AROS, the AmigaOS re-implementation posted a status update dicussing their latest advancements. Two new screenshots also posted. The team is looking for active developers to join them.
AROS Status Update and Screenshots
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I had forgotten about that project, they’ve come a long way since i last looked at what they had. Way to go AROS Team!
I download the ISO file on their site from the latest daily build, but all I get is a GRUB error. Strange.
Very clean looking.
Hi the only Amiga I ever owned was the 500. It has been so long what Kickstart version was that.
Also if I image the old Amiga games I had on floppy disks can I run those games on AROS on an x86 PC?
Finally, some clean-looking screens of the AmigaOS 4!
I really liked the “adjust frame” screenshot. Made a lot of sense out of the whole GUI. It’s very utilitarian and I like it that way. I don’t need colors and flash to interfere with my creative work. Basic gray is prefered and I was hoping to see this.
Now, if IBM would start shipping the PPC 970….
Vic
Not the best way to run old games is to emulated the appropriate old hardware. There is an amiga emulator called UAE. Search for WinUAE if you are using windows. It will be able to run most of your games. The main problem being that amiga disks _cannot_ physically be read by PC drives. You’d have to get images of this disks (.adf format) . A lot of them are available on the net.
At first I didn’t believe in the project. Especially because at that time the website/logo where soooo ugly. Now they have a nice page and a lovely mascot I don’t see what could stop them 😉
I think I am going to reinstall linux on my home pc just to run this. (The ISO tends to lock on my PC and only under linux you get a decent hardware acceleration support …inside an x-window). I think the day I can install it on my harddrive and boot it directly I will be in heaven. Just miss a compiler also.
> Finally, some clean-looking screens of the AmigaOS 4!
Although any 2.0+ (1990) version of AmigaOS could easily look like this, these aren’t screenshots of AmigaOS4. A bit more fancy stuff is planned for AmigaOS4.
Well done to Martin “Mason” Mertz for his contribution of some free icons. Martin is a great supporter of the AmigaOS4 poject as well.
“Well done to Martin “Mason” Mertz for his contribution of some free icons. Martin is a great supporter of the AmigaOS4 poject as well.
”
Martin creates very nice icons.
The problem with these AROS ones is that he has an image of a file for the icons for drawers. It seems to me that if you have a metaphor for the data storage system (in this case, a workshop with a workbench and drawers containing tools and projects), the icons should reflect it.
Likewise in Windows, they should show an office with filing cabinets containing drawers containing folders containing files. Not sure how the programs fit in, as you don’t keep a typewriter or stapler in a filing cabinet.
>> The problem with these AROS ones is that he has an
>> image of a file for the icons for drawers. It
>> seems to me that if you have a metaphor for the
>> data storage system (in this case, a workshop with a
>> workbench and drawers containing tools and projects),
>> the icons should reflect it.
That makes perfect sense.
>> Not sure how the programs
>> fit in, as you don’t keep a typewriter or stapler
>> in a filing cabinet.
No, you don’t. You keep them on your desktop, or in a special drawer in your desk (i.e. a drawer on the desktop) for such accessories.
“>> Not sure how the programs
>> fit in, as you don’t keep a typewriter or stapler
>> in a filing cabinet.
No, you don’t. You keep them on your desktop, or in a special drawer in your desk (i.e. a drawer on the desktop) for such accessories.”
However, if I click on “My Computer”, I see an icon which is a picture of a folder, marked “Program Files”. I guess if they are in a dock, or simply left out on the desktop (or workbench), the metaphor holds.
And with the SDL-lib hopefully we will see lots of great Linux-apps being ported over to AROS! AmigaOS 4 doesn’t run on x86 so I think AROS is much more interesting.
@Bouma
> A bit more fancy stuff is planned for AmigaOS4.
A bit more fancy stuff is *planned* for AROS as well.
@Vic Berkshire:
These aren’t screenshots of AmigaOS 4, but AROS. Totally different thing, really… 🙂
@Jacques Lema:
Actually, using the VBE driver under native is faster than using the X11 driver under hosted. The VBE driver is simply much more optimized. Although, as you have found out, native is still quite picky about which hardware it likes… 😉
AROS is almost there. Just needs a web browser (aweb), and mail package (YAM), and 68000 emulation (sorry said it before), but this is essential in attracting the masses.
The main problem being that amiga disks _cannot_ physically be read by PC drives.
Sure they can.
