How is OS4 ?

[runequester]

from those who use it, or have in the past, how is amiga OS4 ?

Whats cool and fun ?

[Norway]

Take a look at this wideo from 2009. there have been two more updates after this one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx3q2wFIn6k

[Daedalus]

I quite like it actually! It's basically OS3.9 on steroids. 4.0 was fine, but the compositing in 4.1 is excellent, and even though it's quite superficial, it makes it feel that bit more modern. AmigaInput lets you use USB controllers for games, including older games which use lowlevel.library. Pretty much any older software I've wanted to run has worked just fine, and the version of E-UAE is there for those apps which hit the hardware or do illegal things. These, and various other small things like them make it overall a nice experience.

[runequester]

I quite like it actually! It's basically OS3.9 on steroids. 4.0 was fine, but the compositing in 4.1 is excellent, and even though it's quite superficial, it makes it feel that bit more modern. AmigaInput lets you use USB controllers for games, including older games which use lowlevel.library. Pretty much any older software I've wanted to run has worked just fine, and the version of E-UAE is there for those apps which hit the hardware or do illegal things. These, and various other small things like them make it overall a nice experience.

what machine are you running it on ?

[spirantho]

It's the machine I use most, I think that speaks for itself... I also have a moderately beefy PC, a Classic Amiga (towered 4000 w/CSPPC), an iMica running AROS (which is also much improved as of late) and others, but the AmigaOne is the machine I use the most by far.

Very impressed with OS 4 here, it's very fast and does exactly what I want it to do when I want it to do it - that's what I ask of my OSes.

[Varthall]

I use it on an AmigaOne XE and love it. Your own experience will of course depend on what you'd like to do with it and what are your expectations.

Varthall

[Crumb]

from those who use it, or have in the past, how is amiga OS4 ?

Whats cool and fun ?

It's fine although it's slower and more primitive than MorphOS*(it's quite noticeable if you compare MorphOS1.4.5 and OS4 on Classics, it's slower in almost every way: 2d graphics, 3d graphics, hd access, worst access to other filesystems, slower/worse usb support...). Lack of cheap hardware doesn't make it funnier. OS4 alpha-beta software (even SDL ports) are usually announced like they had discovered sliced bread even thought it's usually released 4-5 years later than stable MorphOS ports. Commercial software like DvPlayer is worse than free MorphOS software like MPlayer. They had to do bounties to bring Apache+MySQL+PHP to OS4 while MorphOS users enjoyed it since the beginning. USB2.0 has been publicly available on MorphOS for years.

OS4 hardware is usually both slower and more expensive. When they released Sam440 5 years later than Peg2/G4 they did that at the same price despiting it was much slower. Today Peg2 is still faster than the machines released 5 years later (Sam440).

I switched to MorphOS on a G4/1.5Ghz Mac Mini and I'm happy now. Most of my friends who are still active amiga users have jumped to MorphOS too. We can enjoy a decent computer right now without waiting for vapourware. Try to watch HD video on those Sam440. Try to watch youtube directly in your browser on a Sam440. With Fab's OWB even on an old Peg1 with g3/600 youtube videos are played smoothly fullscreen without the need of 3rd party apps like getvideo/tubexx.

If you are interested on OS4 get a second hand Peg2.

[Duce]

I enjoy using OS4 on my SAM, but admittedly I view said SAM 440 and OS4 as strictly a hobby/nostalgia machine.  It simply won't do the things I'd expect out of a primary computer.

[Varthall]

It's fine although it's slower and more primitive than MorphOS*(it's quite noticeable if you compare MorphOS1.4.5 and OS4 on Classics, it's slower in almost every way: 2d graphics, 3d graphics, hd access, worst access to other filesystems, slower/worse usb support...). Lack of cheap hardware doesn't make it funnier. OS4 alpha-beta software (even SDL ports) are usually announced like they had discovered sliced bread even thought it's usually released 4-5 years later than stable MorphOS ports.

I don't know much software for OS4 which is labelled as alpha/beta, most of the software released there are stable versions, and not all of the software for OS4 has a MOS version.

 Commercial software like DvPlayer is worse than free MorphOS software like MPlayer.

Not a problem since MPlayer exists for OS4 too, and it's free as well. From my experience, DVPlayer handle DVDs better than MPlayer.

