Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: dr_no on July 25, 2004, 10:14:50 PM
-
Hi people,
With the recent pre-release of AmigaOS 4, I'm looking into my options - which are suprisingly quite a few atm :-D
I've been using BeOS for a past year or so and have found it great for a 'home' use and some development work. What I found lacking are some serious M$ Office-like applications. Future BeOS development is also under question. On the other hand, I don't need to go to a new hardware platform and most of the software is in freeware/shareware domain.
Well, with MorphOS and OS 4 I'd need to get my wallet out and invest some serious money into a sub-standard hardware (i.e. when comparing what can be bought in terms of Wintel platform for the same amount). However, there are abundance of software for both out there. I mean, when OS 4 is brought up-to-scratch they may be 'au pair' with eachother.
So many decisions... Would it be fair to say that MorphOS is at the top, while BeOS is still viable and cheapest option?
-
I'm baised but I'm going to keep the fire extingusher near and say that neither OS4 nor MOS have the office package you're looking for... but there's always Linux and OpenOffice for a cheap alternative.
*hides*
-
Try both and decide. They have their own fanatic user base ;-)
-
Yeah, Papyrus office has been made for MOS (previous versions got high praise on OS/2) but they're holding it back until MOS 1.5 gets released (may be a while yet, as it's a major overhaul).
While some people have mooted OpenOffice to be ported over, nobody seems to be doing it. There's older Amiga programs that do most things that are needed from an Office suite, but you have to be willing to dig for it.
-
I could be considered pretty biased so I'll keep this short.
You mention that BeOS lacks a decent Office Suite. Being perfectly honest, I think neither BeOS, MorphOS or AmigaOS4 can offer what you want in this. You should maybe check out Linux or Windows (Ergh!).
Saying that however, if you go the AmigaOne route, you can dual boot with Linux & OS4. This will keep your foot in the door with respects to future AmigaOS developments as well as having various Office like Apps available for Linux.
Still, it's entirely your choice. Hope there are a few genuine ones in this thread for you to consider.
FuZion.
-
I havent seen OS4 running yet...so I'd stick w/MOS.
-
Fuzion wrote:
Saying that however, if you go the AmigaOne route, you can dual boot with Linux & OS4. This will keep your foot in the door with respects to future AmigaOS developments as well as having various Office like Apps available for Linux.
He can use Linux dual boot on any one of the three machines. The A1, however, still doesn't have a Linux kernel with a fix for Articia UDMA issues, and isn't ideal for this purpose.
-
Hello dr_no. You mention future development of BeOS being under question - are you aware of Haiku/OpenBeOS?
Link to Haiku forums. (http://www.haiku-os.org/forums/)
-
TheMagicM wrote:
I havent seen OS4 running yet...
i have. it's worth a look!
IFX, MooVid (the new beta version, and various other programs works on it.
plus the GUI seems amazingly configurable.
anyway, see if you can find a user group that has one.
-
Os4 for me...... drool :-D
-
Hmm, right now for me its:
UAE and UAE for Pocket PC (Pocket Dpaint, I love it)
Windows XP 64-bit Edition (for AMD64) (UAE loves my amd64)
Windows XP 32-bit Edition
Later:
Windows LongHorn 64 bit edition
MorphOS
I have beos on an older box and love it.. I just don't hear much about Zeta or OpenBEOS anymore..
As for XP 64-bit.. I would use it as my main OS (even the preview edition) if there was a good wireless driver. The CPU and OS is faster than anything I have ever used.
-
Cecilia: trust me, I will.. a Amiga club in a town about 60 miles north has a A1 but messed up his software and didnt have it ready for the meeting.. next month I will go again, hopefully its running.
-
I just ordered Zeta RC3 Deluxe Edition, and it should be here by the end of the month.
- Doug
-
DonnyEMU wrote:
Hmm, right now for me its:
UAE and UAE for Pocket PC (Pocket Dpaint, I love it)
Windows XP 64-bit Edition (for AMD64) (UAE loves my amd64)
Windows XP 32-bit Edition
Later:
Windows LongHorn 64 bit edition
MorphOS
I have beos on an older box and love it.. I just don't hear much about Zeta or OpenBEOS anymore..
As for XP 64-bit.. I would use it as my main OS (even the preview edition) if there was a good wireless driver. The CPU and OS is faster than anything I have ever used.
Please forgive my ignorance. What is UAE?
-
Please forgive my ignorance. What is UAE?
UAE == Unix Amiga Emulator. Try winuae.net (http://www.winuae.net/) (I don't remember the URL for the UAE home page, but there's a link on the WinUAE site).
-
Thanks for the response !!
-
For the latest BeOS check out Yellowtab.com I ordered the RC3 of Zeta. Due to be here by the end of this month. I still have a few boxed versions of BeOS 5 Pro. but won't run on my newer hardware.
-
I havent seen MOS running yet...so I'd stick w/OS4. :)
Seriously, AmigaOS 4 isn't ready yet for mainstream - but it's very close. I've not seen MorphOs running at all recently, but I can say I'm very pleased with AOS4 - despite it being a pre-release it's become my main home machine already (the Windows machine is little more than a glorified Civilisation III console these days). And it's really nice to code for, too! The API is much nicer from what I've seen, compared to older AmigaOSes - which is what MorphOS is based on.
Put it this way - no way am I getting rid of my AmigaOne...
-
In alphabetical order:
AmigaOS
BeOS
....
MorphOS
....
Windows
:-D
-
cecilia wrote:
plus the GUI [OS4] seems amazingly configurable.
