It's been a long time

[Thelgord]

Hello all. I'll be honest, I haven't touched an Amiga since the 90's. When the name went down, I figured it was done for and switched to Mac. I am very glad to see I was wrong. I didn't even know you could get a new Amiga until a few weeks ago.

A little about me. I actually use windows machines at the office, I am an instructor for the U. S. Army, so my personal computing needs are fairly modest. I am also thinking of getting an Amiga, I really do miss my A500. I am also a writer. So my needs are:

1) Working with documents. I am not expecting Adobe Pro or anything, but a PDF viewer would be nice. Also word processor software that is at least mostly comparable with modern documents. Maybe google docs or Libre Office or even Pages via iCloud web site. I am just not sure what is out there, but I am try to find out.

2) Network access. I need to be able to access share drives. Cloud drives would be great but not necessary. Also network printers would be a plus, but I understand there is going to be driver limitations.

3) Any other advice would be most appreciated.

Basically I am looking to setup a writing work station/office that is as distraction free as I can make it. If I can find software that is compatible with even just RTF files I can use my iOS devices to convert the final versions. I think going back to an Amiga will go a long way toward that. Thanks again for any advice.

[djomre]

Me too.  I had a couple of Amigas and sold everything about 7 years ago.  It's exciting to see new hardware development.  I'll probably shop around for an A1200 or big box and get back in the game.  Once an Amiga-Head, always an Amiga-Head!  :lol::laugh1:

[Matt_H]

Welcome back! You've got a bunch of options for getting back into Amigas these days:

1. A vintage machine 500, 1200, 3000, etc)
2. Emulation with WinUAE or FS-UAE
3. An AmigaOS4 machine like the X1000, X5000, or SAM boards
4. MorphOS, a ground-up rebuild of AmigaOS for most PPC Mac hardware
5. AROS, an open-source ground up rebuild of AmigaOS for x86 hardware and a few others
6. An FPGA hardware emulation board. These are mostly intended for games at the moment.

MorphOS and AROS probably have the best web browser situation on the Amiga-like platforms these days, but progress is being made for the vintage machines and OS4 as well.

For word processing, there are the old classics Wordworth and Final Writer. OS4 has a program called CinnamonWriter and there's something available on MorphOS, the name of which escapes me.

For network drives, there's smbfs for Windows-style SMB shares. A Dropbox handler is in development but I haven't tested it yet.

Printing is going to be tough. HP JetDirect printing works if you have a corresponding printer driver. Your safest bet will be something that supports PostScript. The network printer interfaces might support a few other protocols as well, but I'm  not certain.

Don't be afraid to ask questions - the gang here will help you get going!

[Rob]

If you still have any PowerPC Mac hardware lying around you could try out MorphOS for free and try out Cinnamon writer which offer some compatibility with the outside world.

Libre Office is being ported to OS4 but you'd need more reasons than an office package to  justify shelling out the price of hardware.  Emulation through UAE and the 30 Euro price tag for the OS might serve reasonably cheap evaluation of OS4.

One of the members of these forums, Timothy Deters AKA Terminills, has the rights to Softwood's products and work is currently in progress on updating Final Writer.  I think compatibility with the outside world is on the cards and ports are planned for AROS, OS4, MorphOS and 68K.

AROS is free to try if you have a suitable X86 system handy.

[Thelgord]

Thanks for all of the info, I know have a lot of reading to do before I jump in. Budget is of course important, but I am setting aside money for the buy in. That of course assumes I can buy in.

If I do this, I will be all retro Amiga. I love the newer machines, but the cost is just far too high. I can get a new iMac for around the same price and I am not looking to spend a lot of money. Certainly not that much anyway.

So I have been reading, and reading, and reading. Then I read some more. I think I have settled on Word Perfect 4.1 for the software needs. I can save in WP format, then use Libre Office on my Mac to change the document format for submission requirements. Or I could use this site: http://www.zamzar.com/convert/wpd-to-doc/ (Not really sure how well it works as I have never used it)

For printing, I have decided that the few times I do need to print I will transfer the document to my Mac then print from there. Assuming of course I can open the file correctly.

Since I am looking to setup a writing station, I don't need a lot, but would like a machine with a HD (or a flash drive as this seems to be a popular mod, and floppies go bad). I would really like a full keyboard, so I am thinking A500, A2000, A3000 or A1200. Though I think the A1200 may be a bit hard to find in good shape.

