Re: GNUSTep and the Falcon? Any Chance of it Happening?

[Peter Ross <pross@soho.ios.com>]

When I got my first 1040STE, I got it mainly for music, then when SpectreGCR came out I purchased
it so that i could learn PageMaker and Microsoft Word.  I didn't have the money to afford a 
Mac nor a PC.  MY Atari cost me about $399 from a store called J&R here in New York.  This investment
allowed me to get work doing wordprocessing and desktop publishing without the expense of a real mac.
Now I have a PowerBook 165c, a Newton and a Falcon030.  I know that the world is slowly moving towards
Unix and the Falcon030 is a great system for many things.  When I got it, I didn't have a MultiSync monitor.
I was able to attach my Falcon to the TV and play games, work on music with my brother using my synthesizers,
do desktop publishing on it using PageSTream, which is still easier than PageMaker or QuarkXpress.
I know that I would never be able to purchase a real Unix workstation, but I can learn Unix using
MiNTOS or Linux.  It doesn't matter that Atari doesn't make Falcons anymore.  The new Falcon owners
will have a better system in the C-Lab MK-X systems.  There are at least 3 different TT clones of which
some utilize the extremely powerful 68060.  As long as clones are coming out an C-Lab continues to work
on the Falcon architecture, there is no reason why those in the know don't recompile the code of 
free operating systems out there.  If GNUSTep were to be compiled for the Falcon, then people would be
able to get a second hand Falcon for as low as $450US and set it up as a NeXT clone.  No other computer
with the exception of the BeBox has as much expansion capability as the Falcon out of the box.  No other
computer has LocalTalk, RS232, BiDirectional Centronics, JagPorts, In/Out Audio, In/Out MIDI, RF, VGA,
DSP ports and to top that off, a cartridge (geek port) as well as processor direct port.  This is 
why I like my Falcon.  There are a number of speed enhancements for it.  That is the only area that
needs to be concerned from a hardware perspective.  We could use drivers for things like QuikCam for
CUSeeME and other Video applications such as conferencing.  There is FREE source co,de for AppleTalk,
Motif (via LessTIF), NeXT Open STep (via GNUSTep), etc.  All one has to do is use a search engine
such as Alta Vista and search on the hardware topic of interest, such as  AppleTalk, NeXT, Motif,
etc.  I would just be exstatic if I could have my Falcon set up with MiNTOS, XaAES, a NEXT-type or
Motif style browser, and the ability to run GEM, TOS, or UNIX software all during the same session with
the ability to cut and paste between applications.  There is even source out there for Mac HFS read
write capability that could probably be adapted and compiled for MiNT.  If we had HFS as well as 
DOS file compatibility and Networking via AppleTalk and/or via the Parallel port then Falcon computers
could be added to the network to assist in the productivity of many types of business and multimedia
environments.  That is my dream. 

								Peter Ross: An Avid Falconeer.


PS: GNUSTep is simply software, the Falcon has plenty of the same hardware as the NeXT, therefore it 
	should be only a matter of adjusting and recompiling the code.  Not all NeXT computers were
	68040's they started out using the 68030.  I believe that Atari once said that ethernet
	networking could be done using the parallel port or the SCSI port, but via the parallel
	would be much cheaper.