Amiga OS4 final release now available (for existing Amigaone hardware)

[bhoggett]

Well done to all concerned in the sense that "it's about time", considering the sort of promises that were made when the project started. Realistically though it's mostly hot wind for Christmas.

Magic-Merl wrote:
I browse the web, read my e-mails, write programs and write music. As long as I can do this with OS4 then I will be buying it. (Assuming the right hardware is out there also)

Well, browsing the web remains a problem despite the release of Ibrowse 2.4. Still several years behind the times and totally incapable of handling Web 2.0 web sites and applications.

Magic-Merl wrote:
Now when it finally can be run on other hardware - Efika to name just one. Then I think people will be buying the hardware and OS in increasing numbers.

Why? I can see why the existing user-base plus those that found A1s too expensive would be interested in buying new systems, but why would this attract anyone from outside?

Magic-Merl wrote:
We are always complaining about the lack of new products - this is a new product, shouldn't we be praising it....

According to Hyperion, they released AOS4 in 2004. Not a new product then...

Besides, a new product you can't buy doesn't really count, does it?

For me this doesn't actually mean very much. It might have some legal and contractual implications, but in terms of expanding the user-base, increasing the market or improving developer support it means absolutely nothing. It's only of significance to those who already own AOS4 and the hardware to run it.

It isn't really addressing any of the real problems: the dependence on low volume custom hardware, the extremely limited user-base and tiny potential market for expansion, the lack of developers and largely a lack of contemporary software, the lack of co-operation between the small factions that remain, the lack of a real purpose or direction for any of the Amiga-like solutions. Until egos get put aside and people start pulling in the same realistic direction, Amigaland remains the realm of pissing games.

[bhoggett]

zeigerpuppy wrote:
Well OS4 is out, great to see. Just for a little history, I finally sold my A4000 some years ago and considered getting an A1, but got a Mac G5 instead. Well, I can't say I regret the move but the main reason I got the Mac was because I thought that eventually I would be able to run OS4 on it....

What on earth made you think you'd ever be able to run AOS4 on a Mac?!?

zeigerpuppy wrote:
If Hyperion hadn't killed Amithlon, I think it still would have been a smart solution to the hardware dearth of the times. I can't really forgive them for that, as Amiga development could have continued quite well with JIT.

They didn't kill Amithlon - H&P did that - but a certain Hyperion bigwig did help derail it. At one point there was even the possibility of some form of co-operation between Hyperion and Bernie. Unfortunately by then the die had been cast.

However, Hyperion were amongst the people who did oppose it vehemently when it was first presented, and there were a lot of people who said "why should I get Amithlon when AOS4 will be out in a few months and Amithlon will then be obsolete?".

It's ironic that it's probably easier to find hardware that will run the original Amithlon release - which is a good five years old now, an eternity in mainstream computing - than it is to find hardware to run the newly released AOS4.

zeigerpuppy wrote:
Nevertheless, not one to rain on their parade and good to see Amiga development continuing. Excuse me for asking the question that needs to be asked though.... what happened to the exhaustive talk of hardware independence that I remember??

Hyperion never supported hardware independence. In fact their alliance with Eyetech was specifically designed to combat any move towards hardware independence. I believe that Hyperion felt it was important to keep Amiga users isolated from the mainstream and totally dependent to the few developers left in the market regardless of cost, value for money or quality of software on offer.

In that respect they've succeeded.

The hardware independence was Amiga Inc's angle, and something they supposedly wanted for AOS5 - which had nothing to do with AOS4 and was quite frankly a bit of a fairy tale. Amiga Inc were all mouth, but they never had the resources to deliver on any of their promises. This became quite clear during the AmigaDE debacle, which turned into one almighty scam.