Re: [MiNT] New MiNT distribution is n.. ..pro

[maxilys@normandnet.fr (Remi Villatel)]

Hi Johan Klockars, on 20 Feb 00 you said: 

    [---SNIP---]
 >> Yes, it's worth the trouble. Even if you close your eyes, an emulator
 >> will still be nothing more than an emulator, not a computer.

 JK> I really don't understand this point of view.
 JK> 'Nothing more than an emulator'? 'Not a computer'?

 JK> I don't hear millions of Mac people complaining, and until recently
 JK> major parts of their OS (as well as all pre-PPC software, obviously) was
 JK> emulated. [---SNIP---]

Did Mac users have to load Windows or any other OS to let MacOS work? I don't 
think so. :-)

The difference in between a computer and an emulator is very clear: A computer 
is a piece of hardware plus an OS to control it. If an emulator is included in 
the OS to let it work, it's still the same OS. On the contrary, an emulator 
(like MagiCMac/PC, MAME, STonX, or whater) needs an already complete computer 
to work. I can't be clearer. A computer is a computer, an emulator is an 
emulator. That's what my dictionnary says.  ;-)

 >> The best way we can go, IMHO, is to "open" our MiNT system in order to
 >> use the Linux GPL drivers recompiled in 680x0 code. That will solve the
    [---SNIP---]
    
 JK> Unfortunately, Linux is often not a top priority for PCI card
 JK> manufacturers. My current graphics card (a GeForce) is the first one (out
    [---SNIP---]
    
Linux is maybe not absolutely uptodate but compared to what we have, it's a 
wonder!

 >> And among the new pieces of hardware, we may introduce a PCI PPC-card and
 >> begin to port everything and write new software in PPC native code.

 JK> Since people in the Atari market seem to get by just fine on the very
 JK> slow hardware we have, why don't we just port everything to Java?
 JK> (That's not entirely ment as a joke.)

I read it as a joke. Java? Ho boy! Did they do some improvements on speed at 
Sun? AFAIK, it's not a monster of speed... We're gonna need a PowerST. (This is 
meant as a joke.)  ;-)

    [---SNIP---]
 JK> At least I would most definitely not want our future to depend on some
 JK> relatively expensive machine from one very small company.

For the moment, we have no choice... Except if somebody wants to re-buy all 
Atari copyrights and resurrect the corp. (This is a joke!)  ;-)

 JK> IMO, the only reasonable thing to do for the longer term is to make use
 JK> of something that already exists and that has a large market outside the
 JK> (regrettably) very small Atari community.

That's why I said that MiNT needs to become closer to Linux to be ported on any 
already available hardware. (This is a day-dream...)

See you later,

=============================
Remi Villatel
E-mail: maxilys@normandnet.fr
=============================