AmigaOS 4.1 Classic Available To Buy

[Nearly-Right]

Take a guess:

OK, my guess, Instructed Statement Innuendo

or could it be Instruction Storage Interrupt?

Either way, it would be much easier for you to use words in conjunction with the acronym, for the terminology rather than just the abbreviation/acronym as there has got to be more than just me that's unfamiliar with OS4.x's operating terminology.

No, not quite. AmigaOS recoverable alerts (the yellow ones) are usually caused by a sanity check failing, rather than an illegal access to memory.

OK, I think I understand that one.

[Nearly-Right]

Turbo Print 7 works here. You will have to copy over your 3.x installation and duplicate the turboprint: assign. The 1st floppy disk has a version of unlzx that crashes.

OK, that's a nuisance, but if you've a backup of your Turboprint files on a CD then that would be simple enough, as long as you don't forget any prefs/ENV files for Turboprint, or are they not required? As I'm not sure how ENV works, if it still exists, under OS4.x.

I really believe that some NEW printer drivers, in the form of some thought & effort should have been put in to write up-to-date printer drivers for currently available printers for Classic OS4.1. New OS, new printer support - should go hand-in-hand really, don't you think?

Commodore, and even Amiga Inc. always kept basically up to date with printers, as some people actually use their Amigas to write letters, printout photos, etc, and not just play games. It's a bad way to start off a new OS anyway, don't you think?

It depends on the FAST ATA Cards in use. My understanding is The MK1 FAST ATA is supported directly by scsi.device.
SCSI.Device is still 68K and needs to be to allow the CD to be booted from 3.x

So, in my case I have a Mk3 FastATA device, so what device has Elbox made for it to work natively, and is it installed during the initial bootup with the OS4.1 start floppy?

Myself I don't have a Elbox IDE addaptor.
I have a DCE 4 Way Buffered IDE splitter and an IDEFIX Express, both work fine.

I know the board you mean, and I'm sure I've got one or 2 knocking about somewhere, but I either use the FastATA or a few 4xEIDE buffered interface cards made by Elbox, the small, slightly wedge shaped ones that were for the A600 and A1200, so do they work under OS4.x if you use the 68k scsi.device?

To be fair I only uses the native IDE now to boot the kickstart files off a CF card and my sys: partition, dvd +/-rw and other drives are all sata.

Yes that's OK once you've installed it I believe, but the basic installation states a minimum 20GB HDD is required for the install, so is that not correct, as at that time, pre-installation, there won't be any SATA drivers installed on the floppy disk, or will there?

There is a article coming soon on how to go just SATA and use the onboard IDE for booting the kickstart only.

Where will that article be, and how long before it's available?

It indeed does have a new driver and prefs program provided by Elbox. Could be that its not a MK3.

OK, his might not be but mine definitely is a Mk3. I wonder if you know of anyone on the betatesters list who does use a FastATA Mk3 under OS4.x as a native driver, and how easy that was to get working with Classic OS4.1?

Someone must have tested it for that to have been stated as a working piece of hardware, well I'd certainly like to think so, and most definitely need to confirm that before I make a decision on buying OS4.1.

Darren is updating his hd-zone soon with some more info about IDE controllers.

OK, will check over at Darren's site at some point, but really, all this information should have been put in place, BEFORE Classic OS4.1 was released.

I seem to asking quite a few fundamental questions that other people who would be considering migrating from a 68k Workbench to Classic OS4.1 who've got the right PPC hardware would want to know how much they can utilise, and what they've got to go dual boot on or use as a separate system.

I still feel this information should have been available before release, as it is just going to slow down sales until people feel happy that they aren't going to get ripped off again, as with Classic OS4.0 - the dire one !!

[Nearly-Right]

I use the latest MKIII FastATA in my A1200T in the office.  When installing OS 4.1, the FastATA was immediately recognised and utilised- there was no need to install any drivers.   AmigaOS 4.1 Classic is supplied with FastATA MKIII Prefs in the Prefs drawer.

OK, that's great news, as it was more of a nuisance trying to get it working under Classic OS4.0, even though I didn't get much use out of that OS release.

