New Replacement Workbench 3.1 Disk Sets www.amigakit.com

[amigadave]

I will be ordering a set of these soon as I am done moving to the new house.

Any chance we could see an updated AmigaOS3.9 CDROM published in the future, with Boing Bags 1 & 2 already added, plus a collection of further enhanced files that people have been working on for years for a proposed Boing Bag 3?

I know getting all of the contributors to agree to a new AOS3.9 release would be difficult, as some of them may have left the community in recent years, but it never hurts to ask, even if the answer is NO.  With the possibility of new FPGA clones of Amiga hardware coming out within the next year at speeds equal to over 300MHz  Motorola 68000, plus some of the features of the 68020 and higher series chips implemented, and with the possibility of Picasso96 RTG emulation included, I would think that many users might be interested in purchasing a new updated version of AmigaOS3.9, to run on these new accelerators, or stand alone systems.

[amigadave]

BB3 is already out, so is BB4, if you count the community-driven projects available for download here:

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/bbag4.htm

Occasionally people have trouble installing them, but that's the nature of Amiga software in general for ya. Many crazy configs, occasionally someone's going to have an issue. Myself and many others run them daily without any trouble. Runs like butter on my A2000!

There's even updates beyond this, things like Peter K's icon.library that's updated every month or so.  Definitely worth a look on Aminet for updates to many of the "core" OS files!

I sort of knew that already, but thought that BB1 & 2 were the only official Boing Bags released and everything after that was unofficial.

My point remains that some users would prefer an updated AmigaOS3.9 CD with all of the latest improvements already included, plus a comprehensive Install Script that would give us choices to install or not install any of the more questionable recent upgrades for AmigaOS3.x, would be really great.  Some users out there (maybe you) are much better and more patient at testing and installing dozens of new patches and updated files, to get the most modern and efficient AmigaOS3.x experience, while others (like me) just want to pop a CD into the drive and hit the install button, with the possible exception of making a few simple choices on files that work better in certain situations, or on certain specific hardware models.

It would be a difficult job to find and obtain all of the approvals from 3rd party developers who have contributed to all the parts contained within AmigaOS3.9 and all of the Boing Bags since that time.  Some of them may want a small royalty for selling their work again (which is fine with me).  I would guess Hyperion would need to be involved, as I believe that they own the rights to AmigaOS3.9 (possibly excluding a few parts of it contributed by those same 3rd party developers), but I think it could be done, if someone had the determination to stick with it and track down everyone that has contributed.

I appreciate the people still working on updating AmigaOS3.x, because I never want to see that part of our community fade away, even though I am also a MorphOS and AmigaOS4.x supporter and user.

Edit:  Just thought of another way in which much less approvals would be needed.  If the updated AmigaOS3.9 were only an executable file that only contained the required files that have been added or modified after AmigaOS3.9 BB2, then it could include in the installer script, options to specify the locations of the users AmigaOS3.9 CD or ISO file and the two Boing Bag files on his hard drive.  Then it would use those resources to do a new install that included the new and updated files that make up the unofficial Boing Bag 3 & 4 contributions.  That way no copyright or intellectual property infringement would occur.  The only downside to this idea is that those original AmigaOS3.9 CD's will eventually begin to fail or contain read errors.

[amigadave]

Oh man! if I had known this was available a few days ago. I just ordered the 4gb CF drive and I should have had this pre installed.
Hopefully my discs still function.

Contact AmigaKit and see if they have shipped your order already, or if not, have them amend your order to include the AmigaOS3.1 disks on your CF card.  Since Matthew just returned from his AmiWest trip, they might be a day or two behind in processing orders and you might get lucky (though they are usually pretty fast at getting their orders packed up and shipped out).

[amigadave]

Nope, Missed it. They shipped it out on Monday morning just before I read this post.
Oh well....

Yeah, they are usually quick on getting orders processed and shipped out the door, but it was worth checking on, just in case they had some kind of delay.

Enjoy your new bits of Amiga and the new 3.1 floppy disks.  I will be ordering my own set soon.  

[amigadave]

@ral-clan

We are using real DSDD 1MB disks.

@klx300r

Many thanks

I remember a scare several months ago when some people were claiming that floppy disk production was going to stop and that they would be harder and more expensive to obtain in the near future.  I guess that hasn't happened yet.

It is a shame that some perfectly working products stop being produced after newer alternatives take over as better products.  This seems to happen with computer gear at a much faster rate than other areas.  The rate of change in the computer industry is not always a good thing, and I remember the argument that Amiga users were lucky because they did not have to replace their computer every 2 or 3 years, like PC users and even Mac users did.  The flip side of that is that Amiga users lost our parent company, partly because they did not continue to improve and innovate the Amiga at an acceptable rate, and it was discounted by most other outside users as just a game machine.

Back on topic, I am glad we can still get new floppy disks, even the DSDD ones seem to be available for now.

[amigadave]

I thought the last few of us remaining amiga users were resourceful enough to use ADFs?

I've 'recreated' my original A1200 WB3.1 disks at least twice in the past 20 years, by whacking ADFs back onto new DD floppies. I even reprinted nice glossy labels to go on the disks...

Mike.

You are right, most of us are resourceful enough to backup and recreate our Workbench Floppy Disks, but many users have neglected to do that, or may have been busy with other things in life and are just now returning to using their Amiga computers only to find that their disks have become corrupt while sitting in a box in the closet or attic.

Also there are a few new users finding out about the Amiga through emulation who then decide to go out and find a Commodore 68k Amiga on the used computer market and might get one without the floppy disks included, or the disks they get are corrupted.  

All I know is that there have been requests for this product from several users, so I am happy that AmigaKit asked Colanto to produce these disks.

Now I just hope that someone will step forward and give us an updated version of AmigaOS3.9 with all of the 4 Boing Bags already included, plus any other system files, tools and utilities which have been improved or added since the completion of Boing Bag 4 was done a while ago.  

I think that a version equal to AmigaOS3.10 would make lots of users happy.  The experienced users know how to make their own custom Kickstart ROMs and choose all the right components to make the best AmigaOS3.x experience, but some users (like me) would gladly pay for all of that work to be done by the experts and just pop a new CD into my fast Amiga models and double click on an install icon for AmigaOS3.10 (A4000 w/80MHz 68060 & A1200 w/50MHz 68060, plus hopefully someday a 68060 powered Daughter board for my FPGA Arcade Replay board).  As I wrote already earlier in this thread, I think that many buyers of the proposed Apollo FPGA accelerators or stand alone systems will want AmigaOS3.9, or an enhanced version equal to AmigaOS3.10, instead of AmigaOS3.1.  Since these new accelerators are supposed to have built-in USB hardware on them, perhaps the Poseidon USB stack could also be included in AmigaOS3.10.  I would really like to see this project happen and would gladly pay $40 to $50 for a new AmigaOS3.10 CD.  Maybe I am the only one thinking that way and everyone else would rather do it themselves?

[amigadave]

@thor

............ it would be great to have an up to date compiler for amiga-m68k that is actively maintained and aware of system requirements, which apparently is not the simplest case when going with gcc.

With the possibility of getting new accelerators for Commodore Amiga computers using an FPGA loaded with a Soft-Core 680x0 running at a speed equal to 400MHz or more, new programming tools for 68k coding would be a great thing to see created and maintained.