mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike Meyer) (01/13/87)
In article <288@unirot.UUCP> carroll@unirot.UUCP (mark carroll) writes: >>>How about somebody trying to pick up where TLM left off >>> and doing an OS/9 port for the Amiga >> Unfortunately, one needs a fair amount of money >>to license the sources from Micro-Ware. > How much do they charge to liscence the sources? And also, any hackers >in the central Jersey area whod be interested in giving me a hand with this? >I think Id like to give it a try, but I just dont have the time to do it >all by myself. Just so's everybody can see it: Last time I checked (2.5 years ago), you couldn't get the source to OS/9-68K for any reasonable sum of money (i.e. - nobody would admit you could get it at all). For a fee ($1500 and up, I think), you could get a license to redistribute binaries, sources to some of the device drivers, plus a years telephone support. To do a port, you either needed a running OS/9 system (I think either 68K or 6809), or a Unix system (on a VAX, I suspect). Of course, getting that was your problem. If you're serious about doing a port, the thing to do is call MicroWare (my notes say 515/224-1444; but that could be James Jones), and talk to Andy Ball. He can tell you what things are like now, and probably tell you what they were really like then (since he was dealing with it on a daily basis). Just to keep things bouncing, let me point out one more alternative: write, from scratch, an OS that has the same system call interface as AmigaDOS. That's what MINIX & GNU are (for Unix), and what various people did for CP/M and TrsDOS. Me, I get more than enough systems hacking at work, and am not about to tackle any more of it in my spare time! <mike
ingoldsby@calgary.UUCP (Terry Ingoldsby) (01/15/87)
In article <2184@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>, mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike Meyer) writes: > In article <288@unirot.UUCP> carroll@unirot.UUCP (mark carroll) writes: > >>>How about somebody trying to pick up where TLM left off > >>> and doing an OS/9 port for the Amiga > >> Unfortunately, one needs a fair amount of money > >> . . . (to get a license for OS9) Money is talked of in relative terms. Certainly whatever amount of money is being asked is more than a hacker can afford, but corporately speaking, the price can't be too high. Radio Shack has been selling the 6809 version of OS9 for ~$75 for some time now, and I presume they are making a profit on it. Even if OSK cost several times that it would still be a bargain. > > Just to keep things bouncing, let me point out one more alternative: > write, from scratch, an OS that has the same system call interface as > AmigaDOS. That's what MINIX & GNU are (for Unix), and what various > people did for CP/M and TrsDOS. Me, I get more than enough systems > hacking at work, and am not about to tackle any more of it in my spare > time I disagree that "Yet Another Dos" is required, or even desireable. Quite frankly, if something is done well, why re-invent the wheel. Then you also need to re-invent all the support software unless you can entice others to do so. OSK has had several design iterations so I believe it to be more polished than AmigaDos, and certainly more polished than anything you could possibly whip up in your basement. I also think that porting OS9 is quite a simple task; what may be difficult is writing a fancy window manager, device drivers capable of managing the Amiga's hardware, etc. I don't yet own an Amiga, partly because I like OS9 (and OSK) so much that I'm really not interested in any micro that can't run it. Short of Unix (which is not appropriate for most micros), its the best thing going. Anyway, there's my 2 cents worth. Terry Ingoldsby ...!ihnp4!alberta!calgary!ingoldsby