Amiga flavors.

[CroCrew]

Ok, I need to be brought up to speed and you guys and gals seem to be the best of the best. I want to become an Amigan again. Back in the day I was a hard core Commodore/Amiga fan. I created several applications with my old systems. Now I want to come make a comeback.

From my understanding there are 4 main flavors in use today AmigaOS (m68k), AmigaOS4 (PPC), MorphOS (PPC) and AROS (i686). I know that I am going to go with a PPC or i686. So, I have some questions.

AmigaOS4: Are there any older systems that can load up this OS? Who knows of the cheapest places to buy a new or used system with AmigaOS4 installed?

MorphOS: Is there a version that can be installed on a Mac? If so What Macs can use MorphOS? Who knows of the cheapest places to buy a new or used system with MorphOS installed?

AROS: Is there more then flavor of AROS?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

[bloodline]

CroCrew wrote:

AmigaOS4: Are there any older systems that can load up this OS? Who knows of the cheapest places to buy a new or used system with AmigaOS4 installed?

AmigaONE system only... someone might be able to sell you one second hand. They don't make them anymore so you won't find a new one.

MorphOS: Is there a version that can be installed on a Mac? If so What Macs can use MorphOS? Who knows of the cheapest places to buy a new or used system with MorphOS installed?

The Pegasos and any PPC Amiga (not AmigaONE)... as far as I know it doesn't work on a Mac. Best ask at the MorphZone forums to findout the cheapest price of a Pegasos board... or pick up a PPC Amiga 1200 cheap from Ebay.

AROS: Is there more then flavor of AROS?

AROS comes in several flavours:

x86 (Runs on your standard PC)
x86-Hosted (It runs on top of Linux on a Standard PC)
PPC-Hosted (It runs on top of Linux on a PPC machine)
68k-AFA (It replaces AmigaOS code with AROS code to add advanced features to the OS).

The best for most users is the AROS-MAX distribution... check out www.aros-max.co.uk which is a live CD that should boot on most modern PCs though USB isn't supported yet.

There are also AROS-in-box/AROS-on-Windows packages which run a PC emulator on Windows that boot into AROS.

[mr_a500]

The Amiga 500 has a lovely crunchy plastic flavour with a hard silicon/metal centre. I like to start with small bites at the front of the keyboard and work my way back from there. Anything you don't finish you can put back in the fridge and will keep fresh for years. I got a couple power supplies in my freezer I might fry up for supper tonight. Mmmm....

[reddwarfer]

Brilliant Mr_500!!

A couple of years ago me and a friend where making a mock cookery program. A couple of dishes were made including "burnt chips" and a "Roast A1200 covered in herbs". Use your imagination for the burnt chips :-P

[CroCrew]

AmigaONE system only... someone might be able to sell you one second hand. They don't make them anymore so you won't find a new one.

Are you saying that the new Amiga OS4 only works on a system that is no longer being made? Then is OS4 dead?

[xeron]

@CroCrew
OS4 itself is being worked on full time by a small team of developers, and part time by a larger group of developers. The OS4 team wouldn't continue if they didn't have plans to get OS4 out there on available hardware in the near future.

There are two publically announced projects to bring out PPC hardware for OS4 (ACK and Troika), which a lot of people are very skeptical of (understandibly), and the OS4 team have hinted at other deals in the pipeline.

Basically, a lot of people think OS4 is now totally dead, a lot of other people don't agree.

Welcome to the Amiga world ;-)

Personally, I'm a beta tester and I can see for myself that OS4 development hasn't stalled (there are still new updates nearly every day for betatesters). I also have a bit more faith than most that Adam (the guy behind some new OS4 hardware) will actually get some hardware out, but i'll leave that up to you to judge.

BTW: MorphOS is kind-of in the total opposite situation; hardware is out there and available, but the next major update to it (1.5) has been "due for release any time soon" for quite a while now, and a fair few MOS users have totally given up hope for it to ever appear. But there have been a lot of small updates released, as well as unofficial updates from end-users.

[Piru]

BTW: MorphOS is kind-of in the total opposite situation; hardware is out there and available, but the next major update to it (1.5) has been "due for release any time soon" for quite a while now, and a fair few MOS users have totally given up hope for it to ever appear.

Personally, I'm a MorphOS developer, and I can see for myself that MorphOS development hasn't stalled (there are new updates nearly every day for internal alphatesters).

Just don't ask when 1.5 will be out. ;-)

[xeron]

@Piru
"When its done"? ;-)

[pierre]

well more accuratly.

peg/morphOS
morphOS and peg hardware are available and they are working on the next OS. v1.5

a1/os4
no hardware availabe, no OS has been released.
I guess OS4 has been running for sometime now...

[xeron]

@pierre
OS4 pre releases were released with the AmigaOne, so "no OS has been released" is completely wrong, and various different people say various different things about MOS 1.5, but if Piru is confident it will be released, I guess it probably will be some day.

[pierre]

I could be wrong but I though the OS that came the a1 while it was availabe was a dev version?  There has been no offical os4 release to my knowlage. But it could happen "anytime" it has been anounced since at least 2002...  please let me know if I missed this release as we have all been waiting!

[xeron]

"a dev version"? Its a pre-release version of OS4, but its in no-way restricted. It has all the functionality you would expect of AmigaOS, is very useable and isn't just used by developers.

[pierre]

yes a pre release is not the same as commercial release, it kind of like a beta? right?  
So I will say it again, OS4 has not been official release.  I would like to but os4 but I can't.

morphOS and hardware can be purchased here:
https://www.pegasosppc.com/special_odw.php?partner=morphos
currently they are working on there second commercial release morphOS 1.5.

[xeron]

You didn't say that. You said there has been no OS release, which is patent rubbish. When my AmigaOne boots it is running an operating system. That operating system is OS4. This is true for ALL amigaone owners with OS4 pre-releases installed.

They are running the OS4 operating system which was released to them through the pre-release programme.

Edit: And you had an opportunity to buy an OS4 computer before the uA1's sold out, but clearly you didn't take that opportunity. There will be future opportunities to buy OS4 and hardware in the future, too (IMHO), so if you miss out again, it'll be your fault. Again.

[CroCrew]

Wow, thanks for the great information. Keep on betatesting.

xeron wrote:
@CroCrew
OS4 itself is being worked on full time by a small team of developers, and part time by a larger group of developers. The OS4 team wouldn't continue if they didn't have plans to get OS4 out there on available hardware in the near future.

There are two publically announced projects to bring out PPC hardware for OS4 (ACK and Troika), which a lot of people are very skeptical of (understandibly), and the OS4 team have hinted at other deals in the pipeline.

Basically, a lot of people think OS4 is now totally dead, a lot of other people don't agree.

Welcome to the Amiga world ;-)

Personally, I'm a beta tester and I can see for myself that OS4 development hasn't stalled (there are still new updates nearly every day for betatesters). I also have a bit more faith than most that Adam (the guy behind some new OS4 hardware) will actually get some hardware out, but i'll leave that up to you to judge.

BTW: MorphOS is kind-of in the total opposite situation; hardware is out there and available, but the next major update to it (1.5) has been "due for release any time soon" for quite a while now, and a fair few MOS users have totally given up hope for it to ever appear. But there have been a lot of small updates released, as well as unofficial updates from end-users.