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

[joska@nvg.org (Jo Even Skarstein)]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2000 19:15:40 +0100, Guido Flohr wrote:

> > 	* some people would feel like using a toy ;)
> > 	* requires more memory
>
> Most people would probably find it more attractive to run selected GEM
> applications in the emulator and run Linux applications else.  You're
> right, this would be a little bit of a toy.

This is exactly my experience from work, I used to run GEMulator in order
to use some familiar tools (like qed and Thing), but I quickly stopped
using it as I got used to the (inferior) tools on the PC.

> An important con is also that you will probably have difficulties to run
> Atari apps that rely on very specific features, sound/midi stuff in the
> first place. You can't emulate midi in/out if your pc hardware hasn't got
> it.

I think this would be a pretty cool thing:

Boot the PC directly into a 68k-emulator with a very basic and minimal
(X)BIOS and GEMDOS. Emulate the absolutely necessary hardware, implement a
PCI-BIOS, load fVDI and then MiNT. This would result in a pretty cheap and
powerful Milan-clone :-) OK, it would require a lot of work, but it should
be a lot cheaper than developing hardware. And the hardware will be a lot
cheaper, more powerful and easily upgraded as technology advances. I'm
pretty sure that something like this could be a real hit...


/*
** Jo Even Skarstein    http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~josk/
**
**    beer - maria mckee - atari falcon - babylon 5
*/