Which OS Would Be The Best Amiga Way Forward...

[rdolores]

In the long term, AROS is the most feasible.  OS4.x is based on hardware that does not have a future roadmap.  MorphOS is based on old Mac hardware which is limited in quantity.  AROS is based on hardware that is plentiful and has ongoing development.  I've tried the latest versions of both ICAROS Desktop and Broadway and they have really come quite a way from their beginnings.  They are becoming more stable with each release.  And the support for hardware is great.  I have ICAROS 1.2.6 on a Dell OptiPlex GX280 with 3.2 GHz HT CPU, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD and an NVidia GS8400 512 MB PCI-e video card.  The built-in AC97 audio works.  Even the DVD drive is recognized.  I got a cheap 3COM NIC for networking.  I run it on a 20" WS LCD screen in 1680x1050 resolution.

On the software side, OWB works pretty well, but could be a bit faster.  MPlayer is nice.  I would like to see a decent office package.  Right now, i just go into Janus-UAE, where I installed my old productivity software to do office stuff.  There is actually quite a lot of software for AROS now.  Hopefully, printing support will come soon.

And the other cool thing which I don't see on others, is pull-down screens just like the classic Amigas.  Pretty cool, and actually quite useful.

[rdolores]

I didn't think of it being just a popular vote and from most of the reply's it would seem folk have given their reasons for the way they voted...

I know it isn't accurate by a long shot but from these results you could draw the conclusion that it seems to be long time Amiga users that favour AROS and that those newer to the Amiga scene (if you can call users of less than 20 years newbies) more in favour of OS4.X or MorphOS...

I dunno why but I've always had the idea that older and long term users would have chosen MorphOS and newer and younger users would have chosen AROS or OS4.X...

I am a long-time Amiga user (since 1986).  I voted "Forever" in AmigaDave's poll.  And I voted "AROS" in Franko's poll.  So your conclusion works out for me at least.

I was away from the Amiga scene for a while, so I missed the "red vs. blue" wars.  When I came back in 2006, I went for Amithlon instead even though developement had already stopped, because I had spare x86 equipment to test it on.  When AROS finally became useable, I gravitated to that because it is open source.  Because of this feature, it can be ported to any system, not just x86, but also PPC, ARM, and even the old Motorola 68xxx systems.  It may not be as polished as OS4.x or MorphOS right now, but it has the best chance to survive in the long term.