The Amiga is alive – sort of, and AmigaOS 4 is finally out. Ars takes AmigaOS 4 out for a spin to see where the once-popular platform stands these days. “The release of AmigaOS 4 proves one thing: you can’t keep a good platform down. But is AmigaOS merely a fun hobby OS to play around with, or does it offer real value? My answer is that it is a little of both. As a fan of alternative platforms, you won’t find many that are more esoteric than AmigaOS. But beyond being different for the sake of being different, OS4 provides something more interesting: a chance to experience a whole new way of computing.”
Ars Reviews AmigaOS 4
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I really lie the thorought quality of ars. amiga isnt dead, its just has been dormant a loong time.
“amiga isnt dead, its just has been dormant a loong time.”
like a cave man trapped in a glacier…..
Is that an attempt at sarcasm or did you really manage to misspell 1/4 of the words in your post by accident?
Even BeOS would be considered “fresh” when put next to AmigaOS…
Tut. As a BeOS fan you should be familiar with the idea of OSes being redeveloped and updated, as the article clearly states. You don’t get modded down, but only because I’m in a good mood today. Just don’t anybody mention That Other Thing.
“OS4 will only run on AmigaOne motherboards, which are specially customized reference PowerPC designs that use UBoot as a BIOS. Unfortunately, OS4 will not install on any other PowerPC hardware, including older PPC Macintoshes. The OS is sold as a bundle with AmigaOne hardware, much like Apple does with OS X, and Amiga, Inc. wants to limit the operating system to licensed hardware only.
“This would not be such a big deal, except that the single company that produced AmigaOne motherboards and systems in the past, UK’s Eyetech, has ceased production of the systems. So for the moment, one cannot buy new AmigaOne hardware anywhere.”
It does seem like a bit of a showstopper? Its the same crazy idea of tying the OS to a particular brand of hardware, and this case shows the limiting case of the disadvantage of this policy, when you do not buy the OS because you can buy no hardware at all, not just no hardware you particularly want, to run it on. They need to cut the thing loose if they want to make anything of it.
Edited 2007-01-22 07:57
Their best bet has always been to try and work for a release that supports Apple’s PowerPC machines.
5 years ago, they should have dropped the PPC in favor of tieing AmigaOS 4 to the VIA EPIA series of x86-motherboards. Cheap, small, all-in-one hardware not unlike the old A500/A1200 Amiga computers. The added economics of scale would have helped the Amiga quite a bit back then.
Obviously having a generic x86 operating system would have been nicer for us consumers, but given the very small resorces available to the OS 4 developers, I think the VIA EPIA series had made great sense – much more so than the very expensive AmigaOnes that no longer are available.
That said, I’ll buy the first reasonably priced (not expecting wonders here, just not the insane prices of the AmigaOnes) OS4-compatible piece of hardware that gets churned out (if any, time will tell).
Apparently experimental builds of both OS 4 and MorphOS (a similar updated AmigaOS for yet a different set of PowerPC boards) were made for Mac hardware, but the people involved decided not to release them for some sort of legal reasons.
I’m still routing for AROS as the next-gen AmigaOS though. It’s open source, runs on x86 and is written in such a way as to be easily portable to anything with a VESA framebuffer available.
Actually, that’s the one part of the article that was inaccurate. OS4 also runs on older Amiga systems that have the CyberStorm PPC card installed.
…not that it would probably make a difference to the average person. Still, it’s misleading to claim everyone needs to buy this new hardware when I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who will be installing this on their ancient systems…
Alas no, OS4 has not been released for Amiga Classics with PPC co-processors, although there has been some beta releases that work on them, it’s not been officialy, or as far as I know unofficially released for anything other than Amiga One(s).
I think the hardware situtuion is a crying shame, as it’s a great little OS. I use it as my primary system.
edited to add, as far as I know no ones got it to work on Pear, and although I would never condone Piracy, I could see that being- no on second thoughts, I’ll shut up now.
