AmIRC and crippleware distributions

[altivo]

Some of you saw my question earlier this week about IRC clients. The general consensus here and in other places was that AmIRC was the most stable and usable.

So I got AmIRC 3.5 from Aminet. Oh, it wants MUI. Well, I have a version of MUI installed, even though my A3000 is only on WB 2.1. Nope, version too old. OK, so I went back and got MUI 3.8, which is also crippleware, but maybe it will work. It seems to install, at least.

Back to AmIRC. The installation script bombs, for no apparent reason. So I have to decipher what it was trying to do and do it manually. Launch the program... Oh, it wants vapor_toolkit.library. Did I miss installing that? No, it wasn't included in the archive. Try Aminet, no, not available. Try Vaporware's own site, no hint that you can download the missing piece. Try Google, which points to the link on Vaporware's site. Yes, you CAN download it, but they aren't obvious about where. So, downloaded, installed.

Now AmIRC launches, only to complain that it can't run under WB 2.1. You have to get a different archive just for a special WB 2.1/A68000 executable. I'm getting irritated now, but I go get that and install it. Finally it works, no thanks to either the developer's instructions or to the information on the download sites. It works with the server that was giving me trouble, but the crippleware will only run for 30 days, and disconnects you from the server after 30 minutes in any given session. Grr.

All right, how do you register? Well, it says you can register online. Nope, the link is a deadend, can't do that. Or you can register by snail mail. What's the price? It's quoted in DM, not in Euros. Another bad sign. How well maintained is this thing anyway? So back to Vaporware's web site... Oh, online registration was discontinued in 2004. OK. But no current prices, no current registration information. How do they expect honest people to pay them? By telepathy? I'm now very much NOT impressed.

Anyone want to suggest a simple IRC client that works with today's servers and is not crippleware with a dead-end registration process? Is ChatBox any better? (It will make me install yet another OO toolkit that nothing else uses, ClassAct.) I'm about ready to think I have to write my own.

[altivo]

I said "simple". I know the commands. I don't need a thousand graphical button thingummies that take up memory and waste time and screen space. I looked at Bender, it's total overkill, even moreso than AmIRC, for what should be a simple task. And, according to their own docs, it won't run in my environment.

BlackIRC doesn't look any better. I think it said WB 3.0 or above only.

How can AmIRC be "the best" when there's not even a way to uncripple it? (No way to register.)

[altivo]

Upgrading the OS won't fix the issue of bad installation instructions and a dead-end registration process.

I actually have a 3.1 partition on my machine. I don't like it. But setting that aside, I would still be confronted with the need to register something while the place that wants me to register hasn't even provided an up to date price. If the price listed is so old that it is still in DM, how can I trust the address or even be sure that I would get a valid registration key back?

[altivo]

Grapevine doesn't work with the IRC server I normally use. Otherwise it would indeed be more than adequate. AmyIRC has the same problem. And neither has source available to allow the problem to be fixed.

[altivo]

Yup, it appears that the authors really don't care any more. I sent a polite and short e-mail asking for the current registration price and procedure. It bounced. They are refusing all e-mail from my provider (no, not AOL, I use Earthlink.) Blocking a domain to avoid spam or harrassment is one thing if you're dealing with a private account, but quite another with a customer support address. They are refusing mail from a very large class of potential and presumably current customers. They just lost me, that's plain stupid.

[altivo]

Well, I went and got IRC-II from Aminet. Once I figured out that it crashes in WShell for some reason but runs fine in the regular CLI, it is fine for my needs. Not pretty, but at least it works and doesn't demand registration without offering a way to do it.

Tinyfugue is the same way. Crashes the whole machine if you run it in WShell but works in AmigaShell.

Anyone know what crash causes the screen to blank and then blink yellow all over? No alert message or anything, it's one of those basic hardware crashes where everything quits working and all you get is a flashing color. I thought it might be running out of stack, but even with double the stack it runs with in AmigaShell, it bombs almost immediately in WShell.

[altivo]

I had innumerable problems with 3.1. Most were incompatibilities with software I already use, and that is no longer supported so never has been upgraded to 3.x of the OS. I lost one such much-valued program in the upgrade from 1.3 to 2.1, and there has never been a functional replacement for it.

If you have an ECS Amiga, like my A3000, I don't see that 3.1 offers you that much. To me, it looks almost identical to 2.1. With an AGA chipset, like the A1200 or A4000 that might be entirely a different issue. But if four colors is all you get on a high res screen anyway, there is no difference in appearance, nor in feel. Yet a number of 2.1 applications won't run successfully on top of 3.1, for whatever reason.

I was a beta tester, I ran several alphas and betas of 3.1, but all had the same problems for me. The most crucial one was that my A2386 bridgecard was never fully functional under 3.1, and is not to this day. It is conceivable that with a 3.1 ROM kickstart it would be OK where it fails with a 3.1 ROM image in memory, but I don't know that, and it doesn't seem worth the $45 and the bother of installing the ROM only to have to pull it back out.

As for speed improvements, well, they aren't noticeable to me. What is amazingly noticeable is that with the A3000 running 2.1 sitting on my desk next to an older Pentium 166 MHz machine running Windows 98, the Amiga seems amazingly peppy and responsive. A 68030 running at what, 16 MHz? And it beats out the 166 MHz machine in performance on almost everything. Sure, Windows has prettier graphics. But I don't play games and much of what I do doesn't involve graphics. I can use Windows to edit my photos or browse the web, and let the Amiga do what it does best.