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/
is there anything like the reverse of this?
like to write amiga disk images you download to a physical amiga floppy on a pc?
(am only downloading now havent opened yet so if it already does both then ignore the question)
“And with the SDL-lib hopefully we will see lots of great Linux-apps being ported over to AROS! AmigaOS 4 doesn’t run on x86 so I think AROS is much more interesting.”
Surely what is wanted is lots of great Amiga programs, not Linux programs? If you want to run Linux programs, boot into Linux. It’s a fully working OS.
I see no reason to write a successor OS to AmigaOS, and then let it become yet another imitation of Linux.
> Surely what is wanted is lots of great Amiga programs, not
> Linux programs? If you want to run Linux programs, boot
> into Linux. It’s a fully working OS.
Programs which use SDL are not “linux programs”, they are just programs which use SDL and as such ar eportable over many platforms.
> I see no reason to write a successor OS to AmigaOS, and then
> let it become yet another imitation of Linux.
Being able to run apps which run also on linux doesn’t mean being an imitation of linux. You’re confusing the OS with the apps, I’m afraid.
But this is a discussion we’ve already had…
very impressive, and it looks better each time I look at it…
Wow.
just go on…
And get that “thing” working …
😉
Finally, some clean-looking screens of the AmigaOS 4!
While it is not OS/4 the screenshots look fresh because most the screenshots you see from amigasos use the MUI colorscheme.
There is nothing wrong with MUI but the default color scheme is very dark, maybe nice in the 1084 monitor days but in 2003 you’l need something brighter and less depressing.
fake marble is so eighties 😉
I know this is lame of me, but why does NO Amiga/Amiga-based OS ever have nice window decor or widgets? I mean, they do nice things with icons, for sure, but the window decor and widgets (buttons, and other misc. controls) always look… ugly (old-styled and primitive). No offence is intended to anyone involved in the development. I’m just wondering what the reason is that the controls and decor always looks the same (or nearly the same).
Hi Fabio
First I want to say that the screenshots looks impressive, as they always do :o)
But secondly: What about a Reaction clone??? Is AROS going to get it, or is it only ZUNE (MUI clone)?
Best regards,
Henning
> I know this is lame of me, but why does NO Amiga/Amiga-based
> OS ever have nice window decor or widgets? I mean, they do
> nice things with icons, for sure, but the window decor and
> widgets (buttons, and other misc. controls) always look…
> ugly (old-styled and primitive). No offence is intended to
> anyone involved in the development. I’m just wondering what
> the reason is that the controls and decor always looks the
> same (or nearly the same).
the problem is that AROS doesn’t implement a skinning feature for the windows decoration… that is going to change in the future, though.
> But secondly: What about a Reaction clone??? Is AROS going
> to get it, or is it only ZUNE (MUI clone)?
Only Zune is planned for the time being, with parts of it being probably rewritten in a manner that best fits the compoment model which is in a design phase at the moment.
Good riddance to ReAction, if you ask me. It should have been left along the roadside and not picked up to “official” status. Everyone, programmers and users alike, prefers MUI. A wrapper for ZUNE might be an idea, though.
As long as it looks good, who needs a lot of gadget decorations? The only thing AROS would need would be a thorough look at spacing inside windows and gadgets, and another look at overall consistency. Thinking about it, XEN look for gadgets, with window gadgets OTOH using plain OS 2.0 look (albeit with another aspect ratio) does clash somewhat.
It still looks better than X11, though.
[Quote]Everyone, programmers and users alike, prefers MUI.[/Quote]
Only speak for yourself!!!
While I know that there are a few people who prefer ReAction, their numbers can be counted on your fingers and belong to these groups:
1) The programmer of ClassAct (now ReAction).
2) The person responsible for bringing it into OS 3.5.
3) The programmer of AWeb, the only remotely useful ClassAct program out there.
4) Their fans, all six of them, who still think that a 68020 and 2MB of RAM is good enough.
@Iggy Drougge
Zune is API compatible (and even binary compatible on AmigaOS) with MUI, so there is no need for any wrapper.
Adam, I know that. I was referring to a ReAction wrapper for ZUNE, so that one needn’t have two concurrent GUI systems.
Ah, right, sorry. 🙂 The reason for not doing that is exactly the same for not implementing ReAction at all though: there is simply to little programs to make the effort worth it.
Ofcourse, we won’t complain if someone would step in and write such a wrapper, but I don’t think it would become part of standard AROS.