ve just come back from Webb.it (Padova - Italy), and
with my new AmigaOne XE G4
Virtual Works and Soft3 (the Italian distributors) are
demoing an AmigaOne (G3) with Debian Linux as usual.
They are also demoing an Amiga4000 with Powerup
running some modules of OS4. The exibithors told me
that they could have had more to show on the OS4
field, but in agreement with Hyperion they decided
not to show it as it's still "unstable" and they know what
kind of reaction could generate from the usual "detractors"...
So apparently there is nothing new on the OS4 showed
at Webbit... but looking with attentions there are
some really interesting advancements... just to make
an example I could see that the USB support is done
and working, also on the A4000: the A4000 had 2
keyboards and 2 mouse connected, the regualar
Amiga keyboard and mouse, and an USB keyboard and
mouse, and you could use them simultaneously, i.e.
type at the same time on both keyboards and use
both mouses.
Other things that are shown for the first time (I guess)
- the Internet connection wizard (meaning that roadshow
the tcp stack is also working);
- the amigaInput api configuration tool
- the new font utility
- the media toolbox to configurate hard disk, storage
media and so on (also on this topic they told me that
the Mount Rainier support for cd-rw is already working,
but they could not demostrate it there as the A4000
doesn't have a cd-burner)
- also interesting the AmiDock has a dockie that
shows an animation running "iconified" on the dock...
am not sure if it's sort of movie player that can play
avi or mpg also when iconified on the dock... still
interesting to see.
There were some other little thing that cannot remember
now, anyway the advancement on OS4 were noticeable
even if not obvious at first sight (and no big change on
the graphic interface design, it still looks like OS3.9).
I took some pics with my digital cam, but cannot
download them to this pc, as I don't have the cable
here... will try to put them online somewhere tomorrow.
As for the AmigaOne: finally got it in my hands, but will not
be able to work on it for 2-3 days as I hoped to buy
all the components (hd, ram cabinet and so on) together
with the main board, but unfortunately they didn't have
what I needed there, and also they forgot to take to
Padova the install and Debian linux cdroms... Enrico Vidale
of Virtual Works will send me everything as soon as
he's back to his store (Monday).
That's all for now, I'll get the pics ready for tomorrow
(probably will be on the QuantumLeap site)
Bye
Francesco
