The Workbench 3.1 natural successor?

[jenfry]

Which is the natural successor of Workbench 3.1?
I'm cleaning up all my old Amiga systems, just only to decide if they can be still useful of ready to be sold...
I'm reading about AmigOS 3.9 and 4.0 (or 4.1?); do they run on standard Amiga hardware or they need PowerPPC accelerator boards?

Jen

[Golem!dk]

I don't think there is one.

3.9 should run on a 020, 4.0 will need a ppc.

[HammerD]

Which is the natural successor of Workbench 3.1?
I'm cleaning up all my old Amiga systems, just only to decide if they can be still useful of ready to be sold...
I'm reading about AmigOS 3.9 and 4.0 (or 4.1?); do they run on standard Amiga hardware or they need PowerPPC accelerator boards?

Jen

After OS 3.1 came OS 3.5, then OS 3.9 with boing bag 1, 2 and an unofficial boing bag 3 (like service packs).

After 3.9 came OS 4.0, the last official OS to run on classic hardware, but it requires a blizzard PPC or cyberstorm PPC accelerator board.

After OS 4.0 came OS 4.1, then some updates, then OS 4.1 update 1 just recently.  Requires AmigaONE PPC hardware or SAM hardware.

There is also AROS (requires x86 hardware) or MorphOS 1.4 PowerUP for classics, again requires blizzard PPC or cyberstorm PPC, however it's only available in demo form.

MorphOS 2.x (upto 2.4 now) is also available on Pegasos PPC hardware and Mac Mini.

[Thomas]

OS 3.9 is the last release which runs on classic Amiga hardware. 4.0 and above need PowerPC processors. 4.0 is available for PowerPC accelerators, 4.1 and on need complete new computers (AmigaOne, Pegasos2, SAM).

Note that 3.9 needs some expansions to run: 68020 processor, 8 MB RAM, hard drive and CD-ROM. It does not run on an unexpanded A1200 for example.

[jenfry]

A very fast response, wow
There are still many Amiga users around, I see

OK, I understand that the best solution for my A3000/040 and A1200/030 is AmigaOS3.9 but... What I can really do better with the new operating system than 3.1?

Jen

[Dr_Righteous]

Tons! And we're fanatical... Some of us even foam at the mouth! LOL

[HammerD]

A very fast response, wow
There are still many Amiga users around, I see

OK, I understand that the best solution for my A3000/040 and A1200/030 is AmigaOS3.9 but... What I can really do better with the new operating system than 3.1?

Jen

Well the Out-of-the-box experience of OS4.0 is much nicer, icons look nicer, there is some new nice software for OS4 or updated versions of older software (AmiFTP, TuneNet, OWB Web Browser, NetSurf), etc.  

Not to mention a ton of other improvements, but you can read about it on ACube's site here: http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=software&pid=3

But if you don't have a PPC accelerator then the highest classic Amiga OS you can use is OS 3.9 BB2 and perhaps also the unofficial BB3 (boing bag 3).

[kolla]

Note that 3.9 needs some expansions to run: 68020 processor, 8 MB RAM, hard drive and CD-ROM. It does not run on an unexpanded A1200 for example.

Well... it does run on unexapanded A1200, but the installer wont let you install it on one. Most of OS3.9 also runs on 68000, the exceptions being programs that rely on resource.library that is 020+. That includes all programs that use ReAction GUI. I'd love to hear why c:Makedir is 020+ though

[CSixx]

A very fast response, wow
There are still many Amiga users around, I see

OK, I understand that the best solution for my A3000/040 and A1200/030 is AmigaOS3.9 but... What I can really do better with the new operating system than 3.1?

Jen

Since the machines you listed don't have PPC cards, the 4.0 info is probably not what you were looking for.

As far as 3.9 goes, check out the following link for some information on the updated OS.
http://os.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=7

[save2600]

A very fast response, wow
There are still many Amiga users around, I see

OK, I understand that the best solution for my A3000/040 and A1200/030 is AmigaOS3.9 but... What I can really do better with the new operating system than 3.1?

Jen

OS3.9 is really nice - but in my experience and usage, I do not like running it on anything less than an 040. It felt pretty slow on my 40mhz 030 equipped A1200 when I had it and I recently installed 3.9 on my 25mhz A3000 - to which I quickly un-installed it and went back to 3.1. Using a modestly sized hard drive, I did not need, nor enjoy 3.9's automatic resetting of the computer and it's fancy icon scheme is too slow for my tastes on an 030.

3.1 on an 030 is excellent though! IF you want 3.9 like operations, there's tons of "plug-ins" and apps you can download from Aminet, etc. if you want to tweak 3.1 'til your hearts content. That's what I've done and am extremely happy with the results.

[jenfry]

Thank you all for the response.
I will check the links you wrote for my attention about 3.9...
I'm slowly entering into that 'old' situation, where the computer is hot not for what I do with it, but hot for the look
In the past I spent much of my time resizing windows, cleaning up the icons, optimizing the libraries, etc. etc. :-d

Jen

[Hell Labs]

To be honest os 3.5 and 3.9 are really nothing more than a copy of os 3.1 somebody at H&P customised. They look nice, and have some nice software, but they offer nothing new if you already have a good 3.1 setup.

3.1 + MUI + Classact (reaction) + any TCP/IP stack for networking (I use the one from the 3.9 cd) = Runs more software than 3.9 does, out of the box. If its a modern program you'll probably end up copying lots of libs from aminet, no matter which os version you use.

[save2600]

If its a modern propgram you'll probably end up copying lots of libs from aminet, no matter which os version you use.

Truer words haven't been spoken in a long time! Can't tell you how many times I'll go to install something (usually in OS3.9) and be sent on a wild goose chase tracking down libs or whatever. lol  Glad it's all readily available, but the practice does get old after a while. Hell, even Amiga specific, modern and currently produced hardware does not come with all the software one needs to install some of this stuff. :mad:

By gum, these things (Amiga's) are supposed to be more user friendly than that! lol

[Hell Labs]

that reminds me of something thats been in my head for the past week: Why isn't there an amiga package manager? Its far from impossible. just think:


>aminet-install netsurf

checking system... OS IS WORKBENCH, 3.1, M68060, AGA
checking libs... BLAH BLAH MISSING
downloading libs ... DONE
downloading netsurf ... DONE

Netsurf can now be found on your Work: partition, or another if specified at install time.

I'd rather that than spend three days solid googling weird files not even the developers can be arsed to list under system requirements.

[Dr_Righteous]

That's not a horrible idea. Hmm....