Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: orb85750 on January 26, 2011, 12:58:38 AM
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If you're using an Amiga machine as your main, everyday computer, please let us know. That goes for classic Amiga, OS4 SAM, Morphos machine, AROS machine, or any other flavor of Amiga. And if that is the case, please let us know exactly what you're using, and give a few quick notes about the positives and negatives of your experience doing so. What important things are missing? Have you circumvented any initial problems, etc.?
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If you're using an Amiga machine as your main, everyday computer, please let us know. That goes for classic Amiga, OS4 SAM, Morphos machine, AROS machine, or any other flavor of Amiga. And if that is the case, please give a few quick notes about the positives and negatives of your experience doing so. What important things are missing? Have you circumvented any initial problems, etc.?
My main miggie is an A1200 BlizzardPPC/060 240Mhz/60Mhz 256MB RAM / 2 x 500GB IDE HDs / 2 x DVD Burners / SubWay USB / Cocolino Wireless Mouse / Custom Built Audio Amp&Mixer
OS 3.5/4.0
Positives- does everything I require from a computer with ease... :)
Negatives - getting harder to find replacement DVD Burners that will actually work with it... :(
Missing - The internet but only through choice... :)
Problems - Nothing that couldn't easily be solved with a bit of time and patience... ;)
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Simply not possible for me these days but I wish the opposite was true AmigaOS4 and all other derivatives of Amiga like operating systems are simply not far along enough, nor are the applications available that I need.
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Not yet, but soon, very soon.
It will be mostly as an experiment really, but I imagine I'll do well enough. Won't hurt to cut down on the internet either. Too easy to waste time watching dumb crap.
Sadly, I need some specific things for work, so my linux box isnt going anywhere.
As it is, I use my 1200 daily though.
Once I go all out, it'll be a simple regimen of "if it can't be done, I don't need it"
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@ Runequester
This might sound a bit strange but having never been in a position where I would need to use a computer for my work, I'm just curious to know what sort of things someone who is required to use a computer at work actually needs to do at home with a computer in connection with their work... :)
Not personal details, just a general idea of why it's needed at home, as I've never known anyone personally who has to do this... :)
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Mac mini G4 1500 w/ MorphOS is my main maschine. Works for 95% of my personal everyday use.
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This might sound a bit strange but having never been in a position where I would need to use a computer for my work, I'm just curious to know what sort of things someone who is required to use a computer at work actually needs to do at home with a computer in connection with their work... :)
Not personal details, just a general idea of why it's needed at home, as I've never known anyone personally who has to do this... :)
Well, when I did my doctoral thesis I pretty often had times when I took quite some work home. Things for which I needed a Windows maschine were priimarily Matlab, Illustrator, MS word and VisualStudio.
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I sure would like to use the Amiga for all of my daily tasks, but it just is not possible at the moment.
For work: The company I work for has a policy to use a standard hardware platform and software tools. I regularly push the boundaries of this as far as I can but the fact is there are many software packages that I'm using that are not available on the Amiga or there is no comparable Amiga product.
For home: I can do most everything on the Amiga that I really need to and try to do what I can with the Amiga. Fact of the matter is that not having a decent browser is really an Achilles heel. To get a round the browsing issue, I keep a Linux PC running side by side with the Amigas.
Regards,
AmigaEd
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@ Runequester
This might sound a bit strange but having never been in a position where I would need to use a computer for my work, I'm just curious to know what sort of things someone who is required to use a computer at work actually needs to do at home with a computer in connection with their work... :)
Not personal details, just a general idea of why it's needed at home, as I've never known anyone personally who has to do this... :)
To save time I need occasionally to access documents and spreadsheets in formats that the amiga can't handle. So unfortunately no dice there. But thats a small distraction all things considered, as the thread was "main computer" rather than "only computer" :)
The main thing I'll miss out on being miggy only is online video stuff, but thats a time sink I am realizing I'd rather limit, in any event.
I'll be able to chat to people on MSN, access my email, download stuff from aminet and some simple web browsing (amiga.org f.x.). Thats all I need really.
Productivity stuff for personal use, or for printing and taking copies at work, music (loads of modules), a crapton of games, some messing around with deluxepaint, programming, all that stuff will be handled quite well by the old girl :)
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I could *almost* get away with using a Miggy as my only system. On an 060 with an RTG card, I tried - but there were a few web sites that would choke AND editing large photos was either not possible or impractical. Modern printing today is also something the Amiga chokes on. Even with a fairly well configured TurboPrint :(
Not too sure how MorphOS handles print jobs, but I could see using *that* type of system as an "everyday" platform - for my needs that is. I hope to revisit MorphOS again down the road, when it becomes available for some of these other Macs.
