AmigaWorld.net has posted 4 new official AmigaOS4 screenshots. The latest screenshots were taken on an A4000 with PPC upgrade, running ExecSG and showing much of the default intuition look and Font Anti-Aliasing as is being demonstrated at AmigaOS4 on Tour events held across Europe. Larger scale versions of these screenshots should soon become available at the official AmigaOS website. Update: Higher quality images have been uploaded! (1024×768 in PNG format)
The AmigaOS4 team has decided to use this theme as the default GUI appearance. The reason why this grey theme was chosen has to do with the appearance of classic AmigaOS applications and will with this design continue to offer a consistent appearance in combination with such older software titles, while still offering something significantly more modern.
Of course the looks can be customized (and some alternative themes will be available) as can be seen in earlier screenshots. People should see this design as a bridge between old and new. When a new default theme is introduced the current design will of course stay available to those prefering the old-style interface. Such as for instance many AmigaOS users who may have grown very attached to this greyish look when it was introduced in 1990.
Well, i’m sure there will be lots of “this sucks” and “urrrgh… horrible” posts, as there always are, but personally, i *LOVE* it.
I think it looks way nicer than OS X or XP’s default themes; and remember kids, if you don’t like it, you can change it.
Antialiased fonts looks nice! Great job! Just go on.
Any news about the performance? I mean the greatest advantage of the AmigaOs were the booting time. How is it now?
Oh yeah, and its probably a good idea to note that the pics are both scaled and JPG compressed, so its not as “clean” as a straight forward non-lossy compressed screengrab would be.
Sort of looks like a wood grain effect colored grey to look like brushed metal. The font looks plain goofy and the alignment of the scrollbar buttons and slide scale buttons look large and offcenter. Most preteen winamp skin coders do a better job. I guess it is Amiga though so I can’t complain too much. Sure as hell doesn’t make me want to run out and but a new computing platform though.
Amiga is obsolete, I mean they’re using 6800000 processors (486-grade…) I’ll stick to Windows XP.
Amiga is obsolete, I mean they’re using 6800000 processors (486-grade…) I’ll stick to Windows XP.
They’re using PowerPC G3s, like the kind that used in Macs. And stick to XP, since obvioussly you know zero about whats going on.
I don’t really like the default look but the like the way the UI is designed.
… and G4s
Pete Gordon wrote:
Oh yeah, and its probably a good idea to note that the pics are both scaled and JPG compressed, so its not as “clean” as a straight forward non-lossy compressed screengrab would be.
I wonder they they didn’t post png’s then.
Regarding the fonts, one thing that really irks me is when the line in the middle of the ‘m’ glyph isn’t right in the middle. If it’s not in the middle, my brain thinks it looks like an ‘r’ and an ‘n’ too close to eachother.
Nice, clean, low-contrast look. I like it.
Maybe off-topic, but the brushed-metal made me think of it: are there 3rd-party themes available for MacOSX? I think I heard on /. about a brushed-metal OSX theme.
> I wonder they they didn’t post png’s then.
Due to bandwith.
The PNG versions are now available! Resolution: 1024×768
Some interesting quotes from core AmigaOS4 developer Hans-Joerg Frieden regarding the colors and gradients at the Amiga.org portal:
Rogue: “Actually, the gradient stuff is really flexible. While you can specify RGB values for start and end, you can also define Pen numbers, which means that if you e.g. change pen 3 (the light blue) to something else, the whole gradient will adjust. That makes it easier to change appearance quickly.
Also, what is not shown in the shots is that you can impose the gradients onto a texture, that is you could have a gradient covering the metal texture like the one in the background.”
I wrote:
Maybe off-topic, but the brushed-metal made me think of it: are there 3rd-party themes available for MacOSX? I think I heard on /. about a brushed-metal OSX theme.
Whoops. Next time, I’ll google first and ask questions later!
http://swizcore.com/SS/macOSX.php
http://www.resexcellence.com/themes/
The PNG versions are now available!
