Submitted by It’s not exactly bliss and angels in the Amiga world. AmigaOS 4.0, while done, released, and updated, is hard to come by because you either need a supported classic Amiga, or one of the three Amiga Ones ever sold. With a lawsuit underway nobody really understands, and no interest whatsoever from any hardware vendor, the future looks rather grim. On the MorphOS side the grass isn’t exactly a whole lot greener. MorphOS 2.0 has been released, but again, nobody is producing any decent hardware for the operating system to run on. Genesi sells the Efika-based OpenClient, but this device lacks the graphical chipset to power the new 3D features of MorphOS 2.0. In addition, MorphOS 2.0 has a hefty price tag of EUR 150. There is a third option, which has been making steady progress for years now: AROS.
AROS originally stood for the ‘Amiga Research Operating System’. Not wishing to be associated with the mess that is Amiga and Amiga Inc., the open source project decided to simply change their name to the AROS Research Operating System. The project has made a few interesting strides lately, one of which is the port of AROS to the sam440ep board, which is now fully operational. The company behind the sam440ep, ACube Systems, has decided to ship AROS along with the board, making AROS the second officially supported operating system for the board (after Linux). Irony has it that the sam440ep board was once marked as possible new hardware for AmigaOS 4.0. As the AROS webpage details:
Michal Schulz has completed his port of native AROS to the SAM440EP “Samantha” motherboard. For the first time, a non-X86 mainboard is completely supported, making AROS “the” operating system of choice of a whole platform, along with Linux. ACube Systems, producer and vendor of the SAM440EP board is now bundling an AROS Live CD with their flagship product.
People who habe already bought the board can download the port from Schulz’s webpage.
On a related note, Krzysztof Smiechowicz (I used copy/paste for that one, I must admit) has reviewed AROS status when it comes to compatibility with the original AmigaOS 3.1 API, and AROs scores 89%. Compatibility with AmigaOS 3.1 is one of the prime goals of AROS. You can continue to monitor the status here.
The progress made by the AROS project shows once again that while AROS may advance at a smaller pace than MorphOS and AmigaOS, its commitment to being open source and portable is starting to pay off. While AmigaOS and MorphOS are hostages of their own situations, situations they called upon themselves, AROS is moving forward in a way we can all benefit from – Amiga One owner or not.
Nice work, AROS guys!
With your passion you are doing more and going deeper than a whole company!
Genesi sells the Efika-based OpenClient, but this device lacks the graphical chipset to power the new 3D features of MorphOS 2.0.
Thats why EFIKA has the PCI slot to add the graphic card you want/need. Just add the needed card for MorphOS 2.0 and you have all features.
Not wishing to be associated with the mess that is Amiga and Amiga Inc., the open source project decided to simply change their name to the AROS Research Operating System.
If memory serves the name change corresponds roughly to the time when the guys in charge of Amiga Inc. set off suing anyone and everyone “infringing” on their intellectual property. This included threatening websites that used the name “Amiga” in their title (amiga.org I think).
Does memory serve, or am I grossly mistaken?
Your memory is not as bad as you think.
http://www.osnews.com/story/17933/AROS_Gets_a_New_Name
The company behind the sam440ep, ACube Systems, has decided to ship AROS along with the board, making AROS the second officially supported operating system for the board (after Linux).
Porting AROS to a low-spec motherboard that costs 299 Euro? That’s $470 US Dollars!
How many people really own one of those boards?
EUR 299 is reasonable for a low unit production motherboard. Take a look around at the prices for small non-x86 boards, they often cost a lot more. It’s for sure a huge improvement over boards like the Pegasus or AmigaOne, which did cost a threefold.
And don’t forget the dollar makes everything expensive nowadays.
Pick up a copy of Circuit Cellar or Nuts & Volts. There are tons of ARM based SBC for under US$150. These run Linux out of the box but usually slower. Now that Microchip has adopted MIPS for PIC32 you should start seeing alot of those too. All of these are low volume (compared to ASUS or other MB manufactuers) so I don’t buy the low volume argument.
Who saw the board in action was surprised how fast this “low spec” board run linux or Aros.
We can expect the same thing as soon as OS4.x will be ported on Sam. Who knows?
