@database FuturePIOS.html
@remark Converted with HTML2Guide ©1997 Mark Harman
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@node MAIN "FuturePIOS.html"
@{"b"}The Amiga's Future@{"ub"} 
	@{"i"}...PIOS/ProDAD!@{"ui"}  

What exactly PIOS are really up to is kind of a mystery... PowerMac clones, Beboxes, PowerAmigas first with AmigaOS ports, then 'Amiga Compatible' pOS. There PIOS ONE was supposed to be released in May/June 1997, I have no idea what's happened to it!  

I think that any Amiga owners who want to stick with the Amiga, but go to PPC should follow Phase 5 (and hopefully Amiga International also!) pOS is supposedly very Amiga compatible and Amiga like, which is good, but what support for running existing Amiga applications (ie, 680x0 binaries) is there? With PowerUp, you keep a real 680x0 processor, and of course a real AGA chipset. A\BOX is rumoured to have some form of 680x0 emulation. It seems Phase 5 have a clear upgrade plan.  

The PIOS route is more like making a jump to a new computer, ie, you might go out and buy a PC, or a PowerMac, or maybe a Bebox or perhaps a pOS clone. Talking of pOS clones, remember that it is ProDAD that wrote pOS, not PIOS, so will we see other machines running pOS?  

I doubt there is any possibility of running 680x0 Amiga software on a PIOS ONE, but I may be wrong. They have talked about a modified Siamese to link with an A1200, but this seems strange, and excessive. Linking a PC and Amiga with Siamese does not make the PC an Amiga! Likewise, you could run UAE on a PIOS, but again, you could do that on a PC (and UAE only does an A500).  

But what of pOS itself? I've heard it is better than the current AmigaOS 3.1, and being very Amiga-like and very Amiga-compatible, why not adopt it as the next AmigaOS (ie, AmigaOS 4)? After all, Workbench 2 was quite different to 1.3, and had incompatibility problems, but there were still many similarities and no one questionned it being a true AmigaOS, so I  don't think that there's a problem there! But I've also heard people say it's slow (although it's still under development).  

It's still a clear split in the Amiga's future. I would still opt for Phase 5 rather than PIOS, simply because of backward compatibility, but pOS still looks promising. I wonder could you run pOS on these PowerUp cards? I presume you should be able to.  

But when it comes to A\BOX, Phase 5 have stated that the existing AmigaOS won't take advantage of its hardware (obviously not), which is why they are updating it... but the same would be true of pOS, so they are not going to suddenly adopt pOS as their  OS.  

And Amiga International have talked about a new OS by the end of the year (again) - where does this fit in? I do hope they have  more sense than give us a third OS which fits in with neither of Phase 5 and ProDAD/PIOS's plans...  

@{"b"}Mark Harman@{"ub"}   
 
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