At home on my A1200T, I have an original FastATA MKI ("Powerflyer-Gold Edition"), I had to manually install the original 68k drivers for this as this product was last officially supported by Elbox in 2005.

But good to know it still offers the additional IDE ports even under OS4.1.

As for printer drivers, I recently bought a new HP printer and used the standard AmigaOS HP Printer Driver and it worked immediately: because HPs have a common printer language.

I believe the common printer language in HP printers is PCL (Printer Command Language) as well as PS (PostScript) though they have moved through various versions of PCL over the years, but I believe the backwards level of compatibility is still very good.

However, HP have changed some of their printers of recent years to be host based printers, which means you have to have the software designed for the operating system you want to use the printer with, i.e. an Operating System driver intended for that platform such as Windows or Macintosh, in the main, or you'll get nothing out of the printer, which means that PCL, and even PostScript is not supported in those products, such as the HP 3550 Color Laserjet - no PCL or PostScript printing capability.

There are other HP, and other manufacturers, printers that we should all be aware of with those limitations and not buy a printer that won't work under Amiga OS as there's no driver for it, which is the reason I mention that there are no new printer drivers with OS4.1 which is an area that needs urgent attention, IMHO.

Just avoid printers that are software driven such as Lexmark inkjets etc.

OK, thanks for that info

Also OS 4.1 contains a native port of Ghostscript which can be used to print to any printers that are PostScript compatible.

 

That's handy, but I don't suppose many people own a PostScript capable printer, even though I do. We shouldn't forget that TurboPrint 7 offers "PS" printing which will enable Ghostscript to print the data via that Postscript function even to non PostScript printers, and I believe Turboprint 7 works under OS4.1 so that's good.

Expecting printer driver support for new printers that arrive onto the market every few months is unrealistic due to the developer resources that would be required.

I think you've tried to escape the real point as there is NO NEW PRINTER support in OS4.1 as far as I am aware, so it's not like there has been some work done in OS4.1 to provide up-to-date printer functionality as there is NOTHING NEW in that area of the OS, but please correct me if I'm wrong there, as I'd really like to know there is something new.

What's more, rather than say it's unrealistic - all the development time for OS4.x to get so far, 2003 to 2011 - 8 years approximately, has gained us NOTHING NEW in the printer area, which is the truth of the matter. Not even Turboprint 7 has been updated in a good few years.

[Nearly-Right]

You could always have a go at porting CUPS

That's like pointing the finger of blame at me for not updating the OS4.x printing system, when I'd have hoped the OS4.x development team would have been considering/implementing some update to the printing system, seeing as it forms an integral part of any OS.

That's also nice of you to ask me, someone not involved in the development of OS4.x, to have a crack at it

But hey, that's just the way I look at it, seeing as I am a prospective customer. I'll just learn C and C++, etc. and write my own OS, then pay myself to buy it, with a little extra added on top as profit, nice!!

I'd just like to see a fully formed Classic OS4.x, with some up-to-date printer support that should have been added, even if it was only for 2 or 3 new printers, but having said that it's hard to find a new Centronics based printer these days.

However, with USB support built into Classic OS4.1, merely owning a USB adapter card would be the only requirement for new printer support to be realised.

[Nearly-Right]

The whole reason tools like TurboPrint existed in the first place is that historically the built-in AmigaOS printer support was a bit bobbins.

I agree, the original printing system in the Amiga OS was not very good, as it was more of a games console, and back then colour printing was not really possible other than ribbon colour dot-matrix printers and that was sometime after the first Amigas were released, and mainly then, in any case, games were king.

Was OS printing support ever a dealbreaker for you previously?

There were always new printers supported for OS1.3, then when OS2.x came along more printers were supported, the same for OS3.x, but now no new printer drivers in OS4.x.

So where does this part of the chain of printer support in OS development breakdown? The answer I unfortunately already know is OS4.x.

So to answer your question, it was never a question of printer support being a deal breaker before, because it was always supported before, but this is the first OS with no new printer support.

I don't think I am being unreasonable to ask for some new support, I think the wait, and changes in availability of printers requires it, as printers don't last forever, and supplies for some old Centronics printers are no longer available, as you must already be aware of.

