Amiga Inc ALIVE! Fixed XE and good news :-)

[Cymric]

Well... After seeing the video, what can I say as someone with no intention of getting an A1 or Pegasos.

The FTP-website bit was... how to put this without hurting anyone's feelings... well, I'm sure it's quite a step forwards for the platform, but I cannot help but say that it all appeared very archaic to me.

I'm happy to see that the jerkiness of OS4 window handling has disappeared: I recall seeing a video about a year ago which was pretty much the equivalent of msochism ;-). I liked the warping demo of both the lion and the fonts, but I have to add that this is really nothing special. You're seeing the result of (lots of) ordinary math, and some CPU power to make it fly. (What would be special is if this vector rendering takes the place of bitmap rendering throughout, but that idea is more than a little silly because of performance reasons.) And keep in mind, it does not use hardware rendering yet---which you really need for serious graphics work. You can add it to the library, we are told, but that takes more than just a bit of effort unless I'm terribly mistaken.

I found the start-up and reset time short, but not remarkable. Someone can be clearly heard saying Windows eat your heart out, but you can't really compare the two. Windows loads so much more into memory, and offers so much more functionality...

It would appear from the demo (in particular, the ease of the reset) that OS4 is still a standalone, single-user OS, which is fine with me, although it might make it less suitable for a computer in a household. Some might argue that this is just a load of bovine scatology, but I would very much prefer to make sure that other people using my computer cannot accidentally delete my stuff. I'm also not very happy with the idea of resetting a computer supporting virtual memory (even in the rudimentary form of OS4) as was shown in the video, but that is just my humble opinion.

OS4 really needs a proper directory lister as found in Windows' Explorer (well, not this particular program, but more the idea behind it :-)) or DOpus. I think I saw a few threads on this subject a while ago, so perhaps the problem's already been solved. In any case, all the windows opening across the screen lead to a lot of visual clutter, and you definitely need something in order to manage this.

It's good to see the ole' platform moving along, but I cannot help but wonder what the use is when everything shown can already be done on at least a dozen other major platforms with a much larger user base. Oh well, logic can only take you so far.

Now the real thing which is bugging me is how I can be on that video, as I was here in Amsterdam all the time :-D. There's someone there who has a profile just like me, same haircolour, same set of eyebrows, same set of glasses, same general build. Only the neck is different. I never knew I had a twin brother! I think it's time I confronted Mom & Dad ;-).

[Cymric]

ikir wrote:
bootdelay was 3-4 sec, and OS selection 20 sec. You can boot OS4 in less than 20 sec. Mine boot in about 12-15, and a soft rebbot takes only 7 seconds.

As I said, short, but not impressive. I'm more concerned with uptime and crash resistence. You don't want to spend time turning on your computer all the time, and the ease of a reset to fix a problem (man, that PDF reader sure is burning CPU cycles, know what, I'm gonna reset, three-finger salute, poof) is an indication of both sloppy programming and sloppy use.

OS4 is simply the best AmigaOS update ever, from the video you don't see many of the new features of OS4, this was only a show. AGG imho is quite impressive.

Oh, I don't doubt you there. I'm just wondering why people are so excited about something which is more or less old hat on other platforms, sometimes even using the same CPU. But as I said, logic can only take you so far.

I'm really happy of my A1, AmigaOS PPC was a dream long awaited. The best thing is to try it at a show.

Again, no doubt there. But I have no intention of trying A1/OS4. Win2K and Linux serve me just fine, and do not restrict me as OS4 would when it comes to proper hard- and software selection.

[Cymric]

ikir wrote:
My A1 is 24/24 on and online :-)

That's more like it. Any idea on resistence to memory fragmentation?

[Cymric]

clebin wrote:
@Cymric

"It's good to see the ole' platform moving along, but I cannot help but wonder what the use is when everything shown can already be done on at least a dozen other major platforms with a much larger user base. Oh well, logic can only take you so far."

[...]

You have to put yourself in the position of someone constantly have to work around annoying omissions. Let's say Microsoft introduce pop-up blocking into Internet Explorer. Every other browser has it, but if you're forced to use IE by your company say, you'd be punching the air.

Which is precisely my point. Instead of painfully coding the utilities and tools you need, you could be using them already. To stick with your example: nobody forces you to use an Amiga---at least, I know of no company which forces its employees to use the machine. Well, save Hyperion perhaps. That is why I said that logic fails. Apparently people like to work around annoying problems all the time. I prefer to use what is available, which is a strategy which pays off when there are more users supporting a platform.

[Cymric]

@weirdami:

Do you honestly believe that that software will become available on a minor, nearly forgotten, severely underpowered and severely overpriced platform first? If your answer is yes, then so be it. I will of course question the widsom of such a decision, but if that's what you want, I can't and won't hold you back. In the meantime, can I ask you, just out of interest---as I am not into the video/film making business---what kind of systems are out there on major platforms, and whether you have evaluated them critically? What was the outcome?

@HopperJF:

Excuse me for snickering at your remark that Amiga users still exist strongly in 2004, and then seeing your sig about 'Get Firefox now!' I found the two lines of text quite contradictory :-).

As for fun to use... Perhaps you are right. But since 'fun to use' equals 'use the kind of programs I need quickly and efficiently' in my book, I have long since give up on properties such as 'character', 'uniqueness', and so forth. It might be important to some people; it isn't to me. As I said, logic can only take you so far.

[Cymric]

BCP wrote:
Bloodline... I would'nt be so sure about the obsoletness of the A1 XE's.  Right now I am online with my A1, using Ibrowse (full 68k version) with a DSL connection.  Even thou Ibrouse is running in emulation web surfing is much  faster and smoother than with I.E. on my 2200 mhz P4 laptop. Especially with OS4 the A1 with 800 mhz G4 compares very favorablely with the P4 laptop.  It seems to me that OS4 uses the A1's hardware resources far more efficently than XP uses the laptop's hardware.  The A1 may not be "state of the art" hardware but it appears to be far more than adequate for running Amiga OS.

Please define 'much faster' and 'much smoother' in terms of browsing experience. What is running in the background? What kind of hardware are you using? What kind of graphics adapter is in the laptop? Are you using adequate drivers? Mind, I am not saying that what you report is not true, but I am trying to get an idea of the circumstances under which you compare the two systems/programs.

[Cymric]

Waccoon wrote:
That browser doesn't have CSS support, does it?  It's easy for a browser to be fast if it only supports rock-bottom standards.

That definitely gives a feel for what people are comparing against each other ;-).