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Author Topic: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?  (Read 3842 times)

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Offline AndingTopic starter

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Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« on: August 26, 2006, 11:28:17 AM »
Can I get some reactions to this idea?

I love the Amiga but I now need more.   If I distil what I love about the Amiga it is

- Transparency.  With a little time you can understand all that is going on with the operating system, what all the files on your HDD do, and how things work "under the hood".  Contrast this with Windows which is a black box with millions of almost unknowable pieces.

- Power.  Custom chipset, multitasking OS, GUI, this machine kicked @rse ahead of it's time!

- Simplicity/elagance.  Small code, tight execution, minimal components to get the job done.  How fresh!

I will keep using my Amigas (under UAE, with AmiBlitz to be precise), but now I do need to move forward in time.  I want to keep the thrill I got with the transparency, power and the simplicity and elgance of the Amiga, but get access to new hardware, graphics acceleration, new coding opportunities, and a wider community of active contributers. So I'm thinking of moving up to LINUX, with Mono .NET for development.

What would you think if you were me?!   How closely does LINUX resemble AmigaDOS?  Is it as transparent as the good old Amiga?  Which GUI would you pick? Etc..??!

Cheers,

Andy
 

Offline InTheSand

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2006, 11:41:53 AM »
Linux isn't as transparent as AmigaDOS, but at least you can pick most of it apart and configure it to suit, not to mention recompiling it and breaking it!

Check out Ubuntu - this is a pretty complete distribution and everything pretty much "just works" - but it still allows plenty of scope for being reconfigured.

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Offline motorollin

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2006, 11:49:39 AM »
Another vote for Ubuntu.

Linux can be almost as small as AmigaOS (see Slackware/DSL) or as big and bloated as Windows (see SuSE/Mandrake). I find Ubuntu to be a nice midway point, combining a nice simple interface with a powerful underlying OS. I think you will enjoy it as an AmigaOS user.

--
moto
Code: [Select]
10  IT\'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
20  FOR C = 1 TO 2
30     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA
40     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA
50  NEXT C
60  NA-NA-NAAAA
70  NA-NA NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA NAAA-NAAAAAAAAAAA
80  GOTO 10
 

Offline Heinz

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2006, 11:51:51 AM »
Quote

What would you think if you were me?! How closely does LINUX resemble AmigaDOS? Is it as transparent as the good old Amiga?


In my personal opinion, of all OS I know, LINUX is most dissimilar to AmigaOS !

It is not intuitive. You have to read several pages of manuals to do the simplest things.

Getting new Hardware working, is close to impossible for a "normal" user.

In my opinion, even the actual windows versions are closer to AmigaOS then LINUX !

If you want AmigaOS feeling, then AROS is the best choice.
But it is not usable for .NET development.

If you need .NET development, but don't want to use WINDOWS or LINUX, then take a look at

http://www.reactos.org/

I am not sure if .NET/MONO is already working there, but there is a good chance, as ReactOS is an OpenSource Windows clone.
 

Offline motorollin

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2006, 11:54:46 AM »
@Heinz
A few years ago I would have agreed that Linux is less user friendly than some other operating systems. Getting hardware or software to work used to be a nightmare.

However, Ubuntu makes it really easy to get new hardware working and has an excellent package management system for installing new software.

--
moto
Code: [Select]
10  IT\'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
20  FOR C = 1 TO 2
30     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA
40     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA
50  NEXT C
60  NA-NA-NAAAA
70  NA-NA NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA NAAA-NAAAAAAAAAAA
80  GOTO 10
 

Offline Heinz

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2006, 12:15:41 PM »
Quote

A few years ago I would have agreed that Linux is less user friendly than some other operating systems. Getting hardware or software to work used to be a nightmare.

However, Ubuntu makes it really easy to get new hardware working and has an excellent package management system for installing new software.


Maybe.
But the same things were said about some of the LINUX distribution I have tried.
I have tried a lot.

SUSE
MANDRAKE
KNOPPIX
DEBIAN
SLACKWARE

The three first worked quite well, but I never get my DSL Card ( yes there was a official Driver ! ) and my Scanner working.
CD-Burning only worked on Knoppix ( If I remember correctly ).

