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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: System on April 22, 2002, 08:35:23 PM
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Hyperion/Amiga Inc have released preliminary screenshots of AmigaOS 4. They emphasis these are early screenshots and its upto us as Amigans to help decide how it'll end up looking. Check them out here: http://www.os4.hyperion-software.com/ (http://www.os4.hyperion-software.com/).
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Well there is OS 4.0, still clearly needs work but not bad huh. Now was that really so hard to release the screen shots? Noooooooooo.
I'm not expecting Miricales with OS 4.0, just a move to PPC with a few bolt ons (I'm expecting Miricales for OS 5.0 though!), lets hope its actually released on time huh? Otherwise buying that AMIGA One board may well seem like a mistake, after all we won't to be running OS 4.0 on them, not Linux.
PJ Matthews
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Every1 go to ann.lu I'm sure a war will start soon :-D
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...And that sadly will no doubt happen from trolls, who would be the likes that even when AOS4 is out and running on people's machines will go 'But they'll never release it'. Hyperion have shined through time and time again.
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Ehm... The font still looks ugly hope they replace that... :-)
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Well, it will likely take them longer than they plan, but it sounds as if it will come. Never under estimate the power of a small group of people to get something done right. Remember the original Amiga?
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Looks ok for the first batch of screenshots.
Gotta love some of those transparent menus though :-)
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I like the rounded corners and shadows. Remember that this is a VGA (640*480) screen, it's bound to look a bit 'primitive'. :-)
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it shows they still have a long way to go.
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Oh, my God... What? No 3D, animated, zoomable GUI with a neural interface!!!
I haven't used 3.5 or 3.9 so I'm not sure what improvement they have brought. I like the menus, especially the rounded with transparency. I'd change the gadget styles. As the whole thing is suppost to be customizable that should be no problem, along with the font that people seem to dislke. Remember it is preliminary and made at the beginning of April.
Can't wait til the next batch, can ya?
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I think the shock of them are out, hasn't suck in yet ;-)
Its not what i've expected.
But somethings confused me, I`m sure you couldn't move Windows of the edge of the screen, but they are in those screenshots.
I sorta liked it that way, because when a window was maximized is WAS maximized, i..e you couldn't move it.
The menus look really nice, but they need to get rid of that font.
But they'll really need to brush up the look of it, for people to treat it seriously.
At the moment to me it looks like birdie/visualprefs. :-(
But keep up the good work guys, and lets hope it get's released by the end of May (or the begining for in time of my birthday!)
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Yes, you can move Windows off screen now if you want
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The good thing is that we can change just about everything in the gui with this release of AmigaOS :o)
(without hacks etc)
I`ll change the workbench screen bar to white like it was in the 3.x versions :P Oh and I hope the menus aren`t pop up only but to depend by the position like in magic menu :)
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Summary:
As far as I can see from the screenshots, what we have is:
OS 3.9, with Birdie, VisualPrefs and MagicMenu, all integrated into
the OS instead of being hacks, plus the following which seem new to
me, I'm not sure if they are entirely new or not:
Rounded menu corners.
Bitmap patterns in certain OS gadgets, like buttons, scrollbars etc..
This one could already be done in MUI, but not in the OS AFAIK.
I like it. I'm not that fond of the particular styles they chose for
the screenshots, but I figure it will be configurable enough to make
it look like what I have now, and I *like* the look of what I have
now. Plus the new features mentioned above look nice, I'll use those.
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Sure as hell I like this thing coming. I dont expect that it will be alot nicer than os3.9, but what satifies me is the point that something IS being done. :-D
Considering dragging windows off screen - i dont like it, but i would like it as an enable/disable feature. Thats it! I would like being able to enable/disable any feature is this new release.
Cant wait to buy my version of this $#@!.
(beer helps me out) :pint:
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Someone please make fast draggable screens like in the Classic. That besides being unique (?), would rule.
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wow!
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I hope they add an iconification gadget in every window like dopus.
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draggable screens is a must for AmigaOS please hyperion implement it :-)
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What's wrong with the font?! I really like it:)
Jose
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Very, very cool! Good work! The color scheme stinks, but that's all personal preference:-D Looking good!
This apparenetly was taken on on a Cyberstorm enabled system? I see chipram usage. I wonder if OS4.0 is bootable at all on the A1G3-se yet?
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Considering dragging windows off screen - i dont like it,
Your kidding right?
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I like it. Good thing that AInc made these shots
available as soon as possible rather than "fitting
it into their release schedule" on amiga.com. Great!
