Just tried AROS for the first time! WOW!

[dandelion]

Hi all,

I'm a reasonably experienced Amiga user. Have become (like most of us I imagine) more and more disillusioned with what's happening with AmigaOS 4, Eyetech, Hyperion (i.e. nothing). Although I wanted to see a cheap proliferation of PPC hardware with OS4 bundled, that just doesn't look very likely now. Also, watching the painless (and astonishing) move by Apple to x86 hardware, has really made be overcome my bias against this type of hardware. Of course, it's simply everywhere, it's fast, and it's cheap. No one says you have to have Windows installed on it and ok, the wealth of different hardware types might suggest compatibility problems but as is so often said, you simply tailor your shopping list to what is known to be supported. Forgive the waffle...what I really wanted to say is..

I've just tried the AROS live CD (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/aros/AROS-20060207-i386-pc-boot-iso.tar.bz2?download)
took a couple of mins to download, quick ISO write and a reset, and suddenly I was in a blisteringly fast, 1024x768 Amiga environment, running native of x86. It's the most wonderful treat to load up DOpus4, bommberman, to suddenly be the proud owner of a new Amiga computer. Of course, this is just a live CD, and there's a lot of work to be done. There IS TCP however, some browsing, IRC. That and a proper install can wait till the weekend. This is surely the most promising development in the Amiga world (not forgetting MiniMig of course)at the moment. Please support it!

I know there's a huge amount of work to be done, work is I believe happening apace to integrate 68k JIT emulation. It seems a shame that all of Hyperion's efforts haven't been poured into this project. They could have created their own AROS distribution, supplemented the code, and enjoyed a set up in much the same way as Mandriva do (i.e. we pay for advanced usage, they run the Hyperion-AROS distribution and user club). I'm CERTAIN this would get people coming back to the Amiga scene. WHY THE HELL ISN'T THIS HAPPENING?? PHew. Well. The future's bright, the future's AROS.

Much love,

Dandelion.

[dandelion]

I think that's an over-protective and short sighted policy on their part, and let's face it it's not exactly paying off is it. Operating systems which have worked with open hardware i.e. Windows, Linux and now OS X seem to be doing rather better than OS 4 I would say. And who's talking about piracy anyway? Hyperion could support the AROS/Open Source model and make a lot more money in other ways compared to what they're making now with this closed/protectionist and stifled approach which has left them in a rather unfortunate position.

[dandelion]

It seems to be that (and i'm new to AROS so I tread carefully) UAE is as stated above great for playing 68K Amiga games and apps etc. in an emulated environment on a variety of machines. AROS is all about creating a new platform and a new Amiga operating system for the most abundant hardware available today. It's not about emulating the past but creating a new future for the Amiga operating system.

[dandelion]

Rather like the transition from 68k Mac software to PPC to x86. No one's thinking too much about running their 68k Mac software on their new spangly intel core machines and this is the same with AROS Just skipping the PPC bit in the middle.

[dandelion]

Works here on my no-name-el cheapo laptop. Maybe try the latest build?