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Amiga DirectoryOpus 4 Released Under GPL

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the portability dept.

deadl0ck writes "The Amiga DirectoryOpus 4.12 has been released under GPL. Anyone up for porting it?"

163 comments

  1. Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Amiga. Sure, Amigas may have been cool at the time, but they haven't been made for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them, much less why they're still relevant to any of us. I can sort of understand why the story about the PET was posted -- that was a true original revolution in personal computing, and it was a one-time nostalgiafest post. But the Amiga is a dead platform, yet Slashdot has a whole category for Amiga posts.

    Doesn't anyone else here get tired of constantly hearing about Amiga? Rob & Co., I appreciate all the effort you put into Slashdot, but I think all of us would like stories that cover what we're interested in today.

    1. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if, Rob Malda had posted a story about nanotech instead? I would have much rather read that instead of this, but this was what got posted. There's a lack of other interesting stories because useless crap like this goes up.

    2. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, of course you'd say that the C64's not dead -- according to your sig, you'd be partial to the platform.

      And what bragging rights does Amiga still have? Maybe it still plays those old demos real well, but can it run the latest games? No. What about web browsers that support up-to-date standards, like CSS? No. Or even recent versions of Lightwave (it's on what, 6 now)? No.

      Just because you're stuck on old platforms and still get a nostalgia fit every time someone says the name "Commodore" doesn't mean the Amiga story should be right on the front page. Slashdot can only put so many stories there, and I'd much rather it had been something besides Amiga.

    3. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try a different new site more suited to your tastes?

    4. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Slashdot can only put so many stories there"

      How many?

    5. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know, but it makes sense. When people come to Slashdot without logging in, they'll see what's on the front page, so there can only be so many items there. Otherwise, the signal-to-noise ratio would be far too high, and someone would have to scroll through 50 or so stories just to see what had been posted in the last two hours -- most of which would be useless. And, I'm sad to say, this Amiga story is only helping to drag down our signal-to-noise ratio.

    6. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amiga Incorporated has entered into a strategic relationship with Tao Group for the New Amiga

      Yes, but haven't Amiga made it clear that they aren't going to make a new machine themselves, and just use the OS for embedded systems. I don't quite see what this relationships about

    7. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only Hemos posts aout Nanateck

    8. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Otherwise, the signal-to-noise ratio would be far too high"

      Erm.. I'd have thougt having a high signal to noise ratio would be a good thing? If you prefer noise then there's plenty out there.

      "And, I'm sad to say, this Amiga story is only helping to drag down our signal-to-noise ratio."

      I honestly have difficulty believing that you can't work this out - to people who are interested in Amiga stories, seeing them posted is good, to those to with no feelings eitehr way it does no harm, and those that are opposed to them don't even see them because they login and turn them off in preferences.

      PLEASE explain what your problem really is, because I don't get it. Seeing this story there ruined your day by making you look at it for 2 seconds before moving onto the next one???

    9. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When Hemos isnt busy posting articles about nanotech, Hemos sucks!!!!

    10. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, excuse me? I STILL an Amiga. The Amiga continually gets exposure here because it is still the C O O L computer. Linux is kinda cool, Be is pretty allright, and M$ sucks. If the Amiga was dead, there would be no new apps. Opus 5.8 is far more than Opus 4.12 could ever be, and there are still new applications made everyday. The Amiga is certainly NOT dead, as there are more apps for the Amiga than Be. You are an ASS. I don't go around pissing about all the coverage Linux gets. So don't go fucking with what little coverage the Amiga gets. Why don't you go do something useful, like become a winner of a Darwin Award! The whole world doesn't revolve around linux, so get with the program.

    11. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And to name another ex-Amiga user: Linus Torvalds. But then you probably already knew that.

    12. Re:Amiga again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People like you don't like Chopin or Motzart because they are also dead but classic. Get a life, respect the dead. My Amiga in real, everyday use, year after year, does more productive work -and in a real multi-tasking environment- than any PC I've yet to come across. If you really want to bitch ask why, despite incredibly fast CPUs ...Win boxes still runs apps at about the same rate of knots. I closing I challenge you to install your OS onto a 4 Mb SmartMedia card plus maybe some Internet software and a great fiule util (Which PC's are yet to experience like Directory Opus) and more still...bott your system from it. My Amiga A4000T can do this. Live and let live mate. Michael Wilkins. Kyoto, Japan.

    13. Re:Amiga again? by joetee · · Score: 1

      Hemos Rules! The story may have a Boing ball icon but its about a GREAT concept (and program), about GREAT things being GPL'd.
      ...Besides which, lots of Linux users were once Amiga expert. Like the Rasterman.(to "out" only one)...who also rules...as does nanotech!

      --
      Joe Torre - X - HardwareEngineer @ Amiga Inc & ZapMedia Amiga, AmigaDE, BeOS, Linuxz, QNX, Rebol, Windoze, ZME: So
    14. Re:Amiga again? by FonkiE · · Score: 2

      there is a thing called preferences, you can switch all amiga stuff off, or are you ignorant on purpose?

    15. Re:Amiga again? by LocalH · · Score: 1

      Well, of course you'd say that the C64's not dead -- according to your sig, you'd be partial to the platform.

      And I don't deny that. However, I do know from first-hand experience that there are still thousands of C64 hackers - not bad for a system that 'died' in the early 90's.

      And what bragging rights does Amiga still have?

      1. The Amiga is still the only platform that allows you to have multiple screens open at different resolutions and to have them displayed at the same time independently of the other screens.
      2. The core OS would fit on a single 880KB diskette. I know, I know, Linux itself (meaning the kernel) will fit on a floppy disk (tomsrtbt is a fine example) but the OS itself that is stored on disk takes up very little room (I would say around 100-200KB).
      3. Can we say FULL SCREEN ANIMATION? The Amiga did full screen animation LONG before the PC even did 15fps postage-stamp animation.
      4. Instant TV-OUT. I know that PC's can be bought with a video card that supports it, but the A1000 (the first Amiga) supported this out of the box in 1985.

      I could name others, but this list should be sufficient.

      Maybe it still plays those old demos real well, but can it run the latest games? No.

      And what is the importance of this? Just because it can't play the newest games, it sucks? I find fault in that argument for two reasons.

      1. Maybe Amiga owners don't have a desire to play Half-Life or Unreal. Ever played Scorched Earth on the PC? Well, Scorched Tanks on Amiga makes 'Earth look like an Atari 2600 game. The Amiga has thousands of classic games that beat the living crap out of most PC games today.
      2. While games are a decent measure of how fast the computer is, speed isn't all that matters. My A3000 is more stable and reliable at 25MHz than my Win98 PC is at 333MHz. Of course, Linux makes up for that difference, but in general it takes a PC lots more horsepower to do what an Amiga could do in '85.

      What about web browsers that support up-to-date standards, like CSS? No.

      Umm...maybe you've never heard of VoyagerNG or iBrowse. iBrowse 2.1 (the most recent version) supports JavaScript 1.2, HTML 4.0, as well as a feature you don't see on PC browsers - the ability to define how each page you visit appears. I will concede that no mention has been made of CSS yet, but I would rather have no implementation of CSS than two different incompatible versions (MS vs. NS)

      Or even recent versions of Lightwave (it's on what, 6 now)? No.

      I will have to concede this point to you, because it's the truth. But that doesn't mean that older versions of LW that are available on the Amiga are useless, just because a new version came out.

      Just because you're stuck on old platforms and still get a nostalgia fit every time someone says the name "Commodore" doesn't mean the Amiga story should be right on the front page. Slashdot can only put so many stories there, and I'd much rather it had been something besides Amiga.

      I'm not 'stuck on old platforms' - I simply use platforms that I enjoy using, such as the C64, Amiga, and PC (believe it or not, I do have a PC, contrary to what you might be thinking). Besides, if you have a username, then you can log in and disable the Amiga news in the preferences. And if you're worried about people knowing who you are, there is a small checkbox above the submit button labeled 'Post Anonymously'. Besides, what if six years from now, Linux/*BSD/Windows/Mac/BeOS is regarded the same way by somebody and you take offense? My point is, just because you don't want to see Amiga news on the front page, doesn't mean there aren't many people who would like to see Amiga news on the front page, and that is the whole purpose of the preferences section, to tailor Slashdot to your tastes.
      _______
      Scott Jones
      Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
      Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

      --
      FC Closer
    16. Re:Amiga again? by LocalH · · Score: 1

      You're probably talking about the same thing here. Opera allows you to have a user defined CSS override the document CSS so you can define how each page you visit appears.

      Well, not quite. The feature I'm referring to allows you to disable images, GIF animations, and much more on a page-by-page basis. You can see a screenshot here (link to Software Hut's website).

      And a PC browser too.

      Opera is a damn good browser, I haven't had much experience with it because I don't have the money to purchase it :) I have checked out the time-limited version, and it is quite good. Kinda has that Amiga feel, even tho it is for other OS's. One thing - anything come of Amiga Opera? That would be sweet.

      Oh, and on the subject of user-defined CSS - IE3 supported it, but they removed the feature in IE4. Don't know if Netscape ever supported it or if Mozilla does/will.
      _______
      Scott Jones
      Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
      Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

      --
      FC Closer
    17. Re:Amiga again? by LocalH · · Score: 4

      How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Amiga. Sure, Amigas may have been cool at the time, but they haven't been made for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them, much less why they're still relevant to any of us.

      Just because they're not made anymore doesn't mean they are dead. The life of a system is based on it's userbase, not how many corporations throw money behind it. To use another classic computer as an example - the C64. You may say it is dead, and it is commercially in my eyes. However, if you tell me that the 64 is dead based on the sheer number of users it still has, then I will laugh in your face, sir.

      I can sort of understand why the story about the PET was posted -- that was a true original revolution in personal computing

      And the Amiga wasn't? It was 15 years ahead of it's time (the Amiga still has bragging rights on certain capabilities that haven't happened anywhere else), the only problem it had was Commodore.

      But the Amiga is a dead platform, yet Slashdot has a whole category for Amiga posts.