Beautiful! (Though the m’s still aren’t right :p)
I think it looks pretty good. I’ve always liked the smooth &
simple look of AmigaOS. If it was up to me I would drop any fancy eyecandy. The first thing that all my PC friends did when they got Windows XP was changing the look back to the classic Win2000 look. It seems like everytime new screen shots of any OS appears on this site, half the comments end up being: EWWW! those colors suck, or: those are the worst looking fonts/icons I’ve ever seen. If you people really care about icons so much then why dont you just draw your own!!!.
What REALLY matters is if the OS is fast & stable. Period!!.
I see it as an homage to the OS2.x-3.x days while being reasonably modern. It’s the same thing as you can see recognize certain elements between MacOS1 and MacOS9 and probably also MacOSX.
You can see things that emanate way back from Amiga Workbench 1.2 from 1987 in Workbench 4.0.
This kind of consistency helps most users to feel safe and at home two minuts after the first boot-up. You know what the OS is already capable of and you can get to explore it and try to push it further than you know the old version already can go.
It’s a very small and simpleminded OS and you can grasp it easily and get to its edges.
Put a Windows 95 user in front of XP and he/she would be baffled by the changes. Changes between versions are always difficult and require the user to adjust, mostly for irritation, because they tend to change the way to access certain things from version to version so you basically have to learn how to do the same things over and over every 2-3 years.
This tendency goes on with Microsoft’s mission to improve and ease ways to do certain things, but end up confusing users instead by changing the processes completely. A simple example is how to administer users in windows 98, windows 2000 and windows XP; widely different ways to do this in each version.
I think hell will freeze over before I buy an Amiga, but I must admit that aesthetically the new UI looks great. I really like the minimalism and simplicity, the default colours, fonts and icons look fine.
I’d much rather have a simple, fast UI that doesn’t distract me, pointless eye candy just gets on my nerves. Certainly the first thing I did when I installed Windows XP was set it back to the classic Windows style. Having said that, all the eye candy in Mac OS X doesn’t annoy me half as much as the default Windows XP look.
Can’t wait buying AmigaOS4 and a G4 AmigaOne. My only concern is that cases in the Wintel world are really lame.
but I don’t like the look. I am not a fan of WindowMaker or Afterstep or Black Box or any of the WMs…..so I am not suprised that I do not like this either.
it just seems very much 1990, but that is what they were going for so good job.
Windowmaker, AfterStep *Box et al imitate NeXTStep, not Amiga. Don’t confuse your fanatics! (-:
Actually, in this case they’re running 604e’s. The OS does not run on the G3/G4 motherboards at this time.
Sorry Nate but you are actually incorrect.
The OS4 is not running on an AmigaOne but it IS running on a PPC card.
The Amiga has a PPC accellerator fitted 😉
Regards
Darren
…My only concern is that cases in the Wintel world are really lame.
That’s one thing that’s bugged me still. Yes there are pre-modded cases out there, but it’s been years and I’ve still haven’t seen any good fold-out PC cases (like the G3/G4 towers.) I know Dell has some cases that can fold out (don’t know what folds out, etc) and I know there are one or two cheap plastic things out there than can supposedly do it, but where are the GOOD cases, that I can buy (instead of comes only as a full system like the Dell cases).
I guess that was a bit OT. Onto the screenshots, I agree that they do look very clean and “familiar”, even though I’ve never seen an Amiga in my life (in person).
Can somebody paste direct links to the images, I can’t seem to get to them through the URL that’s given in the story, I get the error “Selected module does not exist!”.
Thanks
They’re probably getting to much traffic
You can find the links on http://www.amiga.org
Thanks
I know they imitate NextStep but the basic design of both are the same. it is the bare bones nature that I do not particularly like.
@debman,
You know the desktop OS GUI was not created with “magic dust”.
It was years of development that has made it what it is today.
“barebones” or “eyecandy” is two extremes of what we have now.
