Icaros Desktop 2.1 might be named “the handlers release”, but also “the YouTube one”, since the best enhancement over the previous versions are the addition of new NTFS and EX-FAT filesystem handlers and the free, read-only version of GoogleDrive handler, a “driver” which allows to mount your Google Drive handler onto AROS as if it was a normal USB stick or a CD-ROM. But that’s not the only good news: we’ve talked bout YouTube because Deadwood did the miracle again, and we can now enjoy HTML5 video as well, playing your favourite contents from YouTube and other sites. But there have been lots of little/big additions, fixed and enhancements.
Icaros Desktop is a ‘distribution’ of AROS, the easiest (and cheapest, as in free) way to get a taste of an AmigaOS-like operating system on generic hardware.
I have been running this for the last few days and it is stable, fast and the new features make a worthwhile addition. The html 5 capabilities of OWB (the native web browser) are especially welcome and a amazing feat to achieve in the small time frame its had.
Over the weekend I will get round to integrating the Amiga Forever package so I can run my Amiga software on the Icaros desktop.
All in all, a great release.
How do you run it, virtual or on a dedicated machine? Just curious. I used an Amiga in high school and I’d love to tinker with Imagine 3d again.
I have it installed on a old Pentium 4 I had laying around. That’s the beauty of it, it will run on almost anything, it’s great for reviving old PC’s and laptops.
You might be better off running WinUAE (Windows) or FS-UAE (*nix) for running Imagine, since AROS is not binary compatible with the old 68k software. You could run it under UAE in AROS, but it’s a bit overkill if you’re just looking for one package.
On the other hand, if you liked the feel of AmigaOS and want to experience that feeling again, AROS is an excellent option.
My only complaint, that the default look of the distro looks ugly. Fortunately it can be changed quite easily to a more OS3.1 look(though I bricked my last install when I was tinkering with the settings).
Next to Icaros, it is the ClassicWB distributions that are really neat to try. P96 looks like really slick in 1080p in WinUAE.
Well, you can run Amiga apps as Icaros comes with a transparent 68k emulation. Otherwise the only way would be to use AROS on a real Amiga as code that is designed for M68k won’t run natively on X86 processors for obvious reasons.
Edited 2016-03-17 20:21 UTC
Do you mean JanusUAE or has something else been brought in since I last used AROS? While it’s an impressive feat and much better than running a full UAE, I wouldn’t really call Janus “transparent”. Certainly an option for running the odd application though.
I don’t know when the last time is you ran it, but it has become pretty transparent to run Amiga software now, if you have the needed software.
Icaros has a menu dedicated to the Amiga side of things. One of the menu options is to integrate the Amiga Forever package into Icaros to give you Amiga m68k compatibility, once installed you can run Amiga software directly on the desktop, it’s pretty cool!
There is a way of doing the same without having the Amiga Forever DVD if you already have the appropriate Amiga ROM images and Workbench software but it’s much easier with the Amiga Forever DVD, just insert the DVD and select the menu item, Icaros does the rest for you.
It’s called Amibridge AFAIK.
I need to re-setup my A4000D, haven’t done so since I had a hardware failure with my 68060 accelerator, so sad. Now I have a patched up kickstart and an 040-060 adapter so I don’t lose the CPU, but I still lost the 128mb of fast RAM
1
Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Synapse)