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Not even close, Photoshop, Aperture, Final Cut, iPhone development, Word documents, audio editing. The Amiga requires to much sacrifice to be a main machine.
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@ Runequester
This might sound a bit strange but having never been in a position where I would need to use a computer for my work, I'm just curious to know what sort of things someone who is required to use a computer at work actually needs to do at home with a computer in connection with their work... :)
Not personal details, just a general idea of why it's needed at home, as I've never known anyone personally who has to do this... :)
I would think MS Office, a lot of gimmicky functions that don't work on OpenOffice (not sure which as I make do with basic text atm) and maybe a specialty database program that is only written for Windows.
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I would think MS Office, a lot of gimmicky functions that don't work on OpenOffice (not sure which as I make do with basic text atm) and maybe a specialty database program that is only written for Windows.
I've never had trouble with open office, as far as MS word and excel compatibility, actually. Maybe Im just lucky
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I use a few different systems daily, but normally the majority of my time would be spent between my a1200, my amithlon/os3.9 box, and aros. I say normally as my house is in a bit of disarray at the moment, so things arent "normal" right now. My Windows usage is normally PaintShopPro (so much better than photoshop for hand pixelling), 3dsmax, and watching videos when Im in my bedroom (which I also do on amithlon/os3.9 and aros sometimes, but I like to watch them on the t.v. in my room, and Windows is the only system of the 3 that allows me to use the t.v. as a secondary(concurrent/seperate) display). Unfortunately my network relies on my windows box as well, so it's pretty essential for me despite not getting as heavily used as the other systems.
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Not nearly enough income for an everyday-use caliber system, I'm afraid. I might see if I can make a go of it once NatAmi's finally available for purchase, though...
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No and it shouldn't matter. Have one main OS on one computer and a bunch of virtual machines and emulators. Sought of a brew your own thing.
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My Sam440ep with AmigaOS 4.1 is my main home machine.
The biggest problem I have with it is the broken FAT filesystem when using USB devices. If I want to share data between my Sam and a PC I have to use CDs or DVDs. Connecting a USB device with a FAT filesystem on it to my Sam and writing to it is almost guaranteed to corrupt the data. (It's fine if I only _read_ data off the drive, and it's perfect if I format the USB drive to SFS.) I hope that gets fixed very soon.
The other biggest problem (heh) wouldn't be a problem for most people, but I'm a bit of a cheapskate who doesn't want to spend $50/mo. on an Internet connection, so I am still using dialup. The Sam's serial port is 'incomplete' and can't do hardware flow control, and I get lots of lost packets. I have serious connection problems even with my Amithlon, Linux, and C=Amiga boxes, though, so I don't think the Sam's serial port is the only problem. We have very noisy phone lines in my area.
Mostly the experience is good. It's more stable than my Commodore-era machines and OSes, and it's easy to manage my photos with it. I have to use 'foreign' applications like AbiWord and Gnumeric via AmiCygnix for compatibility with the outside world sometimes, but that's OK. I'm glad I have that option!
I don't have to worry about memory anymore like I had to with previous machines. If AmigaKit had come out with its ZoRAM memory cards a few years ago I probably would have stuck with my A3K a lot longer.
I got weaned off of hardware-banging games and demos when I moved to Amithlon, so it was easy to move to AmigsOS4. I think that everything that worked on Amithlon worked on AmigaOS4 right from the start.
Emulation of classic Amiga hardware is a little slow (I have a 667MHz Sam) so I have to set E-UAE to skip frames on some games, but I do still have classic Amigas around the house in case I need to see silky smooth scrolling.
I'm not allowed to bring work home, which is the way I like it. :) So it's OK that I don't have Visual Studio, though It sure would be nice to have something that nice on Amiga!
Anyway, for Amiga stuff, it's stable and fast and there's no problem finding compatible keyboards, mouses, monitors, DVD-ReWriters, power supplies, etc. It likes my Canon DSLR and I can use an external card reader to read the data from my digital camcorder. The Sam is too slow to play the high def. H.264 video, though.
Oh, there is one FAT-formatted USB device I haven't yet had problems with, and that's my crappy little Sylvania MP3 player. I seem to be able to move files to/from that thing with my Sam with safety.
Oh yeah, the OS4 version of The Digital Universe is awesome!
I'd like to have a portable Amiga, and I'm open to trying AROS and MorphOS and even switching over if either of those feels comfortable. I just haven't gotten around to trying either one yet.