      That's because many geeks were brought up on the Amiga, such as myself. The Amiga platform is still fairly popular if you consider how long ago Commodore filed for bankruptcy, and also the fact that when a PC is obsoleted, many people just trash them and upgrade. I can give you a list of things that the Amiga is capable of out of the box that PC manufacturers just haven't figure out how to do yet.

      Doesn't anyone else here get tired of constantly hearing about Amiga?

      No, I used an Amiga ever since AmigaDOS 1.2, and I was amazed at the speed and stability of the system, so amazed that even after I had sold all my Amigas (yes, I did :) and bought a PC, I still yearned for more. So now I have an A3000 sitting in my home, that does things running at 25MHz and with only 4MB of RAM that my 333MHz K6-2 can't with 128MB of RAM. So yes, I do still own an Amiga, and yes, I enjoy hearing news about it, at least it still gets some press coverage.

      Rob & Co., I appreciate all the effort you put into Slashdot, but I think all of us would like stories that cover what we're interested in today.

      If you're not interested in the Amiga, then pass by the article instead of trying to raise a stink. Some people actually still like the Amiga, you know.
      _______
      Scott Jones
      Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
      Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

      --
      FC Closer
    18. Re:Amiga again? by c=sixty4 · · Score: 2
      This is news because Directrory Opus is one of the two reasons I kept using my Amiga even when it went way outdated, and why I could use it to feed my /. addiction even this week when my usual Linux box went down.

      For those who don't know what DirOpus does, it's a file managment tool in the vein of Norton / Midnight commander, except it's everything those tools ever wanted to become. A port of it would be a Good Thing (TM).

      Besides, I feel more manufacturers should set their software free when the commercial value of it has run dry. After all, that's not the only kind of value a program has. A good example is Ian Bell's release of Elite.

      --
      "The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
    19. Re:Amiga again? by dgph · · Score: 1
      Tao has the raw OS. Amiga will be adding the rest of the Operating Environment.

      As far as hardware goes, I think the idea is that you can use whatever hardware you like. X86 hardware is commodity stuff, i.e. cheap, no doubt most people will use that. Or if something better comes along, or if you have specialist needs, you could use that. The point is, you will have freedom of choice.

      If you are thinking about the famous Classic Amiga ``Custom Chips'', they are irrelevant. Companies like Nvidia are the ones with the most expertise and dollars, they are the ones producing the best and cheapest Custom Chips.

    20. Re:Amiga again? by dgph · · Score: 2

      I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them [Amigas], much less why they're still relevant to any of us

      The Amiga is relevant because it has always had a powerful-but-easy-to-use design philosphy. Linux/Unix is powerful, but can it ever be easy to use (for Joe L. User)? I know, people are working on it, but Linux's hardcore-nerd roots make it very challenging. And Windows of course is easy to use, if you want to do easy things, but difficult if you want to do powerful things. So, there is a big opportunity here, don't you think?

      Certainly Amiga has had many abortive attempts at rebirth since Commodore went under many years ago, but the latest attempt looks to me like a winner. Here is a press release from jan 8:

      Amiga Incorporated has entered into a strategic relationship with Tao Group for the New Amiga

      These guys who bought Amiga have some very interesting ideas to do with an Object Oriented Operating Environment; and the underlying OS, Elate from Tao, looks very interesting too. Some highlights of Elate:

      • real time (important for multimedia)
      • object based from the ground up
      • easy porting to new platforms (just one part of it needs ``just a few weeks to be written'' for a new platform).
      • hardware independant executables
      • can run hosted in another OS, so it can get on peoples computers by stealth (Be seems to be doing this too). If they like it, they can install it natively.

      More info on Elate can be found at www.tao-group.com.

      But it's still very early days, so don't get too excited just yet.

    21. Re:Amiga again? by Explo · · Score: 1

      How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Amiga. Sure, Amigas may have been cool at the time, but they haven't been made for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them, much less why they're still relevant to any of us. I can sort of understand why the story about the PET was posted -- that was a true original revolution in personal computing, and it was a one-time nostalgiafest post. But the Amiga is a dead platform, yet Slashdot has a whole category for Amiga posts.

      Doesn't anyone else here get tired of constantly hearing about Amiga? Rob & Co., I appreciate all the effort you put into Slashdot, but I think all of us would like stories that cover what we're interested in today

      Oh my. If you would have read even a bit about the point of the article, you would have noticed that it's not about Amiga, but a piece of software which has so far been available only for Amiga. Now it's possible to get this program ported to other operating systems. Where exactly in this thing is the Amiga-specific content, I ask you?

      --
      Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
    22. Re:Amiga again? by Tomun · · Score: 1

      a feature you don't see on PC browsers - the ability to define how each page you visit appears. I will concede that no mention has been made of CSS yet

      You're probably talking about the same thing here. Opera allows you to have a user defined CSS override the document CSS so you can define how each page you visit appears.
      And a PC browser too.

    23. Re:Amiga again? by amigabill · · Score: 1

      It's news because Dopus 4.12 is hte best Filemanager I've ever used, on any platform.
      I've longed for something similar under Linux, and now that is possible. I am extremely
      happy to see interest in porting it to Linux. This Dopus story isn't an Amiga
      story, it's an application story, and a damn good piece of software at that. This
      application just happened to have originated on the Amiga, but I feel Linux will
      benefit greatly from having a port of it.

      And while Amiga has stumbled over the last few years, we are getting
      G3 and G4 PowerPC cards in the next few months, totally new products,
      currently being developed by 3 separate companies. We are getting a new
      motherboard with much more up to date features, PCI slots, much much
      faster CPU bus, etc. And we are working toward adopting the PowerPC POP
      motherboard and porting AmigaOS to that. I don't want to argue about
      advocacy stuff a lot, but while Amiga has been down for a while, it's not
      gone yet, and good things are indeed happening. I myself am a hardware
      developer working on some Amiga products for the commercial market.

    24. Re:Amiga again? by Dagonc · · Score: 1

      I m studing Informatics Engeeniring I m using Amiga since 1988.I dont think it's outdated, it has feutures that windows users haven't seen yet and amiga has them for 15 years.Anyway if you aren't interested on Amiga news just don't read them... I also develop for linux but I still prefer Amiga some things ONLY AMIGA MAKES THEM POSSIBLE Cheers!

    25. Re:Amiga again? by neco_amiga · · Score: 1

      I would have to disagree, advances in pc technology do not make the amiga an less relevant of a platform. Despite is absence in the main stream "dead" is not a work I would use to describe the amiga. There is still a signifigant user and development base, and amigas HAVE been made and are available new in the box as we speak. NOT TO MENTION AMIGA OS 3.5 WAS RELEASED ONLY 2 MONTHS AGO. There are companies that clone the amiga, there are power pc boards for the amiga, I could go on and on. The amiga is the last great hobby computer, its a fantastic machine and thats why so many people still do use them. Its obvious from your post you have never seen a power pc or 060 amiga in action with programs like visual prefs, newicons, executive, etc

    26. Re:Amiga again? by Boozion · · Score: 1

      Yes Amiga will come back! I use my Amiga 400T and prod of it. Beats the hell out of my window's pc. Even though the suport software is lagging some what. But there will be new Amiga's on the way. PPC based Amiga's will kick some ass on the next Amiga os :) I would like to see more loyal support from other Amigen's.

    27. Re:Amiga again? by phoenixbbs · · Score: 1

      I first got an Amiga in 1992.

      In June 1993 it started work as a bulletin board system, and it hasn`t been switched off for more than 2 weeks in total since - during which time (not all at once), I have had to reinstall the OS *twice* due to dead HD`s.

      If this is the kind of rock-steady reliable performance you get out of your present PC, whichever OS you use, you can collect your medal (don`t go upgrading your OS now, we haven`t needed to (much)! ).

      If however, you are still awestruck at how efficient, powerful, and downright pleasant to use the Amiga is, you may smile

      It manages all this on a processor no faster than a 386-25 (i`m on an 020-14Mhz) and boots in 10-15 seconds flat to a proper gui.

      Dopus is one of the definitive file handling utilities available in the world, it REALLY IS THAT GOOD, and the sooner someone ports it the better.

      We are so damned stubborn in supporting it because it`s just so damned good, even today, despite being slower than your average calculator - it is still faster than Win-dohz for any non-processor intensive tasks due to it`s inherent intuitiveness and responsiveness.

      They kick ass, and if you don`t believe it, go see one in action.

  2. Re:You have the wrong end of the stick, my friend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the technology is obsolete now, so why do I care? Great, give me your story about your new, well-designed G4, but once you've put it together. Amiga's ashes are thoroughly worthless and uninteresting to me and to a lot of other people until something comes out of them, and nothing has yet.

    Please, give me a real geek story to take this one's slot on the front page. Really. I want Slashdot, not Amigadot.

  3. Its not just about the Amiga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is also about a succesful company releasing code under the GPL.

    Its also about a piece of software that is unknown on other platforms.

    1. Re:Its not just about the Amiga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Personally, let me know when GPSoftware releases > DirOPUS 5.0; that will get my attention!! Apparently not. It was released like ages ago. Newest version is Magellan II. Go buy it. > If my Amiga was still alive (sniff) I'd have it running just to use that. Go buy a new one. They rock. > Maybe once I get UAE working ... It is dog slow, and nothing like a real amiga.

    2. Re:Its not just about the Amiga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Personally, let me know when GPSoftware releases
      > DirOPUS 5.0; that will get my attention!!

      Apparently not. It was released like ages ago. Newest version is Magellan II. Go buy it.

      > If my Amiga was still alive (sniff) I'd have it running just to use that.

      Go buy a new one. They rock.

      > Maybe once I get UAE working ...

      It is dog slow, and nothing like a real amiga.

    3. Re:Its not just about the Amiga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually Dopus is now up to version 5.82, is known as Opus Magellan II and is totally different to Opus4. I just recently upgraded from Magellan to Magellan II. GPSoftware also is working on a Windows version.