Is it just me that thinks that one of AROS huge strengths compare to AmigaOS/MorphOS is that it runs on x86 hardware? Actually, I am quite sure a lot of people agree with me:) And it would be the only way to be able to ship AOS/MOS in any higher frequencies (obs, not Vista or OS X like amounts). Specialized hardware that’s expensive is not the way to go, iNTEL is faster, cheaper, and more the right choice today. Heck even OS X is focusing on it along with ARM.
Contact ASUS and get it ported really well to EeePC (or whatever all their variations are called) and you’ll see some progress. That is hardware people could buy to run AROS/AmigaOS/MorphOS
The Eee PC is, from an OS point of view, standard hardware. There’s no porting involved if the OS runs already on other x86 hardware.
JAL
There were problems between mainly Amiga Inc and partners and Genesi & devs, those initially supporting the MorphOS project.
Amiga Inc alledged the MorphOS team copied parts of the AmigaOS 3.x source code (there are various external sources backing up this allegation, this is also accepted by various people within the MorphOS community). Genesi also put themselves into the spotlight by making endless degrading comments about the AmigaOS4 project, Amiga Inc, Hyperion and Eyetech’s AmigaOne hardware. It had given away many Pegasos boards to various loudmouthed ex-Amiga fans which trolled on all Amiga forums for whatever reason.
Amiga.org was once sponsored by Genesi and the webmaster was employed by that company, as revealed later on. Some articles and comments on Amiga.org resulted into Amiga Inc and partners thinking that having the Amiga name endorsed for this website would go against their business interests.
Meanwhile the Amiga.org webmaster experienced servere problems with Genesi and all ties were broken, similarly between most of the MorphOS development team and Genesi. Things have calmed down considerably since then.
Currently eyes are mainly on the Hyperion vs Amiga Inc court case, which are battling for IP rights.
AROS and MorphOS are losely connected as MorphOS borrowed much from AROS, but AFAIK contributed back very little. IMO from a user perspective OS4 and MorphOS are far ahead of what AROS currently offers, IMO full time dedicated developers yielded much greater results so far (vs spare time hobby programmers).
Edited 2008-07-28 07:30 UTC
There’s a business here? You mean a real one, with sales and profits – real products that people purchase and use. Wow, I never knew that. I thought it was just a front for the lawyers. Cool!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’s business going on from a varierty of perspectives. Else there wouldn’t be costly lawsuits being funded.
Of course the companies look at the long term perspective with regard to the IP issues. There are many companies out there which are currently only at a R&D stage without making a dime so far.
My god Bouma are you still around sprouting this rubbish? Have the years since 2005 totally passed you by?
There has never been anything proven about the use of AmigaOS code in MOS… go on, name your “external sources”… oh wait, you can’t because they only exist in your weird little head.
Given the fact that MOS had to use AROS code and that Hyperion themselves stated that “very little 3.1 code” is acttually used in OS4… what value would the MOS team gain from using an aging, out of date mess of source code?
You don’t actually know how much code has gone between MOS and AROS, and I know you don’t actually care… you are biggoted and delusional, which probably explains why amigaworld got fed up of you.
I find it hard to believe that there is a human being alive, who is so capable of self delusion as yourself, it leads me to think that you must have some malcious purpose… but I can’t for the life of me figure out that it is… perhaps Einstein was right, perhaps there are only two things in this universe that are infinite and you are the shining example of that…
Mike,
Let me sum it up to you here:
1. Genesi has gone on to make hardware and support Linux. They work with companies like Freescale and IBM on a regular basis. These are not small companies, and they have legal departments (especially IBM) that have been over this multiple times.
2. Both Amiga Inc. and Genesi have moved on from the incessant trolling that ruined multiple sites. Since that time period, OS 4 has been released, MOS 2.0 has been released, and Hyperion (who are doing this out of love at this point) is working on AmigaOS 4.1, despite the legal wrangling going on.
3. If Amiga Inc. has something to say, or something to do, they need to do it, not you. By making comments like this, you’re actually hurting their chances by making these specious arguments without hard evidence.
Unless you’re a legal representative of either company that has access to documentation of this matter that we don’t, then you need to keep quiet and let Bill McEwen, Bill Buck, Hyperion, and their lawyers sort these situations out. It’s their problem, not yours.