It's no good pointing the finger at me, it's the OS that's lacking in this department, and it really could do with sorting out, pronto.

You say that like it would be a bad thing...

I'd like to be able to program, it's just the learning curve, and I can't just write a printer driver without that programming knowledge, but that also requires specific knowledge of how printer drivers work, and how the hardware works that I would need to support it, no easy task for a beginner.

Fancy having a go yourself?

[Nearly-Right]

that's something i think most OS4 users would like to see.  the development team changes over time, and, frankly, the printing subsystem is really old.  that said there have been improvements to it, and you'd be surprised what is possible.

At last, an agreement that the printer system is past-its-sell-by-date.

for example i purchased an officejet j6480 last year and it works brilliantly.  in fact, coupled with lpr.device and the photosmart driver, i've been using it just as i would from my linux, solaris, and windows machines.

Is the OfficeJet J6480 a PCL based printer?

hyperion and the development team are aware of the shortcomings in the printing system and are looking to leverage CUPS as the basis for a new printing system in the immediate future.

That's encouraging, but how long is this piece of string, if you know?

based on conversations at amiwest, the priorities are: supporting new and classic systems, a new 3D stack based on openGL and gallium 3D, a new printing system based on CUPS, finally finishing long-outstanding components (such as the updated console.device and USB stack), and substantial changes to execSG to support SMP.

OK, so why has no-one mentiioned these printing system parts of the OS as having been discussed, as areas for updating, to interested potential Classic OS4.x users, and other newer hardware ACube owners before, as this is the first time I've heard it mentioned by anyone connected with the development of the Amiga OS.

Good communications might keep people more interested if they knew you were still discussing developing more sections of the OS that have over the years of development fallen behind.

i'd love to have better printer support now, but it's coming. -- eliyahu

But when? Do we have to wait a year or more for that printer support?

I do appreciate you updating this thread with that information, as I've been trying to find out such information for some time now, so I'm glad you have mentioned it.

[Nearly-Right]

yup.  it supports both PCL and postscript.  so it's not a good example per se since we've had those drivers for eons -- but i wanted to demonstrate it is still possible to support recent printers nonetheless.

I don't see that it's a PostScript printer, just PCL, PJL, and PML as far as I can make out, but it's worth knowing that it works OK with the printer drivers we already have.

Which printer driver do you use with OS4.0 for the HP J6480 OfficeJet?

Can I take it that the scanner won't work under OS4.0 with any scanning software we currently have within the OS or that works with OS4.x?

at amiwest the discussion of developing the new printing system around CUPS was part of ben's talks.  i don't recall there being much detail about schedule, implementation specifics, etc.  there is a post of his talk over on youtube and on robert's video site.

Are you saying it was more of a throw about of ideas, 'hot air' rather than a time-schedule to get the printing system up-to-date? If so, then the printing system may well be languishing for some time waiting for some meaningful work to be done on it.

in truth i'd like to see more than just hyperion working on getting the imaging situation on OS4 improved.  a modern printing infrastructure coupled with (finally) finishing a native pagestream5 and an OS4-native version of arteffect would be wonderful and a selling point not just for classic users.

Ahh, PageStream 5, OOh, Yeah, but Deron Kazmaier seems to be struggling with the MUI implementation, along with other bugs/problems, that he is not too familiar with. I believe he has someone who is prepared to work on the MUI side of PageStream that knows MUI better than Deron himself, but I believe that the server infrastructure is not in place as yet for the work to be started as yet.

hmmm.  well everyone at AWN knew about this from various show reports; but it's true that, beyond ben's talk at amiwest, there hasn't been much on this via official channels.

Well until Karlos mentioned CUPS, and you mentioning it as well, that was the first I'd heard of work on the printing side of the OS, but then making the trip to AmiWest to hear the discussion would have been too far for me to consider as viable, as I'm in the UK.

 that said i really do think communication has improved substantially over the past nine months.  a full-court press at amiwest, the developers' blog, more public participation in the forums (particularly AWN and amigans.net).... it's not ideal, but it is getting better and i think the hyperion folks really do 'get it' that a good communications channel is essential to keeping folks interested.

