Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: bon on October 14, 2003, 08:58:56 AM
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I believe that nowadays, one of the MOST important aspects of a Personal Computer is the Internet use. Therefore, the existance of a high quality Web Browser is more than mandatory. I, amongst others, expect the Amiga OS 4 release just to go out there and grab an Amiga One immediately! However, I really wonder; Is a decent Web Browser coming with OS4? Will I be able to "trash" my peecee and start using my Amiga One for daily Internet use?
I think that, if the Amiga OS 4 can offer some, basic nowadays, things such as: DVD Playback, Internet Browsing/Chatting, CDR/DVDR functionality and a good Spreadsheet/Word Processing package, more and more users will think of it as a good alternative. If not... ;-)
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I agree 100%
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I agree that a good web brower is vital for a system today. If such SW will be available is a question about support from users I believe. It's true that free SW is good in many aspects, but it's easier for developers to spend time on their projects if they don't have to have another full time job only to pay the bills. I think a full blown web browser is quite difficult to develop with only free resources/developers available, so there better be users out there that's willing to pay for the SW they're using... Same goes for the OS itself.
Well, that's my opinion :-)
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AFAIK, OS4 will come with the latest 68k-version of IBrowse.
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Bon: to best of my knowledge there will be only one of the current
Amiga browsers with it. IIRC it'll be some Ibrowse variant
(shareware?) .. Hyperion just don't have money/manpower to make a
totally new browser nor significally support porting of existing Open
Source variants.
For the others areas you mentioned.. well.. I have not heard much
development done for OS4 versions (except Pagestream, but It's DTP,
not office kit). But assuming OS4 will be compatible enough many old
ones will work.
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AFAIK, OS4 will come with the latest 68k-version of IBrowse.
It will probably be a PowerPC/OS4-Native version of IBrowse.
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Does Ibrowse have all the features of a modern browser? Or should I expect something along the lines of Aweb in OS 3.9? Very disappointing that was.
Let's face it, a good browser, either included with the OS or as a standalone version, is crucial
for any computer today.
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(IBrowse) Decent javascript support and at least some, preferably 100% CSS 1/2 support is needed.
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IBrowse is nothing like AWeb, it's quite good actually. I use it to post here, to check out news and to do my online banking. Having said that, it's not a cure-all browser. It can't do CSS and flash yet. It's fast and very stable (since I bought it in the beginning of the year, it's crashed on me twice, I think) and it renders quite alot of pages well. It's one of the best purchases I have done ever for my amiga.
It has tabbed browsing, as you may have seen on Opera and Mozilla and much more. We'll see, next version might be a solve-all release, who knows?
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Rogue wrote:
It will probably be a PowerPC/OS4-Native version of IBrowse.
That would be great!
Any other upgrades to IB in the pipeline, like HTML4/CSS support?
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IBrowse 2.3 currently supports:
-HTML Engine, supporting features from HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0/4.01 & XHTML 1.0
-HTTP Engine, supporting HTTP 1.0 with partial support for HTTP 1.1
-JavaScript™ support, based on JavaScript™ 1.5 and revision 3 of the ECMAScript (ECMA-262) specification
-Secure Socket Layers (SSL) v2, v3 and Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1 suppor
-SSL CA & User Certificates
-Progressive JPEGs
IBrowse 3.0 will support:
-CSS
-Layers
-AOS 4
-PPC
etc
See http://www.ibrowse-dev.net/
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This is what it says in the FAQ :
Is the release of IBrowse 2.3 in AmigaOS4 the full version ?
No, it's a special OEM version for AmigaOS4 - not as restricted as the demo, but not the full release.
IBrowse 2.3 was announced as being PPC in AmigaOS4, is that true ?
No. There appears to have been some confusion with the announcement originally made by Amiga Inc. Stefan never licensed a PPC version of IBrowse 2.3 for AOS4.
So will IBrowse 2.3 be PPC at all ?