And all had a Package Manager and a configuration tool, that was supposed to be "great", "wonderful", "just works" ....

I personally accepted that LINUX is no desktop OS and it probably never will be a desktop OS.
 

Offline KThunder

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #6 on: August 26, 2006, 12:26:01 PM »
amigados is based on unix, thats why it is so easy to port unix programs over.
linux is an opensource version of unix
its not surprising that there are lots of similarities. many people have tried linux and found it to be too complicated, thats one of the reasons AROS has so much promise.
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Offline Karlos

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #7 on: August 26, 2006, 12:39:01 PM »
It depends on what exactly you are comparing. I use linux almost exclusively at work. As a development environment it is good but I truly don't regard it suitable for a lot of  ordinary end-users.
int p; // A
 

Offline AndingTopic starter

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #8 on: August 26, 2006, 12:41:47 PM »
Thanks guys for the link to Ubuntu.  This looks very impressive.  If I interpret their philospohy correctly, it's a little Amiga like in their focus on "doing things well".  Also confidence inspiring that they have a managed developer community, and that the computer billionaire / space pilot Mark Shuttleworth is backing it with real $$$.  I will definatly burn a CD of this and get cracking...

Quote

AROS has so much promise.


I'm very curious about too Aros.  Amiga OS was mass seller in it's day, and I think that's why it's influence carries on lasting.  What's the end destination for AROS?  Is it meant to go mass market, or more for people who had an Amiga in the past and are still dedicated?

Regards

Andrew
 

Offline Kronos

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #9 on: August 26, 2006, 01:04:50 PM »
Quote

KThunder wrote:
amigados is based on unix,  


Ah, urban myth No. 125. Been quite a while since I saw that the last time  :-o

AmigaOS and and *nix have nothing in common 'cept they fact that could multitask 20 years ago. AmigaDOS and *nix, well I don't expect to see anything BCPL in an *nix-kernel ....
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline KThunder

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #10 on: August 26, 2006, 01:45:48 PM »
check the command stucture, command naming, multitasking setup, disk management and many other things about the os.

if you are comfortable with unix you will be very comfortable with amiga. there are many many commonalities. the same cannot be said of amigaos and msdos, or amigados and many other os's and the fact that much unix software has been ported to and from amigados and unix shows that they are similar on many respects. some unix source only has to be recompiled with a larger than normal stack and minor disk and video tweaks.

if someone was to rewrite linux to be simple for anyone to use it would be very very similar to amigados
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Offline motorollin

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #11 on: August 26, 2006, 02:03:20 PM »
BTW, Ubuntu has a live CD version so you can try it out without committing to install it.

--
moto
Code: [Select]
10  IT\'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
20  FOR C = 1 TO 2
30     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA
40     DA-NA-NAAAA-NAAAA DA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA
50  NEXT C
60  NA-NA-NAAAA
70  NA-NA NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAA NAAA-NAAAAAAAAAAA
80  GOTO 10
 

Offline Kronos

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #12 on: August 26, 2006, 02:27:12 PM »
Amiga(D)OS is just as much based on *nix as BeOS is based on AmigaOS (not at all that is).
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline itix

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #13 on: August 26, 2006, 02:42:50 PM »
Quote

some unix source only has to be recompiled with a larger than normal stack and minor disk and video tweaks.


Then why there is Firefox for Windows but not for Amiga? Why there is GIMP for Windows but not for Amiga? Why, oh why there is much much more Linux software available to Windows than Amiga... Conclusion: your reasoning is flawed. Linux and Windows are more close to each other than Amiga is to Linux or Windows.
My Amigas: A500, Mac Mini and PowerBook
 

Offline ptek

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Re: Can Linux cure my craving for AmigaDOS?
« Reply #14 on: August 26, 2006, 03:12:27 PM »
Quote
Getting new Hardware working, is close to impossible for a "normal" user.


It is impossible for a "normal" user!

Just look at the people who have dificulties with installing (even software) on Windows ...

Onions have layers ...