    4. Re:Its not just about the Amiga by dbreakey · · Score: 1

      Actually, DirOPUS 4.12 is not entirely unknown on other platforms. Check out here.

      It's for Win9x. I don't know how it compares, but the author claims he was openly inspired to "recreate" DirOPUS. Visually, it looks close.

      Personally, let me know when GPSoftware releases DirOPUS 5.0; that will get my attention!! If my Amiga was still alive (sniff) I'd have it running just to use that. Maybe once I get UAE working ...

  4. flamebait?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the guy was posting an honest question about amigas, fer chrissakes. why do the moderators feel that they have do suppress any opinion that they don't happen to share?

    -- anonymous by choice

  5. Re:Difficulty of porting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, Does linux have an interprocess communication language like Amiga Arexx? I guess that would have to be stripped if not completely rewritten for whatever linux has.

  6. Re:You have the wrong end of the stick, my friend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But the technology is obsolete now, so why do I care?"

    No reason you should, I take it you don't, but why do you think anyone else is interested in you telling them so?

    "Please, give me a real geek story to take this one's slot on the front page. Really."

    Okay, I admit I didn't realise tehre were a limited number of "slots" - I take it that is true? - I still have no idea what would make one story more a "real geek" story than another.

    "I want Slashdot, not Amigadot."

    Where "slash" is used in what Amiga-omitting sense?

  7. Thanks, but i`m waiting for PONG.ASM to get GPL`d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amiga file manager, for christs sake.

  8. How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about if the world would start porting these tools, then the PC could become slightly usefull. CShell 5.x+, Diskmaster, VoiceShell, Powerpacker, Turbo Imploder, Powerpacker Patcher, Assignwedge, Arrex, SEKA Assembler, Newzap & Amigamon. Regards, "Bought back an A1200/030"

    1. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the old Cygnus Ed (CED) best damn text editor I have EVER seen.

    2. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Deluxe Paint 3.

      I've yet to find a paint package for Unix thats as nice to use.

      Of course, I really just miss the way Amiga Paint programs allowed you to use anything as a brush

    3. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I *really* miss CygnusED too! Boohoo!!!

    4. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you use Windows, check out Textpad (http://www.textpad.com). It cured my CygnusEd blues. :-)

    5. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you use Windows, check out Paint Shop Pro (http://www.paintshoppro.com). Comes very close to DPIII IMHO.

    6. Re:How about porting these: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Diskmaster II (amiga ) is one of the clone of opus ,not very intuitive but if you're clever enough you can do anything you want!

    7. Re:How about porting these: by LocalH · · Score: 1

      And Deluxe Paint 3.

      Bah, DP4 AGA destroys DP3. HAM support, limited morphing, more screenmode support.

      I've yet to find a paint package for Unix thats as nice to use.

      Agreed. The GIMP is nice, but I want something more like my good old DP.

      Of course, I really just miss the way Amiga Paint programs allowed you to use anything as a brush

      I highly miss that feature. What about the animation features of DP3/4? Animbrushes came in very handy at times when creating animations.

      Oh, by the way, there actually is DP3 for DOS. However, don't try to find it, as it sucks compared to the Amiga version. And it might not be DP3, but rather DP2. I will have to check my home box to see. It bites though...very bad.
      _______
      Scott Jones
      Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
      Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

      --
      FC Closer
    8. Re:How about porting these: by Kefx · · Score: 1

      Diskmaster II was awesome. Started up real fast. Configuration was done in a text file. Once it was set up, it was great to use.

    9. Re:How about porting these: by luckykaa · · Score: 1

      Well, I only had an A500P, so I got DP3 with it. I quite liked the look of the onion skins (i.e. transparent frames that let you see the previous fram) that DP4 could do

      As for the animation features, Animbrushes were great, but the way it worked took up a lot of my Meagre 2 megs of RAM.

      This would be so much better now that I have 32 times that much, and about a gig of VM under Linux

  9. Re:gentoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DirectoryOpus was shit. It was, IMHO, the first piece of bloatware for the amiga. I always used diskmanager instead - loaded in a second or less. How big was D.O.? And what exactly did it do that DM couldnt do in 50k (uncrunched)?

  10. Re:It's happening, my friend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, great. Wonderful for the Amiga community. But as I've been saying, the front page can only hold so much, and this shouldn't be one of these things. All of your links are just rumours and speculation, aside from the link to an Amiga corporate site, on which I could not find any information pointing to a realization of your Amiga-based "dream". Maybe there should be a separate Amiga section on Slashdot so these stories about unrealized dreams of a dead platform don't have to take up valuable front page space or something like that. But in publishing, the majority is always right -- they're the ones who are reading.

  11. Seems impossible to port by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just took a quick look at the code. And in my opinion you're right: It would be easier to write a clone of it. The code is just awfull! I wouldn't try to port it to anywhere.

  12. Something Special About it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there really something special about Directory Opus? I certainly remember it from my Amiga days, though couldn't understand why everyone was so excited by it. I preferred Directory Works, which was far less resource hungry and seemed much faster whilst fulfilling the same purpose.

    1. Re:Something Special About it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly..there were *loads* of these... thats what i remember from then...loads of ST ram disk programs, and loads of amiga file manager programs.
      You werent insane; DO was just about the biggest file manager prog i`ve ever seen... the whole point of them was that they made copying (etc) files quicker...hardly, if it takes 1 min+ to load and get sorted out. I remember it being unintuitive too, although a friend swore by it.

  13. Re:What would you put in it's place? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This story's perfectly worthy. What are you talking about? I have no idea what point you're referring to.

    And everybody's doing what I want them to do anyway.

  14. Re:Please someone..... drop it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember no programmers using it, ever.

    >To finally see the kind of program that made the Amiga legend on different

    Large, bloated, slow, unstable.... i think you`re thinking of the kind of program that made the PC famous?

  15. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Arrrrgh! Why bother porting it? The source tree is totally non-portable so it would be a damn site easier to code it from scratch.

  16. Re:What about non-programmers....? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suppose you`re right...my mate (non-coder) had a big pile of add ons for his 1200...ram, accelerators etc, and loved it. I never could get over how large and slow it was though... i may have a look at the source code for a laugh! Probably written in basic or something...

  17. Re:why port it when ... ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not to be an ass, Emil, but you are risking some negative moderation for redundancy here. Just don't want your karma to suffer :)

  18. Re:There is no way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PowerPacker is highly overrated. It is incompatible and slow and packs lousy. And what does this have to do with Dopus ?

  19. Re:Difficulty of porting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AROS could probably be used for the UI stuff similar to how Corel is using Winelib for WP.

  20. DuhOpus suxxx!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dont know wether to laugh or cry. DirOpus (even in Amiga terms!) was a bloated, constipated sow of a filemanager. SO bad, infact, it earned the nickname "DuhOpus" back around 1994-95. The name stuck. Remember that Jerry Springer episode where they extract some lazy, fat sack of puke out of his home? When you look at DuhOpus, think of that guy. Now, if dirwork was GPL'ed.. Then I'd be excited. Know that movie where the girl's ass slides under a laser beam? When you look at dirwork, think of that scene. So, lets compare and contrast.. 900 pound sack of human filth too big to get up off his ass, let alone walk thru a doorway.....or... Nice piece of ass....and ***LASERS***.. The choice is obvious, unless youre a damn mongoloid. Choose dirwork. Choose it because it doesn't suck 10,000 BTU like DuhOpus

    1. Re:DuhOpus suxxx!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only are you a completely full of shit but you are one stupid asswipe. I used Amigas for years, and DirOpus was none of the things you say in your ignorant, lame post. I've never heard it referred to as DuhOpus, nor did that stick, because it never happened period. You are one stupid mofo, and your post shows that you have an IQ of about 33. Get a life and stop lying, you poor sick bastard.

    2. Re:DuhOpus suxxx!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed, I used Disk master and Dir Opus for almost 8 years. Opus is none of the things this laser fool claims. It is a user configuratable great file manager/application launcher that takes up a "blaoted" 256kb (not mb) on my HD. this guy need to lay off the porn.

  21. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Youre a dick!

  22. Amiga "environments" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I Dopus 4.12 years ago... It never really "rocked my world". But is WAS powerful for those who wanted to invest the time. I miss ToolManager, tho... My standard "environment" was Toolmanager and DiskMaster, and used "whatis.library" to figure out what filetypes, as it was entirely usable using scripts I could write and embed in TM or DM...("file" might work...) Toolmanager is basially an extreme logical extention of N*xt docks, where the docks are nestable, and can be icons, text, filesystems, or a variety of other object types. (Displayable as images or smaller text blocks) You could have as many as you wanted, put them wherever you needed them... Have sub-docks, pop- up docks, open/close with hot keys, etc... Has a nice drag-n-drop UI, interactive dock positioning, etc. My "Amiga" now lives in my Linux box.(UAE) and works very well. The hardrives moved over just fine... She still physially resides under my desk, for the odd occasion I need a genlock... Too lazy to create an account.

  23. GTK+ vs MUI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You got to hate GTK+ apps then.
    I mean, GTK+ is fucking bloadware and a badly implemented ripoff of Amiga MUI.

  24. Re:You have the wrong end of the stick, my friend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Amiga's ashes are thoroughly worthless and uninteresting to me and to a lot of other people " Hey, if you're sooooo uninterested in this worthless topic - why do you waste precious time in your life reading and writing about it????? It's amazing - look at how many "uninteresting" messages you read through before you even posted your response!

  25. Re:A look into the future... let's say 2007... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lightwave also come from Amiga! is that also outdated? we to not want to port Amiga to Linux but Amiga software to linux..not?

  26. Re:Clone already existant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I haven't tried Worker, I'm sure it's great if it is a DOpus clone.

    But if you liked DOpus you really must check out gentoo. An excellent filemanager made by a true old Amiga hacker (Emil Brink - who unfortunately is a little too humble to really promote his great work).

    Gentoo has that feeling of completeness and attention to detail that lots of free (and commercial) Amiga software had but that much of current Linux OSS lack. There is more to a useable program than just skins and features, if you know what I mean. It has to work and have an alright (g)UI too. Easy configuration is another area where Linux apps mostly suck but where the Amiga (and gentoo) excels.