Well if Hyperion 'get it' they haven't gone out of their way to 'show it', as there's still very little support from them for Classic OS4.1, no online FAQ for Classic OS4.1, as I believe was offered on their blog pages,and no discount for those, like me, who got 'burnt' with the Classic OS4.0 release.

It would be a nice, and fair gesture to acknowledge their poor quality release of Classic OS4.0 and offer some discount to those users who are prepared/want to upgrade to Classic OS4.1. I for one got very, very little use out of Classic OS4.0, and I'm sure, from what other people have said, who bought Classic OS4.0, I'm not alone in that thought.

i adore using OS4 on my SAM, and i really think it is a very enjoyable hobby.  there are certainly some shortcomings, such as the printing subsystem, and it does no harm to discuss them openly.  that's how things get changed.  i think the hesitation in others to talk about known issues stems from folks using them as an excuse to start bashing OS4, hyperion, ben hermans, pick your favorite.

I take no pleasure in 'having a go' at anyone from Hyperion or any of the betatesters, all of whom must have spent many hours/days,etc., working to improve Classic OS4.1, but some of it doesn't feel like a full product, yet they still want to charge a full product price. I feel that those involved on OS4.x, for whichever piece of Amiga OS intended, hardware ought to know what it feels for those of us outside the 'closed circle'

in any case i look forward to update3 and beyond.

Yes, but I, and I'm sure many others, want to be assured in paying £100 for the Classic OS 4.1 that there will be updates to it, and need to know that it's worth what's being asked for it. Because, at the moment I feel cheated out of the value of what I paid for Classic OS4.0, as I feel none of us received a genuinely usable product with the last Classic OS4.0 release.

[Nearly-Right]

From what I've seen over the last few months and even prior there are a good amount of printers that work straight out of the box with OS4.x... I think some people just want there choice of printer to work and this is understandable from a certain point of view but just not realistic enough...

So are you saying it's not realistic to expect printers you can still buy in the shops to be supported by the new OS when you buy Windows or Mac OS?

I don't think I would believe that, and it shouldn't be the case with OS4.1. What's more, after about 8 years of development Hyperion should have got some printer manufacturers interested enough or prepared to offer up some details as to how to enable their more recent printers to work with Amiga OS4.x.

More printer support will come in time... The thing I find funny personally for myself is I have owned an OS4.x machine since day one and now I own 4 of them and never printed from any of them one single time...;-)

So, what do you do with your OS4.x machines? Obviously not DTP, and maybe not even GFX, but web/internet use usually needs something to be printed out every so often, well I find I do.

When I start programming I'm not sure printer drivers are going to be high on my list either...

Well, I'd hope this doesn't ruin it for the rest of us.

[Nearly-Right]

no, they were actually announcing their development plans for the near-term.

OK, I'll bear that in mind

there is good and plentiful documentation included in the retail package, but nothing that i can see online.  support is something i'd like to see improved, but given the small size of the community, the help available on the fora, and the fact that neither the morphOS team nor the AROS developers offer formal support either, i doubt we'll see anything on that front for a while.

Glad you agree on that point, but Darren Eveland 'HammerD' has gone to a lot of trouble to make such information readily available, but I still feel that it should be on either Hyperion's or AmigaKit's website as they are the publishers, and authorised dealers - respectively, and Darren shouldn't be having to do it for them, though hopefully they have come to some financial arrangement with him for all his useful effort

from what i have garnered from friends who used both OS4 and v4.1 with the subsequent updates, that it is a much, much improved product.

I really hope it is, but I'm still seeing posts on some of the Amiga forums the difficulties that some users are having with Classic OS4.1 in its latest creation, so the software still needs some noticeable improvement and work to get it up the standard I'd be prepared to consider buying it, so there's some way to go yet, IMHO.

I had some good news from Elbox, who say that they are currently working on implementing for OS4.1, what was a DMA 'hack' under OS3.9, for the PCI library 10.x which would see, the currently usable under OS3.9, DMA requiring PCI cards for the Mediator become usable under Classic OS4.1+, which would be really good news.

