At OSNews, we have kept you updated about the Amiga hardware announced by ACK controls. Supposedly ready for shipping in May, we are now in the second half of September, and still no hardware. Interestingly, nor ACK Controls, nor Amiga, Inc., will be present at the upcoming Amiga show Pianeta Amiga - leading to the inevitable conclusion that like so many other announcements in the Amiga world, this one was yet another big puff of air. All hope is not lost, though: ACube Systems has announced the SAM440ep, a PowerPC board, of which industrial versions are already available (according to ACube). The consumer version is supposedly ready to ship starting 22nd September 2007, and interestingly, Hyperion will be present at the ACube booth at Pianeta Amiga. Finally, new Amiga hardware? Seeing is believing, many will say.
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Member since:2005-10-21
Well, there is some kind of x86 AmigaOS, it is called AROS. It is free, it is nice, but it isn't binary compatible (which won't hapen, since the x86 architecture differs in endianess and AOS IPC is done by shared structures, the OS is not capsulated (different to - say - OS X where the x86 migration was easy because of the capsulation)).
A quite brilliant Amiga emulator is existing, UAE. With "Amiga Forverver", there is a nice package available to just start off.
Anyway, only those not familiar with the Amiga situation have thought there could be something to expect from Ack. Ack has really a bad track record. Thus, their failure comes at no surprise - quite the opposite, I'd have been quite surprised if there had been coming something...
Edited 2007-09-17 23:50
Member since:2007-09-18
Personally, i came from Amiga-OS (1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 3.1) and then switched to Mac OS, mainly for job reasons (graphics design)... Deep in my heart i still like my old Amiga-OS (i haven't any Amigas anymore), but it simply couldn't keep up the pace. Which was mainly C='s fault in lousy support, lousy R&D support for their own engineers. Well, screw that. Now i'm using OS X and it's such a hog, a CPU-HOG, it EATS every resource and doesn't deliver that speed you were expecting when thinking of 2007.
BeOS was a breath of fresh air and i went for it right after release, bought the OS, Sadly it failed. Now we're doomed using OS X or Vista, two over-bloated POS-OS (I need *mainstream* apps, so don't tell my anything about linux, tried that, nice, but pretty useless for me). Adobe has finally managed to tighten up their monopoly in DTP. Great times - Have a nice day! (Does this sound frustrated? Yes.)
Member since:2007-08-21
They did, look up Amithlon, but they then got into a shouting match with their OS partner, Hagge and Partner, so they took their (older-version mind you) OS and went to someone else, who put it on PPC.
Member since:2006-07-30
Or... and this would be a big gamble... base it on the CELL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor
From what I've read, AmigaOS4 doesn't need much in the way of raw processing power but future applications certainly do.
AmigaOS4 is an awesome OS. It needs a number of critical apps out of the box (browser, comprehensive mutltiMedia codec support and a few other nuts and bolts).
Personally I'd love to see a DB (MySQL), a few languages (Python, PHP, Rebol-IOS), and Server software (http, ftp, email) as part of any OS these days.
Making them a part of AmigaOS4 means that if immediate support isn't available via client apps, you can still get alot of work done with Web Apps running on the client-side (or over the wan).
Throw in the CELL processor and the AmigaOS4 could represent the future of digital computing (HDTV, gaming, super-computing, etc..). It would certainly standout.
It would still be a niche market but it would get the attention of many of the power players in the field (as well as power users).
ok... maybe I'm pushing it a bit much here (porting to the CELL is very difficult)... but a guy can dream, can't he?
Member since:2005-11-12
twocents wrote:
[quote]
AmigaOS4 is an awesome OS. It needs a number of critical apps out of the box (browser, comprehensive mutltiMedia codec support and a few other nuts and bolts).
[/quote]
You know nothing of AmigaOS situation, do you?
Except for the browser Amiga has almost everything.