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Cheers guys :)
Often wondered when some folk have said here that they need a PC or MAC at home for work what they actually used them for... :)
Kinda glad I've never had to take my work home with me "sorry Mrs Johnston but I'll be back with your new kitchen in the morning, I'll just take it home with me tonight and finish it in the spare room after me dinner..." don't think a computer would have helped me much there... :)
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My main every day machines are my SAM440ep (during the week) and my Pegasos II (weekend). Before entering the "AmigaNG" stuff my A2000s were my master systems. Nevertheless I use a Windows XP netbook (ATOM) for a "quick surf and e-mail" from the couch if I'm to lazy to fire up my Miggies.
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Cheers guys :)
Often wondered when some folk have said here that they need a PC or MAC at home for work what they actually used them for... :)
Kinda glad I've never had to take my work home with me "sorry Mrs Johnston but I'll be back with your new kitchen in the morning, I'll just take it home with me tonight and finish it in the spare room after me dinner..." don't think a computer would have helped me much there... :)
that would have set you above and beyond the competition though!
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I wouldn't trade my pc for an Amiga.
While I know everything can be done from an Amiga, it's simply a matter of work.
And at work they use MS Office and I do too here at home, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
I'm happy with my pc for Office tasks, internet and games.
Amiga's are for games and a bit of fun with apps, but other than that they aren't better than modern pc's or Mac's.
Count your blessings with the new ACA accelerators and the upcoming ACA520 (or maybe A530).
The A2000 card (that still has to be a question of what it becomes) and who knows, maybe a full on 3000/4000 060 card with IDE and onboard video.
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I don't use an Amiga everyday, but I use my MorphOS computer everyday and rarely resort to a PC.
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I have a PowerMac at home and Pegasos2 at work. They are my main everyday machines.
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I have a PowerMac at home and Pegasos2 at work. They are my main everyday machines.
Wow, that is cool. Amiga based system at work instead of the Mac. Kind of cool. Tj
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@ Runequester
This might sound a bit strange but having never been in a position where I would need to use a computer for my work, I'm just curious to know what sort of things someone who is required to use a computer at work actually needs to do at home with a computer in connection with their work... :)
Not personal details, just a general idea of why it's needed at home, as I've never known anyone personally who has to do this... :)
I'm in the same boat - its mostly programming IDEs for Java and some other more modern programming stuff. But once the A4000 arrives, I'll be working my way towards a solution much like runequesters. Heck, if I could find a good IDE for Java (like Eclipse) that will run on 3.1 I'd be happy :D
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My Amiga 1200 with OS 3.0 is still my main computer..(i have many more Amigas, but for now i just using any A1200, A4000 and A2000 as backup) yeah.. for me is still my main computer, but a year ago started using the pc with windows more often.. (previously only used it when I had to work with something that was not entirely possible to use in Amiga)
Amiga Uses:
For now i still using for Internet browsing, IRC, MSN, Mods, Chiptunes, MP3 music, and other applications specific to my profession in music. Sometimes a play Amiga Games and i like experiment and test emulators in the Amiga and other software develop by many cool Amiga programers which are doing wonders with this machine.
Positive:
Its any Amiga! - Its Amiga OS - its my System since 1985 - Thats says all for me.
Negative:
Basically, Each day that passes is more difficult to support Internet.
Missing:
Not Videos, and other things in nowdays Internet, like, Skype, streaming TV, Movies. and others interactive things.
The reality is that it definitely is becoming more difficult to stay on the platform as Main Machine, for now i use PC & Windows every days, but i still using my Amiga almost every day.. anyway i will use my Amiga until it can use more. And always be my main computer and system.
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Lately, my A2000 has been on almost nightly, I love it but there's no way I'd torture myself using it as an only computer. I like all computers and prefer the modern ones for everyday use. :)
When I "returned" to Amigadom sometime in the early 2000's, as an experiment I ran an A1200 with a Blizz 1260 as a main machine for a while. Being away from Amigas since the mid-90's, I found the challenge of getting it upgraded and on the web enormous fun. I also had a Pegasos 2 I bought new sometime around '04 IIRC, it was fun but I sold it to fund a new PC to play FPS's. Since that time Amiga has been pure hobby, I don't even pretend to do anything serious with them. :P
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I would use my AmigaOne most of the time, but unfortunately it's just not possible to do a lot of the things I wanna do, and a 2.7GHz Core2Duo with 4GB Ram and XP is what I use for my "main computer". I try not to use it whenever I can, but for general web browsing it's less stressful, and things like Photoshop, colour calibration for the display, scanner and printer, a decent office suite and being able to use my printer properly are all things I couldn't do without. I also try to use Linux whenever I can, and while it does as well as, Windows at some tasks, they more often than not require more effort to get there.
