Pebbles wrote:
Hi, i'm new. I havent been around since shortly after Amiga was bought out by Gateway, and I figured Amiga was dead so I left. Now I'm back and I don't know much about either of the new Amigas.
Well, I think I recall hearing your name around before. Welcome back! :-) :pint:
It's a slow sunday over here, so I'll just sit down and write some of my thoughts to your questions. :-)
Well, there are three different OS distributions in the works; OS4, AROS and MorphOS. All three is being developed by long time Amiga enthusiasts that knows what the Amiga is all about, and this has been proven to end users of the three distributions through the "Amiga experience" they get from it. Amigans feel right at home! :-) The AmigaOS 3.1 API is the key. All three builds on this API and will introduce additional features of their own on top of that. The OS code and OS design philosophy behind the common API's also differs.
OS4 is the "official" solution (branded "Amiga OS") and the development was completely outsourced to the famous Amiga game company Hyperion Entertainment. They have spent a lot of time converting/rewriting the Amiga OS sources from the mix of varous exoctic programming languages in which the original sources were written in, to an easy portable and up to date GCC envireonment. They have also made a completely new kernel, and a lot of other things. Recently they were able to show the OS running to the public (try searching for "OS4 on tour" up in the right corner, and then click "show all results") on a legacy Amiga4000 with a CSPPC card. Big parts were reported to still be in 68k code, but those parts are emulated on the PPC, and the migration to PPC is proceeding as we speak (it's only a "grunt work" by now, according to Ben Hermans of Hyperion). Many of the old (system friendly) Amiga programs are expected to work through CPU emulation, and programs still in development today are expected to be recompiled for PPC and OS4. For more information about this solution, go to
http://os.amiga.com.
The AROS (Amiga Research OS (prevously Amiga Replacement OS)) is a very promising project to create a reimplementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 in open source :-o, but in the end it will be much improvements and add-ons compared to the standard AOS3.1 :-). Everything is developed from scratch, no old legacy sources are used. The project is more or less on a volunteer basis, and this sets the development speed as well as what is currently being developed (the developers engages in what they themselves think is fun/necessary to do). The OS can run natively on the computer, or hosted under Linux. Many people who wants an Amiga-like OS for x86 computers put a lot of hope in this project, but a port is also in the works for the PPC based Pegasos, and if I remembers correctly, they even made it run on a Palm (a long time ago). The OS should be binary compatible to 68k programs if compiled to a 68k Amiga, but otherwise a recompilation of the programs are needed for them to work on AROS. For more information about this solution, go to
http://www.aros.org.
The MorphOS is another reimplementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 API. One major difference is it's micro-kernel architecture (
http://www.qnx.com has really good explanation of the philosophy behind micro kernel architectures). Today, there is only one big box (called modules in QNX) running, the A-box, in which pretty much everything else except the Quark micro kernel resides (i.e. all the OS components, drivers, programs, etc). This means that you at this time won't notice any of the benefits that a micro kernel architecture offers, but the plan is to later move the drivers (and everything else) out of the A-box into their own protected memory space, controlled directly by the micro kernel. The biggest change the end-users and developers will notice from this is the improved stability. Like in AROS, everything is developed from scratch, no old legacy sources are used. In fact, there has been some cooperation with the AROS team; MorphOS got some source code from AROS and returned the changes/improvements that were made. Many of the old (system friendly) Amiga programs runs fine through CPU emulation (the speed improvement from the completely transparent JIT emulator compared to any legacy Amiga can only be described as totally incredible), and many of the new programs (as well as the older programs still in development today) has been recompiled for PPC and MorphOS.
Some personal views: As said by someone else, MorphOS is still a young OS indeed but it's very usable for an experienced Amigan, and it's being developed very fast. In December last year, I ran MorphOS 1.0. in only those months since then, MorphOS has taken a giant leap forward (the OS1.3->1.4 update was VERY nice!). In some areas, MorphOS is allready much more than my classic Amiga ever was, in other areas there are still some gaps (that I often easily fill myself with third party programs/aminet software). As allways, new features means new bugs. The bugs are reported and killed, but then new features are introduced, with new bugs, and then it all goes round. I can live with that, and I feel very priviliged to take part and watch from the "inside" how this new OS evolves! For more information about this solution, go to
http://www.morphos.netAnyone know the major differences between the Amigaone and Pegasus?
Here are some differences:
You can read about the technical specifications of the A1 hardware
here (somewhat outdated info), and the Pegasos hardware
here.
You will notice that the A1 has a fourth "semi-usable" PCI slot (the Pegasos did not include this one), the Pegasos has a smaller form-factor (which increases the possibilities of interesting cases), the Pegasos has some features more (firewire and an optical digital S/P DIF out connector), and the Pegasos has the "April" fix.
The Pegasos is better priced than the A1.
Many of todays Pegasos owners uses their Pegasos computers as their primary/only Amigas. NOW, no more waiting (other than for OS updates ;-))! I myself has put my A1200 in the closet. Todays A1 users have Linux as their only option, and this situation will probably remain for at least 0.5-1 years from now.
The aim of the Pegasos is to be the "ultimate geek platform". Therefore, they are porting *
a lot of Operating Systems* to the Pegasos hardware, including lots of different Linux flavours, BSD, AROS, QNX and BeOS flavours! :-)
Don't expect OS4 to run on the Pegasos (although it is very possible from a technical Point of View), or MorphOS to run on the A1 hardware (even if this is more likely than the previous).
When they'll be available, etc?
The OS component of the A1 product is expected to be available for legacy Amigas (with the custom chipset available, etc) towards the end of this year. When it is released in a non-legacy version for the A1 hardware remains to be seen. The A1 hardware is kind of "semi-available" now (shipments are very slow, some people have been waiting a *very long time* for their motherboards). There has been some problems in providing the G4 models (some time back, people were asked if they wanted to change their order to a G3).
Future models: There is a little confusion about this IMO. Some time ago, there was a mini-ITX formfactor version announced called "A1 Lite" (look
here for more info). Also, a MicroATX version announced (look
here, and
here), but this has now been rejected by Ben Hermans (
Comment 1,
Comment 2,
Comment 3,
Comment 4). However, it is Eyetech, and not Hyperion, that markets the A1 hardware. Nothing is known about the availability of those.
The first version of the Pegasos motherboard is not to be manufactured anymore. If you ask
the dealers they might still have one in stock. You could also try to contact
the Phoenix Developer Consortium (they handed out free Pegasos boards to interested developers some time ago, perhaps they have some left?) or Genesi directly and ask if they still have some of the
G4 model left. You could also try to get one second hand (but I have not seen any of those announced yet).
Future models: The future of the Pegasos hardware is said to be divided on two different hardware models - one very cheap but yet quite powerful base model with a G3 CPU (often referred to as "Pegasos 2"), and one "ultimate performance" model with a G5 (often referred to as "Pegasos 3"). They do not replace each other, but target different market segments that has different needs. The "Pegasos 2" will be released soon. It's said to be in September, but judging from Bill Bucks answer at the streamed interview from the AmiWest show, I guess that a broad release of the "Pegasos 2" can very well be the month or so after that. The Pegasos 3 is supposed to be released in Q1 2004.