The low resolution and hideous colours may not make
the desktop justice at this point, but it's definately
promising, with all those rounded edges and transparency
thingies going on. I hope that off-the-screen-windows-
dragging can be adjusted so that there is a resistance
before pulling them off-screen...Difficult to use otherwise.
I suppose they are running it on a
CyberstormPPC for the time being, right?
.
SlimJim
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:___)
And also, yes yes a os4 website. Hopefully they will use it well.
Coder
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I wuz just gunna say ... "ChipRAM"??????
Ya beat me to it. :-o
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LOL.. ANN... the place to be.. If you wan't to get badly insulted or flamed...
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It looks nice--
I do beleive what Hyperion say..
I have bought other products from them..
And I am very satisfied :-D :-D
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I have to say, the screen shots look quite cool. I'm looking forward to playing around with OS4.0 to see what its like.
Looks great though. Great job folks!
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Nice and clear I start saveingup for an A1 NOW! :-)
Wm.
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I have checked it out a bit more and I must say I am happy with the results. No complains from me. Great job!
Coder
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finally :-D
I liked the transparent menus :)
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I like them too Tomas. Looks so cool.
Coder
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Weehooo .. looks great ... i can't understand why people are complaining !! These are shots of AmigaOS version 4 !!!!!!!
Weeeeehoooo !!!
This is a great day :-) :-D :-) :-D :-) :-D :-) :-D
:pint:
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Your not going to hear me complaining! I am nearly
sexually arroused!!
Well, not really.. But it is a good comparison!
-redrumloa loves it-
:-D
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About the Chipram usage, could this not just be an 'emulation' factor for backwards compatibility ?
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@Step
I've wondered the same thing. Chipram usage seems to
be very peculiar. Even with hacks like TweakWB a
little ChipRAM is still used. I hope Hyperion can
figure out how to eliminate this. I'd bet they can:-)
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I like it. It looks clean and there is nothing much wrong with it. I think like many people said that the features of hacks were added to the OS because so many people used them.
You can also see that many things are so configurable. Im starting to save up for one right now... :-D
AMIGA KICKS ASS!! - WINDOZE SUCKS
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AMIGA KICKS ASS!! - WINDOZE SUCKS
Hehe .. thats the spirit that i haven't seen/heard in the AmigaScene :-)
Amiga forever ! !
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Well, well....they finally posted them. Not quite what I was expecting, but I LIKE IT ANYWAY! The menus are really cool and looks very configurable. Not my choice of a color scheme but it gets the point across that you can make it look the way you want. Waiting anxiously for the next batch to be posted with more tidbits to be exposed!
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Looks pretty sorted to me :-D
I think this is already great for a 'Default' look and they did say "In the end, it is you that will decide what your AmigaOS 4.0 looks like..."
Add DE and we're laughin !
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Thanks for all the hard work. It looks very promising.
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Well, they could be using fake transparency a la lame X11 window managers. Not exactly anything to boggle one's eyes over.
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Hmmmmm, I must have went to the wrong site because I was looking for OS4 screenshots and found OS3.9 screenshots with several visual hacks available now?
I guess anything to try to keep users hopes up and buying vaporware. Wonder if anyone has gotten an A1.5 yet or will? Holy Scam Batman!
O'Malley :-?
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I've wondered the same thing. Chipram usage seems to be very peculiar. Even with hacks like TweakWB a little ChipRAM is still used. I hope Hyperion can figure out how to eliminate this. I'd bet they can
It's interesting that the menu bar in the screenshots refer to "Graphics memory" instead of chip. Is this the amount of RAM in the graphics card or are they still using the antiquated Chip RAM in their development and test machines?
And about the fonts... They all look fine if you put yourself into the boots of a non-Amigan. Neat, legible and quite "full" looking. The monospace font used in the shell is quite ugly though, wasn't that called Topaz? *shudder*
- Jarrod -
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It's good enough 4 me.
Btw the only colours I use on my WinPC is Grey & Blue, never liked a white background anyway it makes my eyes hurt..............
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Well, something is definately happening. Anywhere I can pre order OS 4 for BlizzardPPC? :-)
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I like what I see but, as others have said, the colour scheme sucks :-P
I reckon there should be something a bit more professional-looking in the final version but, of course, keeping the option to pick from some wild presets should the user wish.
