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There's a reason for that genius: there's simply no way for a 68k to run a somewhat modern html rendering engine with remotely decent performances.

I remember that simply rendering a mildly complicated table used to take ages on those things.

It's actually not terribly bad. Now on the other hand something like Flash is absolutely horrible.

A lot of the actual slowness is in the AGA chipset. Sure it was almost awesome when it was initially released, but because of Commodore's stupidity, they didn't get the AAA chipset out. That's why I said with my Radeon it's like night and day. That's still going through that same 'slow' 68040@25Mhz processor. IBrowse and AWEB II both go so much faster on it.

Netsurf is a modern browser, and from what I understand it runs pretty fast, but I don't know, I haven't been able to get it to work, since it needs AfAOS which I haven't had that much luck getting set up (well I had it working, but Netsurf seemed to still crash. After I bleach the rest of my keyboard, I'll give it a shot again. Ah, the joys of using ancient hardware )

Wait, how can Timberwolf NOT be open source? Pretty sure the Mozilla license isn't quite like the BSD license where you can just snag the code and not release any changes, or is it? It's been a while since I looked at it.

After a brief check into the MPL, it looks like any of the changes to XUL, the javascript, etc that is what makes the core of Firefox would have to still be open source.

Though that was just after a very brief look. Though wouldn't an AROS port also work under Workbench 3.x? As I thought AROS was supposed to be Workbench 3.x API compatible.

Yep, AROS is 3.x API compatible, but not 4.x. There were changes in one of the OS4.1 updates specifically to add features required by Timberwolf, so even with the OS4.x code, it probably couldn't be compiled for AROS without a huge amount of further work.

As for whether it will end up as open source, I'm sure the minimum required by the licence will be done and no more. Whether that much is actually useful is another story...

Oops, I kind of got ahead of myself on that matter.

What I was thinking was that if the backend libraries were ported to AROS, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch to also get them ported to native Workbench 3.x.

Kind of a backward way to be doing stuff how things would be if Commodore were still around and had allowed clones. The primary would get the port first, then all the 'clone' OSes. Then again I suppose AmigaOS 4 would have eventually came out.

I think people just shouted at the developers instead of asking first if they'd release their code. They're not required to release it, so I don't blame them.

There's also a superb WebKit-based browser on MorphOS, which was ported to OS4 (though the OS4 version misses a few features like HTML5 video). AROS should be getting a port before too long - the two Zune bounties required are already in progress.

Edited 2012-03-08 10:21 UTC

"Wait, how can gcc shipped with AmigaOS and MorphOS NOT be open source?"

Errm.. the sources for the GCC, binutils etc. that ship with AmigaOS 4.x's SDK are right here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/adtools/

Edited 2012-03-08 10:43 UTC

It is better because unlike current amigaos' developers, losethos's author doesn't even pretend to be sane.

Also, can you talk with god with amigaos?

I just don't get this attitude.

"Hey you! You're a fan and user of an obsolete operating system! For some reason that bothers me, even though it has no impact on my life, so you have to stop and let it go!"

Well, no. I won't let it go. I enjoy using OS4 on my AmigaOne, and its a fun hobby. If that annoys you.. well.. screw you.

What does Haiku have to do with Amiga?

What's interesting here is how, on a website about OSes where things like Puppy Linux are applauded for running on ancient x86 hardware, that running a different OS on similar vintage hardware seems to make some people (such as bassbeast) angry. Seriously, what's your problem? You haven't even read up on this - OS4 is supported, there are regular updates, and it runs on hardware which is being manufactured and sold new today.

Why the hate? Why is it that Windows, OS/2, Haiku, and the various Linux distros are ok, but AmigaOS constantly gets trolled? Please tell me why it upsets you so. Did you get a wedgie from an Amiga owner in school or something?

FWIW, I find my OS4 box far more usable than my Haiku box.

Haha... yes.. clearly I'm the one with the problem... riiight.

Sorry. I don't follow your arguments here.

You start a mom's sermon about how people shouldn't spend their time on "long abanoned" OSes, and then you tell them they should move their attention to HAIKU instead? (I would understand Linux or FreeBSD, but Haiku...)

For what I can say about it, Be is as dead as Commodore. The only difference is the OS internals, which were obviously more modern and future-proof in BeOS rather than AmigaOS, which was conceived when hardware had far lesser specs. This, however, doesn't change anything about the fact that both BeOS and AmigaOS were de facto abandoned. Both of them had (and AmigaOS still has today) a parent company which takes care of them, but while AmigaOS situation is somehow clear now with Hyperion, can we say the same for the original BeOS?

Haiku is a damn good alternative OSS operating system, but I think AROS has its own meaning for people using it (and even more for former Amigans), and its developers should be proud of what they have done. I find these hints about what-people-should-use and how-people-should-spend-their-time quite arrogant and absolutely pointless.

I am Happy AmigaOS finally got its port of Firefox. Due to OS architecture constraints it was a far harder goal to achieve than on any OSS Posix-compliant OS. This means that the words "impossible to do" have low impact on willing people. I won't use it for reasons which are off topic here, but I am happy it's there.

Imagine firefox but with ugly fonts and windows decorations

there, you don't need screenshots

http://amigatronics.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/youtube.png

From before the beta release...

Perhaps if you looked the threads leading to my comment someone said "What's next? A firefox port to OS/2?"

It was totally relevant.

Trevor Dickinson is kind of doing that for AmigaOS, although he's not as rich as the people you were talking about, and his contribution isn't as big as you were alluding to, but still, he is spending an incredible amount of money on something just because he loves it, and he is not deluded into thinking it is for any other reason.

Look at this video objectively. What this video is saying is basically this: "amigaos 4 is an os that in the year 2012 is unable to record a video with remotely acceptable performance and where merely being able to run a web browser is considered an outstanding feat"

I don't think any of this needs "publicising at much as possible". It needs to be, on the contrary, be obfuscated enough that someone not knowing better may actually believe that amigaos is a remotely worthwhile OS. The editor did you a favor by not including those shameful links.

If you need me, I'll be over there laughing at that video.

Firstly Timberwolf is in Beta as it says quite clearly in the title and in the video description area. Geeks know what Beta means.

You seem to forget the target audience of OSNews and Slashdot - both are hardly mainstream sites - they are for geeks who have a interest in the field of operating systems and computer news. Those who follow the Amiga scene are welcome to be readers here too - and those who have an interest in the platform will already know that a proper graphics sublayer (in this case Gallium/Mesa) is coming to the platform very soon and will vastly improve everything shown in the video.

"publicising at much as possible" was referring to the website and the OS, not Timberwolf and some screen capturing application; you simply took my post out of context to deliver a reply that the average non-geek consumer would say rather than the intended audience of this site who logs on every day to w*** over tech news.