No. IBrowse 2.3 will be 68K only. There are no plans for a PPC version of 2.3 at this time.
What about the future, will IBrowse be going PPC only ?
No, as long as there is a market for 68k versions, IBrowse will continue to be released in a 68k format. However, from IBrowse 3.0 onwards, a PPC native version will be available.
Call me confused... :-?
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IBrowse 3.0 will support:
Any idea when?
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Any other upgrades to IB in the pipeline, like HTML4/CSS support?
You'd have to ask the IBrowse team.
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Call me confused...
I'm not informed on the details. I remember talks on our dev list about porting to PPC, but that may be restricted to the full version. The version included might still be 68k.
Sorry about messing things up.
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Just to clear up things a little, Rouge is right, I have been talking about a PPC version for AOS4 on the dev list, however, nothing has been decided.
The FAQ entry is the last public info and I don't dare to promisse anything else ;)
regards,
Stefan Burström
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stefan: thanx for clearing that up!
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yes, it is a must have i also agree 100%...
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Stefan
I am glad you are still working on this program. Its my favorite browser ever! If you do a PPC version will you port it to MorphOS as well? Will IB 3.0 run on MorphOS ok? Keep up the good work!
magnetic
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Yes, it really is a must.
The Amiga has always been about multimedia and entertainment. At the beginning of multimedia all thought that CD would be the delivery system but it has turned out to be the internet with www.
If the Amiga SW concentrated on good and secure tools to make the Amiga the ideal internet machine then both the consumer and business markets would go for it.
Valan
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I'm happy most of you agree with me. It is however, in my opinion, very difficult to see the Amiga One becoming a competitive Multimedia Computer, simply because it won't have the required software. It will most likely end up as it is today, a hobbyist machine :-x Unless of course things change, and a major developer is interested in the Amiga (don't ask me why, I just hope...)!
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Bon: well.. Even havign latest of softwares (hypotethically, as
there is very little SW). it would be difficult, cause there are
issues of price/performance and marketting.
And only multimedia tool (specially coded for OS4) that I know of is
Audio Evolution 4. There may be more, but I have not seen info.
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Bon,
If I remember correctly the Amiga never has had lots of software. Even on other platforms there are only a handful of really successful apps.
What there is has been very good quality. Lightwave is still catching up in some areas but I remember it far exceeded the competition in the simple but dramatic things like shadows, motion blur or even booleans. Photogenics is similiar. It was quite painful to get used to Photoshop after using Photogenics.
The Mac kinda shows the way in that it allows the buyer to produce stuff straight out of the box and the iApps are very good at that.
I would like the focus to be that the Amiga allows buyers to communicate well straight out the box.
For example I may have an icon of Auntie Jenny and I want to send her a pic/music/text. I can drag/drop it from a folder or my browser window. If I recieve a file it appears below her icon as a thumbnail and a click opens it.
When she's online her icon flashes on the desktop and we talk by clicking on her icon and typing inside a speech bubble that appears and she replies in another speech bubble. No windows to get in the way and it looks and acts seemlessly.
Any selected text or image should be drag/drop so that we can simply drag any quote, adress or url into another window or onto an icon.
Acessing to the Amiga.org forums or any forum should be done from the desktop. Subscriptions to newsletters mimick the 'letter box' concept but again these should appear on the desktop in a user controllable fashion.
I should be able to select an area of the desktop and type or draw straight onto it. I should be able to pic this up and use it where I want. I should be able to type a sum on the desktop and it gives me the answer. I should be able to type commands onto the desktop and the computer responds.
In short I think the Amiga should focus on being an intuative communication system.
Valan
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Well there were certainly times when the Amiga had a handfull of software (and I remember them). However I am not talking about quantity here, we just need the basic applications for the today's user. If the Amiga can achieve to have a successfull pack of multimedia applications (with today's standards of course), it might stand a chance to appeal to more people than it does right now. Well, at least I think so...