Edited 2007-01-22 23:24
Hmm, interesting you say that, because the Amiga Inc website seems to imply that OS4 runs on the CyberStorm PPC:
“AmigaOne Partners have the right to distribute AmigaOS 4.0 into the AmigaOne desktop computer market and into Cyberstorm PPC enabled devices. Distribution into any other market or device requires a licensing and distribution agreement with Amiga, Inc.”
from
http://www.amiga.com/amigaos/?PHPSESSID=8af8e764f436982b39be97a7ae6…
Hmm, interesting you say that, because the Amiga Inc website seems to imply that OS4 runs on the CyberStorm PPC
OS4 does run on CSPPC equipped systems, just it is not released yet.
If I remember correctly Genesi/bplan gave the cyberstorm and blizzardPPC register lists to Hyperion in the first place. Without those they would have never released for those platforms without a bunch of work. Genesi/bplan also organized a Blizzard and CyberStorm repair program which helped Hyperion too. _Then_ there was the whole AmigaOne vs. the Pegasos thing. Genesi was right in that too: there was no Mai without April! Genesi will probably ship OS4 with the EFIKA. Hyperion does not own it, Amiga Inc. does. If Amiga tries to stop Genesi, Genesi will win the smack down as they won the lawsuit already. Amiga Inc. is the one in trouble. Hyperion should be happy. At least some one will do something with OS4.
/rasmus
http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=36685
The description of the future Amiga hardware is included.
Anton
Great, we’ve finally got the OS; now just come up with the hardware please. If someone does, I WILL buy one.
I agree with The Reg, though: AmigaOS would be better running on generic PowerPC hardware.
Kudos, Ars; nice review!
I LOVE Amiga! (Just a shame it isn’t open source 🙁 ).
This O/S will only run on specialized PPC boards. Well, I won’t be buying one soon. I have done a good investment on 80×86 hardware just like everyone else so I see no reason why any new O/S does not run on it.
I also do not understand why the O/S is not virtualized. Any new O/S with a hope to succeed must run on a virtual CPU. The VM should be responsible for caching the translation to native code and reuse native code when needed.
If they actually want someone to USE this, they need to either let it boot on a PC or Mac, or let it reside in VMWare or Virtual PC.
Otherwise, who the hell is going to pay money to run AmigaOS when a hundred versions of *nix are free?
Otherwise, who the hell is going to pay money to run AmigaOS when a hundred versions of *nix are free?
AmigaOS is not a *nix clone. Unique design, lightweight and adorable. Until you haven’t got a close contact with it you don’t need the urge to try it, but as soon as you get deep with it you most likely get the taste. Just as described in the Ars review.
If they actually want someone to USE this, they need to either let it boot on a PC or Mac, or let it reside in VMWare or Virtual PC.
I believe virtualization is planned for AmigaOS 5. In an interview on Amiga.org, Bill McEwen said that AmigaOS 5 would work fine on a Pentium-compatible processor.
If you’re not aware, Amiga Inc. tried to shelve the OS in favor of a new hosted environment called AmigaDE that would run on any hardware. It never caught on very well in light of .NET stealing their thunder, but Amiga Inc. continues to subsist on a watered-down version of AmigaDE called AmigaAnywhere that runs on Win2k+, WinCE, and some flavors of Linux. It is expected that AmigaAnywhere will be the basis for AmigaOS 5.
Thing is, the Amiga Inc. that went down the Tao/intent path is not the Amiga Inc. that’s around (at least we think they’re around) today.
It is good to see a nice review of Amiga OS 4. Well done.
2007 WILL BE the year of the Amiga!
EFIKA is the future hardware for all Amiga operating systems.
AROS on EFIKA: http://thenostromo.com/teamaros2/?number=46
MorphOS on EFIKA: http://www.morphzone.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1305
AmigaOS on EFIKA? http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2007/01/amiga.html
Edited 2007-01-22 16:39
EFIKA is dead in the water. There is no chance in hell that Amiga Inc. and/or Hyperion want to have anything to do with Genesi.
Furthermore, the EFIKA specifications and performance leaves just about everything to wish for. It’s way too little, way to late.
