[HN Gopher] AmigaOS 3.2
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AmigaOS 3.2
Author : andy_herbert
Score : 87 points
Date : 2021-05-14 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hyperion-entertainment.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hyperion-entertainment.com)
| wojciechpolak wrote:
| I learnt C programming and a lot of stuff about UN*X systems from
| my Amiga 500 and later on a heavily expanded 1200, thanks to a
| wonderful "Geek Gadgets Version 2" project. I even ran GCC on my
| Amiga back then. After that, in 2001, I switched entirely to
| GNU/Linux (RH7) and I knew quite a lot about how to use it since
| day one, thanks to my wondeful Amiga computer and Geek Gadgets.
| cmsj wrote:
| same! geek gadgets was awesome
| ethanpil wrote:
| Anyone interested in a comprehensive summary of the Amiga legal
| spaghetti should take a look at
| https://sites.google.com/site/amigadocuments/
|
| Play by play updates on their Twitter at
| https://mobile.twitter.com/amigadocuments
| soapdog wrote:
| Can someone post some screen shots? :D
| chriswarbo wrote:
| https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news/1-late...
| jug wrote:
| OMG, I've waited for this! I was SO worried litigation from
| Clonato would make all the work by Thomas Richter & Co. go to
| waste on the finishing line. It's remarkable how litigations are
| still a thing with the Amiga brand. I don't understand how the
| profits for the winning party is expected to be greater than the
| lawyer costs.
| pantalaimon wrote:
| I'm amazed that it can be profitable to still develop an OS for
| those machines!
| jug wrote:
| That too, hahaha! There must be a small, tightly knit but
| rich/supportive community still there.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Vaguely related: approximately 20 years ago I hosted "The Amiga
| Alternative Audio Page". Every time I migrate my blog to a new
| platform -- which is often because I like to tinker with it -- I
| figure _this_ is the time I 'll finally kill that page forever.
| And then my web logs fill with 404s and I bring it back from the
| dead because I don't have the heard to kill old Amiga software.
|
| So, https://honeypot.net/post/the-amiga-alternative-audio-page/
| is still a thing, but please don't ask me to update any of that
| software. I wouldn't know how to anymore if I wanted to.
| kstrauser wrote:
| I can't keep track anymore. Is this a successor to 3.1.4 that
| came out not long ago, or something different?
| jug wrote:
| Yes, here's the timeline to clarify:
|
| Kickstart 1.0 - 3.1: By Commodore. Actually 3.0 was
| "officially" last but 3.1 was ongoing work that got wrapped up
| well enough. I don't really remember if Commodore officially
| released 3.1 or if it was picked up from their corpse by
| someone.
|
| HAAGE & PARTNER BRANCH:
|
| AmigaOS 3.5-3.9: First post-3.1 versions from 1999-2000 (for
| Motorola 68020 and up rather than 68000 and up) by Haage &
| Partner. Main features a TCP/IP stack and a new GUI, a new GUI
| toolkit called ReAction, MPEG movie player, MP3 player, >4 GB
| disk partitioning support.
|
| HYPERION POWER PC BRANCH:
|
| AmigaOS 4.0-4.1: First PowerPC-only version. Main features
| memory virtualization, new GUI, integrated third-party graphics
| driver support, etc.
|
| HYPERION "CLASSIC" BRANCH:
|
| Now they returned to 3.1 BUT with 3.9 source code still on
| their hands. Trying to advance Kickstart from a new angle that
| allows support for all Amigas, even the 68000 (Amiga 500). This
| is NOT for PowerPC. AmigaOS 4 is for those systems but since
| that's basically a dead end in 2021, this is a more pragmatic
| move. I also find less "careless" and more conservative than
| 3.5+, focusing on kernel improvements rather than bolting on
| big third party tools and libraries. Basically more how I'd
| expect actual Commodore releases would look like.
|
| AmigaOS 3.1.4: Backporting numerous features and lessons learnt
| from 3.9 and now available for all Amigas, that is including
| the MC68000. An important update for classic Amigas since it
| brings in particular support that makes interacting with modern
| hardware easier with larger hard drives, and I think it added
| MC68060 support too for accelerators and whatnot.
|
| AmigaOS 3.2: A continuation of the 3.1.4 branch and now
| probably surpassing 3.9 in many areas.
|
| AmigaOS 3.x...?
| kstrauser wrote:
| 3.1 was the last official Commodore release.
|
| I totally don't _need_ 3.2, but I admit that I want it anyway
| just so my UAE can feel shiny and new.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| This is a successor to 3.1.4, yes.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| How many 68K Amiga's still working exist today ???. I don't get
| it.