Some people like simple & some people like complex, its just your personal preference. Alot of linux users probably came from Windows/Mac/SGI/Amiga backrounds, Or their brand new to the OS. I’m trying not to step on the box here, but its hard not to voice an opinion. these OS’s are here because we want a choice. I dont use linux, but I’am behind them 100% because they want the same thing I want.
AmigaWorld.net should be online again soon.
Here are the direct links to the pictures:”
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga/osnews/amiga1.htm
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga/osnews/amiga2.htm
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga/osnews/amiga3.htm
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga/osnews/amiga4.htm
Just an FYI.. You can find them also on the Official AmigaOS site:
http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4GUIPre.php
>Can’t wait buying AmigaOS4 and a G4 AmigaOne. My only concern is that cases in the Wintel world are really lame.
there are some cool ones like my atc 201 from coolermaster
just add some led fans and stuff and you got a very nice tower, unfourtunatly itl cost you a fortune..
btw, it actually houses the amigaone g4/800
Does AmigaOS 4 support dual head?
Very nice indeed!
>>Actually, in this case they’re running 604e’s. The OS does
>>not run on the G3/G4 motherboards at this time.
>Sorry Nate but you are actually incorrect.
Nope, he isn’t.
>The OS4 is not running on an AmigaOne but it IS running on
>a PPC card.
Which is what he said as a 604e is the “G2” CPU residing on CyberStorm PPC cards.
With that said, it’d be silly to assume that OS4 would look any different on an AmigaOne with a G3/G4 once they got it running. 🙂
The new Workbench look it’s really beautiful. Great job, Hyperion.
It will be fantastic to see SVG icons in 4.1/2 as next surprise.
> AmigaWorld.net should be online again soon.
WERE BA-AACK! 😀
http://rigby-jones.net/ericschwartz/art/art/WereBack.jpg
Its looking good be nice when i get my amiga1 and os4.
“WERE BA-AACK! 😀
http://rigby-jones.net/ericschwartz/art/art/WereBack.jpg“
Gorgeous, Mike ;D
What a great interface. Good font size and large widgets.
Thank you for that Lennart. While, yes, G3 and G4 cards were designed for the A4000, none were ever produced. Sad. Nothing wrong with 604e’s, however. I happen to have one and find it extremely solid and dependable, great workstation CPU.
“6800000” that must have been at least 100 time better than the 68000 ;P
That is the one without memory protection right? that will be nice to see the performance boost bring by that security flaw.
I personmally hope the optional memory protection could exist in all OS, some app are rock solid anyway (if it never crashed in 2 years, remove from sand box -> include in trustworty computer environment). That is especially true for small app and utility, a bit less true for complex app that we never use all option.
Do I need a special proprietary board just like Apple?
The brushed-metal panels don’t go well with the non-brushed window frames. But I hate brushed metal anyway so I WOULD notice that.
That said, it does look pretty. — But what does the mouse pointer look like? The traditional one, or has it changed to a hand pointing a finger as one sees in the Pointer Prefs window in the third screenshot? (Screen3.png)
Yes, you need a prioprietory PowerPC based computer, just like Apple.
This may come as a surprise coming from me, but I don’t think that this looks quite finished yet. There are too many inconcistencies.
First of all, the MUI gadgets haven’t been aligned to matchh the Gadtools gadgets. And the window gadgets haven’t got a uniform look. Som look good, others look as experiments. The cycle gadgets are apparently the old gadgets superimposed onto the new brushed metal ones. The old gadgets work fine together, but you can’t just transplant them into the new GUI framework.
Still, at least we won’t have the old experiment screenshots from six months ago haunting us like there is no tomorrow.
The default GUI theme designer has stated that the design isn’t quite finished yet. He will still tweak the design and also note that certain default art isn’t yet revealed in these screenshots. The screenshots do give a good impression on what to expect as the default user interface.
Just IMHO, there’s very little contrast between the faux brushed metal and the black antialiased text. I wonder if you can turn the brushed metal off, and replace it with something more readable.
> I wonder if you can turn the brushed metal off, and
> replace it with something more readable.
