Q: How much will AmiZilla cost?
A: AmiZilla like Firefox is 100% free open source software. The only reason we are collecting a bootie is to to give programmers an incentive to port it to AmigaOS. Without that incentive we will never get this legendary application on AmigaOS. The source code came out in 1998 and it is now 2008. Without this effort Amiga would never get Firefox.
Q: Why spend so much of your time on this free effort when the Mozilla/Firefox web browser is open source because of Microsoft's strategy of bunding Internet Explorer with Windows.
A: We loved the Netscape browser for many years and it's rightful successor, Firefox. Also, it's evolving into a IDE (Integrated Development Environment) so in the coming years you will see many applications written within the Firefox environment. The Amiga desperately needs this. Netscape like the Amiga created a whole new paradigm for computers, these two are meant for each other.
Q: What will be the requirements and the minimum spec for the Amiga version.
A: Well that will depend a lot on the programming team that tackles the port and their skillset but the spec we would like to see is Amiga OS 3.9 and above and/or WinUAE/Amiga Forever 2008/AROS/MorphOS. 680x0+ CPU or PowerPC CPU, faster the better, 24 bit Graphics card, 32MB of RAM. I would also like the coders to try hard to make it work with AGA.
Q: Why @ least Amiga OS 3.9?
A: Many Amiga owners have not upgraded to 3.9 so maybe AmiZilla could stimulate sales of OS 3.9.
Q: Why not make AmiZilla only a native Amiga OS 4.1 and MorphOS version, why support older systems?
A: AmiZilla will run best under Amiga OS 4.x & MorphOS, it should also be very fast under Amithlon and WinUAE. We would not do the Amiga users such a disservice by making it not work with older Amiga systems. Amiga owners have wanted a version of Netscape for years and we want them to have it. We will reject any programming effort that does not work in some way on normal Amiga systems, were not taking A500 here though.
Q: What GUI Interface kit will AmiZilla use? Many people love different ones like MUI, Reaction, ClassAct. Also Firefox has it's own too right? Many people swear by the their favorite one and don't like the others.
A: What we would like to see happen with this issue is similar to what Holger Cruz did with the Miami TCP/IP stack. When Miami first came out it required MUI but later Hoger gave users the option of using several different GUI's, they installed their favorite one and that was it. I would very much like to see this happen with AmiZilla too, ultimately it will be up to the coding team though. In order to stay compatible with Firefox's Themes system they may have to port Firefox's own GUI Toolset.
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Q: Why is the AROS, AmigaOS & MorphOS version equally important?
A: Teamwork is critical in such a large project as this. The community must not be divided on AmiZilla because this effort will help everyone. AROS, Amiga Forever/WinUAE, Amithlon compatibility are also very vital.
Q: What about the naysayers that say you can never port Firefox to the Amiga, it just can't handle it.
A: This is nonsense, AmigaOS is the very best place to have something like Firefox because of the elegance of the design of the operating system. Plus Netscape 4.x ran for years on Mac OS 9 and lower, a very primative none multitasking operating system.
Q: How can we get AmiZilla released faster?
A: Programmers must have an incentive to do all the hard work, so if you can contribute to the cause. Even if you only send $10, or $5 or even $1 every dollar makes a difference. Each and every person that ups the booty is making a statment and bringing us that much closer to the day when we have Firefox.
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