| kstrauser wrote:
| I fire up UAE every now and then for the fun of it.
|
| Edit: I just realized that what I really want is an easy way to
| launch a single Amiga app in a window on my Mac. Double-click
| an icon and have The Bard's Tale up and running? Yes please.
| unixhero wrote:
| There is a huge market. Like myself, I'm definitely buying this
| for my Amigas. Also for supporting the team.
| blt wrote:
| It's a pretty special machine. It can display a lot of colors
| and has PCM (sampled) sound, but is still simple enough that
| you can understand everything that's going on. The SNES is
| comparable but hard to program. The DOS PC is comparable but
| less standardized.
|
| (I am not an Amiga user, but I'd love to get one in the future
| when I have more space, time, and money.)
| sgt wrote:
| Dude, nothing beats the Amiga.
| hughrr wrote:
| I am perpetually surprised at this. I remember 24 years ago a
| colleague of mine had the butchered remains of an A1200 with
| all sorts of daughter boards literally taped inside a PC case.
| Just before covid hit i by chance bumped into him and yep he
| was still using it apparently.
|
| I have test equipment that's 50 years old in active service so
| I suppose the mantra of "if it works and makes you happy, use
| it" is still valid.
| bumbada wrote:
| I have my old Spectrum and Atari ST and from time to time I run
| them. My friends had Amigas and Apples(or their parents had
| them) that were super expensive at the time. I bought one Amiga
| from a friend when it got old. I also got old consoles
| cartridges and emulate them using FPGA devices as the original
| consoles died and I have not analog TVs anymore, so I need to
| use converters.
|
| What I get from using those machines is feeling rich. I can
| look at my phone or a raspberry pi and say: Wow!!, that has
| millions of times more memory!
|
| You also get the essence. With such a limited power they made
| programs that were useful and games that were funny. Now you
| have Unity or Unreal Engines powering games that are not fun or
| electron apps consuming gigabytes of memory that are not useful
| because the basics are wrong.
|
| I use old Autocad for DOS with Autolisp support and you realize
| after all this time, the thing is useful.
|
| My job is creating software so reminding what the basics are is
| always important.
| fogihujy wrote:
| There were about 10k hard-core users left a few years ago, and
| many have multiple Amigas. There's probably at least as many
| (probably many more) enthusiasts with working hardware, and a
| ton of people running UAE and the like.
| mrweasel wrote:
| It gets even weirder when you realise that apparently it's some
| ones job to maintain an 35 year old operating system... for a
| platform that's no longer manufactured.
|
| How do you even hire for that position? What tools do the
| AmigaOS team use?
|
| I love that this is still worked on, and I'd love to know more
| about what that job is like.
| tssva wrote:
| Quite a few. The retro computing scene is extremely popular at
| the moment with Amigas being much in demand. Amiga use in the
| US was pretty low except for certain sectors such as TV
| production. I know more people with Amigas now then I did when
| they were originally sold.
| falsaberN1 wrote:
| Add my anecdata to yours, I also see a lot more interest
| (including from myself) now than when it was sold in regular
| shops. And not just from demosceners.
| bitwize wrote:
| Are you kidding me? The Amiga scene is the most dedicated retro
| scene there is. Plenty of people with real hardware -- like
| myself -- are gonna be real excited over this.
| anthk wrote:
| Most Amiga users prefer either WB 3.1 or WB 3.9 with Boing
| Bags up to 3-4.
| cbmuser wrote:
| Hey, we even added an M68k backend to LLVM recently with Rust
| support already on the way \o/.
| sprkwd wrote:
| I have one. The music trackers on them are amazing.
| mnd999 wrote:
| Managed to get my 6mb A1200 on the internet just the other day.
| verst wrote:
| I still have a working Amiga 500 at my parents' house in
| Germany.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| We have FPGA implementations of the Amiga nowadays; these are
| basically identical to the original hardware.
|
| It's quite amazing, I can highly recommend checking them out:
| https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki
| khazhoux wrote:
| I didn't see on the github page whether there's an Agnus,
| Denise, and Paula?
| jl6 wrote:
| I booted up my A1200 in 2008 to see if it still worked after
| ten years of disuse - it did.
|
| Then a month ago in 2021 I booted it up again to see if it
| still worked after a further 13 years of disuse - and it did
| again.
|
| Played Zool both times!
| codezero wrote:
| I do the same with my PowerPC iBook clamshell from time to
| time. Amazed the tiny PCMCIA sized 5GB spinny disk hard drive
| is still original!
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(page generated 2021-05-14 23:00 UTC)