Maybe it's just me, but on each OS4 screenshot I saw the very same GUI, save some color differences.
-
In alphabetical order:
AmigaOS
BeOS
You do know the name Amiga was picked in part becasue they wanted something alphabetically before Apple.
-
spirantho Posted on: 2004/7/26 11:10
Re: MorphOS, AmigaOS 4 or BeOS
I havent seen MOS running yet...so I'd stick w/OS4. :)
Seriously, AmigaOS 4 isn't ready yet for mainstream - but it's very close. I've not seen MorphOs running at all recently, but I can say I'm very pleased with AOS4 - despite it being a pre-release it's become my main home machine already (the Windows machine is little more than a glorified Civilisation III console these days). And it's really nice to code for, too! The API is much nicer from what I've seen, compared to older AmigaOSes - which is what MorphOS is based on.
---
I have to disaggree, I would by no means call the "AOS4" API
nicer.
-
I beg your pardon, have a look at the code examples, please.
They totally screwed AOS4, sorry.
?
-
troll
Looking at most threads Wishmaster has taken part in on this and the AmigaWorld.net, many of his contributions have been the one-sided fanatical sort which gives Pegasos/MorphOs a bad name.... Maybe one day we'll all learn that we're fighting a common cause....
-
Wishmaster means the suspiciously unamigalike changes that have to be made to Amiga source to get it to compile on OS4. This is because of their replacement of vector tables which is unwieldy and unnecessary. The Friedens have simply talked away any objections to this system, but they have been told about it.
The conception of many coders outside OS4 (and I don't mean just MOS, I mean AOS and AROS coders too) is that OS4 is a conceptual mess, and isn't getting any better. Anyone who knows how to code can look at code of OS4 ports for examples of weird changes made for OS4.
-
@KennyR:
Thanks for clearing that up in a non-biased way.
It's true that the Frieden's have 'modernised' the AmigaOS API rather a lot, but personally I've yet to see anything that I completely disagree with - far from it. The problem is, that to make big changes you will have to causes changes in old source, but that shouldn't mean you shouldn't ever change the API. Just look at the Windows mess for an example of that....
-
Warface wrote:
cecilia wrote:
plus the GUI [OS4] seems amazingly configurable.
Maybe it's just me, but on each OS4 screenshot I saw the very same GUI, save some color differences.
well, they probably didn't change them much.
:-D
seriously, i went into the prefs in the system i had my hands on and looked at the different things you can change.
now, this OS is still being developed (like, what isn't? :lol:) and certain things i tried to change were not working - yet.
but some things i was able to alter. my point is that it's alot more involved than what we as used to with OS3.9
and I was looking at a machine that is owned by a beta tester - se he gets new updates all the time.
-
I've not yet see MOS or AmigaOS 4 running...
I've see them only in a demo movie.
But I can say something about BeOS (PC). It was great!
In few month I learned to program it's API and I wrote a game:
ThemeTris (you can find it on bebits.com).
It was "simple" and powerfull, not another Windows like OS.
I think AmigaOS 4 will be great!
-
KennyR wrote:
Wishmaster means the suspiciously unamigalike changes that have to be made to Amiga source to get it to compile on OS4. This is because of their replacement of vector tables which is unwieldy and unnecessary. The Friedens have simply talked away any objections to this system, but they have been told about it.
The conception of many coders outside OS4 (and I don't mean just MOS, I mean AOS and AROS coders too) is that OS4 is a conceptual mess, and isn't getting any better. Anyone who knows how to code can look at code of OS4 ports for examples of weird changes made for OS4.
KennyR, I love the implication there that "OS4 is just OS3.1 recompiled on PPC", but I'd like to know where you get your information from with regard to "unamigalike changes".
-
KennyR wrote:
Wishmaster means the suspiciously unamigalike changes that have to be made to Amiga source to get it to compile on OS4. This is because of their replacement of vector tables which is unwieldy and unnecessary. The Friedens have simply talked away any objections to this system, but they have been told about it.
Replacement of vector tables? You mean the system of _LVOsomefunction() thingies? What was the rationale for replacing them? Why is their solution bad?
The conception of many coders outside OS4 (and I don't mean just MOS, I mean AOS and AROS coders too) is that OS4 is a conceptual mess, and isn't getting any better. Anyone who knows how to code can look at code of OS4 ports for examples of weird changes made for OS4.
Given the fact that you need a very big search light in order to find developers or genuine OS4 code, can you back up your claims with production code for us to examine? It would be very interesting to see all those 'weird changes' in the wild.
Mind: I don't own an A1, nor a Pegasos---as far as I'm concerned they're overpriced and underpowered compared to my Linux development system. I am asking the above out of curiosity, since I have done a fair amount of programming on AmigaOS 2.04 and 3.0. So you can understand that it would be interesting to see what happened with 4.0.
-
@Kenny,
Are you a programmer Kenny? If you are, then you should know that the original Amiga (ie KS1.0) API had problems. These got worse with time. It's not like the Amiga's API was designed by the Gods, it was never perfect to begin with. Sure, it was damn good in places (love how devices work, and the idea of libraries), but there were gross inconsistencies. Intuition wasn't exactly pretty (and rather incomplete) and DOS was weird and backwards. So when you tell me that AOS4's API has been modified, I'm not too surprised. I remember reading interviews with Ben describing the changes and additions and remember thinking to myself that these were steps in the right direction. And if you're gonna change the API, now's the time to do it!
@Everyone else,
Where can I find info on the new programming guidelines or example code for AOS4 programming?
- Mike