Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: DonP1 on December 19, 2006, 04:17:10 PM
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I'm still on 3.1 and was wondering what the benifits are in 3.5 or 3.9.
Thanks,
Don
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http://www.haage-partner.de/aos39/index-e.html
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Benefits of OS 3.9 are:
* Multimedia programs (MP3, AVI, QT, CD)
* AWEB Web Browser
* Genesis Internet connectivity
* WarpOS 5.0
* AmiDock
* Iomega Tools
* More Powerful Shell
* Auto datatype recognition
* Fast search
* Unarchiver
* New Picture datatyp;e
* New tools
* HTML Documentation
Plus
* HP Printer drivers
* 16 AVI Video trailers
* 5 Audio tracks
* CacheCDFS
* OS 3.5 included
* Full colour icons
* Contributed tools: AHI, P96, CGFX, Warp3D, AWNP, LPR etc
Of course this was 6 years ago so some of it is a bit out of date. These days people are concentrating on AmigaOS 4.
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* Genesis Internet connectivity
With unlicenced, but fully working AmiTCP
* Full colour icons
I would hardly call 8bit icons "full colour"
It's also worth mentioning that you can get many of the advantages (same or similar) for free from Aminet. The mentioned comparison was (obviously) againist plain 3.1 with no (free or commercial) extra tools / patches / programs installed.
Of course this was 6 years ago so some of it is a bit out of date. These days people are concentrating on AmigaOS 4.
Mostly different people (H&P did 3.5 & 3.9, Hyperion is doing 4.x). Of course some "external contributors" might be the same for all three projects.
But indeed, most "amiga people" nowadays focus on AmigaOS4, MorphOS or AROS.
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DonP1 wrote:
I'm still on 3.1 and was wondering what the benifits are in 3.5 or 3.9.
More bells and whistles, easy CD installation and no need to worry about the floppies getting damaged or erased.
Better hard drive support for larger drives but as mentioned most if not all advantages with OS.3.5 or 3.9 can be downloaded from Aminet but these take alot more work to install and dont always work as well.
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most if not all advantages with OS.3.5 or 3.9 can be downloaded from Aminet but these take alot more work to install and dont always work as well.
And some others might also work better :-)
With OS3.5 and 3.9 you get pre-set feature set, whether or not you like certain features or not (which CAN be edited, but that's not far from the said "aminet installation" way)
Personally I chose to at least use a better way to handle big hard disks, probably disabled some others aswell. Can't remember, it's so long ago :-)
Oh, both of them also add one additional reset when you power up your amiga (which can result in 2 boots if you have blitzkick installed (as you should) but you CAN make all the rom updates with blitzkick, took a while to figure out how, but I can't remember it anymore)
Personally the biggest letdown with both was the fact, that neither one comes with registered MUI.
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Thanks for the help. I've read most of this and think these newer O/S's are probably not for me.
But the one thing I don't understand:
* WarpOS 5.0
Is this OS/2 Warp version 5.0, or am I (most likely) way off base.
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warpOS is the system/set-of-libs+programs that amigaos uses to utilise the ppc cpu's found in blizzardPPC and CyberStormPPC dual cpu cards...
if your hardware allows it upgrade to AOS3.9, it is a good improvement over 3.1 , it has good eye-candy :-D and many built-in features...
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One of the most important updates in OS 3.5 and 3.9 is Large Hard Disk support- standard OS 3.1 does not work with hard disks above 4Gb and even with patches cannot report large hard disk capacities correctly and perform a full format.
OS 3.5/3.9 has a new FastFileSystem, fixed HDToolbox, fixed scsi.device and updated Format tool. IMHO, very important if you want to use a new hard disk in your Amiga.
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OS 3.5/3.9 has a new FastFileSystem, fixed HDToolbox, fixed scsi.device and updated Format tool. IMHO, very important if you want to use a new hard disk in your Amiga.
There is 64bit FFS at Aminet but it requires that IDE/SCSI driver supports 64bit addressing. Internal IDE driver for A1200/A4000 in Kickstart 3.0/3.1 doesn't.
In short: (only) if using an internal IDE 3.5 or 3.9 is required for large HD support.
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* 16 AVI Video trailers
* 5 Audio tracks
Thank god I never bought 3.9 :-P
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Unfortunately OS 3.1 does not support 64-bit addressing in ROM so even with third party patches, you still cannot do a full format with Workbench - also the Workbench will fail to correctly report the capacities of the larger hard disks.
Only 3.5/3.9 does this correctly as it patches the Kickstart ROM.
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Unfortunately OS 3.1 does not support 64-bit addressing in ROM so even with third party patches, you still cannot do a full format with Workbench
Not with Workbench but there is plenty 3rd party replacements to use. Or even Workbench replacements.
But 3.5/3.9 makes life easier for those having large harddisks, I can agree on that.