There is no chance in hell that Amiga Inc. and/or Hyperion want to have anything to do with Genesi.
Having once sued Amiga, Inc. already and won, Genesi has at least as much reason to be wary of trying to do business again with Amiga, Inc. but, rather incomprehensibly, is apparently willing to let bygones be bygones in order to bring the OS and hardware together.
Judging from the Hyperion-contractor Frieden brothers’ comments and the recent contact with Timothy De Groote, Hyperion’s Sales Manager and Commercial Relations director, that company seems to be open to porting to Genesi’s hardware.
But, adding another level of ridiculousness to the situation, statements by Amiga, Inc. CEO Bill McEwen and the Friedens indicate that apparently they disagree about exactly which party owns which parts of AmigaOS. So maybe that too must be resolved before support for Genesi’s or anyone else’s hardware can be considered.
Furthermore, the EFIKA specifications and performance leaves just about everything to wish for.
Of course EFIKA is a low-end board (Genesi has other hardware coming IIRC), but the one big advantage it offers AmigaOS (always said to be a lightweight OS with low hardware requirements — keep in mind there are few if any AmigaOS apps that need a fast cpu) is that it is available now and works. Apart from legacy Macs, that’s more than can be said about any other AmigaOS hardware prospects in the near term.
— Gary
lol. efika. maybe efika2 will be better but efika1 is so underpowered its not funny, and at $200 a board its a ripoff. my kurobox NAS has a better powerpc mainboard than the efika1.
Kurobox better motherboard than Efika?
Really?
Twice the processor speed, a real 66MHz PCI slot with an AGP riser, audio including optical out, and a REAL serial port conforming to PC standards? Half the size!?
The only thing the KuroBox has on the Efika is price ($50 cheaper) and gigabit ethernet. Considering what you’d use the KuroBox for and what you’d use the Efika for, neither of those are truly important in either case.
How does your KuroBox output sound?
.. or graphics?
How do you expand it for wireless? Extra ethernet ports? FPGA development boards?
How long did you wait to get a UBoot port!?
Does KuroBox really expand beyond it’s role as a jury-rigged NAS box?
Efika will drop in price (the goal was always $99), and come as a complete system (the goal is very sub-$300 and totally fanless in a box no bigger than a CDROM drive) in the very near future, for a very reasonable outlay. Given the market is wide open for the Efika, and locked shut for the KuroBox (you are limited to what Revolution gave you), we’re looking at two completely different products here.
The EFIKA board was born obsolescent. It smacks of modern antique and the price makes it clear it’s a collectors’ item.
Its actually perfect for PowerPC port work in the Polaris project ( OpenSolaris port to PowerPC ) as well as perfect for the 2 billion people in the world that do not need a 4GHz AMD Opteron with 2 TB internal hard drive array. If you live in a place where power is hard to come by, where cooling is a dream then you will want an EFIKA. Simply put, I love my dual Opterons at home as well as my ZFS array but that is because I am in North America. Now go visit Nigeria or most of China and see what reception you get when you tell people to fork over $800 USD for a system that needs piles of power and cooling. Forget it. So this unit, the EFIKA, is a great machine for getting the job done in the rest of the world as well as special purpose systems. I ought to know, I have already taken volume orders for my design and business owners with a need love the thing.
http://www.blastwave.org/dclarke/blog/?q=node/29
Also, I have no idea what all these noise makers are saying about Genesi as a company but Genesi has been totally behind the Polaris project from day one regardless of the fact that it just keeps costing them money. Genesi keeps shipping out PowerPC unit to developers and has never asked for anything in return.
So essentially .. move on people. Move forwards.
Dennis Clarke
Anyone thought about using PearPC to emulate the PowerPC and run AmigaOS4? Couldn’t it be tweaked to support it?
As someone else pointed out above, no one has done it yet, probably because OS4 is tied too much to the AmigaOne hardware.
I wouldn’t rule out some hacks being developed though
As a side note is PearPC still being developed? Last official update was 0.4 on 20th December 2005!