By default, Amiga XL and Amithlon will startup AmigaOS with a 15bit display and 800x600 resolution. To alter this, double click the "System" disk-icon, next the "Prefs" drawer and finally the "ScreenMode" icon. Now you can select your desired ScreenMode. I use a 16-bit display and 1024x768 resolution, as higher resolutions don`t make much sense on the 14.1 inch display of my laptop. (Don`t forget to test a ScreenMode before saving it to your preferences!) Also located in the "Prefs" drawer is a "Locale" preference utility. Start it to select your prefered languages and time zone. AmigaOS XL supports 20 languages; applications installed later on will automatically try to install in and use your prefered languages as well, but I should add that you can also manually overwrite this default application behaviour by the use of Tooltypes (Tooltypes are specify parameters used by programs and can be edited via the icon tab of icon information windows). Also, additional languages can easily be added by the user. Finally, you may want to use another keymap for your keyboard than the American one in the default installation. However, only a German keymap is provided for but others can be easily added afterwards. Other preference programs deal with the printers, sounds, fonts etc used by AmigaOS. You can also manually choose different patterns or background pictures for use with your Workbench desktop, Screens and Windows (all seperately). And finally, new mouse pointers can easily be added and some alternatives are already included.
The general interface will be very familiar to Amiga users of AmigaOS version 2.0 or newer. The Title bar, Windows and gadgets are still in the same style as in 1990. (Actually even the visual 'free diskspace indicator' from 1.x versions has been re-implementated into AmigaOS!). The benefit of the familiar standard look is that most ex-Amiga owners will feel right at home. The Close window gadget on Amiga windows are located on the upper left of window title bars, on the upper right there`s a Zoom gadget to quickly switch between two different window size/position settings (Tooltypes), and the most right gadget is for windows Depths, which allows you to change the depth position of windows. One handy tool I like to use is the ClickToFront commodity which can be found in the System:tools/commodities drawer (Note the use of a frontslash instead of a backslash in directory structures). This tool allows you to simply double click anywhere within a window to bring it into the forefront instead of using Depth gadgets. (This is often more useful as compared to having the active window to be at the forefront all of the time or to automaticly bring up the window upon which the mouse pointer is currently positioned.) To activate this functionality, you can simply double click its icon and, if you want to keep using it all of the time, you will simply need to drag the Icon into the System:WBStartup drawer. Next time you boot up your system, this program is automaticly activated. Finally, the upper most right gadget is normally the Screen Depth gadget which allows you to instantly switch between Workspaces, which are called "Screens" on the Amiga.
A fairly new standard included program for AmigaOS is a program starter called AmiDock. Since the release of Workbench 2.0, many Amiga users use handy application launchers for adding new menus and submenus to the title bar menu or add docks with (click-to-launch-application) pictures. AmiDock is very similar to the latter approach and is very powerful. You can simply drag and drop icons of programs or drawers into the Dock. Afterwards you will only have to click the icon located on the Dock to start the represented application or bring up the contents of a certain drawer. You can use endless AmiDocks simultaniously, and in my opinion such Docks are more powerful and user friendly as compared to the Startbars commonly used on other platforms . By default, the AmiDock is snapped to the bottom left screenborder in AmigaOS XL, but you can have them anywhere on your desktop as you desire. Also note that the backdrops used with AmiDock can be changed and that you can choose between a horizontal and vertical orientation. If you are too much attached to Startbars, AmiDock is easily removed from your system and a Startbar utility is easily added for its replacement. AmiDock is located in the WBStartup drawer, simply delete or move it elsewhere and AmiDock will be removed from your system the next time you boot into AmigaOS. Similar programs can easily be dropped into this drawer so that the next time you boot AmigaOS these programs will be executed automatically. You can also assign a start priority to such programs by the use of Tooltypes so that you can tell the OS in which order these programs should be executed.
