Amiga Forever Review @ OSNews

[Eugenia]

The Amiga. A platform with a history. Today, we are reviewing Amiga Forever, which was kindly provided by Cloanto, its manufacturer. The question I tried to answer during the usage of Amiga Forever was: does it have anything to offer to OS enthousiasts today? Of course Amiga Forever offers great functionality for Amiga fans, but what about the rest of us? Can Amiga Forever cater to more people than just Amiga fans?



Read the complete review at OSNews.com.

[uncharted]

That is quite frankly one of the crappest reviews I've ever read in my life.  Talk about completely missing the point.

Thanks for wasting my time.

[Steady]

I don't know. It is a review from someone who hasn't used an Amiga before and he did at least know a bit about it before he started. Maybe he was reading all the blurb on Amiga Forever though. Based on the fact that all the AmigaOS versions earlier than 3.5 DO look pretty out, his review on appearance is fair enough. He should put Windows 1.0 next to it and then decide. It'll be looking pretty good then. Don't forget that before he started, he was imagining MacOS X or Windows XP which are a good 7-8 years newer than the last real Workbench revision at Commdore.

So, yeah, it wasn't all positive and he never got a chance to really use it in anger but that's the way all these things look when you just boot an emulator and play with the basic OS tools.

Why he was specifically looking for something useful for today I don't know. I bet if he installed Windows 3.1 and nothing else, and then hoped to use it productively, he would be disappointed.

I notice that he really liked the draggable screens. That is definitely one of the best parts of Intuition and I'm glad it will be in AmigaOS 4.

[uncharted]

It was the fact he was reviewing an emulation package as if it was an operating system that I'm talking about.  Amiga Forever is quite clearly a retrospective, nostalgic product.

Not only that but he completely ignored the 2 discs of extra content, perhaps he might of got a clue from those what AF is about.

[Steady]

Yeah, I agree with you there. He should have reviewed the whole package for what it is, a nostalgic view of the Amiga, not an alternative to Windows XP et al.

[bloodline]

I though it was quite a good review... :-?

[System]

>I thought it was a pretty good review.

As did I.  Anyway, I don't see anyone else stepping up and writing better reviews (hint, hint)...

[dylansmrjo]

Relax guys (and girls).

It was just a quickie review written by Thom, to just show it off to all those at OSNews knowing next to nothing about Amiga.

And it spawned quite an interesting discussion about usability - that is until the flamewar between Linus Torvalds took everybody's attention.

I'd like to see a deep deep review of MorphOS and AmigaOS 4 on OSNews - but being a primarily Windows/Mac place with some Linux too (and SkyOS too because Thom is highly dedicated to that system), it's not likely to happen.

Small OS'es need their own sites, or we'll drown among the bigger ones.

[Eugenia]

>I'd like to see a deep deep review of MorphOS and AmigaOS 4 on OSNews

Sit down and write it. We will publish it.

[KThunder]

i thought it was a pretty decent review. he saw value in it, although not as a main os which it isnt anyway.

id like to see a full review of morphos, os4 AND aros on osnews.

id sit down and write one but i dont know too much about morphos or os4 other than the obvious.

[itix]

The review was good albeit short. There is some truth in his rant
about menus... Although user can get menu bar visible by pressing
right mouse button down at any place it doesnt work in every
application. Some programs bring context menus, some other zips
window, some other does nothing -- it isnt systematic.

[uncharted]

As did I.  Anyway, I don't see anyone else stepping up and writing better reviews (hint, hint)...

I don't see anyone sending me free copies of software to review (hint, hint)... ;-)

[Glaucus]

Although user can get menu bar visible by pressing right mouse button down at any place it doesnt work in every application. Some programs bring context menus, some other zips window, some other does nothing -- it isnt systematic.

It is supposed to be though. Commodore did put out a style guide, that most serious apps do follow. But yeah, there will always be those apps that stray from the standard. A great example was DeluxePaint, which used the right mouse button to good use.

However, despite all it's peculiarities, it was still an easy system to use. In a weird way, it just made sense. Perhaps that's only because it was my first computer, or that back then there was no universal standards for UI design. In hind sight, the Amiga needed a three button mouse (with a scroll wheel preferably ;-) ).

  - Mike

[Dr_Righteous]

Interesting review... From the point of view of someone who has no idea whatsoever how to use it.

Perhaps there should be a "Simple Mode" window with only a choice of models to emulate. Had this guy been able to click "Amiga 4000" his experience may have been a bit more pleasant.

[uncharted]

But that was problem, the actual product itself was pretty much ignored by the "review".  WinUAE offers the ability to choose a set up of a stock system quickly  (like A500, 1200 etc.)

Where is mention of the alternatives?  Where is the discussion of the configuration?  Is it easy to change configuration?  Did he encounter compatibility issues?  What software comes with the package?

So much was missed out.