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AmigaOS 4

Posted by kdawson on

Second five-eighth writes "The Amiga is alive and sort of well (you can get the OS, but not the hardware), and Ars Technica has a review of the final version of AmigaOS 4. New features include limited memory protection, 3D display drivers, an improved suite of applications (the bounty for porting Mozilla to AmigaOS has yet to be claimed), and much better 680x0 emulation. Perhaps most telling, the reviewer was able to move his daily writing workflow from Windows XP to AmigaOS 4.0: 'Not only was it possible to do this, but having done so I feel no urge to switch back. It is nice to not have any distractions when working — there is no waiting for the system to swap out when switching between major applications, no constant reminders for updates or to download new virus definitions and even if the worst happens and the system locks up, it takes only seven seconds to reboot and get back to a functional desktop.'"

9 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Spaceballs? by Loconut1389 · · Score: 5, Funny

    FTA: "this brings things up to ludicrous speed."

    Prepare for the jump to ludicrous speed!

  2. I suppose in the year 2038.... by ip_freely_2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..I'll be mentioning something cool in Mac OS LXVIII and some idiot will say "Why, we did that in Amiga OS 4, and we did it better!"

  3. Thank Goodness! by dada21 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can get ProComm to dial into those old Telegard BBSes that I still have the phone numbers for in my Apple Newton. I hope that someone ports a terminal emulator that supports the RIP protocol, because ANSI and AVATAR are just boring.

    This will completely let me replace my Coco3.

    Tradewars door, here I come!

  4. Yeah by winkydink · · Score: 5, Funny

    Couldn't the 6 of you who are still interested just start a mailing list or something?

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  5. The only question left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it run Duke Nukem Forever?

  6. Re:please.. by mcrbids · · Score: 5, Insightful

    die already. the amiga's time has come and gone.

    What is your problem?

    I don't get all upset when somebody drives by in a 1950's Studebaker all tricked out. Yeah, it has some limitations, such as: a single-speaker AM radio, no air conditioning, cruise control, electric windows, it requires fuel additives to not die on unleaded gas, and it's hard to find parts for. Oh, and it's a death trap in an accident.

    And despite all that, it's still mighty cool. I honk when I see somebody driving one.

    Can you imagine what a dorkass you'd look like if you stuck your head out the window and screamed: "Dude, die already! The Studebaker's time has come and gone already!".

    Oh, wait. Nevermind. You're posting O/S elitism on Slashdot. My guess is that you probably already know all about what a dorkass you look like. Never mind. //Scuze me...

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  7. Not to point out the obvious but... by nick_davison · · Score: 5, Funny

    no waiting for the system to swap out when switching between major applications

    I hear not having any will do that for you.

  8. Re:Who cares... by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Amiga is dead... get over it.


    You know, that's just what they said about cuneiform. But I'm continuing to develop new kinds of clay for the tablets and to experiment with new ways of making a reed stylus- I'm working with a new kind of reed from South America which is vastly superior to the ones the Sumerians used. And cuneiform on clay tablets works fine for all my word-processing and accounting needs, plus it never gets viruses. Well, I did once have a problem with mold growing on my styluses. But I solved that by keeping them in a dry place.

  9. Nice Nostalgia by ewhac · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A quick Google will reveal that I was very deep into the Amiga at one time, and a lot of the platform architecture still holds a lot of appeal for me. I wrote a eulogy for the platform about 12 years ago. Even to this day, I still judge a platform's value by how it stacks up against the Amiga's design and philosophy.

    If I could find an affordable Ethernet card, my Amiga 3000 would still be in active use today, mostly as an archive server for all my old stuff. Sadly, the only Ethernet cards I can find are $150 or so, and the TCP/IP stack is (usually) not included.

    The way things are now, though, the only way Amiga will have a future is if A) a dedicated investor with very deep pockets and a lot of patience funds a company to look after it; or B) they Open Source the entire OS and support utilities. The latter is likely very easy from a contractual aspect, since the only "borrowed" code was from TRIPOS, and much of that was re-written in C for the OS 2.04 release years ago.

    I could go on and on about what made Amiga great, but every time I even mention it, people immediately place me in the slot marked, "crazy." I'd like to see more Amiga philosophy in modern software design, but even I have to admit that light of Amiga may be irretrievably fading. Really, you people have no idea what you missed...

    Schwab

    --
    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions