The company leading the AmigaOS4 project has announced the immediate availability for download of the first Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-release update for registered Amiga OS 4.0 users. For an impression with regard to AmigaOS4’s current state of development, within this recent show report there are links to some earlier demonstration videos.
How many Amiga OS 4.0 users are there?
Amiga OS 4.0 users make up 0% of the google browsing population. Google is the most popular search enging on the planet, so it is safe to assume Amiga users are at about 0% compared to other desktop systems.
it’s not even a RC. Nothing to get excited about.
@ abc
There are over 1000 people who have bought Earlybird beta-tester or developer AmigaOne boards. The first MicroA1-C (Mini-ITX) version is about to be released. Following this the MicroA1-I will come out later this year. And after this AmigaOne XC will follow.
However Amiga systems running the final version of AmigaOS4.0 are not expected until the end of this year. AmigaOS4 will also become available for PPC enabled classic Amigas.
@ Anonymous
Amiga browsers usually spoof as either Netscape/Mozilla or Internet Explorer.
@ CaptainPinko
> it’s not even a RC.
Actually this update to the AmigaOS4 Developer Pre-release (like the Pre-release itself) has gone through extensive testing and is considered to be quite stable and fast compared to mainstream OSes.
The reason why this is called a Pre-release is simply because not all the features as announced for AmigaOS4.0 have all yet been implemented. Components planned for OS4.0 are still going through beta-testing and final stages of development.
However IMO, if you are for instance a developer wanting to develop for AmigaOS4, there’s not much sense to waiting any further as the current SDK is already quite mature. There is already a steady growing software library of currently well over 100 3rd party developed AmigaOS4 native files.
Most of them can be found at the OS4 Depot:
http://www.os4depot.net/
But some can only be found at the developer’s own homepage, such as for instance some of AmiDog’s software:
http://www.amidog.se/amiga/index.html
i would realy be surprised if there would be any os 4 users on google, since the only webbrowsers currently available run in the emulation layer and will thus show up as os 3.9 users.
@ zaphod
Actually there is already an AmigaOS4 native version of AWeb3.5 APL Beta (Open Source Amiga browser) which a few people (beta-testers/developer) may be using:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1728
But of course nearly all AmigaOS4-Pre users today are using IBrowse 2.3 as supplied with their OS, which however runs pretty fast despite being emulated! You can see a demo of IBrowse running within the following video:
http://uniweb.free.fr/os4/os4morequal.avi
The other two videos linked within the article above:
http://uniweb.free.fr/os4/moovidamp.avi
http://webring.amigaworld.net/funcomp/os4betaboot.mpg
what thing that AmigaOS provide and its not on windows or linux?
By looking at the first video posted above i can clearly see how much faster AmigaOS4 at drawing windows, starting applications etc compared to my current Linux box. I hope that Linux desktops will get the same speed someday…
And we don’t need examples to highlight the advantages over windows
The one thing that AmigaOS provides that is not part of the Windows or Linux philosophy:
SIMPLICITY!
One of our moderators mistakenly deleted the news item together with over 120 messages…
For now here’s an alternative link posted by Rogue on AO:
http://www.amiga.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4333
Amiga browsers usually spoof as either Netscape/Mozilla or Internet Explorer.
Do they also spoof the OS? I’ve forgotten 🙁
This is fantastic news for the new Amiga, Amiga One running Amiga OS 4.0.
Best regards
Bill Panagouleas
Founder/CEO
DiscreetFX
http://www.discreetfx.com
[11/Oct/2004:00:32:14 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS 3.9)”
[11/Oct/2004:00:32:14 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS 3.9)”
[11/Oct/2004:00:32:15 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS 3.9)”
[11/Oct/2004:00:55:41 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS V51)”
[11/Oct/2004:00:55:41 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS V51)”
[11/Oct/2004:00:55:41 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” “IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS V51)”
IBrowse is the most widely used Amiga browser within the Amiga Community. It spoofs as Mozilla, but this is optional.
With Mozilla-spoofing enabled, IBrowse announces itself as: Mozilla/4.5 [en] (Win98/I)
Some AmigaWorld stats from the first 10 days of October:
1 706712 11.48% IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS 4.0)
2 391333 6.36% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
3 325902 5.29% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
4 296108 4.81% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1
5 292022 4.74% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
6 282641 4.59% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/2004
7 229413 3.73% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)
8 203175 3.30% IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS 3.9)
9 168122 2.73% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko
10 135662 2.20% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1
11 112790 1.83% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)
12 109815 1.78% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1) Opera 7.54
13 97513 1.58% Amiga-AWeb/3.5.01 beta
14 87751 1.43% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/2004
15 82569 1.34% IBrowse/2.3 (AmigaOS V51)
IMO for as long as websites require webbrowsers to spoof (for example banking) browser statistics will remain very inaccurate.
“By looking at the first video posted above i can clearly see how much faster AmigaOS4 at drawing windows, starting applications etc compared to my current Linux box. I hope that Linux desktops will get the same speed someday…”
Not that I have used AOS4 but I really doubt that, my BSD/Xfree/KDE runs very smooth, and so does XP. Next…
Well I can tell you this, I’m using windows on a 2GHz P4, linux on a Mac 867MHz G4, linux on a 2GHz P4.. and AmigaOS4 on a 800MHz IBM 750FX. The window drawing is quite a bit faster on AmigaOS than any of the other. It feels a whole lot more responsive overall on most things. I haven’t felt such “instant” response in a gui for almost any other operating system.
