Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcrware!mwca!bill
From: bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Questions about ST hw/sw upgrades
Message-ID: <1820@mwca.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 91 18:18:50 GMT
References: <11885@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 41

In article <11885@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> kiki@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jack W. Wine) writes:
>
>I'm getting an Atari 1040STe and have these questions and comments:
>...
>6) The SST board is supposed to have TOS 1.6 roms licensed from Atari.
>   With the advent of the versatile 68030, is there any plan to put
>   a different operating system to use?  I've read of the Geos OS by
>   Berkeley Softworks and it seems like a good candidate for porting
>   to the SST030 board.  If 50,000 ST pooled together $20, would that
>   be enough to commission Berkeley Softworks to do the port?

Geos isn't actually an OS, it is a graphical environment, just as GEM is
to TOS.  I suspect, however, that you could find someone to port Geos to
the 68K for 50,000 * $2, let alone $20!  However, no existing programs
would look any different - programs have to be written especially to take
advantage of the environment, just as a non-Windows program on an MS-DOS
machine looks no different when run under Windows or plain MS-DOS.

>7) Suppose everyone who bought a SST030 board added $20 so that Mr. Small
>   could commission a company to provide a new operating system.  Is this
>   feasible?

More feasible (in my slightly-biased opinion) would be Gadgets licensing OS-9
for use on the SST030 board.  OS-9 provides binary compatibility between the
ST/TT, Amiga, Mac, and several other slightly more obscure machines, and by
virtually all accounts provides all the OS services that seasoned programmers
have come to expect, with very little overhead.  The main limiting factor of
using OS-9 on the ST/TT is there is (currently) no standard graphical
interface; OS-9 itself makes no assumptions regarding graphics. Several
graphical environments have been or are being worked on (including G-Windows,
X-Windows, and MGR), but none are being packaged with OS-9 for the ST/TT.

>Thanks for any answers or input!
>Jack 


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 # Bill Sheppard  --  bills@microware.com  --  {uunet,sun}!mcrware!mwca!bill  #
 # Microware Systems Corporation  ---  OS-9: Seven generations beyond OS/2!!  #
 ######Opinions expressed are my own, though you'd be wise to adopt them!######