That should mean that the Soundblaster 128 & LIVE and other PCI Soundcards, faster network cards - the RTL8139, the Spider USB, and other PCI cards would become usable again with a Mediator - but this is work that is currently under way, and not completed or confirmed as yet.

I also believe there is a new batch/model of A1200 FastATA boards being produced for one of our favourite suppliers, so if this occurs I will feel more strongly about migrating to Classic OS4.1 than I have done before, but it is still an egg not a chicken that we have here, so I'll be watching for it all to materialise, but it certainly sounds like good news.

Elbox also still have plans, they say, for a PCI PPC card for the Mediator, but I don't have any more specific details on those plans, as yet.

I did ask them if they minded if I posted this information on this site, but they didn't reply yesterday, one way or the other, so I've gone ahead and let the wider Amiga community know of what I've been told so far, which I hope is of interest to other people who seem to be interested in this thread.

i can only say that OS 4.1u2 is fantastic on my SAM.

Well, I'm pleased you are happy with it on newer hardware, but I still feel the price for the hardware is expensive, notwithstanding the hardware is being produced in relatively small batches.

perhaps there is someone that frequents these boards within driving distance that wouldn't mind you trying OS 4.1 on their system?  if you lived in connecticut, you'd be welcome to swing by me -- but then again, i don't have classic hardware.

I'm not aware of anyone in my area in the UK with such Classic PPC hardware, and Classic OS4.1, unfortunately.

i hope someone from hyperion is reading all of this, but if not, try reaching out to them and see if they are willing to help with a discount or offer a refund guarantee or something.  the worst they can say is 'no,' so it's worth a shot.

I've tried contacting Hyperion before, and it's like trying to get a response from the Marie Celeste.

let us know what you end up deciding.

There's a long way to go, read that as a possible long wait, before I make a decision on buying Classic OS4.1, as it has yet to become stable, and really usable with the DMA cards, as I feel many Mediator owners with PPC boards are holding their breath for such developments.

[Nearly-Right]

@Nearly-Right

Maybe you'll find this list(s) useful:

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=29215&start=40&post_id=618049&order=0&viewmode=flat&pid=618047&forum=32#618047

I appreciate you taking the time to make that very long list, but how come IBrowse didn't make it into your list of compatible programs?

Other than that, a very useful long useful list to save time and effort wondering if a program, that works nicely under 68k Workbench/OS, will or will not work under OS4.x.

Many thanks.

Would you be happy to copy the list from the Amigaworld site to this one, to save keep looking backwards and forwards from that site to this for the list of compatible programs? I can do it if that's OK with you, I just wanted to ask if you have any objections to me doing so, as it seems only polite to ask you first.

[Nearly-Right]

'Cos I didn't "migrate" IBrowse - it was already part of the OS4.1 contribution. ;-) As I already posted at AW.org, there's a lot more classic stuff that works (more or less) out of the box with OS4.1...

OK I understand now, but I couldn't have known as I haven't got OS4.1, and as I hadn't read all of your post on AW.org only the list itself.

Of course you can copy/quote/link this list - wherever you like... :-)

OK, thanks, so here's your list with just a few small grammar changes to make it more readable.

      Category .....  Name ..... Version ..... Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Office   -  AmigaWriter .. 2.20 - Sometimes unstable, different behaviour with G4/440ep - remember the StormScreenManager!

      Office   -   EqEd ..               0.96

      Office    -  FinalCalc ..           1.04   -    Only non-FPU version, FPU version doesn't render diagrams correctly, IFF save doesn't work (but PS does).

      Office   -   FinalData  ..         1.0D
 
      Office    -  FinalWriter  ..       3.0        With 030-Patch.

      Office    -  Mathscript    ..      3.2
         
      Office   -   Microgolded    ..     8sp10
         
      Office   -   PageStream      ..    4.1.5.6
         
      Office    -  Prodata      ..       1.13
         
      Office   -   Protext       ..      6.10
         
      Office   -   StarAm Plan  ..       2.31
         
      Office    -  TurboCalc        ..   5.02D
         
      Office   -   Wordworth        ..   7.01
         
      Image    -   ADPro    ..           2.5.1
         
      Image   -    ArtEffect  ..         4.0.7
         
      Image    -   ArtPro       ..       1.20b
         
      Image   -    CandyFactory ..       0.54b      Unstable and very slow (PPC version doesn't work, only 68k).
 