Just my thoughts and, yes, I do understand this is simply a preview and, yes, I am still VERY excited! :-D
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Yeah, I spent some time messing with a window graphic to see what I could come up with by modifying it...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/deeppurple/amigaos4windows.html
Hopefully the UI engine in OS4 will allow things like what I have done to the window I grabbed from one of the screenshots... :)
Need to work on that scrollbar :)
Graham
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We can see clearly that the palette is a bit too "combat camoflage" for my liking, so we will attempt to alter the colours to be more sober and professional.
I failed.
Lol! Hell yeah Graham, love it! I'm not to keen on the color either... but you know how it goes... beggers and choosers etc.
:pint:
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Call me a stick in the mud, but I'm not wowed. To those bitching about those of us bitching about the looks: well, what else are we gonna talk about? These ARE only screenshots! No one who has a 4.0 beta on their hot little machines is talking performance, so we're going with what we've been given. In this case, an OS that looks like yesterday's news! Ignoring the (naturally) changable colors, not a lot differentiates this visually from the previous OS version. I read a comment in another topic that some folks thought it looked like an '80s Mac GUI, and that's a good summation. The Mac has moved on to a much more aesthetically pleasing interface. So has Windoze. One of the niceties of XP is the way-shway new look of the interface. Sure, you could change back to the plain ol' Windoze look, but why would you want to? Select the silver and not the horribly clashing blue 'n green version, and you have a sleek, professional interface that looks fresh and modern. Hyperion should consult with a couple guys from Amiga.org. From yet another 4.0 screenshot topic, I surfed to some VERY impressive GUI mock-ups that really freshen the look of the OS while still being definably Amiga.
Then again, from my devious little mind comes the thought that maybe they're just gonna let the look and feel of this interim/upgrade OS hang, leaving it to the forth-coming multi-platform 5.0 to wow us. After all, why knock people out with the small step when you can wait and do it with the giant leap? :-D
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Will we still have public screens and be able to pull them down, revealing the screens behind? The reason I ask, is that programs like ImageMaster R/t and CanDo made good and effective use of it. :-D
Regards,
Cyber Viking 2000
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A 256 color palette? Uh, what for? Workbench should be 16 or 32 bit right? Even then why emulate the color registers for the colors used on the desktop? (I could see it for legacy apps, but not the OS)
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It still amazes me, after how much hyperion said the screen shots wenrt going to be all that great before they came out, and how hyperion also said that on the page the screens were displayed that people are still disapointed.
On top of this, there is still more to be added for the consumer release. That is, the developer version still isnt out, so of course its going to look like its lacking functionality. Also, the main goal is PPC!! I see no reason why you should not like this if its so close to what 3.1 looked like yet runs on PPC...
Also ,can someone confirm for me if the guy working on GUI art work (who i think is from mason icons) also did those greate OS4/OS5 mockups?
MockUP-1 (http://corp.intercom.it/~amigaws/Images/OS4GUIDesign.gif),MockUP-2 (http://simoami.freeservers.com/cgi-bin/i/images/AmigaOS4GUI.jpg)...
I think those mockup screens are the best ive seen, and i think if you could imagin swaping inbetween those two with basicly a flick of the button. (excluding seperate exe's) Thats how AmigaOS should be, and its sounding like it. If we can make amigaOS look liek that thats cool...
And the guy that did number 1 (and possibly number 2) is the guy whos making our GUI right?
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And the guy that did number 1 (and possibly number 2) is the guy w
Massimo Tantignone is the person who did the first mockup and said that is what he was after with VisualPrefs (I remember him talking about it around the release of OS3.5). The second one was done by Mohamed Moujami, better known as SimoAmi (the one responsible for the excellent graphics we use on the site). I'm not sure if SimoAmi is a part of the graphical design team or not but he'd be one hell of a gem to have on the team. Massimo has said in the past that he is no artist but he knows what he likes. To me that's the kind of spirit the Amiga community needs. Martin Mertz (of Mason Icons fame) is a completely different person from the two mentioned above. Martin has done an excellent job of providing the Amiga community with a very thorough set of "glow style" application images. One person not mentioned but should be given credit is Kevin Saunders. Kevin did some of the earlier graphics for Amiga.org and has been contracted to work with Amiga on the DE (perhaps the operating system as well?). Haven't heard from him in a while but that was the information last I spoke with him. Did I leave anyone out?
I hope this clears up your confusion.
:pint:
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Gaaargh!! That color sheme is horrible!!! :-o :-o :-o
Otherwise, I LOVE IT! Nice and clean. Just the way it should be...
