Hi Per I think you miss the point sometimes. You said "The QL was never only about hardware for quite a number of enthusiasts, and therefore it is still going strong in its emulated form. If you want the best QL platform money can buy, get QPC2 and stick it in your PC." For quite a number of enthusiasts t it was not and still is not about emulators, especially those who love and are sticking to original hardware and those who have no easy upgrade route now if they do not have a PC at home. As for QPC2 dont forget that there are 2 critical spofs (single points of failure) for QPC2 - 1. the PC and its OS 2. like previous QL hardware efforts that started this discussion the QPC2 software is a one man show. If Marcel loses interest QPC2 is dead. Therefore regardless of personal preferences & Marcels current health in the long term diversity is good, all eggs in one basket is bad. I also have QPC2 upto date etc, etc
"Wot SMSQ/E license issue?" Not my personal issue here but the very real fight that despoiled this list some time ago. It needs to be recognised that the consequences of that argument was a critical point in the future development of the QL community. As for SMS/E I have compiled my own SMSQ/E for my Q60 since 3.03 and tried to show how easy it is to do in QLToday, but the argument about "licence" itself seems to have killed off hardware development. "However, the second major module of the Aurora project, the mythical Goldfire, is still outstanding. That is the project that is furthest advanced. If it cannot be made to succeed what chance does any other project have?" I agree with you there is absolutely none if everyone has your attitude. The question to me is why did it stall, was the project too ambitious in its scope - using a Coldfire processor or did personal circumstances for the prime mover result in its end? I dont know. What I am suggesting is that those with hardware skills left the community should be encouraged (financially) to look at simpler projects that need less development time and are affordable for a larger number of the group or if that is not possible that as a group we should consider projects with outsourcing of development in an affordable way perhaps to eastern europe as suggested by Rich Mellor. Duncan _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