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@DonP1: IMHO, it's only really worth upgrading beyond 3.1 if you have a graphics card and >= 68060 CPU. The benefits of the "eye candy" will be pretty much lost on AGA or ECS, and the added stuff with the OS requires a reasonable processor to be of any use...
- Ali
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editpad comes with 3.9
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Unfortunately OS 3.1 does not support 64-bit addressing in ROM so even with third party patches, you still cannot do a full format with Workbench - also the Workbench will fail to correctly report the capacities of the larger hard disks.
Only 3.5/3.9 does this correctly as it patches the Kickstart ROM.
Sorry, but this is deadly wrong. You cannot patch a ROM. It's read *only* memory, you cannot write to it. There is no software whatsoever which allows you to boot from a partition bigger than 4GB from the internal IDE bus without replacing the physical ROM chip.
There is no difference if you add the required patches to WB3.1 or if you use OS3.9 which has the patches included. The boot partition always has to be inside the first 4GB.
All patches concerning big HDD support which are included in OS3.9 are also available for WB3.1, at least in beta versions. The only difference is that with OS3.9 you get everything installed automatically while with WB3.1 you have to install it manually.
The main benefits of OS3.9 which I remember are:
- new Workbench menus, e.g. sort icons by name
- Workbench ARexx port, i.e. most Workbench functions can now be controlled by ARexx scripts
- asynchronous Workbench operations, e.g. if you copy folders with drag & drop, the copy operation is now done in the background and you can continue your work
- ability to read OS3.9 icons. Unfortunately OS3.9 icons are not compatible to NewIcons, so there is no way to display OS3.9 icons on WB3.1.
- scalable backdrops: WBPattern now allows to automatically adjust a picture to the screen size
- the datatypes system now supports picture files with multiple images (e.g. TIFF FAX)
- the AmiDock bar. There are others, e.g. Toolmanager or AmiStart, but AmiDock has its own charm.
- ClassAct has been included into the OS and has been heavily improved and bug fixed
- CD-ROM support
- Internet (you get a free copy of Genesis with OS3.9)
- There are more improvements under the surface which are quite impressive for programmers
Bye,
Thomas
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I was referring to OS3.5/3.9's ROMUpdate file that Softkicks a 3.9 ROM from Setpatch to update the scsi.device etc
When large hard disks are used - Workbench 3.1 always reports incorrect geometry in 3.1 (Window Title bars etc) regardless of third party patches. The ROMUpdate in 3.5/3.9 resolves this issue. Likewise the latest HDToolbox and Format tools has fixed support for the geometry problems.
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OS3.9 you get everything installed automatically while with WB3.1 you have to install it manually.
And that's where the biggest problem is. Assuming you already had 3.1 installed before, you likely already have patched many things (big HD support, various WB patches, for example) and with the installation you might end up "patching something twice" and finding the problem... That might not be too easy. For example handling big HD's can be implemented in seweral different ways, some of which are specific to some hardware (Power Flyer, which I have, for example)
You might get bored hearing about big HD support, but that's where I had most of my problems :-)
3.5 was supposed to come with full TCP/IP (it was supplied with MiamiDX demo, and the full version was to be made available later, which never happened)
I was rather disappointed (just becouse it was one of the most hyped features) to find out that 3.9 still didn't have a unrestricted&legal TCP/IP, but I already had one from Netconnect 3, so it didn't bother me too much :-)
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I was referring to OS3.5/3.9's ROMUpdate file that Softkicks a 3.9 ROM from Setpatch to update the scsi.device etc
Yes, it *soft*kicks the ROM. The same can be done with LoadModule (http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/LoadModule) and the patches for WB3.1 (http://os.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=37). It's the same method.
Workbench 3.1 always reports incorrect geometry in 3.1 (Window Title bars etc) regardless of third party patches. The ROMUpdate in 3.5/3.9 resolves this issue.
No, the ROM update does not resolve it. It is Workbench who calculates and displays the sizes, not scsi.device or anything from the ROM update.
But you are right, Workbench has been updated in OS3.9 to support disk sizes bigger than 2GB, as well as some shell commands like List and Info.
Bye,
Thomas
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InTheSand wrote:
@DonP1: IMHO, it's only really worth upgrading beyond 3.1 if you have a graphics card and >= 68060 CPU. The benefits of the "eye candy" will be pretty much lost on AGA or ECS, and the added stuff with the OS requires a reasonable processor to be of any use...
- Ali
Thanks to everyone who replied.
I guess this is the key reason for not upgrading. I have an A1000, 2MB chip + 2MB fast ram, and hard drive is only 540MB (not upgrading). No issues with the CD-ROM either, so I guess I shouldn't mess with anything if it isn't broken.
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Thomas has a good point, os 3.5/3.9 solves the problem but not totally, the first partion on a hard drive cannot be bigger then 4GB.
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There are solutions for this problem.
Build your own 3.9 Rom with Remus.
http://www.doobreynet.co.uk/beta/index.html