The Amiga, Circa 2010 — Dead and Loving It 383
Orion Blastar writes "While many Amiga users have moved on to Linux, Mac OS X, and even, gasp shock, Microsoft Windows, some of us don't want to give up so easily. There are two open source projects that are keeping the Amiga legacy alive even if Amiga Inc. seems to be deader than a doornail and not really doing much but selling old Classic Amiga games for new platforms. Like WINE, there was a project to run AmigaOS 3.1 software for Linux and other platforms, but it evolved instead into an open source operating system named Amiga Research OS, or AROS. AROS is best run inside an emulator, and while it is not a modern OS like Linux, it can be downloaded and run inside of Linux (and the downloads section has more). While it is not ready for prime time yet, it is a promising OS that is being ported to many platforms and uses the user friendly Amiga GUI we Amiga users grew up with." Read on for more.
"OK — maybe AROS is not modern enough for you, and you like Linux instead. Then you might like Anubis OS, as it is a hybrid of AROS and Linux. Much like when Apple took NextStep (based on *BSD Unix and the MACH kernel) and the classic Mac OS to make Mac OS X, this project wants to take Linux and AROS and do the same thing.For those who want the classic Amiga, there is UAE, the Universal Amiga Emulator, which needs kickstart ROMs and boot disk images to work. You can buy them from Amiga Forever; the emulator comes with all the files you need plus other goodies.
For the classic Amiga 68K series, it is recreated via the Minimig, which uses SD cards instead of floppy disks; a must for retro computer hobbyists. AmigaOS 4.1 exists for PowerPC based SAM 440EP systems like the SAM 440Ep systems and parts sold here. (I am not associated with Amiga Kit or Amiga Inc. or any Amiga company. I am just an Amiga user since 1985 and very much into retro computing.)"
2010 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A few great Amiga ideas I'm still waiting for (Score:3, Funny)
To be fair, the 1985 Amiga wasn't nearly as powerful, nor as capable, as the 1995 Windows PC.
A 1985 Amiga could multitask better than any 1995 Windows PC. That leaves out OS/2, which was much more capable than Windows circa 1995, but hardly anyone ran OS/2, either. OS/2 met the same fate as the Amiga - epic mismanagement. If the Amiga had survived and continued to evolve, adding protected mode and VM, it still would have been far ahead of anything in 1995. Too bad CBM cheaped-out on evolving the hardware to keep up with the times. That's a lesson one would've thought they would've learned from Atari's behaviour during the 8-bit era. Oh well. It's interesting that the same guy is responsible for both great platforms - the Atari 800 series, and the Amiga. RIP Jay Miner!
In an alternate universe, the computing world is dominated by machines powered by the 64-bit evolutionary descendant of the 6502, the 65864, all labeled Atari, CBM died with the 8-bit world because Miner stayed with Atari, few felt the need to go 'x86' because they were overpriced low-tech pieces of crap, and Woz left Apple to join Miner at Atari. Jobs started his own cult and poisoned himself and his followers in 1992 following a meteorite sighting, and Jerry Pournelle still writes for Byte.
Most people who run Linux do so on Kaypro XII machines with Dvorak keyboards (and type in Esperanto).
Re:Platform makes Mac look cheap.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but don't forget that AmigaOS doesn't fuck around.
Yeah, it doesn't do anything. It's a corpse.
Re:News? (Score:5, Funny)
It beats someone trying to recreate them later using Frogger DNA.
Re:Move on (Score:4, Funny)
There's the joke that with Commodore's marketing "savvy", had they tried to do something like KFC they would have called it "Warm Dead Bird" ...
-uso.