AmigaOS 4.1 Reviewed at OSNews.com

[Matt_H]

Thom Holwerda received a Sam440ep-Flex review system from ACube and has posted a write-up of his experiences using an Amiga for the first time.

Check out the review here.

[Matt_H]

Good review, I think, as it highlights challenges in getting the Amiga to appeal to new users. The statement that the community is insular and unwelcoming was a real shocker, though. It doesn't matter if any of us think that's untrue - if any potential new users think that to be the case, it's a serious problem we need to work on collectively.

The ClickToFront, snapshotting, and file management issues raised in the article are indicative as well. I suspect most of us who've been using the Amiga for ages probably learned about those things from manuals, magazines, and through osmosis at user groups - resources that are (with rare exceptions on the magazine front) pretty much no longer available. Yes, such questions are easily answered by users here, but it's an impediment to usability if one needs to go directly to the internet to answer questions that should be (and used to be) addressed in documentation. OS4's online help is a big improvement in that it exists, but how will a new user know how to invoke it? There's no Help key on the PC keyboards we use now that would invite anyone to press it and see the result. And the Quickstart guide is lacking in detail.

There's really no substitute for a reference manual. the Commodore OS manuals were digitized and slightly updated for OS3.5. They should be updated again for inclusion on the OS4 CD.

[paolone]

Yes, such questions are easily answered by users here, but it's an impediment to usability if one needs to go directly to the internet to answer questions that should be (and used to be) addressed in documentation.

Sorry, I disagree. I see as an "impediment to usability" everything that has to be explained in a manual, a guide file or a pdf, and in the Amiga world there are plenty of these things. Tom wrote with assumptions that make us laugh, but the issue with the Snapshot option being still there in 2010 *is* a relic from the past and the OS today really should behave differently. But try to propose the Amiga community a change in any obsolete Amiga paradygm, and you'll start a long hot flame.

[persia]

Yep, the '80s remnants are an impediment to acceptance by new users as is the lack of software.  I think this is must read for those who think there are millions of people waiting for a new Amiga.  Here is a person with knowledge, who's sympathetic to the Amiga, and he has serious issues, now image the average Joe or Jenny User.

[Matt_H]

Sorry, I disagree. I see as an "impediment to usability" everything that has to be explained in a manual, a guide file or a pdf, and in the Amiga world there are plenty of these things.

Fair point. Yes, the UI should be obvious from just using it, but I think the next level of support should be the manual, not Google.

Tom wrote with assumptions that make us laugh, but the issue with the Snapshot option being still there in 2010 *is* a relic from the past and the OS today really should behave differently. But try to propose the Amiga community a change in any obsolete Amiga paradygm, and you'll start a long hot flame.

I can't count the number of times I've been grateful for manual snapshotting, but if new users find it annoying, there needs to be some level of accommodation. A global auto-snapshot toggle, perhaps. Could probably be done as a commodity.

Then again, we have the KISS principle and risk of feature creep, from which I think OS4 is already suffering big time. There's also the timeless advice from the UI Style Guide to consider: if 90% of your users prefer a, and all but the most intransigent could put up with it, don't bother making b an option.

Quite a challenge we face!

My point was that since we don't have documentation anymore, we need to find new ways to address the Amiga's idiosyncrasies. My original thought was to simply update the documentation, but there could be other solutions as well.

[spihunter]

Article seems pretty right on target........

[paolone]

My point was that since we don't have documentation anymore, we need to find new ways to address the Amiga's idiosyncrasies. My original thought was to simply update the documentation, but there could be other solutions as well.

The solution is making default everything people (and I mean "people", not the "few survivors of the Amiga community") are accustomed to. People cycle tasks with Alt+Tab? Well, Alt+Tab will be used for cycling tasks. People want automatic snapshotting? Snapshotting should be automatic, and so on. There are many many little tricks a GUI can handle without denaturizing itself. AROS for istance uses some: try mounting a PC CD-ROM on both AROS and AmigaOS 4, and you'll notice a difference: on the former, Show->All files will be chosen automatically. Why? Because you won't likely find .info files on PC CD-ROMs! And this is absolutely needed on a read-only media. On Icaros Desktop I am trying to help people accustomed to other OSes customizing a little the AROS GUI. I have to do that, since the most frequent negative feedbacks I got from people that tried it were... that the GUI didn't act like Windows! There are many places where Amiga paradygms can be changed without loosing in functionality. And they should be addressed, if AmigaOS/AROS/Whatosever want to approach people outside the Amiga community.

[Nautilus]

Nice article. I'm still waiting for an OS4.1 for Mac...

[persia]

One might ask if the concept of dot info files makes sense in 2009....

Disclaimer - I have a couple dot info domains registered....

[bluestarweb]

a very interesting read and answers many of my concerns with purchasing an AOS 4.1 system. for me the biggest contention point is the lack of applications, as ever and always a platform is as limited as or as powerful as the applications it can run, however given the move to web based and apps on the cloud this can be acceptable to a degree...one thing i would like to know is if there is a java vm implementation available? this could open up a lot of available applications, aswell as flash support. i am also curious to advancements in the shell and command line interaction, as a hardcore unix nut this is important to me

[Matt_H]

No Java, but Flash (gnash) will probably be available soon.

The Amiga shell has always been pretty powerful; I expect you'll be happy with it. If you've never used an Amiga before, buy Amiga Forever and try out the shell in an OS3.x environment - very similar experience for a substantially smaller investment.

[klx300r]

overall a decent review ...recent ports of gnash and firefox will bring OS4.1 up to par with other platforms very soon hopefully..AbiWord and Gnumeric are very capable apps that I sue regularly and can honestly say that my Sam flex running OS4.1 has replaced my old pc desktop for my daily computing needs :-)