Aros has a new trick Video, don't miss it :-)

[Karlos]

Franko! Your Mac is a PC, but that just means it can run Aros! Aros is made by Amigans, for Amigans! If we want a feature added to it, we add it ourselves.

I think Franko's Mac is a G4 model rather than an x86 one. I know AROS PPC runs on the Sam, but does it support PPC Mac?

[nicholas]

I think Franko's Mac is a G4 model rather than an x86 one. I know AROS PPC runs on the Sam, but does it support PPC Mac?

Hosted on OSX or Linux only atm.

[Franko]

@ Bloodline
I use an old iMacG4 PPC 800Hhz with OS X 10.4.11, it's good for browsing the net (except for videos, which are more like slide shows on it).
It would be nice though if Aros does become available as an alternative OS for the classic side of things as I would definitely like to give it a try...

@ Cammy
I know my Mac's a PC but from what I believe it's too old, slow & incompatible to run Aros on, as much as I dislike Windows I can't say OS X on a mac is that much better now I've experienced it...

@ Karlos
Sorry but with OS4.0 on my main Amiga I'll have to disagree with you big time on this one. Although I've set up a whole 250Gb partition and can easily boot straight into it, on my Amiga it's just way too slow to be usable for me. I only use it on an 640 x 512, 32 Colour screen, you can't really go down to 640 x 256  on it as most of the progs written for it tend to have been written for larger screen sizes than this.

The only thing I use it for these days is to create ISO file's for CD's & DVDs using the excellent AmiDVD, but that only because I still haven't got round to finishing my own ISO creating software yet, I only ever use my own DVD burning software on the 68K side cos it burns faster than AmiDVD does on the OS 4 PPC side (and it also burns faster than my iMac, strangely enough)

I'll need to make a video of it to show you what I mean when I say it's too slow, I've done my best to tweak it but nothing I've done seems to speed it up at all, plus it's a bit flakey with my FastATA MKIII controller not to mention the amount of errors I get trying to run older software on it.

You can call it BS or whatever you like and claim I'm jumping on the OS4.0 is shite bandwagon, but I can only give you my opinions based on my own personal experience.

I run OS 3.5 on a 128 colour screen on the 68k side and it runs rings around my OS4.0 set up but whatever the reason for mines being so slow it doesn't really matter as I can do all I wan't with an Amiga quite happily from the 68K side under OS3.x, reckon we'll have to agree to disagree on this one Karlos...

I ain't putting OS4.0 down in fact I've said in a thread elsewhere on here that I'd like to buy OS4.1 Classic when it comes out to see if thats any better. As for Aros I congratulate and applaud all the folk who have and are developing it and wish them well, but I think you'll have gathered by now that I'm a bit of an old dinosaur and stuck in my ways when it comes to computing, it's just simply a matter of my own personal taste and the fact that for the most part I'm perfectly happy with what I can achieve on my Amiga...

[GobanToba]

@Cammy

Wow, great post.  Thanks for taking the time to put all that information up.

I just have to agree with the screen dragging comments.  It's a great feature to have and Amiga was about multitasking.  Having multiple screens is just another way for us to take advantage of that multitasking.

There are lots of companies out there trying to work on a "3D" desktop, most of which are just screens on a cube, you hit a hotkey and the cube rotates to the next screen.  But, really, that's was screen dragging is, a 3D desktop.  You have your desktop and you can move windows in 2D, but more screens adds more dimension.  Don't know if that makes sense.

[Cammy]

Sorry Franko, for some reason I was under the impression you had an Intel Mac, my mistake!

I had no interest in PCs myself until Aros came along. I'm glad I got one eventually though, especially for the fact that I used it over 30,000 feet in the air the other day on the way to and from Adelaide. I played some games, used some art software and watched a couple of videos through my little A1600 Aros netbook.

Amiga computing in the clouds, in the food court, on a bus, going camping, anywhere I like.

[coldfish]

AROS just keeps getting better.  I have a spare laptop that's asking for some Amiga love.

[redrumloa]

I have been asked this question a lot and I removed part of the video that showed this just to introduce the new feature. I will do another next week to show all parts of the functionality with multiple screens diferent resolutions etc.

/me falls down and hits head on floor

[Franko]

@ Cammy
Seems like a pretty neat & cool set up to me, I don't think they'd allow me to lug all my Amiga stuff onto a plane and if they did it would probably cost a fortune for a ticket... :lol:
but I'll never know, cos I'm not allowed to fly (or go deep sea diving) in case my head explodes...

