"DEVS:" and "ENV:" were brilliant.
I also like the fact that AmigaOS uses volumes (instead of the mount points like UNIX does), and actual allows you to use NAMES for them. I always get my CD-ROMs confused, and it would be soooo much easier to just name them "CD:" and "CDR:"
The only drawback is that the colon is not very friendly to Internet connections, where it defines the protocol. Then again, Macs used to use colons as directory separators so you could use slashes in filenames (!), and Apple eventually made the migration to slashes.
All I care about is I don't have to worry about "../" causing problems. I hate having to do filtering on all my paths when writing web scripts. It would be so much nicer to just use "forum:", "forum-tpl:", "forum-pics:", and so on. Security would be a snap.
mra500: No virtual memory: turn off computer instead of annoying shutdown (no constant HD swapping)
Against my better judgement, I agree. Virtual memory used to be a crutch. Then, somebody got the idea of using it to "free" memory, which is dumb because maybe data shouldn't be in memory in the first place. Read it off the drive, then put it right back, so you have two copies. Great. Then, game programmers figured if they allocate tons of memory, it will force Windows to swap out EVERYTHING to VM, giving them the maximum amound of physical memory. That screws up background processes, causes swapping hell when you quit the game, and lots of other problems. I hate it when games allocate 900MB+ of memory when my system has 512.
As for shutting down, that's because of buffers. Windows is TERRIBLE with buffers, as it takes forever to write them. If you read a Flash card, it can take minutes if not hours for the buffers to be cleared, and if you take the card out, Windows will still complain even if the buffers are empty. It's sickening.
mra500: Window depth
Oh my God... I HATE the way AmigaOS does it! It seemed so lovely back in 1988 when the only alternative I had was a crappy Mac, but today I simply cannot stand it. It should be possible to move windows wihtout selecting them, which would have the same effect, or being able to "chain" windows together into groups. I'd love to be able to have a command prompt and a GUI view for a directory at the same time, in the same window. The Windows shell is braindead.
Then again, I hate tabbed browsing and use the taskbar to manage a dozen windows at once. Windows doesn't move things around on the taskbar randomly like other OSes will. I'm a Windows taskbar junkie. If only I could drag-and-drop to the taskbar (WTF, MS?! ADD THAT!!!)
bilko9070: I love the Amigas Ram disk!.. I wonder if any other os has such a thing..
There is a RAM disk driver for Windows, but it's a fixed disk size, so it's not that useful. Of course, buffers and caching make the RAM disk less useful than it used to be.
The big plus would be that there wouldn't be so many damn temp files all over the place. When I fix someone's computer, the first thing I do is delete the 300+MB of orphaned temp files in "%userprofile%/Local Settings/temp". :-) I also hate it when temp files are actually working files. If a file is going to be open and locked, it should be in the same folder as the application, not in an unstable location, like a temp folder.
mra500: Yes, I like the RAM disk and right-click for menu too. I would have mentioned the "menu at top of screen instead of on windows" as an advantage, but Mac has this too.
I find it awful that every OS has to have a specific way of doing things, instead of letting you choose. Where the menus are located is a matter of preference, and focing you to use them either at the top of the screen or on each window is dumb. Apple is really, really bad at forcing you into a paricular way of thinking: The Jobs Way(TM).
mra500: I hate a lot of things about Windows, but one of the things that annoys me most (after the registry, of course) is the priority Windows has for screen redraws. A 1989 33Mhz Amiga might be a bit slow at screen redraws now and then, but it is absolutely pathetic for a 2006 3Ghz Windows computer with monster graphics card to regularly leave the screen half-drawn while it goes and does something in the background!
X Windows has the same problem, actually. Responsiveness isn't a strong suit in many modern OSes. Even BeOS has driven me nuts a few times.
Lando: If for some reason you want a 946 x 573 Workbench screen, you can do it, but if you want a 946 x 573 Windows screen, you're stuck.
Two words: vector graphics. It's unforgivable how we're still using so much bitmapped graphics these days, especially on web pages, where the display is *supposed* to be ambiguous, and therefore you're not supposed to hard-code for any one resolution. In my opinion, the WWW needs to modernize itself about 15 years, and REST and XSL are not the way to do it.
I find the filtering is to blame. Most video cards have pretty lousy filtering. It'd be nice if someone made a video card with an optional hardware-based SuperEagle filter. That would ROCK.
Laser: 2-you can create your own reolutions on windows on any new nvidia or ati card but someone here point that on workbench is possible
Yeah, it's a hardware thing, not software. Multiple resolutions was fine for TVs running off a composite signal, but is not very friendly for HDTV or LCD displays. Better filters are what's needed, so everything isn't so damn blurry.
Laser: maybe you have a pc with an old gfx card? or
maybe you are a newbie on emulator zone?
Many emulators don't have a very good GUI framework. In fact, most emulators have a terrible GUI.
Laser: Windows XP SP2 = 10, Workbench 3.9 = 0
I appreciate AmigaOS for its design principles, not for its technology. That's why I tell people I want a new OS that works like Workbench, not a refactored AmigaOS.