Ready to switch to Open Hardware GNU/Linux PowerPC notebooks.
The game has changed, now GNU/Linux is everywhere running on every CPU architectures and devices. It’s the right time to make new choices, an Open Hardware PowerPC Notebook designed around GNU/Linux, make it happen!
i switched to linux from mac about 6 years ago as the apple os x became more complex and apple company became more intrusive.
i definately would buy a laptop built on powerpc as long as it could access linux programs.
i would pay 30 percent more than a comp with intel.
make SURE it has a lighted keyboard. i have found this seemingly small inovation to be incredibly useful –
ESPECIALLY for linux. i type a lot of commands and a lot of people use their computers at nite.
Thanks for your suggestion about lighted keyboard, and for your open mind. Yes I’m agree it’s useful the lighted keyboard. We doesn’t build from scratch the notebook chassis but we will use an already built notebook chassis already produced for a standard x86 notebook. We are already in contact with an ODM that could provide us only one classic 15,6 notebooks model without the mobo. If we want more options, we need to find even other ODM ,if you want to help in that task please contact us.
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For working at night, I use tiny LED lights directed at the keyboard that either plug into a USB port, or are built into my lapdesk. While lighted keys are cool looking, I find reflected light much easier on the eyes for actually working. (And I recommend the opensource redshift utility for working at night as well.)
One thing I’ve been experimenting with – there is lots of light coming from the screen. Holding a mirror at the side can illuminate the keyboard. Rigging up a mounting system for a lapdesk would eliminate batteries.
Will this new PPC laptop be able to run MacOSX 10.5.8, as well as Linux for PPC? My 17″ G4 PowerBook is getting old, and I don’t know how much longer it will keep running. More important to me than running MacOSX 10.5.8, will be the ability to run MorphOS3.8 and later versions, as MorphOS (a commercially available PPC recreation of the Motorola 680×0 AmigaOS) is still actively being developed by former 3rd party Amiga software & hardware developers, while there will be no improvements to MacOSX 10.5.8, unless there are some Mac users who are also programmers, and they have some reason for wanting to continue using PPC, instead of the latest Apple version of MacOSX on Intel CPU architecture, and they code any new parts to be added to MacOSX 10.5.8, which I doubt very much. Many MorphOS users are watching this project with great interest, since MorphOS was ported to most G4, and a couple G5, Mac computer models starting with version 2.0 and continuing through the current MorphOS3.8 version. MorphOS has now been continuously developed for over 10+ years, and once purchased, all updates have to date been free to download and use.
I have subscribed to your newsletter, and look forward to reading future updates on this project. If you have not already been contacted by the MorphOS Development Team, you might want to contact them to increase interest in this PPC laptop project even further. There is also Hyperion Entertainment, (official owner of the name AmigaOS, and the original sources for the Motorola 680×0 AmigaOS) which develops AmigaOS4.1FE. Like MorphOS, AmigaOS4.x is a more recent attempt at creating a PPC version of the AmigaOS, and new desktop PPC hardware has been created recently by two separate companies, A-Cube, which manufactures the SAM460 platform, and A-Eon, who currently sell the AmigaOne X1000, and are developing the AmigaOne X5000 for the near future. The X1000, which is still available for purchase in limited production runs, is the only non-military computer which uses the PA6T PPC CPU which is no longer in production, since Apple bought and shut down PA-Semi Conductor.
Perhaps you are already aware of all the things I just wrote, but I thought it was important to make sure you know that there are still thousands of computer users who have an interest in purchasing a PPC powered laptop, outside of the Linux PPC community.
Best Regards, and good luck with your project.
David
aka AmigaDave