You can replace textures anything you like, or simply remove them and changing the colors is done in seconds. Here’s a simple blue customized example as was shown in Slovenia.
http://www.inet.hr/~dponos/camerapics/TRIP031.jpg
Here is a quote from a post by one of the design team:
“The announcement about ‘default gui’ might have been a little misleading. We wanted to show more of the design, but we were beaten by time. The images shown do indeed have elements of the default design, but there are some important elements missing.
For instance, the window gadgets shown here (close, zoom, depth, etc.) are in what could be called the ‘fall back’ mode. The same is the case for all other gadget images within the windows. I hope you’ll be happier with the new ones.”
For the full post, see http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=560
(post from “mattk” about half way down)
On the “We’re back” picture look at the date : 1997! That made me smile a bit 🙂
Is it by that guy who made those brilliant demo’s way back when ?
Well, you need to understand that the OS will not have full memory protection. One cannot use MP for the legacy Amiga apps, period. Only new apps will gain any use of MP.
Not trying to burst your bubble, but that’s the plain truth here.
I like the shots already but the layout is complete only at 80%… there is some room for improvement… cross your fingers !
Anyway, if this is the way that the team is taking… then my favourite OS is in good hands.
Zorro
> Is it by that guy who made those brilliant demo’s way
> back when ?
Eric Schwartz is an Amiga enthusiast and his job is being a Cartoonist and Animator. Some of his early graphics were used in games, like for example Flip the frog, a cartoon character created by Eric and he also created the funny intro for the excellent Superfrog Amiga game with Flip as the main character.
Eric became also well-know for his hilariously funny Aerotoons animation series for the Amiga and he specialized himself at drawing human-like incarnations of squirels, cats, dogs and other animals. Like for instance Amy the squirrel, Rachel Raccoon, Carli Chinchilla, etc.
He also created many images to promote the Amiga platform including various mascots for related efforts. Recently some of his work was featured in a new AmigaDE puzzle game.
As has been discussed and explained many times before only new AmigaOS applications will take full advantage of memory protection. But that does not mean the highly improved ExecSG will crash like the Exec kernel (re-implementation of AmigaOS3.1’s exec) currently does with MorphOS.
IMO it’s rather strange to promote memory protection for MorphOS at this stage, as users will be unable to truly take advantage of this feature. As everything runs within the ABOX environment (including GUI, DOS, driver system, etc) with the re-implemented Exec all this can easily crash and is unprotected. And therefor I believe the promotion of MP, like the company you work for does, could potentially backfire. I am very much in favour of improving the Exec design and adding new feature to this. including memory protection.
Looks great! I’ve been wondering when the window frame and widget set would be made more … um … pleasent.
> As has been discussed and explained many times before only
> new AmigaOS applications will take full advantage of
> memory protection. But that does not mean the highly
> improved ExecSG will crash like the Exec kernel (re
> -implementation of AmigaOS3.1’s exec) currently does with
> MorphOS.
No need to bring MorphOS in this discussion, this is a thread about Amiga OS 4
> IMO it’s rather strange to promote memory protection for
> MorphOS at this stage, as users will be unable to truly
> take advantage of this feature. As everything runs within
> the ABOX environment (including GUI, DOS, driver system,
> etc) with the re-implemented Exec all this can easily
> crash and is unprotected. And therefor I believe the
> promotion of MP, like the company you work for does,
> could potentially backfire. I am very much in favour of
> improving the Exec design and adding new feature to this.
> including memory
Although I do pose the very same questions as you, and agree with what you’re saying, I think that it’s finnaly time to stop beating the dead horse.
If only you pointed it out on another thread or another topic… but you see that some of blue camp and worst still even from the red camp, if not most can see it as an act of provocation.
@ pixie
I agree, but I was talking to a Genesi (not Hyperion, not Amiga Inc) employee speaking *for* the future AmigaOS releases. He can only speak with certainty and authority regarding their own OS MorphOS product, not AmigaOS.