I need a recommendation for a machine, a classic machine. As in, I am not sure about the difference in the WorkBench version numbers. I had an A1000, then an A500 so I am not familiar with anything beyond that. WB 2.1 (I think) was the last one I worked with. WB 2 seems to be widely supported, WB3 I am not so sure about, and from I can gather, a lot software for WB4 is either stalled, incomplete, or abandonware even if it is more "modern".

Just so you guys get where I am coming from, let me explain my "writing style". I have a room, well, large hallway closet actually, that I do all of my writing work in. When I am "in the zone" I don't want distractions. I just don't. Not even from my wife. Well, unless the house is on fire, maybe ...

I normally use my Mac Laptop that is basically set in airplane mode. No Wifi, Ethernet, or BlueTooth turned on. Which works ... most of the time anyway. Until I need to access a shared folder or something else that is not locally stored on the laptop. I try to plan for everything I think I might need, but there is always that one thing. Anyway, once I connect to the network, I am connected. All of my notifications from twitter and FaceBook start going off, my iMessage lights up like a christmas tree, emails start to come in, it's a mess. I am just OCD enough that work basically stops until all of notifications are cleared out, email cleaned up, etc. I'm crazy I know, but it is just how I am.

I have tried a DOS machine, which was horrible really, but the concept was good. The great thing about the Amiga is it just good enough to get online, or at least the local network, but just "not mac enough" to hammer me with sending me a bunch of notifications. If I could access my local share drive, which it looks like I will be able to, I would be in heaven.

Honestly, I would love to have another A500 (it really was a great little machine for its day). Would that be enough to run Wordperfect? Or even let me tryout some other software packages for writing? Or should I get something with WB3?

Ok, that turned out way longer than I had anticipated. Sorry about that, there is just so much I either don't know or have forgotten.

[Iggy]

...For word processing, there are the old classics Wordworth and Final Writer. OS4 has a program called CinnamonWriter and there's something available on MorphOS, the name of which escapes me...

Um...Cinnamon Writer (since Claus supports all 3 NG OS'). And the classic word processors usually work on PPC NG platforms as well.

I think we've got PDF viewers (but I haven't used them), and Google Docs ought to work.

Our web browser does need some work to update it.
But that will get done, in time. Two weeks, maybe? :lol:

Instead of looking around for an A500, I'd wait until Jens releases the new A1200 boards (or consider an fpga machine).

[Thelgord]

Thanks for the info on Cinnamon Writer. Unfortunately it requires OS4, and I just can't justify the cost (nearly a grand) to get a machine that can run it. Maybe in the future, but not at this point. If I wanted to make it easy I would get a linux machine and be done with it, but honestly, I really don't like the look and feel of Linux. Personal preference I guess you could say.

I am honestly looking to spend around $200 (maybe more, but not much more) on this ... I guess I will call it a project. In total. For $1000 I could look into a lot of other options. The PDF viewer, or lack of one, isn't a deal breaker, just a nice to have. I don't really need a web browser. Again, nice to have, but not needed.

[Thelgord]

However, $200 will probably end up being too low. Still, I would like to keep the cost down as much as I can.

[Rob]

Thanks for the info on Cinnamon Writer. Unfortunately it requires OS4, and I just can't justify the cost (nearly a grand) to get a machine that can run it. Maybe in the future, but not at this point. If I wanted to make it easy I would get a linux machine and be done with it, but honestly, I really don't like the look and feel of Linux. Personal preference I guess you could say.

I am honestly looking to spend around $200 (maybe more, but not much more) on this ... I guess I will call it a project. In total. For $1000 I could look into a lot of other options. The PDF viewer, or lack of one, isn't a deal breaker, just a nice to have. I don't really need a web browser. Again, nice to have, but not needed.

Cinnamon Writer is available for MorphOS too.  

You can get a cheap MacMini G4 1.5Ghz from the Ebay link below.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262936104622

MorphOS is free to download and try.  It slows down after 30 minutes and requires a reboot.  You can get a keyfile which removes this restriction for 79 Euro.  That's well below your $200 budget.