    I miss my Amiga and I just find it so hard to understand why so few of the many, many truly great innovations and elegant solutions on that platform still really haven't caught on. I want a RamDisk and an ENV:! I want straight-forward no-fuss super-efficient pixel-editors for low-color-(web!)graphics (DPaint 4! Brilliance 2!!!). I want free program downloads of a few hundred K with 25 languages included. I want Datatypes. I want to script my applications from any other application! I want a GOOD LOOKING, well designed free GUI-toolkit (MUI 3.8). I want plug and play that works. I want SEPARATE chips to handle all computer IO. I want super-fast application-switching. I want sensible file dialogs (ASL) that list files so that they are easy to scan through - in ONE column - in a RESIZEABLE window adjusted to screen height! I want assigns. I want hardcore hand-optimized assembler demos with breathtaking effects on an 7MHz 68K.

    Arrrghhh... I want my Amiga... ;(

  27. Some old awesome SREENSHOTS at www.amigapro.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think we have a lot of work to do to better the Amiga...... Take a look at the showcase directory at www.amigapro.com It also has a DOpus shot. *** Multiple resolutions on one screen? ***(WOW!!!!) Is the new AmigaOS 3.5 any good? I could find only one screenshot at www.amiga.com (It looks amazing though for a pre-windows machine and low powered machine) ==> http://www.amiga.de/amigaos35/screens/os35screen.j pg and http://www.amiga.de/amigaos35/index-e.html (preview section)

    1. Re:Some old awesome SREENSHOTS at www.amigapro.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The absolute best source of screen shots is on the Aminet. I think one of the url's is http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/ From there go to tree of directories, PIX then PIX/WB There are all kinds of screen shots in there, some are lha'd, but some are jpeg's. Many different resolutions too look at. As, there are different gfx boards too. :)

    2. Re:Some old awesome SREENSHOTS at www.amigapro.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These look great indeed...... I really messed up when I choose DOS in the mid eighties. (due to mass marketing...I didn`t know any better) * Full Color GUI in 1985? * Pre-emptive multitasking in 1985? * Stereo Sound Standard in 1985? * Autoconfig in 1985? (al la plug`n play) * An 1987 A2000 can be upgraded with graphic cards and PPC processors to be become an official SUPER COMPUTER? My old (and sold) xt can`t even come close. * Multiple screen resolutions in 1985? * TV-out in 1985? etc, etc

    3. Re:Some old awesome SREENSHOTS at www.amigapro.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I found some cool JPG screenshot ones there!!! DOpus enhanced=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/A4000T_Kosh.jpg an another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/Beatrice981215.jpg and a weird one=>http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/amine t/pix/wb/Whiskas-Opus.jpg AmigaOS Amiga500 OCS screenshot????=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/a500ocs.jpg AmigaOS 3.1=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/AristWB.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/CUFGrab1.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/JAKs_WB.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/ProLite2.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/Rldwb1.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/slishbench.jpg and another=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/XenoMorph_WB02.jpg MineSweeper Looks cool!=> http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/aminet/pix /wb/RMPreview.jpg I didn`t have the change to look at them all, but I am really impressed with this oldie!

  28. AMIGA!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You haven't lived till you've done some serious 3D rendering and animation at 7.14MHz. Now that's excitement. :)

    1. Re:AMIGA!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah...Uhuh! Back in the days when people were actually doing that, the Amiga is the only thing that could even possible manage it...period. That was a long time ago. Now rendering on the Amiga is done mainly on PPC accelerators, not 7mhz processors, as many idiots who come here because they have no lives would like to believe. :)

  29. Re:A look into the future... let's say 2007... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Linux doesn't get a proper UI, and I mean a proper UI it will propabaly die off or become just another OS with some hardcore lunatic users. And why is it so fucking hard to install any new piece of hardware in a Linux machine, providing that you even find a driver for it (or any *nix OS for that matter)? Why does the filesystem look like a bowl of spaghetti? Hell! Even Windows is better at that, at least they throwed everything into one directory so it's a bit easier to find things when you need to. Why can't Linux get a real locale system, not that crap it has got now. The only computer that has a working locale system is the Amiga, saw how it worked on friends Amiga and could just utter "Why can't they do it like that on Linux?". Come to think about it the Amiga is the only computer with a working p'n'p system. The Amiga would have a lot of features that would be worth implementing in Linux despite its old age. I wonder why it isn't done more? Is it because Linux programmers are too proud to admit that other OS's might have features that are superior to the ones Linux have? And NO, I'm not an Amiga user, but I seen it work at my friends and he's not a nervous wrek like me after I worked with Linux/Windows XX at my job.

  30. Re:why port it when ... ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um, yeah, I guess I got a bit carried away. It's all the fame and glory, you know... Sorry about that. :)

  31. Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah but that's for linux or unix or some such crap, we need one for windows :)

  32. EEk - lousy web design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you use larger letters (if your eyes are not perfect!) you can't read all of the text - ooh, bad web design..

  33. Re:Amiga again? (and again okay!!!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amiga developing process has not stopped since 1994... it was slowed down. If you are not an Amiga user then you can't value it !!! Take a look at the latest news guys, it's going to make waves AGAIN :) (and again okay!!!) Wajdy.

  34. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Speaking up- I bought the third Amiga sold in my home state- and remained an Amigan 'til its dying day. The integration between the CLI and WorkBench functionalities was - and remains- unparalleled. The paradigm upon which AmigaDos was based- the idea that every function in your system should be available to the user, anytime and anywhere, will never (I devoutly hope) be 'old-fashioned'. System function calls from BASIC!!!!! oh, MY!

  35. Why do people keep insisting Amigas not made? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It constantly mystifies me how people seem to think that you can't buy a new Amiga anymore... :-/ I mean I can buy a brand-new-never-out-of-the-box A4000T today without much trouble. When I did my most recent upgrade in Oct/1999 I opted against buying a new motherboard but I purchased everything else new. New CPU module (A4000 motherboards had CPU 'slots' rather than 'sockets' for individual chips) a PowerPC 604e/233, new UltraWide SCSI controller with a nice Quantum Atlas10Krpm Ultra/160 drive... Nice new case and buscard with 7 Z3 slots... brand new NIC, brand new EIDE controller (for cheap drives! :-) brand new I/O cards, brand new GL-accelerated card (ok it's only a Permedia 2 but still)... I don't understand where people get the idea that Amiga hardware isn't made anymore! I mean hell, I just installed AmigaOS 3.5.1 update and that came out only a month ago! I mean, I accept it when people say that the Amiga is dead, because in terms of market share it really is. I'd be surprised if there was more than 100,000 active users around the planet today... But I get annoyed when people seem to think that we've just dropped off the face of the Earth and that we don't have new hardware, modern apps, modern games, etc. etc.... I guess people just think that since Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 that no new Amigas have been made since then.... But that's not true, we've survived 2 bankruptcies and a buyout (C=, Escom, and Gateway->Amino) and we're still getting new gear. Now pardon me while I start planning out my finances for a new PPC7500 card... :-) And the new Amiga BoXeR motherboard with redesigned AA+ chipset-on-one-chip (which is FINALLY actually on the assembly lines now) would be nice to have. :-)

    1. Re:Why do people keep insisting Amigas not made? by DarkHawke · · Score: 1

      "And the new Amiga BoXeR motherboard with redesigned AA+ chipset-on-one-chip (which is FINALLY actually on the assembly lines now) would be nice to have." Cheesus H. Rice! WHERE DID YOU HEAR/READ THIS?!? I've been waiting since last freaking MAY for my shiny-new BoXeR-based Amiga clone and it's been like finding and then pulling hen's teeth to get ANY frockin' info on the mobo's status! E-mail me e-mediately (if not sooner!) about this!!! PLEASE!!!

    2. Re:Why do people keep insisting Amigas not made? by Amico · · Score: 1

      * I am one of the writers for www.classicamiga.com and would like to comment his words about BOXER. We at Amiga4Ever never heard of it? Why? If so, please send us the news and dont spread such things here, people will either believe in it and get crazy and will spread untrue news....,other people will only look at it as a another BoXeR rumour. * I am a Amiga user, I've been since its early days. My first one was an Amiga 500, my second one was a A1200 and the third one was and is A4000. I am happy with it. I can run (almost) everything wich YOU can run on your PC's. I am surfing, chatting trough AmIRC, writing e-mails, looking at news groups. I do exactly all the same stuff as you PC guys... even MP3 :) Next time you throw bad words about the Amiga, please think before you do, because without it, Windows 2000 wouldnt be here at all! ... and.. I dont have any Microsoft related software on my computer, not either a Intel CPU. See. I am alive... I can do those things, wich you PC people wouldn't believe, because of your 300Mhz CPU's. Keep the momentum going! (This text is made by me. Its a text wich want to inform you, its not here because I hate other computing platforms, but its here because I've felt that I had to give people my points. I am a Amiga user and loves to give everyone the truth about the Amiga and the Amiga history.)

  36. Another good clone: filerunner by Jerky+McNaughty · · Score: 2

    I've used filerunner a bit---it's quite good, too. Check it out here.

    1. Re:Another good clone: filerunner by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 1

      Worker is superior though. I was using Filerunner until recently. On E it took a good 5-10 seconds to load, and can't be easily resized to an 800x600 monitor. You lose a couple of the button. Worker however fits nicely, will probably fit on a 640x480 desktop, and loads in under 2 seconds. Worker will be my file manager of choice until Opus gets ported. As an ex Amiga user, Opus was my favourite program on the Amiga. Awesome.

  37. Re:Please someone..... port it! by Enahs · · Score: 1

    What about the possibility of a port to AROS? (Yes, I realize it runs on a Linux kernel at the moment...)

