Amiga Workbench advantages over other OSes

[whabang]

One small, but very practical feature is, that you can emulate a mouse using the keyboard. I'd love to be able to do that in Windows!

The default workbench/drawer system is very simple. I like having nothing but the drives on the bench.

Autodetection of floppies is pretty, neat, although useless. B-) PC's can also do that, but no OS'es support it.

[mr_a500]

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.

Autodetection of floppies is pretty, neat, although useless. B-) PC's can also do that, but no OS'es support it.

I don't think autodetection of floppies is useless - it's quite convenient actually. In WB, when asked to insert a floppy and you insert it, you don't have to click "OK" - it just knows it's there. In Windows, you had to click on a requester or in explorer press F5 to refresh. I didn't mention it because Mac has autodetection too and this thread is about Amiga-only advantages. :-)

[Azryl]

When you have cd filesystem installed you get on the workbench a CD image/icon once the cd-disk is initialized, valid file format is read and the disk.icon found and displayed! Woot.. wtg WorkBench!

Also, a feature of WorkBench 3.1 was smart window refresh! amazing, when a window with text is displayed UNDER another window, it smart refreshes all text in that window!

No more Micro$oft Winblowz large blank rectangular random colour on display until the OS decides a screen refresh should happen...  hmmm 30 seconds later maybe? whats the rush, its only the working screen area the user needs :-p

Az

[itix]

Man... is there someone still using FLOPPIES in the year 2006? Everyone today in the real world is using USB memory sticks.

Geez.

[mr_a500]

Man... is there someone still using FLOPPIES in the year 2006? Everyone today in the real world is using USB memory sticks.

Geez.

What? It's 2006??? The last thing I remember was setting my time machine for 1989 and then...  ah hell, the damn thing must have malfunctioned again. ;-)

Actually I only use floppies to WHDinstall the odd demo that's only in ADF format or back up a few small important things. Notice how I didn't include floppy auto-detection as one of my "Amiga advantages".

No more Micro$oft Winblowz large blank rectangular random colour on display until the OS decides a screen refresh should happen... hmmm 30 seconds later maybe? whats the rush, its only the working screen area the user needs :-p

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!

[Azryl]

who could forget... Amiga OS and WorkBench are VOLUME sensative.. you can path to not only device but also to volume, no other OS I know of has this ability!

Yay for Amiga :-)

Az

[DonnyEMU]

This is totally a useless thread because none of these things are "unique" anymore. They exist elsewhere even on windows.. My F1 key says HELP on it :-)

The one thing I like about Amiga Workbench (and I hope wanderer gets this hey Aros GUYS!) Is snapshoted ICON positioning and .info files for icons.

I think the most annoying feature I could think of is AppICONS and how they are implemented. The idea is a good one, but no one has used them very effectively.

For those who doubt my post, about Windows doing all this stuff don't make me post a 3 page reply with graphics as proof.. It's such a waste of time here for an Amiga focused forum. We all don't live in 1991 here so please as the previous poster said keep this on point.. I personally would like to see an Classic AmigaOS/AROS extension that allows the CLI to also let us use UNC (UNIVERSAL naming conventions).

Universal Naming Convention Info

[Lando]

I like the way you can create any screenmode you like using P96 or CGX.  

Say for example you want to play a SNES emulator, you can go into P96mode and create a 256x224 screenmode, run the SNES emulator, and select the newly-made screenmode in the requester box.  Now you can play full-screen SNES games just like on a real SNES.

On PC / Windows you can't create your own screenmodes, just choose from standard Vesa modes.  So for a 256x224 SNES display you'd have to play in 320x200 with borders left and right and with part of the top/bottom chopped off, or in 512 x 384 with big borders left / right / top / bottom, or in a higher res mode with the pixels 'stretched to fit' which never looks right.

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.

[mr_a500]

For those who doubt my post, about Windows doing all this stuff don't make me post a 3 page reply with graphics as proof..

Uh, I doubt your post and would be pleased if you could post a 3 page reply. ;-)

I know there are hacks to add "always on top" gadgets, have a "virtual desktop" with multiple screens (same resolution/depth) and I'm sure there are fancy animated icon hacks. And of course you could disable virtual memory. (and watch the crashes)

But I'd love for you to point out how:

1. Each application can run on its own screen with different modes/depths with "fast" flipping and draging (none of that wait for monitor to painfully switch crap)

2. ALL settings in Windows can be Used or Saved instantly and permanently - see first post for detail (permanently means that they won't mysteriously change back to MS defaults!)

