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

[Iggy]

Nice troll.

Dead on, as MorphOS 1.X and MorphOS2.x are different creatures.
You all know my bias, so I won't bother restating it.
Actually for 68K and X86 AROS makes sense.
But for PPC, MorphOS all the way baby.

And here's a bet, no matter what you use in the future, MorphOs will be better

[Iggy]

Dave, basically Smerf is a troll. I would not bother attempting to reason with him as he has a closed mind.
Frankly I'm solidly behind PPC, whether we're talking about AOS4 or MorphOS.
AROS is interesting, but I'd rather not run my OS on an X86.
As MorphOS is designed to run Amiga software and MorphOS specific software and re-implements 3.1 system calls, Smerfs opinions are idiotic.
MorphOs runs no Mac software and is the most advanced NG OS available for the Amiga market.
If that isn't an association with the Amiga, I don't know what is.

[Iggy]

Hi,

@Piru,

Thanks for the information, always did respect you and your posting, now I am really going to have to think, do I want to upgrade the Amiga 1200 to a graphics card set which would probably set me back about $500, or do I want to swallow my pride and buy a G4 mini mac for about $250. Really want to see what MorphOs is about. Well got to do some heavy thinking.

smerf

Wow, I guess  have to apologize about the Troll commemts. Powermacs are generally less expensive than the Mac Mini and more expandable. If you need anything (like a USB2.0 card, sound card, or re-flashrf video card) send me a PM.

[Iggy]

I agree with what you write but there are a little thing that I'd like to add. I use a PC with Win 7 most of the time these days. If I had a KVM switch (I will get one) I would probably use my AmigaOne more but other than that I use it for the things that you mentioned and games. However there are room for a better OS since the usage of AOS are more pleasant (I would even say much more) than Windows has ever been. That's why I upgraded my a4k during the 90s and early 2000 untill I bought the AmigaOne. I couldn't stand Windows, I always found something that annoyed me, actually several things. With Windows 7 I can stand it still got issues and runing AOS 4 is like a breath of fresh air, it just feels so much better.

What I really miss though except for software are hardware related. The fun that you had back in the day because of the superiour hardware sin't there any more. However the way you did things in AOS was often much more fun than doing it on any other computer because lots of software had really good ideas making them simple and fun to use, yet powerfull bringing out the creative side.

While lots of the devices that you mentioned are great and powerfull there isn't any fun to be had with them when it comes to creativity, they are more like tools to me. Windows kind of feel the same actually, to me at least.

Anyway, the point is that there are more than nostalgic reasons to run any of the amiga-like operating systems. There are simply room for a better experience. I think that's the whole point actually. To me AOS are as close to being perfect as it gets. It lacks lots of things that are better in for example Windows 7 but it isn't as anoying.

I think the long term goal is to grow, for any of these systems and it isn't impossible it will just take lots of time. If it will work out in the end is another thing though but I've decided to just have fun during this ride and see what happens.

My, this whole thread has gotten unnecessarily ugly and contentious. I use MorphOS because it works well and the necessary investment in hardware is lower.
If it didn't exist I'd probably be using AROS.
AOS4 hardware is just too expensive for me to justify. But those of you who want to go that route have my blessing.
Frankly it all part of the same market to me and I'm not going to allow someone else's passion for a similar OS (almost identical) overwhelm me.
This whole thread's gotten quite inane.

[Iggy]

IMHO any question should qualify the terms used in the question first.
If I asked you all for example "Do you believe in God? " I would expect a different reply depending upon how I defined the word "God". If I said "Do you believe in a giant man who sits on a cloud?" or "Do you believe in a conscious universe?" for example.
This being the case, I ask, what do you mean by "forward"? and how are you defining "Amiga"?
Tell me this and I can give you an opinion, until then I say PANCAKES!

VERY well put (I believe in a conscious universe). Frankly, i don't see one way forward. I'm glad there is a multiplicity of choices.

[Iggy]

Isn't it odd that these polling results show AROS in the lead, but when you ask people what they're currently using AROS usually places last?
Does this reflect a general faith in what AROS could become?