And MorphOS, the AmigaOS clone has a good browser called Sputnik browser which it is currently being developed.
3rd public beta it is available for all MorphOS users.
It is based on KHTML. So it supports everything, HTML 4.0 and also CSS.
Soon we will see Firefox for AmigaOS, thanks to X11 Cygnix graphic engine...
Demo of it should being seen at Pianeta Amiga Exhibit on 22 and 23 september 2007.
Sputnik also it is being developed for AmigaOS thanks to a bounty of 2000 US $ collected from Amiga users.
So the situation it is not that bad.
Codec situation lacks a bit, but we have mPlayer and all its associated codec working, and FFMpeg, MEncoder, MPEG2Enc and LAME for the audio.
[quote]
Personally I'd love to see a DB (MySQL)
[/quote]
Amiga have already it!
[quote]
, a few languages (Python,
[/quote]
MorphOS already have Pyhton.
Amiga since AmigaOS 4.0 July 2007 update has an updated version of Python.
Python should also became the substitute for ARexx Amiga scripting language.
[quote]
PHP,
[/quote]
What do you mean with PHP? You write PHP pages just simply by editing a text in a text-editor.
Amiga also has Apache with PHP extensions to assembe it all and create sites.
If you mean to edit visually PHP pages in a graphic environment like FrontPage on Windows, this is another matter...
Then you need something like AMAYA web-editor of Linux, that is again already available into Amiga thru X11 graphic engine.
[quote]
Rebol-IOS)
[quote]
Again here Rebol already existed for Amiga, but it wasn't updated in recent version of this language, and so, as like other versions for other platforms, the very previous versions are no more available online, as this is the policy of Carl Sassenrath who created Rebol...
Rebol Italy team will attend Pianeta Amiga Exhibit on 22 and 23 september.
Then we will know if further versions of Amiga Rebol are on their way to come.
Remember that Cal Sassenrath it is the man who created AmigaDOS, so he has all the numbers to create new versions of Rebol for our machine...
Carl could create with ease even REBOL IOS versions for Amiga, if just he want so...
[quote]
and Server software (http, ftp, email) as part of any OS these days.
[/quote]
Amiga has YAM and THOR which are two of the best e-mail clients ever written on any platforms...
Again ATC (Amiga Trading Center) it is one of the beautiful programs ever written for FTP, and also Amiga can add FTP remote services, as they were its own standard devices with FTPMount AmigaDOS command.
RC-FTPd it is a good ftp server for Amiga.
For any other FTP needings we have interstandard wget, httpresume, Charon, etc, whihc are available for various platforms.
Sure you need to learn again how much programs were created for Amiga, and about those which are still developed for this OS.
Edited 2007-09-19 17:58
Member since:2005-11-10
Sigh... Amigans and their dreams.
If you dig into the usenet, you can read similar plans for "world domination" by Amigans in denial. First it was a port to the 80860. Then the 88K, then the Alpha. I have even read mixed Mips/80860 platforms. Then the PPC, etc. etc. etc.
All with the common denominator of how awesome the OS is. And it is just sad... let it go.
This is the trick, you could port all that crap to the CELL, spend years and money to do so. Or... here is a concept buy a cheap-o PC, install your favorite FOSS and be done with it in like 1/2 hour.
Please for the love of god Amigans, time to let it go. The late 80s are long gone... join the XXI century, your life and your loved ones will thank you for it.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I have said it before, I will say it again - change platform!
I really liked the amiga OS (3.x) back in the early 90s. It was a great OS! Commodore messed up, subsequent owners of the amiga name and IP messed up. What Amiga, Inc. needs to do is forget about hardware! Or rather, forget about PPC. Do what Apple did. If you want to make hardware, base it on intel/amd. make your OS run on intel/amd. make an kick-arse emulator for all your classic apps!
move the OS to the 21st century, leave obsolete hardware behind.
it's the only way you will get old aficionados and new people on your platform.