable flavours/themes promised for OS5.0 and partly realised by anyone using MagicWB, Opus Magellan, or even an X-Windows implementation. Everyone of us has something we'd like fixed, improved or added - by putting the source code into the community's hands, we could actually take the load off Amiga Inc. and participate in the development of at least part of the AmigaOS. What a gift in recognition of all the support and dedication the community has provided to past and present owners of the Amiga!
So, if you're interested in the source for AmigaOS, where do you sign up to register your support? Well, no one seems to have organised a campaign as yet, so your best bet is to spread the word to others and contact Amiga Inc. - there's an OS3.5 FAQ with a form for submitting questions, so why
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