OS4 vs MOS vs AROS

[mauma]

Hi everybody,

I know this issue is discussed before.
But I think that AROS is the best choice of all.

How do you guys think about this?

[alx]

I personally prefer OS4, though I can definitely see the advantages of MOS (ie it's out there).  AROS isn't as developed as the other two, though it's got potential, and if the others die then AROS will definitely survive.  It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens to AROS when they've finished implementing all the OS3.x APIs - they could start to do very interesting things.

[Dan]

Since none of them is complete yet, who knows?
But AROS has several advantages:
1.Opensource, its not dependant on the financial status of any company
2. Cheap x86 hardware
3.Portable to multiple platforms 68k,PPC,Arm...

[4pLaY]

Im totaly biased but ill awnser anyways im a MOS user but im also part of the AROS dev team! MOS is without a doubt nr 1 NOW but in time i belive AROS will be the winner of the 3 unless OS4/MOS team suddenly gets LOADS of money/sales (not likely im afraid).

[that_punk_guy]

mauma wrote:
I think that AROS is the best choice of all.

How do you guys think about this?

I like AROS because it's free, the hardware's cheap, and it's a genuine community effort so in using it I don't have to feel like I'm choosing sides or supporting crooks.

I encourage others to come to their own logical conclusions and to respect other people's choices because that's the only way to move forwards.

[elektro_fabius]

AROS...nice but incomplete yet.

MOS,nice,working and useful!

OS4....mmhh....if you want to wait a lot of years before the relase...this is the right OS!

[bhoggett]

AROS still has some way to go before convincing me that it will ever be viable as a primary daily use platform. Development will have to pick up considerably IMHO because that is its major drawback.

AmigaOS4 and MorphOS only run on hardware which I will never own, so they are of no interest to me at present.

[mikeymike]

Hmm, yet another one of these threads...

OS4 can't be easily compared since it isn't particularly available to compare, as it is still in development, AROS can only run AmigaOS/x86 binaries, and so MOS kind of wins by default at the moment.

I haven't seen MOS in action, but anyway.  I've used both AROS and OS4 for very short periods, and they seemed like they've made good starts.

[T_Bone]

mauma wrote:
Hi everybody,

I know this issue is discussed before.
But I think that AROS is the best choice of all.

How do you guys think about this?

Since Amithlon isn't in the running, AROS is the only choice.

I still plan on having an A1 and a peg3, but having to hope a hardware company is able to stick around makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

[KennyR]

I'm afraid AROS is of no interest to me, for sort of the same reasons bhogget stated for himself. I'm not interested in x86 hardware, and my PPC hardware already has MOS, already does everything I'd expect from AROS. AROS right now is an OS with all the disadvantages of AmigaOS, with the added complication that it runs a thousandth of the software. Having to recompile everything when very little Amiga software was actually open source is a killer.

[bhoggett]

T_Bone wrote:
I still plan on having an A1 and a peg3, but having to hope a hardware company is able to stick around makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

That's my thinking. If Apple can't persuade me to buy a Mac, despite their resources and proven quality, Eyetech and bPlan have no chance.

I'd rather stick to hardware I can replace at the drop of a hat with minimal disruption to my daily use.

However, that's OT here.   :-P

[bhoggett]

KennyR wrote:
AROS right now is an OS with all the disadvantages of AmigaOS, with the added complication that it runs a thousandth of the software. Having to recompile everything when very little Amiga software was actually open source is a killer.

Agreed. That's AROS' biggest hurdle, but unfortunately whenever I raised the point in the past it has been dismissed as irrelevant or invalid. That doesn't bode well for it being seriously addressed any time soon.

[falemagn]

but unfortunately whenever I raised the point in the past it has been dismissed as irrelevant or invalid.

It is, indeed. No offence intended, of course.

The reason it's irrelevant is that it's never been AROS' aim to be able to run AmigaOS binaries on foreign HW, and it's not going to be any time soon.

It's sort of invalid, of course, for the same reason: although I understand that you need to run AmigaOS 68k sw, AROS' goal has never been to do that on other processors than 68k's.

That doesn't bode well for it being seriously addressed any time soon.

I'd say the priority right now is to get the OS as complete as possible, apps come after. We're not in a hurry, we don't expect people to chose AROS right now, we have no schedule we need to stick at. That's the fun part. For us, of course :-)

[bhoggett]

@Fabio

You are of course quite right to choose your own aims.

However, my earlier point stands: AROS is not an alternative to AOS4 or MOS or Linux or Windows, and won't be for the foreseeable future. From purely a users' point of view, an OS without applications is pointless.

It's why BeOS failed, and why QNX is only used by a very tiny community of geeks and embedded application developers.

That's not a criticism, but it is reality. AROS hype far outweighs its usefulness.

[Paul_Gadd]

I like AROS because it's free, the hardware's cheap, and it's a genuine community effort so in using it I don't have to feel like I'm choosing sides or supporting crooks.

Perfectly put. AROS and Amithlon is all i am interested in and both run on the hardware i choose at a price i am happy paying.

As for OS4/MOS - I will not support any Amiga (related)      companies ever again. they are about as trustworthy as a theif carring a bag with "SWAG" written on it.