 They had to do bounties to bring Apache+MySQL+PHP to OS4 while MorphOS users enjoyed it since the beginning.

Who cares how a software has been ported, what's important is that the software exists :-)

OS4 hardware is usually both slower and more expensive.

You cannot really compare prices since all the hardware available for MOS is second-hand only.

 When they released Sam440 5 years later than Peg2/G4 they did that at the same price despiting it was much slower. Today Peg2 is still faster than the machines released 5 years later (Sam440).

We'll see how will the Sam460 compare with the Peg2, the new Sam should be shipping in September I have read.

I switched to MorphOS on a G4/1.5Ghz Mac Mini and I'm happy now. Most of my friends who are still active amiga users have jumped to MorphOS too. We can enjoy a decent computer right now without waiting for vapourware. Try to watch HD video on those Sam440. Try to watch youtube directly in your browser on a Sam440. With Fab's OWB even on an old Peg1 with g3/600 youtube videos are played smoothly fullscreen without the need of 3rd party apps like getvideo/tubexx.

That will be probably fixed with a future Timberwolf release with support for HTML5 videos. BTW MOS currently lacks a Firefox port.

Ok, now you have listed all the negative aspects of OS4, now you are missing the positive one :-)

Varthall

[kolla]

@Crumb

MorphOS blows.

[cv643d]

4.1 is great. If you are used to Workbench you will like what you get definitely. Its like the jump between 3.1 and 3.9 instead its a lot smoother than any 060 will ever be with transparant windows, opaque window movement etc...

[Karlos]

I switched to MorphOS on a G4/1.5Ghz Mac Mini and I'm happy now. Most of my friends who are still active amiga users have jumped to MorphOS too. We can enjoy a decent computer right now without waiting for vapourware. Try to watch HD video on those Sam440. Try to watch youtube directly in your browser on a Sam440. With Fab's OWB even on an old Peg1 with g3/600 youtube videos are played smoothly fullscreen without the need of 3rd party apps like getvideo/tubexx.

If you are interested on OS4 get a second hand Peg2.

Shouldn't you be comparing the Sam440 with the Efika, rather than the Peg1? Bit of an unfair contest otherwise, I would have thought.

[som99]

@Crumb

MorphOS blows.

That comment is as constructive as this comment. Surley you could go a bit deeper than using "Blows" as an statement of a OS? But what do I know...

[Fab]

I don't know much software for OS4 which is labelled as alpha/beta, most of the software released there are stable versions, and not all of the software for OS4 has a MOS version.


Not a problem since MPlayer exists for OS4 too, and it's free as well. From my experience, DVPlayer handle DVDs better than MPlayer.

Erm, MPlayer has more complete and faster support for DVD than DVPlayer (and don't blame the DVPlayer author, it's really quite some work to support it fully, even when reusing ffmpeg), and it even supports DVD menus (experimental, though). Whether the OS4 MPlayer port supports all this correctly is another matter.

That will be probably fixed with a future Timberwolf release with support for HTML5 videos. BTW MOS currently lacks a Firefox port.

Timberwolf already has HTML5 video support, but only for Theora, not H264, which is used in Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and a couple others. However, google is pushing its VP8 codec. So, if FireFox 3.7 is ported to OS4, you'll get VP8 support, and only then, you'll have a chance to play youtube in timberwolf (except if you get flash first, but i seriously doubt it).

[Varthall]

Erm, MPlayer has more complete and faster support for DVD than DVPlayer (and don't blame the DVPlayer author, it's really quite some work to support it fully, even when reusing ffmpeg), and it even supports DVD menus (experimental, though). Whether the OS4 MPlayer port supports all this correctly is another matter.

My comparison was in fact with the OS4 version of MPlayer, since runequester was asking only about OS4 on its own.

Timberwolf already has HTML5 video support, but only for Theora, not H264, which is used in Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and a couple others. However, google is pushing its VP8 codec. So, if FireFox 3.7 is ported to OS4, you'll get VP8 support, and only then, you'll have a chance to play youtube in timberwolf (except if you get flash first, but i seriously doubt it).

The Friedens are working on the Firefox 3.7 codebase now:

http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=network/browser/timberwolf_install.lha

Varthall