      Image    -   Colortype         ..  3.1        The Kara Collection; works and is usable, but displays a corrupted button bar.
                   
      Image    -   Cybershow         ..  9.5a
         
      Image    -   FRED            ..    1.4.1
         
      Image    -   fxPaint        ..     2.02
         
      Image    -   ImageFX_Lite   ..     (3)
         
      Image    -   ImageStudio     ..    2.3.0
         
      Image    -   Konrad          ..    1.0.17
         
      Image    -   MonumentDesigner ..   3.044      No JIT, before start change FONT: assign!
         
      Image    -   Morph   ..            1.3.1
         
      Image    -   PerfectPaint  ..      2.93-6

      Image    -   PerfectPaint    ..    2.94       Unstable, older version much better!
                             
      Image    -   PersonalFontsMaker .. 1.2
         
      Image    -   PersonalPaint     ..  7.1
         
      Image    -   Photoalbum        ..  6.6
         
      Image    -   Photogenics     ..    5.0r121
         
      Image    -   PicView        ..     2.7a
         
      Image    -   SuperView5   ..       2.70
         
      Image    -   TVPaint          ..   3.6        = 3.59
         
      Image    -   XiPaint4           .. 0.736
         
      Image    -   ZoneXplorer      ..   1.2
         
      Render   -   Castillian      ..    2.0
         
      Render   -   Cinema4DPro   ..      4.2
         
      Render   -   ConFont       ..      1.2
         
      Render   -   GeoMorph       ..     1.0
         
      Render   -   Imagine         ..    4.0
         
      Render   -   Lyap2DEM        ..    2.1
         
      Render   -   MagicLink       ..    3.2
         
      Render   -   MakePath         ..   1.1
         
      Render   -   Monzoom        ..     4.3.65     Sometimes (ignorable) Grim at startup.
                         
      Render   -   Real3D          ..    3.5
         
      Render   -   TextureStudio   ..    1.0.2      Not perfect - rendering only to disk (not in window)

      Render   -   Viewer3       ..      0
         
      Render   -   VistaPro        ..    3.05       Crashes on exit, needs "native" screen (SuperHighRes Interlace)
         
      Draw    -    AmiFIG            ..  3.1
         
      Draw    -   Cliptool     ..       1.1
         
      Draw    -    Convert      ..       1.0.1
         
      Draw    -   Cycas           ..    1.78.7
         
      Draw    -    DrawStudio       ..   1.1.0      Usable, but save your work often

      Draw    -    EPSLab           ..   37.179
         
      Draw    -    hp2xx            ..   1.04
         
      Draw    -    MetaView          ..  2.9        Usable, but not that stable - Classes drawer must be mapped to LIBS:
 
      Draw    -    TypeSmith       ..    2.5b

      System   -   CanonBJC        ..    6.52
         
      System   -   CanonBJCPrefs   ..    6.51
         
      System   -   CanonStudio   ..      2.21
         
      System   -   ClassAction      ..   4.50       Class "ASCII[]" and d&d FROM WB leads to GRIM.
         
      System   -   Diavolo        ..     3.4Pro
         
      System   -   Envoy            ..   3.1
         
      System   -   FormAldiHyd     ..    2.3
         
      System   -   GHelp           ..    4.1
         
      System   -   goPortscan!    ..     1.1
         
      System   -   JPEGLibraryPrefs  ..    1.2        = jpeg.library; No JIT.
         
      System   -   KingCON         ..    1.8
         
      System   -   MakeCD          ..    3.2Dbeta12
         
      System   -   MultiRen         ..   1.69
         
      System   -   NetInfo        ..     1.36
         
      System   -   NetprinterPrefs  ..   1.14       = netprinter.device
         
      System   -   NetworkSnoop_68k  ..  0.1
         
      System   -   ReportPlus       ..   6.49
         
      System   -   ReqToolsPrefs     ..  38.281
         
      System   -   Skimmer         ..    1.37
         
      System   -   StromScreenManager .. 2.3
         
      System   -   SweepSys         ..   2.01
         
      System   -   T1Manager        ..   3.1        = type1.library
         
      System   -   Term            ..    4.8
         
      System   -   triton.library   ..   6.115
         
      System   -   TritonPrefs       ..  6.2
         
      System   -   Wacom            ..   1.50       Grims on exit.
         
