Hi, I'm a total noob.

[redrumloa]

ruello wrote:
I do have access to it, but when it all comes down to it I don't do much serious work on the computer. I realize that a 10-15 year old computer isn't going to be a complete replacement for a newer PC, but to tell you the truth I think I can get done most of the stuff I want to get done on the computer with the programs I've seen availible for Amiga. If I needed to I could always use my family's PC though.

Perfect response, just making sure you know it has limitations. By all means get yourself an Amiga and enjoy :-) Personally I would stick with a big box like A3000 or A4000. Much more expandable with Zorro 3 slots. My personal favorite is the A3000. A A1200 from Amikit wouldn't be a bad choice either, especially if they have some OEM motherboards. A1200s have their strengths and weaknesses compared to big box Amigas.

[redrumloa]

Tomas wrote:
I kinda disagree about it being hard to get a amiga onto NET.. Just buy a pcmcia ethernet card from amigakit which comes with drivers.. The amiga already has irc, msn clients and browsers.. The problem is that the browsers are outdated. It will also not be so fast and good looking to surf internet on aga, unless you upgrade to a standard gfx card.

TCP/IP stack? Miami cannot be obtained legally and Genesis on OS3.9 never worked for me with the Prometheus/RTL8029AS. The other thing is most internet apps are commercial and keys are getting hard to find.

Hmm, someone who is an active user should make him a list of what is available and free, or at least available and registerable. Anyone have a few minutes to do that?

[amigakit]

All our wireless network cards and wired network cards are supplied with EasyNet at no extra charge so there is no need for Miami or Genesis.

10/100 NETWORK CARD (MEDIATOR / G-REX) (PCI) -- supplied with EasyNet
X-Surf 3cc (Zorro) -- supplied with EasyNet
NETPCM003 (PCMCIA A1200) -- supplied with EasyNet
NETPCM010 (PCMCIA A1200 Wireless) -- supplied with EasyNet

[stopthegop]

Here is just a partial list of whats out there for the Amiga(and whats not).  


Miami TCP/IP:  Cannot be registered any longer.  Keys of dubious origin rumored to be "around".

Genesis TCP/IP:  Full version available on OS3.9 CD.  Available from Amigakit.  

IBrowse2.3 Web Browser:  Still Registerable.  Supposedly still being improved.  There is rumored to be a 2.4 upcoming?  

AWeb:  Web Browser.  Free, Open Source.  Available, but with all the nuance of open source software in general.  

AmiIRC:  IRC Client.  Not registerable.  See note on Miami.

YAM:  Excellent POP Email client.  Free and still being worked on.  

MakeHTMLMap: Page Creation Tool.  Registerable and actively being worked on.  

AmiFTP:  ftp client.  Not registerable?  Not sure about that one..

Microdot and airmail: email clients.  Not registerable.  

Voyager: Browser.  Not registerable.  

WebPlug: Page Creation Tool.  Free, non-active.  

Moovid: Multimedia (QT) player.  Registerable, non-active.

Frogger: Multimedia Player.  Registerable, non-active.  

Opus 5.82: Directory Utility w/ good FTP tools.  Registerable, non-active.  

Frying Pan: CD/DVD Recording tool.  Registerable.  Active project.

Pagestream: DTP and Page creation.  Registerable.  Active. Excellent!

Cubic IDE: C++, backoffice, server side, dev tools, etc.  Registerable, active.  

Imagine 6: 3D Rendering.  Registerable, active.  

[stopthegop]

Cont'd...

fxScan, fxPaint, and VHI:  Graphics, Digital Photography, Imaging, Page Creation Tools.  All 3 registerable and active.  These can be had for very little $.  

[redrumloa]

@stopthegop

Good list, thanks!

[InTheSand]

ruello wrote:
...guess I'll stick with 3.9 then...

If you do decide to go to 3.9, you might want to check other posts here for recommended system specs... If you're planning on getting an unexpanded A1200, you may as well stick with 3.1.

Upgrading to 3.9 is only really worth it if you have a fast CPU and a graphics card.

And as for something different to a PC, I presume you mean you're fed up with Windows? Why not try a Linux distribution? Something like Ubuntu is very easy to install/try (basically, download a free ISO file, write it to CD-R, reboot the computer). You can try this without installing anything as a large number of distributions are live CDs (e.g. you can boot from the CD without anything being written to the hard drive).

And of course, you can emulate an Amiga environment (or several) on all three main platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac)...

 - Ali

[amigakit]

Forgot to mention we have the following also available as standalone packages (all ex-Eyetech stock):

Genesis - available, not actively developed:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=542

Miami- available (limited stock!), not actively developed:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=592

EasyNet though is in active development and available with many of our networking products.

[ruello]

Hmmm... Maybe I'll go for the 4000 then, I want to be able to take advantage of everything I can.

And I want an amiga, partly because I like the feel of a "classic" OS, and from what I've seen of the Amiga operating system it's one of those old-school ones that was fun to use for some reason. I've also gotta admit, I admire the dedication of Amiga makers and programmers, most people would have given up on a computer by now, they haven't, and I'd rather support them than Microsoft or Dell.

[SamuraiCrow]

An A1200 tower system is actually more expandable than an A4000.  The accelerator cards are more common and you can get a Mediator busboard to plug a pc-style graphics card and sound card into it.  Just make sure that they are supported by the available drivers.

For AHI (sound drivers) you can see what drivers are available at the AHI website.  And for either Picasso96 or CyberGraphics (graphics card drivers) the safest bet would be some sort of old Voodoo PCI graphics card.

If you decide to go with the A4000, then be sure to check out the CyberVision 64-3D graphics cards.  And try to find a Warp-Engine CPU daughterboard (They trim 80% of the propogation delay from between the CPU and memory by putting the CPU and RAM on the same card.)

As for memory, the A4000 takes fast-page SIMMs and won't work with EDO SIMMs.  A Blizzard accelerator on the A1200 will take either type of memory.  I've got 16megs of 60 nanosecond EDO in my 1230 Blizzard (68030-based).  It's enough for most tasks except the latest version of Total Chaos takes 32 megs fast and an '030+ is recommended for that.

As for Total Chaos, it's slowly becoming more portable to non-AGA systems so you may be able to get by with a non-AGA Amiga such as a newer PowerPC-based system eventually.  ;-)