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My daily machine runs Linux. I also have a single windows install which I need to run Cubase (music is another hobby of mine). I could almost use my Amiga 1200 as a daily workstation but I find the lack of RTG the limiting factor. I keep toying with the idea of towering, PCI busboard and RTG but the cost seems prohibitive.
My normal daily use is probably email, messenger, basic web browsing (quite often happy with text mode only!), ssh (to other boxes) and to a lesser extent image editing. I imagine an RTG amiga could do most of what I needed; I could run an X server (or Amicygnix locally - if that's the right package name?) for any remaining tasks.
If anyone has a tower/busboard they'd like to sell to an enthusiast at non ebay prices ... let me know!
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My daily machine runs Linux. I also have a single windows install which I need to run Cubase (music is another hobby of mine). I could almost use my Amiga 1200 as a daily workstation but I find the lack of RTG the limiting factor. I keep toying with the idea of towering, PCI busboard and RTG but the cost seems prohibitive.
My normal daily use is probably email, messenger, basic web browsing (quite often happy with text mode only!), ssh (to other boxes) and to a lesser extent image editing. I imagine an RTG amiga could do most of what I needed; I could run an X server (or Amicygnix locally - if that's the right package name?) for any remaining tasks.
If anyone has a tower/busboard they'd like to sell to an enthusiast at non ebay prices ... let me know!
It's probably not worth towering. If Natami ever happens it will be a better upgraded Amiga.
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I had a 1200 towered with a Zorro busboard, the RTG did make it a very nice machine. It was easily as usable as any of the other big box Amigas I've put RTG boards in.
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I use MorphOS on Mac mini 1.5GHz as my main everyday computer. Mostly for internet (IBrowse, OWB, AmIRC, RemoteShell, FTP), music (AMPlifier, MusicPlayer), movies (mplayer) and digital photo handling (ShowGirls for editing, FXPaint2 for web albums). Sometimes some printing with FinalWriter, AmigaWriter or Pagestream...
A1200 gets some gaming regularly too.
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I did for many years, from '89 to '95. I tried again through WinUAE a few years back and found everything lacking. Didn't have anything to do with WinUAE, mind. With JIT turned on, WinUAE is lightning fast (Sysinfo returns a result of like 14ghz for CPU speed :D ). Heck I played Quake 1 through in WinUAE and never got less than 40fps!
No, it was the acutal Amiga apps. Tried both Aweb and IBrowse, man...no way. Regarding other apps, it seems like there was some "trick" or "tweak" I had to do for EVERYTHING. Nothing was turnkey. I guess that was fine for my 19-25 year old self, but these days, I want to install and go.
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I gave up using an Amiga as my main machine in 1998. That was an A4000 with an 060 and a picasso iv!
These days I use a Ubuntu/Dell box as my main machine and a Non-Apple loepard machine with logic to do most of my audio work.
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Now I have Wifi working on the A1200T, I been using it a bunch more. I might install YAM on it but, naaww not a main machine.
Looking into OWB and Netsurf next ...
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Can't do it for my main working computer, as I depend on and require Final Cut Pro and Aperture as well as parts of the Adobe Creative Suite.
But my Sam440 has pretty well replaced my Amiga 4000D as my main fun computer. Fun for me is messing about with creative applications, not games, I might add. I have abandoned Microsoft Entourage on my "main" machine for e-mail in favor of YAM on my Sam, however.
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@ mbrantley
same here as I need to use AutoCad for my business on my PC notebook but everything else I use my Samflex@800 running OS4.1u2 very happily:)
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As the cheap skate I am, my main machine is an Intel Pentium IV machine with Linux (Centos5).
greets,
Staf.
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Do I? No..
Could I? Not currently...
I don't actually need any Windows apps, which is why I can use Linux as my main machine...
What I need is:
Cisco compatible VPN client for work.
RDP client.
SSH/FreeNX client (could use remoteX, VNC...)
Web Browser with Java/CSS support.
If I could do that with my Amiga, great. But I don't expect to be able to with a classic Amiga..
Now, if something like Natami comes out with higher resolution and a good browser, I could see possibly doing it...
Would I? Interesting question...
Probably not totally, as the laptop is so flexible. (I almost never use my desktop anymore, even tho it's faster..)
desiv