21-Oct-2002: MorphOS, the Pegasos, and other PPC Operating Systems and Platforms

In complete cooperation with Mai Logic, we have loaded the bplan OpenFirmware on both the Teron CX and PX. MorphOS runs well on both boards. The Pegasos was developed as a open hardware platform right from the beginning; it uses a BIOS to simplify a port of any operating system to the platform. This OpenFirmware is a well known standard (IEEE1275) and is used worldwide by companies like SUN Microsystems, Apple, Cisco, IBM, Motorola and others. We will support any OS vendor willing to port their software to our platform and will allow them to use our retail channels to sell their products. We will simply add the price of the OS to the price of the board. For example, there is no reason why when AmigaOS4.0 is ready that it will not work and we would like to conclude an agreement to make this possible. We are willing to ship a bootable CD of any compatible OS.

However, we will not support any kind of software protection (dongle) with our system. Software licenses can be done by the unique machine ID of each Pegasos system, based on OS vendor supplied method (like FlexLM or others). Alternatively, we can ship the boards to distributors and they can add a dongle. We still contend this is not the right approach, as this will create a distance between the user and the machine. Experienced computer users will never buy a dongle protected OS or program. We feel that this will create unlicensed copies as the dongle will be hacked and removed.

Finally, we still contend that MorphOS has absolutely no trouble standing on its own right. It improves daily and does not violate in any way the intellectual property belonging to any other. For the moment and for the foreseeable future, MorphOS is included in the price of the Pegasos, so adding a bit more to the price should be a good solution for all concerned.

We have made this publically for all to understand that we have nothing against the AmigaOS or the Community that has long supported it!

Best regards,

Thendic/bplan

P.S. We are very interested in selling a fanless home server based on the Pegasos. Internally, we already call it the Pega-shush (credit goes to Nicholas Blachford for this "catchy" name). It should be sold with a bundled 24/7 ISP package. We have a 802.11b PCI card working already on the Pegasos. Perhaps, it will be easy to offer another DVD player/A1000-like box to sit with the rest of the home entertainment center devices. Everything already in the home can surf the net as needed, plus it can bring DVD or DIVX to the family television monitor. We have even thought we might put it in the Walker housing!