What still makes Amiga superior today?

[Tricky]

Very simply: it doesn't take several minutes to boot up and shut down!
And it still seems just as fast as my PC for everyday tasks, despite it being about 1/100th as powerful.

[stefcep2]

persia wrote:
It silly to compare an '80s OS with an '00 OS.  OS's today have different demands and run on far more powerful equipment.  We're all here because we like the retro look and feel, it's fun.  The Amiga lost the superior title a decade or more ago.  

The "demands of an OS" are as simple today as they were 15 years ago: to enable the user to issue commands to the hardware to make it do the things the user wants to do".  The stuff that an Amiga can't do is a limitation of the CPU speed (mainly because playback of digital media relies on decompressing heavily compressed files) lack of support for 3D graphics hardware, and non-development of applications software eg web browser.  But this has nothing to do with the OS.

Autoconfig- what plug-and-play should be.  Shove a card in the trap door: INSTANT speed-up, no IRQ, No drivers.

Separate screens makes for clean, clutter-free work environment, not fixated on screen dragging though.

Arexx- ability to automate software and add functionality to  programs by accessing functions of other programs.

Faster CPU actually means a lot faster system operation, rather than Windows where double your cpu clock and you barely notice.

Multitasking: nothing like the amiga's version of it, especially with Executive ( this is the best value piece of shareware you can get. The guy who wrote this charged 10 pounds for software that does things that Linux developers are still trying to figure out how to do, on their quadcore 3 ghz 4 gig ram monsters)

Most of all: simplicity

[Hammer]

Autoconfig- what plug-and-play should be. Shove a card in the trap door: INSTANT speed-up, no IRQ, No drivers.

Without drivers, add-on cards like CyberGraphics would be useless.

IRQ is not an issue in modern X86 PC hardware and OS.

Faster CPU actually means a lot faster system operation, rather than Windows where double your cpu clock and you barely notice.

Modern X86 CPUs are already running significantly faster than the rest the computer e.g. CPU clock speed vs main memory vs harddisk.  

There are other areas that reduces the performance in the  PC e.g. harddisk and main memory.

In X86 PC land, increasing main memory capacity and installing faster hard disk benefits more than installing faster CPU.

[xeron]

Despite the in-fighting and animosity, i'd say one of the very few things that make the amiga "superior" is its userbase.

[Roj]

Without drivers, add-on cards like CyberGraphics would be useless.

Yeah, but Windows doesn't know the hardware is installed until the driver is available. Actually, Windows knows "something" is there. It just doesn't know what it is until it has a driver. Autoconfig lets the system be fully aware of the hardware without requiring additional software to enable it.

Application software will almost always be necessary regardless of the OS. App software and drivers are two different things.

IRQ is not an issue in modern X86 PC hardware and OS.

It shouldn't be, and usually isn't a problem. Depending on certain factors, though, IRQs can still cause problems.

In X86 PC land, increasing main memory capacity and installing faster hard disk benefits more than installing faster CPU.

For good or bad, Amigas don't exhibit this behavior. Increasing memory by itself won't make the applications run any faster. It just reduces that particular system's limitations.

[Roj]

Despite the in-fighting and animosity, i'd say one of the very few things that make the amiga "superior" is its userbase.

I don't remember ever talking directly to the actual author of software I use on Windows. They hide pretty well behind "Customer Support." For the most part, Amiga programmers are much more accessible.

[Tricky]

Actually, what makes Amiga fun for me is that it's so much more fun to program.  Especially games, because the hardware stays still so I get the most out of it; PCs are boringly devoid of definite limitations, trying to get the most out of PC hardware is like chasing a carrot on a stick.  And it's not all APIs and abstraction layers on the Amiga either - proper, raw ASM and direct hardware access is where all the fun is.

[Terse]

EDanaII wrote:
You know, I don't, ordinarily, get into these kind of threads, let alone start one, but recent events got me to thinking -- always a bad start.