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I don't like the FAT borders, but I do like the transparent and rounded windows. As a few others have said, it looks like something from the 80's--and while Amiga came from that era, it shouldn't stay in that era.
I want to see more innovative features, and a desktop GUI that attracts attention. I hope the OS gives the ability to easily change the look of everything on it, from different styles of windows to the textures in them and on their borders. I remember some apps that did that for previous versions of the OS, and hopefully the OS will integrate such features.
I'd like to see odd-shaped windows be an option, under style of windows, as well as doing a way with the scrollbars on a window (as an option) in favor of a target field somewhere along the border, allowing for scrolling of content when the mouse pointer is clicked into it and the mouse is slid. And I don't see why the OS couldn't support retractable windows or windows that were animated.
Technology has improved so much since the 80's, we have more memory and faster CPUs, I don't see a problem with having the OS capable of greater eyecandy. A 1980's-looking Desktop GUI is NOT going to attract much attention when on the showroom floor. People will think 'nostalgia' and most will move on.
Aside from the transparent windows, and the rounded ones, I don't see much new here and that sucks. Things could be MUCH better for the GUI. Someone posted in the forums under the OS 4 screenshots topic, a link to a mock-up picture of the desktop that looks much better than these. That picture was closer toward the direction I think Amiga OS should head in..
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Hey guy's cool down! We winge that there are no screen shots for ages then rip them apart when they come out. Give the Hyperion people some credit, remember this is the first Amiga update for 12 years or whatever. If I worked there i'd be pretty hacked off to see what peoples response was.
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Check these out:
Gentoo Linux Screenshots (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/shots.html)
BlackCat Linux Screenshots (http://www.blackcatlinux.com/screenshots.shtml)
IcePack Linux Screenshots (http://www.icepack-linux.com/screenshots.html)
Mandrake Linux Screenshots (http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fscreenshots.php3)
Windows Screenshots (http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2001/10/a251001windowshistory_screenshots.html)
Windows Screenshots (http://members.fortunecity.com/pcmuseum/windows.htm)
Apple OS X Screenshots (http://www.absoft.com/osxscreenshots.html)
Apple OS X Screenshots (http://www.macaddict.com/osx/sshots.html)
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Honestly... the GUI looks like pretyy much nothing. Not something 'new' which you can't do with your own little tweaking with the present GUI.
To me, the original GUI works just fine, but to the masses it doesn't. If they want to do something really nice about the GUI, they should hire someone to do the job, 'cause, like I said, this looks like nothing new besides the menues (which by the way looks like someone has been tweaking a little with Magic Menu).
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Im sure there was one guy doing work on the UI (buttons, lists etc...) making pictures for certain things!
The guy you mentioned sounds familiar :)
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I want to see more innovative features, and a desktop GUI that attracts attention. I hope the OS gives the ability to easily change the look of everything on it, from different styles of windows to the textures in them and on their borders. I remember some apps that did that for previous versions of the OS, and hopefully the OS will integrate such features.
The OS will be configurable. Skinning wont be totaly avaliable in OS4 as stated before (maybe im outdated?) however OS4.2 or ealier (boing updates?) will have complete skinning!!
If the skinning is anywhere near as good as Gnome, ill be a happy chappy :)
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Honestly... the GUI looks like pretyy much nothing. Not something 'new' which you can't do with your own little tweaking with the present GUI.
To me, the original GUI works just fine, but to the masses it doesn't. If they want to do something really nice about the GUI, they should hire someone to do the job, 'cause, like I said, this looks like nothing new besides the menues (which by the way looks like someone has been tweaking a little with Magic Menu).
First of all, Hyperion told us not to expect much as the UI needs lots of work and is far from finished, so you shouldnt be surprised.
Also, This is NOT a consumer release targeted at consumers out side the current Amiga Community. The entire AmigaOS4 series is pretty much only targeted at current AmigaOS owners and past AmigaOS owners (like me) who still try to keep up with Amiga Inc. OS5 will be targeted at consumers out side the current community and my guess is Amiga Inc should have some money from AA by then and should put forward some pretty drastic marketing! :) For now, its just the geeks OS :) - like Be was before it went bust!
Anyone who uses the current OS should only be able to marvle at its beauty. That is, the speed/look/andwholefeel! This is what you've been waiting for, we have Amiga Inc and hyperion to thanx for that. Lets thank them guys, not give them $#@!!
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First of all Amiga was never about the the way WB looked. Color Schemes and dragable windows??
