OSNews

In a nutshell, it runs better. The JIT speeds things up significantly for old 68k code, the system is overall more stable, but as it comes without a full ChangeLog, so we're all sort of 'digging' to see what's there/different from ud3. Enough additional info can be had by browsing threads at http://www.amigaworld.net or the news item there itself.

It's unfortunate there is currently no hardware for purchase for potential new users, but hopefully, and supposedly, that will be cleared up 'soon.' What people often seem to misunderstand is that Hyperion was contracted to produce OS4, and there are still some questions as to if they are able to port to anything they like, require approval from Amiga, Inc, or exactly what the situation is there. There's lots of speculation over that, but we'll leave it at 'no one has shared the actual facts, so we're all guessing.'

From an outside standpoint, Amiga Inc. seems to have done very little in the project, yet Hyperion is not unemcumbred to do 'as they wish' with the OS, which is unfortunate, as they have done a good job with the OS. Regardless, hopefully some of this can be put behind moving forward, but be aware there certainly is not a large budget involved here, so expectations of custom 'uber hardware' are pretty insane and unrealistic. The best it seems that can be hoped for is Hyperion manages to get sane licensing from AInc to port as they see fit, and move it to semi-commodity hardware at least, which in this case, would seem to be used or remaining PPC Macs. Failing that, the Troika board (G3 800MHz) is basically seen as a micro-A1 at a cheaper cost (hopefully) and without some of the issues of the AmigaOne lineup of hardware. And yes, even at 800MHz, OS4 works quite nicely.

As no one knows when/if this new hardware will be available, in the meantime, if you have an interest in OS4, you can occasionally pick up a used AmigaOne.