      System   -   xfdmaster.library ..  39.15      No JIT.
         
      System   -   XPKMasterPrefs     .. 1.31
         
      Multimedia  -  Amplifier      ..     2.33
         
      Multimedia - MainActorBoadcast ..  1.04
         
      Multimedia - MainViewerBroadcast .. 1.04
         
      Multimedia - OctaMED Soundstudio   ..   1.03c
         
      Multimedia - Samplemanager      ..  2.0
         
      Multimedia - Songplayer        ..  1.62
         
      Multimedia - SSAPref          ..   1.4        No JIT.
         
      Multimedia - The Maestrix     ..   1.2
         
      Development - AmiBlitz3         ..  3.3
         
      Development - AmiBlitz3        ..   3.5beta
         
      Development - Amiga E          ..   3.3a
         
      Development - AWNPipe           ..  2.54

      Development  - CubicIDE         ..   3.0
         
      Development - GoldED            ..  8sp10
         
      Development - MurksIDE         ..   0.6.1      (alpha)
         
      Development - ReActor          ..   1.1
         
      Development - Rebol/CORE      ..    2.5.0.1.2
         
      Development - Rebol/VIEW        ..  1.2.1.1.1
         
      Development - StormWIZARD      ..   2.3
         
      Science    -  CDB            ..     1.06
         
      Science     -  Graph3D        ..     1.43
         
      Science    -  MapleV           ..   R3
         
      Science    -  mathX            ..   1.32       Sometimes with Grim, but in the meantime there is now a native version
                                                 
      Science   -   NomeEstOmen   ..      0.815
         
      Science   -   PetiteChimiste    ..  2.10
         
      Misc    -    AmiAtlas        ..    5.9
         
      Misc     -    AmiAtlas6        ..   6.53
         
      Misc     -   STFax           ..    4.1
         
      Games  -     AmiJeweled (DEMO)  .. 1.3D
         
      Games   -    Foundation (RTG)  ..  1.12
         
      Games    -   Nemac4       ..       1.100      Works, every now and then instability (sound!)
                                             

Please be aware of the fact that this list is only my "migration" list. There's a lot more OS3.x 68k software, that will work with OS4.1, but I haven't checked  those packages, as they were "fresh" installs (i.e. IBatch, SMBMounter, etc.).

Thanks cha05e90

[Nearly-Right]

BTW, Hyperion just opened official support forums:

Now that's about time, but I'm surely appreciative also

I've got a feeling some pestering to Hyperion has been going on, maybe by you Darren? If so, I'm doubly grateful

[Nearly-Right]

Actually the Forums were not my idea - credit Hyperion, Hans-Joerg Frieden, and Steven Solie for that.  It's part of the wider strategy to improve communications with the user base.

Well, you could knock me over with a feather duster, well almost but maybe Steven Solie gave the final push forward, as this problem has existed for sometime, and it's happened very soon, it seems, after Steven came into the 'program'

Don't get me wrong I'm grateful, I really am.

I did do some poking and prodding to get them up relatively quickly, though

ha, ha ... I knew it!

Since you are a owner of AmigaOS 4.0 Classic you should register.

Already am, and I've put a few questions forward, already, on the Hyperion forum, some of which you already know about.

[Nearly-Right]

OS4.x is currently a small sized "hobby" platform, so there would be no profits for these devs.

We are not talking about profit, we are talking about up-to-date availability of printers - name me 1, yes just one, currently retailed modern inkjet or laser printer that we have a specific printer driver for?

Just look at linux.. It has a much larger userbase and yet printers can be problematic there as well.

I don't want to know about Linux's problems, I want our problems resolved. Let's not waste time looking at someone else's OS to point to our own OS's shortcomings.

When you use a alternative OS you have to expect such issues and instead buy printers that are supported.