    I don't see why everyone's so fired up to see a port to Linux. Quite frankly, even though I've never owned an Amiga, and haven't looked at the source, I'd think that this would be a *difficult* port, resulting in something that's about as half-assed as any other DOpus clone (with the difference being, of course, that this would be The Real Half-Assed Port Of DOpus. :^)

    I agree that the beasts are still worth looking at, BTW, just as NeXT machines are; ironic, isn't it, that Apple has put it's hope behind 12-year-old NeXT technology...in effect, NeXT became the next Macintosh. :^)

    --
    Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
  38. UNIX Cockpit. by Rational · · Score: 1

    This is the application that comes the closest (that I know of) to the power of the old Directory Opus on the Amiga. Easier to use with only the keyboard, too.

    http://www.unix11.com

    And it's GPLed too... :)

    --
    "Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass
  39. Magellan by Per+Wigren · · Score: 2

    My #1 wish for Linux is Directory Opus "Magellan" (v5.6)! It's the best filemanager ever made! This is a good start though. v4.x and v5.x is VERY different! It's like two completely different programs!

    v4 uses the classic two listviews and a bunch of buttons at the bottom (copy, move, delete, unpack etc).

    v5 uses multiple windows that are marked one SRC, one DEST and/or the rest OFF. Activating a DEST or OFF window makes it SRC and the SRC becomes DEST. Each window has small copy, move, delete etc buttons. You can configure it 100%.. Doubleclicking an archivefile (.lha, .lzx, .zip) let you browse through it like it was a normal directory. Dragging an archieve unpacks it in the window you dragged it to. Marking some files and pressing "move" move them to the DEST window.. etc.. You can choose between text or icon view. And every single function is available through the ARexx language so you can easily create or customize your own functions.

    Directory Opus v5 is the program i miss the very most on other systems!

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.
    1. Re:Magellan by Fone626 · · Score: 1

      People in the linux community keep talking about new killer file managers and what features they will have, but I have already used a file managers that has all the features that people are talking about putting in file manager X with alot more than they haven't thought about putting in.

      Since the days that I have left my good old amiga I have never felt as productive as I was with Directory Opus 5 (4 was good and I now have gentoo on my desktop that does a VERY nice job at replacing the functionality of DOpus 4). I loved the way that I could easitly make a button bank that could become a nice front end to a command line only program.. Just select all the files that I wanted to run through program X and click my custom button.... No exprert knowledge required and out would come the nice processed files.... or got a bunch of files that are more than one file type... just write a scipt that knows how to process each file type and bind it to a convert funtion... also need to to go to 2 destination at once... no problem, make it to that you have 2 destination windows and it will coppied to both.... arrrrg... this is the same thing that happened to me on that amiga with people actually looking at the software.... there is waaaaay too much that this software does to even start to decribe it. The 3/4 inch manual that it shipped with was just page after page of nothing but features, with little to no howto stuff in it. I keep hopeing that gentoo will turn itself into a clone of DOpus 5, I would even pay money for a nice clone, but I think I wont hold my breath. I doubt if I will ever see the best file manager on the best OS unfortunatly :(

    2. Re:Magellan by Emil+Brink · · Score: 1

      Hm, the idea about not holding your breath waiting for gentoo to turn into an Opus 5.x-clone is probably a good one, as far as survival strategies go. ;^) At this point in time, I have no plans to take development in that direction... Sorry.

      --
      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
  40. Cool! by Cybersonic · · Score: 1

    I for one love the fact DOpus is open :) It is definatly the second best utility for AmigaOS, second only to DiskMaster2! ;)

    LONG LIVE DiskMaster2!!!!

    My opinion has nothing to do with the fact that i memorized the text configuration format for the DiskMaster preferences file :P

    --
    Cybie! aka Ralph Bonnell
    1. Re:Cool! by swale · · Score: 1

      I miss Dir Opus as well. But it is run with AREXX an Amiga REXX port. You would have to replace the REXX hooks with symbolic links and forget about MUI.

  41. What is it ? by AftanGustur · · Score: 1


    Not coming from the Amiga, I have but one question: "What is it ?", screenshots anyone ??
    --
    Why pay for drugs when you can get Linux for free ?

    --
    echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
    1. Re:What is it ? by ChrisJones · · Score: 2

      It's basically a two paned filemanager - very similar in concept to midnight commander (not the Explorer-ised GNOME version, the console version), but with a proper GUI.

      www.gpsoft.com.au have screenshots (albeit crap ones) of DOpus5 which is much better than DOpus4 anyway.

      --
      Chris "Ng" Jones
      cmsj@tenshu.net
      www.tenshu.net
    2. Re:What is it ? by LocalH · · Score: 1

      I don't currently have any screenshots, but I can tell you what is is. DirectoryOpus is a file-browser much like X-Tree for all you x-DOS people, that allows you to copy, move, rename, delete, archive, and launch files among other things. It is highly configurable and scriptable via ARexx. I could fire up my A3000 at the house tonight and grab you a screenshot of my DOpus, but for now you will have to imagine :)
      _______
      Scott Jones
      Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
      Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

      --
      FC Closer
    3. Re:What is it ? by bergie · · Score: 1

      It seems to be a file manager / desktop environment. I found at least one screenshot from the site.

      /Bergie


      --

      --
      Midgard Project - Open Source CMS
  42. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by JHaselden · · Score: 1

    Over ISDN stupid!

    :)

    --
    www.abstractec.co.uk
  43. ya know... by Lx · · Score: 1

    Aside from the hardware-independent executables(could someone explain to me how that could work?), the OS that you're describing sounds a whole lot like the BeOS. Totally object-based, low latency, easy to port(Be has a tendency to port to a new platform in under a week, even overnight). Amiga was a great platform in its time, and even beyond its time, but I'm not optimistic that it can ever catch up after all of its difficulties, although I hope it does.

    -lx

    1. Re:ya know... by Lx · · Score: 1

      There are other parts of BeOS that are made to be portable as well, as part of the design - I think that supporting PPC and Intel is the best strategy, since those tend to be the dominant chips in the market. Alpha support would be neat, but hey. (btw, do a diskprobe on the portion of the disk where Be's about box is, you'll see references to the Alpha - there might be a port in the future, but only if Be makes some money soon.)
      Anyhow, I think you'll see be porting a lot more soon, with their new focus on IAs. They may not port to a whole different processor, but at least to fairly different architectures.

      -lx

    2. Re:ya know... by dgph · · Score: 1

      Elate uses a "Virtual Processor" (VP) which is an imaginary processor that is targeted by compilers. VP code ends up being translated into native code. Interestingly, according to the marketing blurb on the web site, drivers are portable also.

      I don't know a lot about BeOS, but I believe you when you say it could be ported in a week. Well, maybe the kernel, but what about all of the other software that makes up BeOS? All of that would have to be recompiled, tested (for endian problems at least) and maintained. What happens to software for which there is no source code available? Historically, Be has ported to new hardware, or rather migrated (hobbit --> PPC --> X86), for survival reasons, not because they want to support new hardware.

  44. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by joetee · · Score: 1

    Bravo! Very well stated. Even the most basic of Amiga DirUtils, let alone DirOpus will be a blessing to any userbase, of any OS.
    Especially those with GUIs or mice... ;^)

    --
    Joe Torre - X - HardwareEngineer @ Amiga Inc & ZapMedia Amiga, AmigaDE, BeOS, Linuxz, QNX, Rebol, Windoze, ZME: So
  45. Re:CLI by Sloppy · · Score: 1

    I used to have my Amiga automatically start two CLIs upon startup, because I would always need at least one, no matter what I was going to work on.

    Dopus 5.11 (now 5.6 Magellan II) changed all that. I never really liked Amiga Workbench, but thanks to Dopus, I finally "saw the light" about GUIs and found that I no longer needed a CLI. I don't automatically start any CLIs on startup anymore.

    I'm so dependant on it now, that I once visited a friend who also has an Amiga (but not Dopus) and it took me a while to remember how to use a stock Amiga. Workbench is so lame!

    Instead of getting excited over Dopus 4, Linux folks around here ought to lean on Mr. Potter to port Dopus 5. This program changed how Amigans do things, and we're a damn stubborn bunch!


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    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  46. (or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by mattbee · · Score: 1

    This was announced last week and, not wishing to be smug, but I submitted almost exactly this story the day it was released. Rejected VERY quickly.

    Sounds familiar; I'm waiting for the somebody else's version of the story that NEdit has been released under the GPL to appear as news here. I mean, a quick straw poll: how many people care about the source code to an Amiga program being GPL'd compared to that of a slick, emacs-thrashing programmer's editor? It's not that I think that any source code liberation isn't worthy of note, but a sense of priority would be nice on an essentially Linux-biased site such as this.

    --
    Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
    1. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by ShawnD · · Score: 1
      ... give AmigaOS a 'POSIX-layer' and a X-capable API, and you got a good startingpoint for something more innovative than all those *nix-clones.

      There is a start of that with ixemul.library. Most of the GNU toolset has been ported and makes a nice developement system (If a little slow and memory hungry on a 25MHz machine with 8MB RAM)

      There is even a start of an X server, but I could never get it running (It needs way more then 8MB RAM).

      Check ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com/pub/geekgadgets/ if you have an Amiga and want to check it out.

      My favorite trick on the Amiga is still VMM. User space virtual memory!

      And YAM is still one of the best mail clients I have ever used. http://www.yam.ch

    2. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Catullus · · Score: 1
      I mean, a quick straw poll: how many people care about the source code to an Amiga program being GPL'd compared to that of a slick, emacs-thrashing programmer's editor?

      Are you still talking about nedit here? :) But seriously, I am far more interested in DOpus being GPL'd - firstly because I am an ex-Amiga fanatic, but also because it was a truly seminal piece of software that redefined the way many people used their computers. Also, Linux GPL software is announced every day, GPL software for the Amiga is much rarer.

      --

    3. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by nutsy · · Score: 1

      Amidst the same old 'OSS duplicates and never innovates' whining, there is this:

      Face it, apart from the kernels, much *nix stuff is based around a 1/4 century old 'paradigm'. A really oldfashioned way of thinking.

