In article <199704090341.WAA23028@cynjut.neonramp.com> you write:
> - If Gateway buys Amiga, they could use a good operating system to
> load on it.....  Rumor has it they are looking to get into the hand-held
> market and this would be an easy way to get there.

More for he OS than the hardware, I would think, if that's the reason
they're interested. The custom chipset isn't exactly low-power, doesn't
support LCD displays directly, etc.

> - They might be interested in an optional operating system they could
> load on ALL the hardware they sell, thereby increasing their margin if
> the cost were low enough.

NetBSD is just *huge* for a handheld, and doesn't even get you a GUI. 
OTOH, a 512K AmigaOS ROM gives you a lightweight multitasking
microkernel, no VM (you aren't going to want to swap on a handheld
anyway, and it saves bloat and means you don't need an MMU), a
reasonably decent window system and GUI, shared libraries, a filesystem
mechanism, two FS's (one disk based, one a variable-sized ramdisk), a
bunch of device drivers, a shell, a few core shell commands, a simple
ANSI terminal emulator, and a few other odds and ends (PCMCIA support on
some machines, etc).  And it's modular, so if you don't need a piece,
you can remove it.  Or make it loaded on demand, or whatever.  Plus,
applications tend to be small.  (Just make sure they don't use MUI! :->)
AmigaOS is workable on even a 512K machine, and reasnably comfortable
with 1-2M. 

NetBSD is a great OS. And Rolls Royce makes great jet engines, but you don't
want to go putting one on an ultralight.