Yes that's my point ... we have no up-to-date supported printers other than the ones that were supported back in 2002 under OS3.9 - 9 years ago - and they don't make those printers anymore, unfortunately.

[Nearly-Right]

Benchmark screenshot

So, what hardware have you got in your Amiga with the Blizzard card?
Is it a tower system or just the PPC card and BVision tucked inside the A1200 case?
Who did the overclocking, and would it be easy enough for most owners to do?

Were there any problems you encountered installing Classic OS4.1 on your system?

Otherwise, most impressive!

[Nearly-Right]

Nearly-Right, it was reported by Harald the new Elbox beta drivers are working in his setup.  He said some colour problems on the Radeon (he didn't specify), but this may mean now that you can use all the Elbox drivers, including the RTL8139 and SB128.  Of course they will be 68K drivers and not PPC native, but they may work.

I got a PM from Harald, with more detail.

I am also awaiting a reply from him, as I asked him a lot more questions, as he has an A1200 with a Mediator, though not the same model as me (mine's a TX, his is an LX) so hopefully I would learn about levels of compatibility with the hardware he's running under Classic OS4.1 than from anywhere else I have found, so far.

He also let me know that the SOLO soundcard he has, showed up as recognised under the hardware running under Classic OS4.1, BUT he didn't get any sound via AHI out of it, so that is not so good.

I am still waiting for someone, anyone, saying they have a SOLO-1 soundcard with the ESS1938S in an A1200 running through AHI under Classic OS4.1, which I have not seen written anywhere confirming it's compatability with Classic OS4.1, especially in an A1200. I believe anyone running such a soundcard has it running in an A4000, and that may only be the ESS1969 chipset anyway, but I'd really like someone to speak up and confirm they have such a soundcard working in an A1200 with a Mediator.

I have NOT bought Classic OS4.1 as yet, as I am still not convinced it is a mature enough OS for any serious use, especially for an A1200.

What's more I got a reply from AmigaKit stating that there will be NO DISCOUNT or UPGRADE from Classic OS4.0 to Classic OS4.1, so for me to consider buying Classic OS4.1 the PCI card compatability has got to be improved dramatically with more PCI cards supported, before I commit to spending the best part of £100 on it.

Hans-Jorg Frieden stated on the Hyperion pages that there is less compatability available as the A1200 does not have a jumper to affect, simple waitstates, which are available on the A4000, which allows greater compatability with Classic OS4.1, that's if I understood his comments correctly.

So, I do not think the playing field is very even for the A1200 compared to the A4000, as most developers seem to be using that for betatesting Classic OS4.1, due to its greater compatability, and it seems much less time has been, or is being, spent on getting the A1200 version of Classic OS4.1 to the same level of compatability IMHO.

Hans-Jorg Frieden (HJF) also said that the PCI library of Elbox's is also asking for a board failure due to the fact that Classic OS4.1 has it's own software/driver method to control the PCI Mediator I/O and that using a 68k version as well as the OS4.1 device will no doubt cause some problems that will either cause early failure of the PCI board or eventual failure of the board, again if I understood his comments correctly.

HJF also said that the Elbox PCI library method was not supported. He has said this before, and basically the PCI library from Elbox would not work with Classic OS4.1, so I'd be interested to know if it does allow the DMA soundcards, and NICs, etc. to actually work under Classic OS4.1.

However, I'm not buying Classic OS4.1 to be the guinea pig to try it out, but I'd be interested to hear from someone who has the OS and has tried it with the DMA cards that are not supported under Classic OS4.1 but are under OS3.9, such as the RTL8139 NIC, and Soundblaster 128 PCI cards, and for that matter any of the cards supported by Elbox, including the Spider USB card.

However, Elbox have not stated the facts for their PCI library update as of yet, but I'd be interested to hear their take on it, so come on Elbox, let's hear your side of the PCI library's development.

I should also add that the  -  New AmigaOS 4.1 Classic Users  -  thread has only 4 pages of comments, wheras this thread has 12 pages already.

Frankly, it does not seem to say a lot for the take-up/purchase of Classic OS4.1, and AmigaKit have not got back to me on the number of people who have bought Classic OS4.1, which I asked them about a few days ago, which is disappointing in many ways.