      As opposed to the Amiga OS, which is based around a 15-year-old 'paradigm'? Last I checked, the Amiga *did* include a command-line interface as well as the windows and icons, so perhaps its designers didn't think keyboards are as old-fashioned as all that, hmmm?

      Perhaps I'm just cranky, but I thought an Amiga fan would be more open-minded about alternative OS's than the average Windozer or Macintoid. I'm sure some of you are -- please, for the sake of your reputations, speak up!

    4. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Felius · · Score: 1

      Yes, I'm an amiga fan, though not a fanatic. I still have mine at home and doubt I'll ever get rid of it.

      The amiga CLI was great, much closer to $SHELL than DOS ever was. If you haven't ever used it I think you'd be suprised at how unix-like and powerful it was.

      It was an integral part of the Workbench (the Amiga GUI) but novice users didn't have to use it to get things done.

      FreeBSD, Linux and others sometimes seem a bit behind the Amiga in some areas - but way ahead in others. Why start from scratch trying to recreate something that should remain a fond memory, when we have such fantastic 'current' OS's to work with and build on?

      John

      #include sig.h

      --
      ..and I'll form the head!!
    5. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Seehund · · Score: 1

      It's not that I think that any source code liberation isn't worthy of note, but a sense of priority would be nice on an essentially Linux-biased site such as this.

      Yes, a sense of priority would be nice to prevent this site from becoming more Linux-biased than it already is. "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."

      --
      Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
    6. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Mekanix · · Score: 1


      Well, perhaps because Linux 'sucks' when it comes to usability for non-geeks.

      AmigaOS really have a lot of stuff that would make Linux a pleasing experience...

      Face it, apart from the kernels, much *nix stuff is based around a 1/4 century old 'paradigm'. A really oldfashioned way of thinking.

      I as an 'ex-amigan' really miss the Amiga. A lot of stuff I took for granted is missing in *nix and making everyday use more of a hassle than it should have been, if the *nix-community would go beyond the 70s way of thinking.

      I miss a ordered disk-strockture, I miss the assigns, I miss that an app is placed in ONE location instead of all over the disk, I miss the simple double-click to start a program, I miss the Installer, I miss the intuitive way, I miss it's speed....

      So why am I here using Linux and not still with the Amiga? Simply, AmigaOS only runs on m68k, has no protected memory, 'no' software, 'no' RTG/RTA, bound to a single platform, 'no' development....

      Why is it that the OSS-community (apart from KDE, Gnome and a few others) are more commited to duplicate than innovate?

      Why is it that 'all' free OS's is trying duplicate Unix? How many flavor do we really need? (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, HURD, Minix ....)?

      Why this continual struggle to catch up with windows and let M$ set the agenda?

      Is it so terrible to go beyond Unix and Windows and create something new and innovative?

      Don't dublicate... innovate!

      ... give AmigaOS a 'POSIX-layer' and a X-capable API, and you got a good startingpoint for something more innovative than all those *nix-clones.

      Sadly the AROS-project doesn't have the attention of the OSS-community.

      Bjarne

    7. Re:(or NEdit released under the GPL, anyone?) by Mekanix · · Score: 1


      I know of GeekGadgets, yes.... and ixemul.library... if there was something that would crash my amiga it was ixemul..

      But GeekGadgets is just doing what Linux, xBSD, HURD etc. are doing... reimplementing Unix....

      And I too REALLY REALLY miss YAM.

      UAE/Linux will hopefully come out soon with a bsd-socket just like WinUAE. Then it's time to fire up under YAM, NewsRog and V3 again, and this linux-box might just be usable.... ;-)

      Bjarne

  47. CLI by Jumpy · · Score: 1

    I actually still use my Amiga quite a bit.
    But I prefer the shell. =)
    Still, its cool that they GPLed the code.
    Something like DOpus could make X far
    more useable for the would be linux crowd who
    want to try it out, but cant figure out stuff
    like ls, cd, rm, cp, more... ;)

    Cheers

    --
    -- If there's one thing i can't stand, it's intolerance!
    1. Re:CLI by dsplat · · Score: 3

      Something like DOpus could make X far more useable for the would be linux crowd who want to try it out, but cant figure out stuff like ls, cd, rm, cp, more... ;)

      I agree with the point that a complete GUI desktop environment is going to make Linux more accessible to the new or casual user. The reason is extremely simple. It is easier to recognize even infrequently used controls when they are visible in front of you than it is to remember how to access them when they are not visible. That is the entire secret to the real need for GUIs.

      Let's be honest with ourselves. My average computer use has probably been around 10 hours/day for several years (down somewhat from the days when I didn't have kids and home-repair projects). I am probably around the 50th percentile among Slashdot readers. (Future poll topic?) And I am probably at least 1.5 to 2 sigmas out on the bell curve for the general population. Remembering an infrequently used command is not a problem for me. I know where and how to find the information.

      The importance of a CLI however is often underrated. CLI tools lend themselves very well to scripting. That means that I can make frequently executed tasks even easier than a GUI makes them for my mother. I can reduce something that she clicks through menus to do into a shell script. I type a few characters and dozens of separate steps involving a variety of tools happen automatically, with the infinite patience and unparalleled repeatability that a computer brings to the task. I won't give up that power for all the windows, icons, menus and pointers in the world. GUIs don't speed up my interaction or make it easier a significant part of the time.

      --
      The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
  48. Re:This is an old version ... by GregWebb · · Score: 2

    v5 - Especially Magellan - is a VERY different product. Pretty much a complete new desktop with an integrated filemanager. It's a lot more powerful but I know not everyone prefers it. I use both, personally, as the effort required to make 5 perform as 4 did is substantial and 4 is sometimes faster.

    Whatever, 4 is still a VERY cool product and worth looking at. I agree it may well be more than a little difficult to port due to being very Amiga specific, but it's a start. And anything that helps produce a better file manager is good.

    Greg

    --

    Greg

    (Inside a nuclear plant)
    Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!

  49. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by GregWebb · · Score: 2

    I wondered whether this might happen, but decided to experiment a little.

    I'm a Windows user :) Nothing against Linux (though I'm not a huge Unix fan), just no reason to run it for what I need. Too much effort to set it up, not enough return. I'll probably set up a *nix box of some description when I've got the space for more than one, but right now I'm a Windows user.

    Anyway. I can't really test Worker out over here :) but it does look nice. So much of DOpus was in the little things it could do which I can't really comment on from screenshots but, based on what I've seen, it would appear worth looking at.

    Don't let this discourage anyone from working on DOpus though. It's probably going to be very difficult to port (if at all possible - it may well prove to be too OS dependent) but it's a good program and the computing world could benefit from using is as an example. Linux and Windows :)

    While I'm here, how on earth did my original post generate a 4? I mean, it's not a troll and it's fairly early, but...

    I've got moderator points right now, too. Pity I can't post and moderate in the same thread - I'd moderate myself back down.

    Greg

    --

    Greg

    (Inside a nuclear plant)
    Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!

  50. Nnnngggghhhh! by GregWebb · · Score: 5

    This was announced last week and, not wishing to be smug, but I submitted almost exactly this story the day it was released. Rejected VERY quickly.

    Oh well...

    For anyone who hasn't used this, do. It's fantastic and would be a real asset to the GNU community. Even if it means downloading UAE and using that just to try it out. This program could convince almost anyone to move away from CLIs for file management and was Amiga Format's highest rated product until Lightwave 3.5 came along - 97%.

    Please, can someone port it?

    Greg

    --

    Greg

    (Inside a nuclear plant)
    Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!

    1. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by MartinG · · Score: 4

      > Please, can someone port it?

      Before anybody starts to port it, why not have a look at Worker at freshmeat. It's described there as follows:

      Worker is a file-manager exclusive for X based on the famous filemanager "DirectoryOpus" on the AmigaOS. It is configurable on the fly without restarting Worker. Any extern program can be easily integrated in the GUI, including a button and a hotkey. Worker uses real file-recognition on file-content AND/OR file-ending, where each file-type can get an own action.

      --
      MartinG.

      --
      -- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz .@adgimnoprstu
    2. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by Emil+Brink · · Score: 1


      Um, you might want to try my app (mentioned above), gentoo. It's not DOpus or even a clone, but it might be similar enough for you to use while waiting for someone to port the real thing. ;^)
      </PLUG>

      --
      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
    3. Re:Nnnngggghhhh! by Squirtle · · Score: 2

      How TF do I download the United Arab Emirates?

      More seriously, what is so good about this thing? Any screenshots &/| short descriptions out there?

  51. Porting? by tietokone-olmi · · Score: 1

    As far as I know, porting DirectoryOpus 4 would be quite a task - perhaps difficult enough to just give up and put the effort into improving gentoo, a DOpus 4 workalike in GTK. (sorry, no link.) Amiga software (especially in cases like this) tends to rely heavily on the system; some programs even use the doubly linked lists provided by the exec.library instead of having their own implementation...

    Anyway, DirectoryOpus 4 used to be a commercial product, so I wouldn't expect much of the source :-)

    1. Re:Porting? by Emil+Brink · · Score: 1

      Yay, the second time someone mentions gentoo! ;^) As the author of that program, I feel compelled to not only reply, but also provide a handy link to the gentoo web page. Enjoy!

      --
      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
  52. Difficulty of porting... by LocalH · · Score: 1

    I wonder how difficult it would be to port DOpus to Linux/*BSD/etc., since the AmigaOS, while different, is quite Un*xish from what I have gathered over the years. I'm not a C programmer, so I couldn't port it myself, but I'm just wondering how hard it would possibly be.
    _______
    Scott Jones
    Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
    Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

    --
    FC Closer
  53. Re:Screenshot by LocalH · · Score: 1

    I believe that's DOpus 5, but still DOpus 4 has a similar concept to that. DOpus 5 became a WB replacement as well as a filemanager. I'll get a DOpus 4 screenshot off my A3k tonight or tomorrow and post it. The interface is simpler than DOpus 5.
    _______
    Scott Jones
    Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
    Game Show Fan / C64 Coder

    --
    FC Closer
  54. SourceXchange it! by LarsG · · Score: 1

    As an Amiga old-timer I would love to see DOpus ported to Linux.

