$2,000+ Offered to First Person to Port Mozilla to Amiga OSWednesday May 21st, 2003Several people wrote in to tell us that DiscreetFX has started a fund for the first person to port Mozilla to Amiga OS. An initial contribution of $2,000 has been provided by DiscreetFX's CEO, Bill Panagouleas, and donations are welcome from other individuals and groups. To get the bounty, all a programmer/team has to do is get either the browser portion of the Mozilla Application Suite or Mozilla Firebird up and running on the Amiga, even in beta form. At the time of writing, the fund stands at $2,667. >are offering $2000 to the lucky coder(s) that can send us even a beta of this browser for Amiga OS. You don't have to port the e-mail package or some of the other tools, just the browser portion of Mozilla. What do they mean by "beta"? Does it have to have any functionality beyond being able to be opened? Does it have to use only internal libraries or can it use 3rd party packages? A little more info on the rules before coder x burns the midnight oil only to find that his version does not meet the minimum requirements. The problem with this is that we're all waiting for Amiga OS 4, which is a couple months from release. There's literally no point at all in porting to Amiga OS 3.x because version 4 is the only version that's PPC native. It's not really a problem. Let's first make an amiga OS3.X version. It'll be very easy to then build a MorphOS PPC version (MOS is already available). When OS4 is ready, it'll be easy to build it for it too. It'll work automatically under amithlon (very fast JIT emulation). Under AROS, I don't know ? But anyway, all those OS are source compatible with amigaOS 3.x. I really don't mean to falme any one... But is AmigaOS really still alive? How many users does it have? Where can I read info about it... Amiga floundered during the 1990s after Commodore died. The first company to buy Amiga went bankrupt the next year. Then Dell and Gateway fought over Amiga, and Gateway won and then proceeded to do nothing with it. In 2000, Gateway sold Amiga to an independent company, now Amiga Inc. Amiga Inc. has been working since then to bring Amiga into the 21st century. They have two plans: The Amiga ONE computer, based on the PPC processor, the hardware for which is already done. Amiga OS 4, which is PPC native, is nearly done. So, while there are not a great number of users of the original Commodore-era Amiga, the first Amiga in nearly a decade is nearly ready for release. An Amiga digital platform based on intent, a real-time OS that has been ported to every major platform and can run on anything from PDAs to servers. CompUSA is already selling this new Amiga software for cellphones. The two platforms are supposed to converge in Amiga OS 5. Amiga OS 4.5 will be the first with a completely new GUI system (I believe). Amiga OS 4.2 will be the first to implement real memory protection. Amiga OS 4.0 is the first PPC native version, and it's just a month or so from release. More info on Amiga Inc. can be found here: http://www.amiga.com More info on Amiga OS 4 can be found here: http://os.amiga.com/os4/?PHPSESSID=90d716bfe460ea84b2898017dcc1f8d9 More info on the Amiga ONE can be found here: http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/ Note that SourceForge.net already has a Linux kernel for the Amiga ONE here: http://amigaone-linux.sourceforge.net/ "How many users does it have?" Kovu. Actually I don't use an Amiga currently, smartass. I would agree, that comment was a ruthless unfounded attack. I will try to ensure that my future ruthless comments are as rational as the usual. I would try to win the contest if I could get the Amiga out of the glass case at my former high school. The old one would probably be more fun than the new one. The fund is currently at $3043! Just to clarify, as some of you might be a bit lost : Mozilla has to be ported to Amiga OS 3.x, Aros, Amithlon, MorphOS, AmigaOS 4 at least. That is to say, any Amiga compatible solution. MorphOS & AmigaOS4 are complete PowerPC rewrite of the AmigaOS. OS4 is the official one, but not even in beta stage (parts are being tested separatly, it doesn't exist as a whole yet). The dedicated piece of hardware is the AmigaOne PowerPC computer. (MAI Teron Board). The aim is to migrate AmigaOS to PowerPC and modernize it. It include a 68k emulator to run 68k software friendly software. More info : os.amiga.com (the company amiga inc has the name, the company hyperion entertainment makes the OS, eytech imports the hardware from MAI) MorphOS is an unofficial complete rewrite of the AmigaOS. It's already available. Runs on the Pegasos PowerPC computer. The aim is to provide a compatibility box (A/Box) like MacOSX's "classic" box, and to rewrite a totally new modern amiga-like system in the "Q/BOX", making use of the new quark kernel. The A/Box is not an emulator but a complete rewrite & enhancement of the AmigaOS API. Currently MorphOS looks & feel like AmigaOS & is compatible with it. More info : www.pegasosppc.com (the same company Genesi makes the hardware and the software) Amithlon is an advanced emulator for x86 machines. You can boot directly into it. It uses a minimal linux distro. AROS is a complete open source rewrite of Amiga OS3.x for any platform. It is only source compatible (doesn't include a 68k emulator). There is some kind of cooperation between the MorphOS & the AROS projects. I didn't mention the Amiga DE as it currently has no connection with the Amiga. As you can see, much is still happening :) Feel free to come & ask us at the community websites : www.amiga.org in english (or ann.lu) www.amiga-news.de in german www.amigaimpact.com in french @mahen [Quote]OS4 is the official one, but not even in beta stage (parts are being tested separatly, it doesn't exist as a whole yet).[/Quote] Stop posting FUD ... AmigaOS 4.0 is in beta stage ... the only difference ... it is not a public betaversion ... AmigaOS 4.0 is going to be demonstrated very soon ... look at http://www.oase.at/amigaos4ontour.html I completely disagree : There might be a very preliminary beta version, but considering Ben Hermans himself said they only managed to "boot" the WB 1 month and a half ago, you definitely can't expect something mature (the boot term is extremely vague). (considering MOS is in beta since 2000) Telling people : "it's there, it's almost ready" *IS* fud. However some big progresses were made. What was show on the webbit was definitely not OS4 : just some parts of it, in 68k, on the old kernel. You can't say it's a beta of OS4. This gives people false hopes. But anyway, both OS'es are under heavy development, and time will tell which one is gonna be better. It's just two similar products, please don't feel personnally attacked :) I know you're a big OS4 enthusiastic, but please allow some criticisms, it's just a product. Oh, BTW, I apologize if my first answer sounds a bit harsh. Let's not turn this site into ann.lu ;) However I was just pointing out the fact that OS4 is not mature enough to be in the same state as MOS (at the last show it was 68k modules on a 68k kernel). It doesn't mean it's less good, just that we'll have to wait a little more. But we're used to it :) Everyone amigan should be open to both alternatives. Hey, let's not scare the mozillazine readers ;) The fund is currently $8411.22, thanks to "Former Netscape Executive (wants to remain anonymous for now)" http://www.discreetfx.com/AmiZilla.html I never understood why the mozilla cvs tree should be filled with stuff like Firefox for OS/2 and AmigaOS? |