[Iggy]

That's a great picture.
Thanks everybody for confirming my suspicions about the reason everyone was voting for AROS.
You know, I'm amazed and a little baffled by how optimistic Amiga users are.
But then, we're still here and we've got multiple derivatives (of AOS) to choose from.
Pretty remarkable for such a small community.

[Iggy]

Could you clarify what suspicions you have had confirmed please...

Just that people have high expectations for AROS (especially the 68K variant).
The X86 isn't at V1.0 yet (although it is advancing), so I'm not sure that your ideas (on modifying 3.1) aren't just as valid (as waiting for AROS68K to attain a similar level of functionality).

[Iggy]

@ Rodomoc

Amithlon has always sounded very interesting. Could you let us know how the newest revision functions?

@ Thorham

I've always felt we could do better, but almost all users are going to want backwards compatibility. I used to manage a company that sold 68K based computers running Microware OS9. The micro kernel approach has always fascinated me (its one of the reasons I'm fond of MorphOS) and position independent re-entrant code can allow for some neat tricks (like processes sharing common modules).
AmigaOS is pretty neat, but a better OS could be built. However, what would the market be for it and how would you attract developers?
MOS and AOS4 are already facing this problem and I fear the market for a product like you're suggesting would be even smaller.

Frankly, I always wanted to see what I could do with a Sharp X68000, OS9, and a 68060 accelerator. Better graphics and sound than an Amiga and a more powerful OS. The trick would be getting a good GUI to run with it. Under OS9, all my company had was a XWindows/Motif like GUI called G-Windows.

Since the current company that owns OS9 (Radisys) is still updating the 68K version I may have to contact them. But I'd want a good GUI and a faster Disk I/O system to go with such a package.

[Iggy]

Will do Iggy. I'm quite interested in getting this running again and having it take over for the tasks I perform on the A3000. Which are mainly editing and storage of family photos, and general screwing around. Amiga still excellent alternative for dealing with digital pictures in my opinion. We have so many, it is easier to just dedicate a computer to this task. Why not an Amiga?

Very true. I have one system that is solely dedicated to pics, video and sound file. Doesn't require that much CPU power, just large drives.

[Iggy]

You make it sound like not much has happened between 3.1-4.1 which must be a joke or you not knowing what you're talking about. Regarding the icons for AOS 4.1 upd 2 I think they are beautiful.

Either way, AROS needs to get "minor functionality" added and look better. Not that it's all that is needed, it just doesn't feal mature enough yet and behind both aos and mos.

I think we could cut that word 'minor' out of the paragraph. There are large gaps in AROS functionality. I like the project and think it has a great future, but as you've pointed out AOS4 and MOS are definitely more complete and polished.

[Iggy]

would like to hear about these groundbreaking features. usb2 anyone? firewire? overall fast accelerated 3d support? nice productivity package included? perhaps hardware compositing, skin system and windows shadows are worth to name?

beautiful icons, okay, they are acceptable if not much to my liking. and as i said, aros and glowicons are ugly too, no excuse, morphos would get a better overall note.

>morphos would get a better overall note

USB2-yes
Firewire-soon
Fast 3d support-yes (and soon to be improved)
Productivity package-Something ALL NG systems could use
hardware composting-I want GPU acceleration myself
Skin system-many skin types (although Windows has us all beat)

Overall MorphOS does come out (in comparison) with a best feature set, but its been around longer.
AOS4 is steadily improving
And AROS is usable (although it still has more than a few rough edges).

Overall, its pretty amazing that we have 3 NG OS, good emulation, and continuing support for legacy hardware. Actually damned amazing for a 'dead' system.

[Iggy]

Not that I disagree with this, I think we need to keep in mind that MOS and OS4 are both profit driven products while AROS is a community or hobby based OS.

You can't expect one camp to keep up with the other if the resources and foundation are based off of a totally different structure.:hammer:

Absolutely true. And while I was skeptical about AROS ever reaching what seemed to be pretty high goals, I'm not anymore.
AROS will soon reach V1.0. Icaros looks nice. I am impressed.
I expect this OS to continuously improve.