    I am however not much of a programmer, but I'd be happy to help out in other ways. That is, $ and/or debugging.

    --
    If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
  55. Re:Arexx by LarsG · · Score: 1

    REXX was a standard scriptiong language, dude.

    The thing that made Arexx great, was that almost all Amiga programs exposed their functions to the script language (called an Arexx port).

    Thus, you could script almost anything.

    Both KDE and GNOME are working on doing more or less the same thing through CORBA. A CORBAized LinOpus with general script language bindings would rock.

    This is the top item on my (now rather short) "nifty things I miss when using Linux" list.

    --
    If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
  56. Re:Clone already existant by ianezz · · Score: 1

    > I want a RamDisk

    A resizable ramdisk doesn't really make sense on OS with good disk-cache management.

    > and an ENV:

    Persistent environmnent variables were a poor kludge compared to what you get with any Unix-like system.

    > I want straight-forward no-fuss super-efficient pixel-editors for low-color-(web!)graphics

    Admiteddly, the Gimp is a big step forward WRT Dpaint 4. And you still are able to do editing of low-color web graphics...

    > want free program downloads of a few hundred K with 25 languages included.

    Never considered using GNU gettext for that? Or the X/Open catalogs (built-in the the GNU libc?)

    > I want to script my applications from any other application!

    Well, scheme is becoming the de facto standard for every application for which scripting makes sense.

    >I want plug and play that work

    Amiga was a well defined architecture. You could count on the fact that certain hardware was there. A today's intel box is more like the Frankenstein's monster, so doing PnP is somewhat more difficult.

    > I want assigns

    Just use symlinks. Perhaps use devfs. What's the problem?

    > I want SEPARATE chips to handle all computer IO

    You really believe that your video card and your sound card and your chipset are absolutely dumb? Uh?

    > I want sensible file dialogs

    Yes. The GTK guys should just copy that. Definitively. But the current GTK file window is not really far from that (for mere functionalities).

    > I want hardcore hand-optimized assembler demos with breathtaking effects on an 7MHz 68K.

    Yes. I'm missing them too. :-)

    Perhaps you forget to mention that in addition to that you want protected memory and virtual memory, because that are something that only embedded systems could do without today. And yes, I remember GigaMem.

    Don't be too nostalgic. Have a nice day.

  57. Clone already existant by ianezz · · Score: 2
    FYI, there is already a nice clone of Directory Opus, called Worker.

    WRT porting Directory Opus to *nix, Amiga environment is so different from the typical *nix environment that probably it's easier to rewrite software like this from scratch.

    But then, the release of the sources of Directory Opus will surely make Amiga users (and UAE ones) really happy, anyway.

    My 0.02 Euro, as usual.

  58. Re:Why GPL? by Fweeky · · Score: 1

    Because they're onto Directory Opus 5 now, which is totally different to DOpus 4.

    Screw cloning DOpus 4, give us DOpus 5 :)

  59. This is an old version ... by divec · · Score: 1

    ... from the looks of things. They're advertising Directory Opus 5 on the web page. I don't know how different the versions are.
    Literally porting it might be difficult, because it's probably very Amiga-specific. However it should be quite easy to copy the interface.

    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

    1. Re:This is an old version ... by amigabill · · Score: 1

      4.12 may be an old version, but the 4.x was the best. I have the
      version 5 on my Amiga, and don't use it for my filemanager. I still
      use Dopus 4.x for that, as nothing in the world is a better
      filemanager than this IMHO. They totally changed the concept of Dopus
      for version 5, it now totally replaces the Workbench (desktop) and the
      interface is a lot different than in 4.x. If I had my choice of any
      filemanager to use in Linux, it would definitaly be aport of
      Dopus 4.12. I wouldn't use a port of version 5.

  60. DOpus can't be judged by screen shots... GET UAE! by Macfox · · Score: 4

    While I agree this might not a as news worthy as a lot of other stories, there is a large
    portion of /. readers who are x-amiga fans and like to see this kind of news now an then...

    Three major things that Dopus was to the amiga...

    1) The only file manager with a decent GUI. Back when I first met John Potter and he
    was coding the first version there was no API short cuts to coding a nice consistent
    interface. Only the horrible 1.3 WB interface existed. Hardly worth using and only if you
    had access to the ridiculously priced amiga developers books. Johns own GUI set the
    standard and I had my suspecisions that many of the WB 2 widgets appeared very
    similar. :)

    2) Many have commented that they had a 50k file manager that did the same... Hardly...
    DOpus's GUI was not only most easiest and clear to use GUI, it was also very intuitive
    and could be customized very easily... A very rare thing to find in an program back then.
    These are the best points and they can't be demonstrated by screen shots!

    3) Behind the GUI layed a very smart file recognition system that didn't rely on dumb file
    extentions, a text and hex editor, media players, and a host of WB tools that allowed the
    creation and modification of icons for files and folders.

    Overall DOpus filled a big gap. Only after it was so successful was there a host of clones
    that never matched DOpus for what it was.

    Anywayz my 0.02c AUS

    Rob

    --
    Area51 - We are watching...
  61. why port it when ... ? by dJOEK · · Score: 1

    i wonder if anyone here ever used gentoo for linux, it 's a file manager modelled after DOpus, i think it's really nice :) can't remember teh site tho, but u can find it on freshmeat.
    ps i made a cool WM icon for it ;)
    mvg,
    Kris "dJOEK" Vandecruys

    --
    Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
    1. Re:why port it when ... ? by Emil+Brink · · Score: 1

      ObAuthorRant: whoo-hoo, the third person who mentions my app! ;^) A handy link is right here. Thanks!

      --
      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
  62. Re:DOpus can't be judged by screen shots... GET UA by scottgfx · · Score: 1

    >>Only after it was so successful was there a host of clones that never matched DOpus for what it was.

    I think CLImate predates Dopus. It had a similar interface and concept but wasn't as powerful. I used a directory utility called SID by a guy named Timm Martin. It too predates Dopus I believe, and I used it for a very long time. In my eyes, it wasn't as complicated as Dopus to set up. I always liked using these types of programs to batch process files. Gotta convert 300 targa images to iff? no Problem! :)

    --
    It's mandatory to wash your hands before returning to the land of Dairy Queen.
  63. Re:gentoo by Emil+Brink · · Score: 1

    It sure is, and thanks! I'm not exactly up to comparing the two on a feature-by-feature basis, though. DOpus is more integrated, and therefore (feels) larger. gentoo relies more on external programs, since that is more the "Unix way" of doing business. Still, I couldn't refrain from having a built-in text reader... ;^) Hm, I think DOpus 4.x was the last version I ever used way back when the Amiga was still my platform of choice. Perhaps I should download it, for sentimental reasons.

    --
    main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
  64. Good, but not portable by BigGaute · · Score: 1
    DOpus 4 is a great product, or so I remember from my Amiga days, but
    there _is_ a reason why the whole thing was rewritten from scratch for
    version 5. The whole thing is too spagetti-codish to easily make
    sense off or port to some other system. I would probably be easier to
    code a DOpus lookalike from scratch.

    Not that it is bad to have more GPLed source available, of
    course.



    Curiously, a quick web search doesn't turn up any hits. Does
    anyone know of a clone?

  65. 5.0? by Seehund · · Score: 1

    Why not buy 5.82 which has been available for quite a while? Or were you talking about a GPL:d release?

    --
    Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
  66. Re:gentoo by MaxVlast · · Score: 1

    Just like every other program for the Amiga, it is ugly as hell.

    Why are all Amiga apps so gosh-darned, butt ugly? I've used Amigas off and on for many years, but have always been repulsed by the way they look. Even when they try and make themselves attractive, they are breathtakingly tacky.

    Not a troll, just a personal observation.

    --
    Max V.

    --
    There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
    Max V.
    NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
  67. Re:gentoo by MaxVlast · · Score: 1

    That's the problem. There are UI designers who are very very good. I trust them and like them. I love my NEXTSTEP machines because they have a rigid, beautiful interface. I don't mind the default GTK look. It's pedestrian, but functional. When themes are applied, it becomes largely dreadful. And E is a catastrophe.

    I think it's fine that the average user can customize his UI experience, but, IMHO, that results in some garish computer screens.

    --
    Max V.

    --
    There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
    Max V.
    NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
  68. Re:It's happening, my friend. by dgph · · Score: 1

    Your links, ``First rumours'' and ``Speculation'' are out of date. They talk about Gateway's plans for the Amiga, but Gateway doesn't own Amiga any more.

  69. Re:Old yes, out of date, maybe......? by dgph · · Score: 1

    Yes, of course, you made some very good points. I too get tired of whinings about Amiga not being news for nerds.

  70. Why GPL? by hoss10 · · Score: 1

    I've no problem with it and even though i don't have an Amiga I have fond memories of a mates one and might fire up UAE for the first time in ages to have a look at it but.....

    How the hell do gpsoft expect to make money now. Even if their only releasing an older version won't the Amiga lovers just put in the newer features themselves.

    I wasn't asking this in the case of Netscape going Open-Source because the point of that was to try to sell Netscape Servers (by keeping the HTML people use "open" or standardised so to speak)

    What's gpsofts bottom line on this. Is it just a desparate attempt to get publicity - no offense!

  71. Re:gentoo by hesiod · · Score: 1

    If you took the time to configure it, it could look just about any way you wanted.
    ---------
    Thus Spake Dave
    Meine Hühner lachen Nicht!

  72. Re:gentoo by hesiod · · Score: 1

    Disk Manager was a bit too Limited in the number of buttons you could use. The version I had was limited to 4 banks of 4 buttons I think (or something close to that). I had the same time-frame release of DOpus and you were limited to like 8 banks of like 30 buttons each. Plus in DOpus you could configure the pull-down menus. I never saw that in DiskManager. DOpus WAS, of course 4 880K Disks in distribution, hardly bloated, except that ImageFX was also 4 disks, so it may have been large. But for the very basic version it would fit in 880K. It was a memory hog (by Amiga Standards) but the point was that you run it instead of Workbench, and don't have to run quite as many other apps.
    ---------
    Thus Spake Dave
    Meine Hühner lachen Nicht!