The problem is that you get used to sluggishness.
After a while you get used to OS X/XP/KDE/Gnome/Whatnot-speed and think it’s fairly smooth (if you have the hardware needed). However going back to one of the really fast systems like AmigaOS or BeOS sets things into perspective. AmigaOS is even more responsive than BeOS.
Hmmm “So fast it’s scary”. Shame that has bad connotations. Would make great marketing
AmigaOS4 seems more and more like a whole OS. The foundation is close to ready to carry heavier stuff.
It’ll be interesting to see how Warp 3D NOVA (3D at DirectX9 levels) and SciTech SNAP will help improve hardware support for graphics cards.
It’ll also be exciting to see what changes will come for OS4.1, as they should provide a lot more for the user with better Workbench and general GUI.
anyone know what the requirements for this version will be? like how much ram? Or is it still to early to tell?
Also, will it let you run m68k apps on the native cpu instead of emulating the m68k? (would make more sense to me…)
Requirements are either: AmigaOne, MicroA1, Amiga4000 with Cyberstorm PPC or Amiga 1200 with Blizzard PPC. It requires a PowerPC CPU of 603e, 604e, G3 or G4 class.
RAM I don’t know, it might be as high as 16 or 24 MB RAM (yes, AmigaOS doesn’t need more space than that for a basic system), but in these days, RAM isn’t a problem. 68k programs eat up a bit of memory, because they run in a separate memory space, so you may want at least 64 MB for it to run well.
You can run classic 68k apps as long as they are system friendly. The 68k CPU is not in use as things are fully emulated, and the PPC emulates 68k apps faster anyway. For games that bang the hardware you need UAE.
There won’t be a version for classic 68k Amiga, it’s for PowerPC only.
I read somewhere they are going to make a version for ppc accelerated classic amigas.
@ helf
AmigaOS4 is currently at the same beta-state of development for BlizzardPPC, Cyberstorm PPC enabled classic Amigas as the OS is for the AmigaOne platform.
With regard to 68k, only various beta-testers and developers may still have some early OS4 components running as 68k version on top of the 68k OS3.1 kernel, instead of the far more advanced PPC ExecSG kernel. There will be no 68k version of AmigaOS4.0, also because these processors are quite slow (processors ranging from 7 Mhz – 60 Mhz) and with top specs even slower than many PDA and even some cellphone processors!
thanks for the info. So if you are running say a blizzard 060 + ppc accelerator board and you are running amigaos 4 it will still emulate a m68k cpu ? wouldn’t it be better for compatibility and such to let m68k programs run on the m68k cpu if you have one? otherwise the m68k cpu is going to waste
It doesn’t work because of a lot of context switching stuff that happens between the hardware 68k and the PPC.
They need to share the memory and the bus to cooperate on the hardware level. That slows the PPC down severely. They were never built to work like that at the same time.
It’s a known problem and one classic Amiga owners have long wanted to get rid of, by simply emulating the 68k instead.
OS4 solves this by incorporating 68k emulation directly in the kernel. It isn’t the usual sand box model. This gives more possibilities to let the 68k application use PPC libraries to function. There’s a lot of info on the OS4 kernel operates here:
http://os.amiga.com/cam/
oh, ok. thanks for the info
[Start Blatent Plug]
If anyone would like to see Os4 running on “Classic” Amigas then come to Big Bash 2 this Saturday night (16th Oct).
Ryu (Darren) will be bringing his Bppc A1200 running Os4 to the event for your perusal !!
If you buy a Raffle ticket you may even win a µA1-C.
Stellar Dreams will be at BB2 selling the µA1 as well.
More info [url=http://www.EMAG.ME.UK]Big Bash 2 Website[/url
[/END of blatent Plug]
Paul
AKA The_Editor
@MikeB
>AmigaOne XC will follow.
Hi,
Do there’s any specs of this AmigaOne XC available ?
cheers
kml
Cant wait to get my hands on an Os4 ready machine in the future…..
I have an 1200 with WB 3.0 installed, and i am quite happy with it, even though i have an pc on the side.
For me, to switch onto Os4, requires only 2 things: The complete and ready/final Os4-system and the capeability to run JAVA.
@ helf
> wouldn’t it be better for compatibility and such to let m68k
> programs run on the m68k cpu if you have one? otherwise the
> m68k cpu is going to waste
If some software wouldn’t work well emulated you should still be able to boot into your classic environment. I believe CoyoteFlux’s ‘Kickflash OS4’ will in the future come handy for speedy switching between different configurations on the classics.
@ kamelito
> Do there’s any specs of this AmigaOne XC available ?
It will be a larger Mirco-ATX form factors board, which would at least be significantly larger than the Mini-ITX boards (MicroA1-C/I), but with more up-to-date specifications and smaller as the current AmigaOne XE ATX boards.
A comparison chart:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=8&rev_…
The definate specification haven’t been announced yet, but it should use the Articia P Northbridge from Mai Logic (200Mhz Processor bus, 133 Mhz PCIX, AGP 4X, etc) Read more about the new Northbridge:
http://www.mai.com/products/BRA670R2.0.pdf