For an Amiga 500 system I'd look at getting an ACA500 Plus card from Individual computers.  It costs 129.96 Euro and is excellent value for money since you get a 14Mhz 68000 which can be overclocked to upto 42Mhz, 8MB fast RAM, 8MB Flash, 2 CF slots.  You also get a lot of software built pre-installed on the flash consisting of Kickstart 1.2, 1.3 and 3.1 ROMs, OS3.1 disk set and Action Replay.

https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/produkt-details/product/ACA500plus.html

An A500+ is probably the best A500 you can get since it comes with 1MB chipmem and can be expanded the 2MB chip, is also comes with a Kickstart 2.04 ROM to add to the ROMs that come with the ACA card.  Make sure it is working properly and as soon as you get it remove the battery since these are prone to leaking, and clean up anything that may have leaked onto the board.
Normal A500s don't have a clock onboard so there's no leaky battery to worry about if you go for one of those models.

An 500 and ACA card will take you a fair amount over $200 unless you get really lucky but it's the cheapest option if you want more than just a floppy based system with a limited amount of RAM.

[Thelgord]

I know nothing of MorphOS. More reading to do! LOL! There is so much to read ...

[3583Bytes]

Welcome back!

My advice is find out what is cheap or available on craigslist in your area.  Let's face it if you could get an Amiga 1200/3000/4000 for a good price locally that is probably your best bet.  However that may not be a possibility.

Since you live in North America you will notice that the Amiga's above are actually not all that common.  We get allot more big box Amiga's like the 2000 and quite a bit Amiga 500s

The good news is that the almost any Amiga is expandable now thanks to some really awesome expansion cards produced by hobbyists.

For the Amiga 500 I agree that the ACA 500+ is your best bet.  However there are some really good and cheaper products at kipper2k.com which will allow  you to expand the memory and install a Flash hard drive.

For the Amiga 2000/3000/4000 there is the SCSII2SD device that allows you to hook up an SD card to your SCSII port in the big box Amigas.

To copy your files to and from Amigas there is an awesome free product called Amiga Explorer

https://www.amigaforever.com/ae/

[zylesea]

I know nothing of MorphOS. More reading to do! LOL! There is so much to read ...

Here's my brief introduction (a 5 minute read) to MorphOS for users with an Amiga background: http://via.i-networx.de/wim.htm

The demo of MorphOS is free, the machines start very cheap, my suggestion is a Mac mini G4 (silent upgrade 1.5GHz)  or Powerbook G4 1.67GHz (5.6 or 5.. Great value for the money.

[Thelgord]

So I have been reading, a lot ...

There are so many options. MorphOS, AmigaOS4, AROS, classic hardware, powermacs, emulators (I even found a distro for Rasberi Pi) , FGPA boards, AmigaOne (really expensive) ...

This is going to take time to sort out as I would really like to do this once, rather than going through 40 options that just don't quite work.

I really appreciate all the input. You have given me a lot read, and a lot to think about.

[Iggy]

Yeah, right off the bat, and well within your price range, a cheap Mac G4 or G5 running the demo of MorphOS and UAE on a PC (if you own one) will give you an idea of what you can do easily with legacy and NG.

Should Tabor become available, OS4's entry cost will drop, and right now a dirt cheap PowerMac G5 and a copy of MorphOS licensed is very economical.

[fishy_fiz]

If you don't want to spend much then AROS might be your best option. Its free/open source and will run nicely on even an old dumped PC. Or alternatively an 'el cheapo new PC. For just a few hundred dollars you can pick up a system 10 times as powerful as the 10x more expensive x5000. Cinnamon Writer is available as are PDF viewers. Additionally it has the best browser for Amiga-oid systems which will give you access to the world of online apps (based on WebKit).

Second to that a Raspberry Pi, as you mentioned, has a few Amiga based distros. I have an rpi3 running Amibian and it does a good job of pretending to be an Amiga.

MorphOS, as mentioned is also somewhat affordable and will run on old ppc Macs.

While my personal preference is AROS, by the sounds of things an RPI and Amibian might be the option for you. AROS and MorphOS are very AmigaOS like, but Amibian can run any version of AmigaOS from 1.x through 3.x and is compatible with all Amiga software, and emulates all types of classic Amiga hardware.

There's versions of UAE for AROS and MorphOS, but Amibian does a nice job of hiding the fact its using an emulator.

In regards to word processing I'd recommend something like Final Writer or Wordsworth over WP4.1.

As for PDF viewers for classic Amigas, yes there's APDF, but it uses mui, ergo OS3.x is required. PDF files have higher requirements than a basic Amiga can handle as well.