[HenryCase]

Franko, have you tried MorphOS? It's free to try out (only need to pay for a licence if you like it), and it runs on G4 Macs (some of them at least):
http://www.morphos-team.net/downloads.html

[Franko]

@ HenryCase

Just checked out the site you gave, doesn't look like it will run on this old iMac according to the GFX cards needed/supported...

[amigadave]

I have been asked this question a lot and I removed part of the video that showed this just to introduce the new feature. I will do another next week to show all parts of the functionality with multiple screens diferent resolutions etc.

Can you include an HTML5 version for YouTube, or do they do their own conversions automatically for their beta testing of the HTML5 player instead of needing Flash?

[amigadave]

AROS (currently) builds for the x86 (standard PC), the x86-64 (64bit Modern PCs) and a few PPC systems.

What you are thinking of and I am very excited about is the work Jason and Toni are doing to get it to build for Amiga hardware. And they have got quite far... once they have done it, you will be able replace you old 3.1 OS with AROS on your Amiga

-Edit- What do you use to post this? A PPC mac (vague memory of you saying this)?

Will the performance of AROS 68k be anything more than a curiosity?  How many of AROS advanced features will be carried over to the 68k version I wonder?

I like MorphOS2.6 on dirt cheap hardware, as it runs quite fast and well, but must admit that the progress on AROS is getting more interesting every week, and unless there is a change in the rate of OS advancement, new software titles being written for, or ported to MorphOS2.x and/or an eventual port of MorphOS2.x to better hardware in a year or two, I have little doubt that AROS will eventually surpass all other Next Gen Amiga experiences.  Might take a year or two to happen, but unless something changes in the MorphOS camp (applies to the AmigaOS4.x camp too IMO), AROSx64 will probably come out on top eventually. (just like I had hoped that Linux would over take Windows some day in the distant future, but that wish seems to be taking much longer than I had hoped, so maybe I will be wrong about AROSx64 too)

[vidarh]

Will the performance of AROS 68k be anything more than a curiosity?  How many of AROS advanced features will be carried over to the 68k version I wonder?

Depends on whether many classic developers care about it once it's working, I guess. Or how many of the other AROS devs that will care about optimizing things. I know there are enhancements to the console handler and device I can do to speed things up on classic very easily, for example. A large part of it will depend on how many people actually show any interest in running AROS on classics (or in UAE) - it's always more motivating to work on these things once people are actually using them

[mbrantley]

This is great, Stephen! I have always considered screen dragging an essential, distinguishing part of the Amiga experience. I look forward to dragging screens on my little iMica.

[clusteruk]

@all

Thanks for these great comments and to Cammy for the great post explaining Aros better than I could have. There is a lot more coming for Aros, seriously, as for Arosx64 I am not that bothered for now because I cannot fill up 1gb of ram let alone more than 3.5gb so it is not an issue. However, it will come along when it is ready.

My biggest excitement will be when Emumiga is complete, this will give us transparent 68k emulation like on OS4 and MorphOS, at the moment only the 68k Clock runs but this is an amazing acheivement because of all the systems it remaps to Aros and emulates the basic 68k calls.

http://Emumiga.com

As they say the future is bright   :-)

@Marko

I love the fact that you are still using classic Amiga's to do most of your day to day computing needs. I do not consider you a dinosaur, I sit here every day looking at my beautiful A3000 wishing I could afford an 060 for her and get the network working and be able to browse on her. But for now I use my scrap heap nvidia Aros pc.

Marko, check out the end of this video, see what my A1000 can do :-P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYacSfo7ExU

Thanks to all.

[Karlos]

@ Karlos
Sorry but with OS4.0 on my main Amiga I'll have to disagree with you big time on this one. Although I've set up a whole 250Gb partition and can easily boot straight into it, on my Amiga it's just way too slow to be usable for me. I only use it on an 640 x 512, 32 Colour screen, you can't really go down to 640 x 256 on it as most of the progs written for it tend to have been written for larger screen sizes than this.

At the risk of remaining off topic (sorry Stephen), just using 32 colours isn't enough. The gradients and 32-bit icons are no sinecure for AGA.

As I said, I used it with a basic 640x512x16 (more with overscan) display, turned off solid window sizing/moving, replaced the icons with palette based ones, used only simple fonts (not the anti-aliased ones) and turned down the shading and other visual effects and the display was just as snappy as it was on the 68K/3.x at the same resolution. Beyond that, almost everything else was faster (especially having converted the filesystem from FFS to SFS). My blizzard, like yours, has a 240MHz CPU, so it seems reasonable to assume that whatever it is that's making your installation run like treacle isn't necessarily representative.