3. You can prevent windows from being moved off screen

4. All characters except colon and forward slash can be used in filenames (that includes backslash!)

5. All install files for Windows applications are in plain text (this is a tough one - if you can show me that, I'm impressed)


If you can't show me these exact points, then Windows can't do it and this thread isn't useless.

[leirbag28]

@mr_a500

this Thread is DEFINITELTY NOT useless..............it reminds us all why we still love using our Amigas and Proud of it.......(for those of us who still use them as Main machines)

And by the way  the LEAVE OUT  is a beautiful feature Ten times easier than freakin Windows..........I hate SHortCuts...............its nice to be able to put your toys away back where they came from Super easily..........and once again take them out if you wish.  Thats the LEAVE OUT and PUT AWAY feature for ya.

and the Amiga Menu (Cuopled with ToolsDaemon and MagicMenu) is a killer...........like it better than START menu and FINDER on the Mac.

Now I am a little more assured of using my Amiga after these reminders of the Good things about Amiga and Workbench :-)

[Wayne]

well I see that some ppl here don't know very well windows features or gfx cards features or

1-virtual memory can be disabled on windows but someone here point that no virtual memory is a workbench advantage

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

3-surfing through screens is also possible on windows pressing ALT-TAB

4-(amigaos shutdown is faster) ?
I never shutdown my computer using windows buttons...that's is for lamer users
also I have disabled scandisk or checkdisk to not work after a bad shutdown
I see that lamer windows users still don't know that  

5-the only adantege of amigaOS is that boot faster that any windows version



btw,

Lando,

1-create you own resolutions on window is possible using original software ot third party utilities like power strip or rivatuner.I create my own (680x576) only for use with winuae to simulate a perfect amiga PAL screen

2-why you want create a 256x222 screen for nintendo when the visual quality is lot better using a resolution of 1600x1200 with hardware strech and a 2xsai filter ?
maybe you have a pc with an old gfx card? or
maybe you are a newbie on emulator zone?





bye,Laser

[odin]

Laser wrote:

I never shutdown my computer using windows buttons...that's is for lamer users
also I have disabled scandisk or checkdisk to not work after a bad shutdown
I see that lamer windows users still don't know that  

or
maybe you are a newbie on emulator zone?

You must be very 1337 then.

[tonyvdb]

For me the big advantage of workbench is the small footprint and user friendlyness. Its true multitasking abilityies and low memory use.

[Wayne]

odin,

I don't know what the hell is that 1337
anyways I like that number

and anyways I see that some ppl here in this forum still live in primates times
and some lives in a world of NOSTALGIA
10 years ago:

Windows 95 =5
Workbench  =5


The amiga user should be more objetive
cause the reality is diferen now:


Windows XP SP2 = 10
Workbench 3.9  = 0

that's the reality

anyways I like amiga os and sometimes use it but I not live in the past


bye, Laser

[itix]

@Lando

Say for example you want to play a SNES emulator, you can go into P96mode and create a 256x224 screenmode, run the SNES emulator, and select the newly-made screenmode in the requester box. Now you can play full-screen SNES games just like on a real SNES.

I'd say the most optimal would be if that particular SNES emulator supports overlay. With an overlay support a window, no matter what are its dimensions, can be zoomed to a fullscreen size.

I remember when I was viewing MPGs on my A1200/BPPC with AGA and I created optimal screen modes for video playback. Today I just use MPlayer on Pegasos to play those same videos and by pressing 'f' I get it scaled to the fullscreen. All this without special configuring from the user...

[coldfish]

Unfortunately, my clearest memories of WB are of v1.3 on an 1meg A500, it was ugly, slow as hell and difficult to navigate.  I think this is what the majority of past Amiga (specifically A500) users will remeber.  Not everyone went on to own big box expanded machines.

Later, I had an A1200 running 3.1 and a PC running win 95, the PC blew the 1200 away for versatility, usefulness and speed, the Amiga was more fun, though it could be a real pain in the ass if the machine crashed during an install, which happened surprisingly often with aging floppies and drives.

For me, comparing my WB experience on both these machines to modern OSes like XP, OSX or Linux running KDE and I seriously wonder why anyone would torture themselves?
 
I have used WB3.9 under emulation, (with Picasso Gfx ect) and it is quite nice but lacks the feel of cohesion of a modern "cling-wrapped" OS like XP or OSX, and is ultimately more a novelty than anything else.  

Having said that if OS4 got ported to cheap hardware I'd be on it like flies on this guy; :horse: