What still makes Amiga superior today?

[EDanaII]

You know, I don't, ordinarily, get into these kind of threads, let alone start one, but recent events got me to thinking -- always a bad start.

My main machine has, at present, 3 OSes installed on it. I ultimately intend to install a few more (like AROS) just for giggles and fun. Recently, that machine died and I had to replace it. The new machine came with Windows already installed, but, of course, I had to figure out how to get those two additional OSes on it. Naturally, I shrunk XP down to a specific size to make room. Then created the correct partitions for the two other OSes and copied images of them into place. But, ironically, they wouldn't boot anymore. As best I could figure, the partition information had changed, and, therefore, the OSes were trying to run off their old partition IDs. I placed them on the drive, in the exact same order, but, somehow, they were not the same.

So, that got me thinking about the Amiga's RDB, which stores logical information about the drive. Had something like that been in place, I doubt anything would have gotten screwed up. At least, in that way.

This, of course, got me to thinking about the good ol' assign command, which also allows you to move applications effortlessly from one drive to another. No reinstall, just a quick couple of keystrokes, and you're back in business.

Also, as I understand it, not 100% necessary, as the Amiga also (someone correct me if I'm wrong) stores directory IDs rather than names, so that if I rename a directory, the system stills knows what to point to if it changes.   

All of these made the machine so much easier to use, with less hair-pulling over all.

But that's not why I started this thread. I'm starting it to see what other things made the system a bliss to use that appear to be unmatched by other operating systems today. Please feel free to state, and argue, your thoughts on the subject. I'd like to hear all thoughts.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

My PC has, as yet, never told me I used too many commas...


Excellent, thanks for the responses everyone.

With regards to partitioning: It's a funny thing, but that singularly Amiga practice has helped my PC data survive today. Initially, when I first adopted a PC over my Amiga, I used their partitioning scheme 'C:' and as a result, I lost lots of data whenever the partition failed. But in later years, I started deliberately partitioning my drives similar to the Amiga (System:, Work: and adding Applications:). Using this scheme, whenever a partition failed, I still had my other partitions survive and was able to recover a lot quicker.

If only other systems had such a forward looking philosophy.


@ Those picking a nit over "superiority"

I did not mean that the Amiga was superior anymore, I only pointed to those things that are superior _still_ to other OSes today.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

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 :-D

[EDanaII]

Remember, the point of this post was to _identify those things that are still superior today._ To identify those things that the industry _should have adopted._ It is not to say that the Amiga, as a whole, is superior.

Wouldn't it have been nice, for example, if Windows had something as modest as an assign command? How much simpler would it be to move software then? How much easier would it be to move partitions, if they'd adopted an RDB?

This little things are still superior to their corresponding functions on many modern OSes.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

@ persia:

Yeah, I can drag an app out of the Applications Folder on a Mac and put it in say iTunes music folder and it will work, but why in the name of the bugbladder beast of trall would I?

To add to what Matt_H has already pointed out. Many times in the past (and present) I've run out of space on my Windows system and, rather than adding a new drive and tossing the old, I would add that drive and keep the old. But then I'd need to transfer data over to the new drive and, naturally, those apps would break. I still have this problem today. Fortunately, many software designers design their software to be independent of this problem or to reinstall themselves one started again, but not all do and reinstalling those can be a pain in the S.

Presently, I have 4 OSes installed on my main machine. Maintaining these can sometimes cause my partition information to break. Suddenly, what was identified as drive P: is now drive E: and, once again, everything breaks.

Assign and the RDB, for my examples, make these issues easier to deal with.

Ed.