  73. There is no way... by hesiod · · Score: 1

    If someone wrote something like PowerPacker with the same compression I would kiss their @$$.
    ---------
    Thus Spake Dave
    Meine Hühner lachen Nicht!

  74. A look into the future... let's say 2007... by WowTIP · · Score: 1

    How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Linux. Sure, Linux may have been cool at the time, but it haven't been improved for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over it, much less why it's still relevant to any of us.

    Hehe... Just a thought... Possible? i don't know... =)

    --

    --

    "I'm surfin the dead zone
    In the twilight, unknown"
  75. You have the wrong end of the stick, my friend. by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1
    Look. The technology may be past it, but it wasn't the technology that made the machine really special. It was what sold the machine originally, but those who could be bothered to look below that saw that the heart that beat under the flashy pre-'multimedia' multimedia capabilities was a testament to good, frugal design, which ran unbelievably quickly for it's meagre 7Mhz clock speed, had a fully-featured integrated CLI/GUI operating system (note: *integrated* means they work as one. The CLI doesn't sit like a terminal program over the GUI (a la Win/XWin))

    Yes I agree the technology is outdated, but in this current climate of bloatware, proprietary 'standards', and in-built obsolescence (I used my A500 for 6 years. My home PC clone is pretty much obsolete after 2) What I want to see emerge out of the ashes of Amiga is a system that is modern, but is not overexpensive (after the initial outlay), hardware and software designed and integrated WELL by people who care about technological and design excellence (As opposed to the 'If it ain't broke, add more features' mindset prevalent today). You have to admit that a G4 box with well-designed OpenGL hardware, studio-quality sound hardware and a PROPER INTEGRATED OS, written for the system, but open enough to allow easy porting (say, from Linux) could sound quite exciting. The addition of a home-user version (All hardware output, limited input(upgradeable)) for a couple hundred dollars completes the idea. Add to that the fact that you could build the box yourself and buy the software, if you were a real techie, and you'd have a pretty comprehensive range. Consoles are too limited, big box computers are too complex and expensive for Joe Public. It's time to take back the middle ground, ladies and gents!

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  76. It's happening, my friend. by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1
    First rumours

    Press release

    Speculation

    Hate to spread ill will, and all, but you have to understand that to some people (A lot of whom are Linux/Slashdot regulars) these things matter. Keeping alive memories of a time when MS were only king of the hill in the US, and different thinking was embraced.(not Apple's 'Different Thinking(tm, patent applied for)). That the ethos that made this possible (allowed international users the ability to hold off MS domination for 10 years) is still present, and those that share it are now doing something tangible about it, IS geek news. Geek news is about using technology for the good of more than a select few, NOT just restricted to x86/Linux issues.

    Being in the majority does not automatically make you right. (Otherwise umpteen-million Windows users couldn't be wrong ;-) )

    I'd never agreed with the 'Open-Source, Closed-Minds' sig until today, but you have swung my ideas firmly in that direction. If you persist in this attitude, in a few hours, time and story posting will remove this story from the front page. Given that Amiga stories are a relatively few and far between occurrence, you will not have to worry about this until next month. But you're shutting off a world of experience if you discount everything beyond your own sphere of interest.

    Man couldn't fly without studying birds. Evolving wings is an obsolete notion, but if you can build on that to make something new and good, surely that merits some attention?!

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  77. Arexx by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1

    REXX was a standard scriptiong language, dude. I'm sure an implementation for *nix should be around somewheres.....

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  78. What would you put in it's place? by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1
    Mummy told me never to talk to trolls, but since you make that point, what do *you* consider relevant to be worthy of a hallowed /. page (Bearing in mind, as has been said, you *can* turn Amiga pages off in Preferences)

    All right, let's do everything *YOU* want to do - Jim Carrey, The Truman Show

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  79. Old yes, out of date, maybe......? by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1

    IIRC, Gateway did get a mention, but only in rounded terms. I'm talking about how Amiga was extracted from Gateway. First rumours simply means that it was from before Amiga was bought. I was just trying to make the point that some ppl consider Amiga news relevant, and I hope that Amino get their act together soon. Judging by those involved in the Amino project, we may see something soon. Sorry if it offends, I guess I let a flamewar get out of hand......

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  80. Thanks..... by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1

    I just get upset when people start flaming'n'complaining without actually doing some reading. It's this refusal to learn that worries me most about /. thx

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  81. What about non-programmers....? by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1
    Large, bloated, slow, unstable.... i think you`re thinking of the kind of program that made the PC famous?

    Configurable, useful, extendable and easier than WB are the words I was thinking of. Yes, we (programmers) didn't have much call to use it, but Joe Public Amigans (and believe me, there were more than a few that I knew) found it useful, because it performed tasks that the 1.x Workbench made difficult, if not impossible. I had a souped-up 1200 on which it seemed everything was possible, but not everyone did. True, DOpus didn't hit nirvana until 5.x, but it was still a useful tool that quite a number of people use......

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  82. Amiga Paint Programs..... by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 1
    Of course, later on DP5 added extra functionality to DP4AGA. Then EA decided to go mostly console..... :( Cloanto to the rescue with PersonalPaint (PPaint) which took DPaint's functionality a step further, with an awful lot of effects that wouldn't look out of place in Photoshop

    It's just a shame that PC-based paint packages (With the exception of the DOS DPaint and DAnimator ports) seem to be fixated on ZSoft's PC Paintbrush, or the abysmal MS paintbrush (later Paint) program. Why this is, we'll never know. In fact, the PC graphics market owes a considerable favour to Apple in this regard. Without products like PhotoShop being ported to Windows, the ZSoft-kludge derivatives would still be in alarming number today........

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  83. Please someone..... port it! by TuRRIcaNEd · · Score: 2
    DOpus made using a vanilla A1200 bearable (WB3.1 was far too kludgy and slow - thus negating the reasons WB was remembered so fondly!)

    To finally see the kind of program that made the Amiga legend on different formats would be a real testament to the work of those that have fought to keep the machine alive over recent years, while greedy corporations fought over the rights to Amiga, purely for the GUI technology, simply to give them more leverage with MS, so the machine could be killed even more stone dead!

    What makes the Amiga special is that the fundamental design and ideas behind the machine were good. The design was based around having a good machine, not one that would render itself obsolete within a few years so the company could fleece more money from the public. No adding lots of features at the last minute, no bloatware, and no need to charge big $ for major updates, simply because the system tended to work out of the box, and in the rare cases it didn't, SetPatch was free.

    Anyway, got a bit OT there. Please someone port it to whatever you can (I would, but a)I don't really have the brains yet, and b)I'm a student on my year out, with every day filled with something i usually don't want to do ;>) )

    I say this, because a port is the only way to keep the faith until these new owners come up with something tangible. I can't deny that the technology needs a serious rethink, but still, I'd love to see the machine's name and ethos resurrected, so here's hoping!

    --
    - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
  84. Re:Dopus 4.12 screenshots by Sits · · Score: 1

    If you are looking for screenshots of Doups 4.12 (and not 5 like some of the others are) try this page

  85. gentoo by desaster · · Score: 1

    hmm.. isn't gentoo inspired by directoryopus ? very nice app!

  86. Why Linux 'sucks' (no flames intended!) by Mekanix · · Score: 1


    Well, Linux, xBSD et al. are only great in the kernel aspect, that it's OSS and there is developed software for it.

    For the rest, it's just a pain in the butt. Eg. configuring your ppp-connection, configuring you X-driver etc. etc....

    *nix have a lot to learn from other OS's (not just Amiga mind you), but the thoughtpattern among geeks is: if i aint broke don't fix it...

    I've discussed this issue with other linux-geeks and have come across a mentality that doesn't differ much from that of M$.

    The M$-way: Don't like our product? Then don't use it then (well, knowing Mr. and Mrs. Everyday don't have any other choice, because...)

    The M$-way: Don't find it userfriendly? Who cares, just learn it or scram, stupid!

    .... just my 2 øre! ;)

    Bjarne

  87. Linux doesn't innovate, just immitate... by Mekanix · · Score: 1


    15 years is still 15 years younger than *nix. But yes, I'm not saying AmigaOS is perfect, I'm just saying that AmigaOS (and other OS's) have a lot of ideas that would make *nix better (read usable).

    Yes, I'm using Linux as of now and have been for some time, and it's plain to me what *nix is missing since I havn't taken a trip around Windows (like most ex-amigans) and getting frustrated by that OS.

    Age is ok, when it comes to wine, antics and the like. But for technology it just doesn't cut it... else we would end up just like the car-industry... using decade-old engine technology with high fuel-consuming and thus increasing global warming more than necesary.

    Why are so many *nix-geeks so conservative and immobile?

    Bjarne

  88. PSPro Vs DPaint by luckykaa · · Score: 1

    Well, PSPro is very nice, but it still seems aimed rather heavily at image processing rather than painting. I think the Amiga's use of Full screen apps helped as well. So much easier to be creative when there's none of those distracting bits of GUI, and no possibility of the mouse leaving the window.

  89. Screenshot by luckykaa · · Score: 2


    Here's a screenshot

    Not being a DOpus user myself, I'm not sure if this really shows DOpus well. Seems a shame that all GUI aspects that are ever copied seem to be the Win95 and Mac ones. The Amiga had some wonderfully designed GUI's.

  90. Yes! by rendler · · Score: 0

    Anything with the word Amiga in it has to be kick ass.

    ---
    # iptables -A INPUT -s 0/0 -j DROP

    --

    *shrug*
  91. Porting the thing by the_germ · · Score: 1

    I downloaded the code and will have a look at it (which might result in me porting it to GCC, but that's not really probable). If it's not too hard to port I might cope with it. But it'll probably be a CygWin port (which then should be easy to port to Linux or so). But don't count on me at all for now! We'll see.