This is our first look at OS4!! and it looks perfect to
me. Thanks to Amiga inc. and Hyperion for even
existing and making the effort to give us something
we would all feel much less without. Keep up the good work!
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a shame people tend to forget that os v40 is a matter of getting the basics done. getting the code cleared up and converted.
what matters here and now, is how it performs, and little things like the feel, the possibilities of customize things, the windows being able to leave the screen, wheter there is dragable screens and so on.
the sweet eyecandy will be added along the way, and isnt an important factor at the moment.
/stone
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Re chip ram:
Of course they need to have chip ram
OS4 is being developed on PPC equipped Amiga's, which of course have chip ram.
As suggested we will also need emu-chip-ram for old games.
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As for the pics, I'm satisfied they are out, it shows they do have the gui components grafted together in PPC form, instead of hacks.
There is some stuff I'd change on my system, but I always went for the simple GUI. I does look like there are some changable options.
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Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
preliminary
adj : designed to orient or acquaint with the a situation before proceeding; "a preliminary investigation" n 1: a minor match preceding the main event [syn: prelim] 2: something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner" [syn: overture, prelude]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
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For an first preview I think its quite cool. I think that its important to remember that these pics only represent the default settings. The font and the colors could easily be changed under 3.9 and I would be very surprised if this was not possible under 4.0. In my opinion this design can already compete with the default windows settings.
If the intuition looks like this already I cant wait until it gets finished and becomes skinnable...
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For a first preview, this is amazing.
I like the new drawers. The best of the old, the best of the new.
I like that OS4.0 has all or most of the eye candy of Magic Menu, Birdie, et. al. They've even gone
them one better, with the rounded corners, bitmaps in the menus, etc. It's important to impress
newcomers straight away, and people are visual creatures. And all of this on a 256 color screen?
Wow!
However, one thing I wanted to see, and didn't, is for the icons to support transparency as well.
The shadows on the current icons look fantastic against a medium gray background, (screen 4) but
bizzare against a background darker than the shadow, or against a colored background. (check the ram
disk's shadow in screen 6)
Real shadows are just a darker shade of the same color as the object they're thrown against. The
same algorithms used to generate the menu's shadows could be used on the icons, or the icon rendering
engine could be made to support an alpha channel for transparency. Then the icon's artist could
define the shadow and / or translucent section, such as for window panes.
Just something to think about at the last minute, if it's not too much trouble. Or save it for
OS5.0.
Quixote
"Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle"
--Leonardo DaVinci
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Transparent windows, rounded corners, dropped shadows and working 2 weeks ago!
This is very very sweet!
Bob C.
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Did I leave anyone out?
You did a great round up of everyone else but you left out Matt Chaput, the creator of the GlowIcon style.
Ben Hermans/Hyperion wrote: "Preliminary screenshots of OS 4 can be found at www.OS4.hyperion-software.com. Before you complain, nearly everything can be changed and these shots do not yet include the new system graphics by Matt Chaput."
Pteppic
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Yeah, I like the font too, and furthermore I'm sure they've stolen it from a custom font I designed for my own machine some years ago! (I still use this font by the way - looks great on a 640x480 screen).
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PJ Matthews said:
Well there is OS 4.0, still clearly needs work but not bad huh. Now was that really so hard to release the screen shots? Noooooooooo.
Whats the difference between releasing them before and releasing them now, the difference of a few weeks.
Sometimes you have to make a choice between paying lip service to your fans or doing work. I know which I'd rather they do.
Oh and those transparent menu's make me go all wobbly.
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Well these screenshots were announced before the A1 was said to be finished so its not unsuprising that its being run on an old Amiga, surely this is good news for people with ppc accellerators and Graphics cards.
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Ehm... The font still looks ugly hope they replace that...
That's a leftover from OS3.1....
[color=FF3300]x303[/color]
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I still think it is quite strange that once someone has an opinion that is somewhat critical in a positive way, so to say, he/she gets totally flamed buy other users. Not the case this time, but it happens, oh, so often... ;-)
Like I said, I've got nothing against the new GUI, but when they aim for a bigger market the GUI must be totally rewamped... (and it will be). So, enough said about that. :-D
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...oh, and when talking about fonts, XEN forever. Thank you, my opinion said. White XEN with black outline is the nicest thing to look at. Still, this is just my humble opinion.
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I like the screenshots .... they give us some ideas of what will be available ... :-D
No complaints about the colours or fonts as we will be able to change them to suit our own preferences.
:-)