My main machine has, at present, 3 OSes installed on it. I ultimately intend to install a few more (like AROS) just for giggles and fun. Recently, that machine died and I had to replace it. The new machine came with Windows already installed, but, of course, I had to figure out how to get those two additional OSes on it. Naturally, I shrunk XP down to a specific size to make room. Then created the correct partitions for the two other OSes and copied images of them into place. But, ironically, they wouldn't boot anymore. As best I could figure, the partition information had changed, and, therefore, the OSes were trying to run off their old partition IDs. I placed them on the drive, in the exact same order, but, somehow, they were not the same.

So, that got me thinking about the Amiga's RDB, which stores logical information about the drive. Had something like that been in place, I doubt anything would have gotten screwed up. At least, in that way.

This, of course, got me to thinking about the good ol' assign command, which also allows you to move applications effortlessly from one drive to another. No reinstall, just a quick couple of keystrokes, and you're back in business.

Also, as I understand it, not 100% necessary, as the Amiga also (someone correct me if I'm wrong) stores directory IDs rather than names, so that if I rename a directory, the system stills knows what to point to if it changes.   

All of these made the machine so much easier to use, with less hair-pulling over all.

But that's not why I started this thread. I'm starting it to see what other things made the system a bliss to use that appear to be unmatched by other operating systems today. Please feel free to state, and argue, your thoughts on the subject. I'd like to hear all thoughts.

Ed.

One think that, I like is you can type on the Amiga and, it does not do that grammar underline thing, you know the one where it tells you that you used, too many commas.   I sense a kindred spirit, here.

[EDanaII]

My PC has, as yet, never told me I used too many commas...


Excellent, thanks for the responses everyone.

With regards to partitioning: It's a funny thing, but that singularly Amiga practice has helped my PC data survive today. Initially, when I first adopted a PC over my Amiga, I used their partitioning scheme 'C:' and as a result, I lost lots of data whenever the partition failed. But in later years, I started deliberately partitioning my drives similar to the Amiga (System:, Work: and adding Applications:). Using this scheme, whenever a partition failed, I still had my other partitions survive and was able to recover a lot quicker.

If only other systems had such a forward looking philosophy.


@ Those picking a nit over "superiority"

I did not mean that the Amiga was superior anymore, I only pointed to those things that are superior _still_ to other OSes today.

Ed.

[bloodline]

Terse wrote:
One think that, I like is you can type on the Amiga and, it does not do that grammar underline thing, you know the one where it tells you that you used, too many commas.   I sense a kindred spirit, here.

But Terse, you do, use, to many, commas in your, text, it, makes it very difficult to, read, or, even under,stand! ;-)

[Terse]

bloodline wrote:

Terse wrote:
One think that, I like is you can type on the Amiga and, it does not do that grammar underline thing, you know the one where it tells you that you used, too many commas.   I sense a kindred spirit, here.

But Terse, you do, use, to many, commas in your, text, it, makes it very difficult to, read, or, even under,stand! ;-)

I kn,ow, and, I th,i,nk I,m getting, worse,!,

[amigadave]

What makes the Amiga superior today is US!  The users of the Amiga, past and present make it superior.

There is no other OS that has the creative, intelligent, dedicated, passionate and absolutely loyal users as the AmigaOS. :-D

[EDanaII]

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 :-D

[Speelgoedmannetje]

What still makes Amiga superior today?

Ehm, for not being a bloated, hacked together pile of crap?

[x56h34]

What still makes Amiga superior today?

The ability to run native Amiga software and games better than the emulators. I think that pretty much sums it up. Everything else can be done faster and cheaper on PC and possibly a Mac too.

[jlmjr1957]

I don't know if I can say superior, but one of the things I've noticed it that old computers, like old cars, have character and are worth the time and effort you put into them to keep them running.

New computers, like new cars, are in most cases an appliance to get a task done. When they are used up a few years down the road, then they are just discarded and no one cares. (I've never seen anyone that wanted to restore an early '90s 386 computer or a Toyota Corolla from the same era.)

-JM