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AmigaOS 4.0 Status Report
Mike Bouma writes "Core AmigaOS 4.0 developer Hans-Jörg Frieden has written a status report with regard to the current state of AmigaOS. Various advances have been made since the Developer Pre-release version of AOS4 was completed. Meanwhile AmigaWorld.net has launched a new File Depot portal dedicated to providing and hosting Amiga OS4 files and related resources. A first impressions review and some first user screenshots of the pre-release CD are also available."
Back in the late eighties and early nineties we actually had a wide range of platforms and real choices when it came to computing. The Amiga was one of those choices, and were it not for some bad business decisions in the early nineties, perhaps it would remain a mainstream, if niche, platform today.
But it's hard for a platform to get noticed today. Just look at Linux. Despite overwhelming support from the PC establishment, it barely exists on more than 2-3% of desktops, with servers - used and operated primarily by geeks who know what they're doing - being the only area it's doing well in. The problem is that PC manufacturers are unwilling to cater for niche markets, and by doing so they're harming themselves and harming innovation. They're harming themselves by not producing something that will attract greater profit margins because it's sufficiently different from the mainstream to compete on somehting other than price, and they're harming innovation because without choices, innovation suffers. Apple has proven, by being the richest computer hardware company in the world, that you can profit in the niche. But it takes a will to get there. Why did Gateway not exploit the Amiga niche while they still had it?
This quagmire of artists, consumers, and PC manufacturers being unable to diversify in the platforms available will not disappear by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that a diversity of platforms is important to you. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by the hiers to the Amiga source and the work by the GNU/Linux community to create an infrastructure that will support true choice in the computing community, but that if PC manufacturers continue to be unable to overthrow their conservatism, instead disappearing into the void that is commodity hardware, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how the lack of platform choices harms all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies on platform diversity.
You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
"So is now the time to release AmigaOS 4.0? I mean, aren't most people thinking "AmigaOS 4?" going to assume it's really old and out of date?"
You're right. They should call it Amiga 95!!
*boy I hope everybody's in good humor today.
I must warn everybody that I'm an Amiga since 1989, so don't expect a very objective review :) I'm an Amigan and will defend my beloved System at all costs.
can we please have a review from someone with a clue?
what I want to know is whether this is worth making the jump to. I waited so long for my beloved amigas to make a comeback that I bought a mac. it's a big investment, but I've already made one with my laptop. Do I want to make another, or should I just wait until I can afford a G5?
This poor excuse for a review basically just tells us that the CD works, it connects him to the net and it runs a small selection of his old apps.
next.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
There is an Operating System out there that has tremendous hardware support, regular updates, runs on commodity hardware and has widespread support from users and third party software developers. So, I ask, why bother with Linux?
Every time there's a story about Amiga on Slashdot, at least 10% of the posts use the exact same arguments listed above to ask the exact same question about the Amiga. The better question would be why bother posting such an inane question about something in which you obviously have no interest?!?!?
But, so that perhaps, in the future, we can avoid all of the "Why bother?" spam, I'll answer it:
CHOICE!
Listen, I love Linux. I love the concept behind the Open Source movement and I love the OS itself most of the time. But I'm a geek. I can dig around in the internals of the system and make it do what I want it to do (again, most of the time). MOST people don't want to have to do that. And until Linux becomes something that the geeks see as a toy, there is a signficant portion of the population that will not use it. Most people want a machine that boots quickly into an operating system that they don't have to muck about in to get it to do what they want it to do. Is it SO hard to imagine that the Amiga might fill a niche that Linux doesn't and may not ever?
So, those folks should use Windows... NO THEY SHOULDN'T. If they want to, fine, but why limit their choice because you don't think there NEEDS to be any more choice than Windows/Mac/Linux?
I grew up first on the Commodore 64 then moved to an Amiga 500, then to an Amiga 4000. When the 4000 died, I was heartbroken, but have managed to soldier on with a couple of home built x86 machines and Windows and Linux. Linux will stay on my server. Probably always, unless something better comes along. I'll probably always have a Windows desktop or laptop of some kind. I want a Mac - either G5 or iBook, haven't decided. AND I want an AmigaOne. In the end, I'll probably end up using the Mac and the Amiga more often than either other machine in a user to computer, face to monitor sort of way. Linux will continue to do what it does best, keep running my server and not crash. Windows will be reserved for games, the Mac will be my music and art (read: Photoshop) machine, and the Amiga will end up being the machine I use for everyday computing and having fun while doing it.
So, to all the insensitive, short-sighted clods out there that keep posing this question, I say to you shut your pie hole, there are many more people out there that would say the same thing about Linux. It's all about the choice, baby. And more choice is good for you - and Linux - whether you realize it or not.
PS - And, no, a Gnome/KDE desktop that looks and/or feels like AmigaOS, is not the same thing as AmigaOS anymore than a Windows XP theme that looks like Gnome/KDE is the same as running Linux.
Sure, you could clone the GUI. But what would be the point? It wouldn't work like AmigaOS underneath, it'd never feel like Amiga did.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.