4. AROS is an alternative. It’s different, and its Open Source. It’s meant to carry on the traditions that made Amiga a good name, which involve letting people develop their own parts of it or modify it if they wish. It’s a project that unfortunately doesn’t have the programming talent of the Friedens, but it has momentum and users. Taking a slag at it because of “results” doesn’t make you look any better.
Thank you.
bloodline, let’s quit the old habits of personal insults. Some credible external sources are widely known, like Dave Haynie.
Let’s not get into that here yet again. It’s only relevant with regard to the events which happened in the past referred to within this thread. It’s not really about the legality status of MorphOS. Thus I find some comments in reply really remarkable.
I made no personal insults, I simply stated facts! At least everything I have said is varifiable, and can be supported by real people who really exist in the really real world… you should vist there sometime.
I have no idea why you choose to post pointless delusions from 2005 in a thread that was actually rather interesting and the nearest thing we actually have to a new Amiga system, that is in production and available.
You have to be kidding me… Dave Haynie has never said that MOS was illegal… and more importantly he wouldn’t actually know…
You started this, not me. So don’t start crying when the dog you are poking with a sharp stick turns around and bites you!
Except you choose to post personal opinions as fact and then try and act as if you have some kind of special devinely bestowed authority upon all things Amiga…
Then why did you bring it up? To stir the sh1t?
You state clearly and unnecessarly that MOS is illegal and then find it remarkable that everyone who actually has a clue questions both your sanity and motives?
Edited 2008-07-29 09:24 UTC
@ mbpark
IMO the usefulness of AROS is relevant. There’s currently still nothing I would use AROS for instead of emulating a patched up AmigaOS 3.x, however there are far too many things I can do with WinUAE simply not possible at this point with AROS on x86 hardware. Get the point?
So obectivily speaking, I think it’s very relevant.
Edited 2008-07-29 07:16 UTC
And this thread is about AROS on a PPC machine… damn, I feel like I’m dealing with a retarded 4 year old…
Right, AROS is less useful than UAE running AOS3.x… well some one should get the Nobel prize… How many years did it take for you to realise that one? NONE of the nextgen Amiga clones are as useful as UAE running AOS3.x but that doesn’t stop people wanting them and wanting to play with them, for whatever reason.
So I really don’t understand your point at all! If you buy a SAM board from ACube you get AROS thrown in to the package… use it, don’t use it, it’s your call, you’ve lost nothing.
Bloodline,
Thank you. You have a good head on your shoulders.
Mike,
It’s Open Source. What part of that don’t you understand? This is meant as an Open Source re-implementation of the OS. You just don’t get what I said, which is that it is an ALTERNATIVE to the existing operating environments out there that has not progressed as much as the others. It also happens to run UAE and OS 3.x just fine, thank you very much
.
People can run what they wish. The board ships with AROS and Linux. So what if it doesn’t run OS4? People can buy what they wish, and run what they wish on it. Just because AROS is less complete than OS 3.x (which if you read my first post, you’d see that is EXACTLY what I am saying) doesn’t mean it is any less valid.
Actually, I said that having an Open Source version of the OS is a benefit to all because it encourages the behavior that made your beloved OS so enamored by the programmers out there for years, which is to modify the OS as you wish.
Your slamming of AROS for not being as useful, in that light, is an insult against AROS and the developers that work on it.
Unlike the Hyperion, MorphOS, and AROS teams, you support your favorite OS via message board trolling and slamming anything that is not AmigaOS.
This is something new and different, and a watershed moment for AROS, and you have to come out from under your bridge to piss all over it. Additionally, you attempt to come out and bring up matters that are not your business.
In other words, nothing’s changed.
I have a very sore head on my shoulders, I drank far too much last night, thus I was more irritable today than perhaps I should have been. I don’t regret what I say to Bouma, but I would not normally be so direct.
Wow. And have you noticed that you’re doing always the same things since… uh… 1998 or so, on WinUAE? If AROS becomes more widely accepted, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t, how many time do you think it will take, to surpass your dark age emulated environment? And, in the meanwhile, what does prevent me/you to run UAE on AROS and to do the same things?
I simply can’t understand all this hate about AROS, since it’s trying to (and it most succeed in) give us back our habits for free, and in a open behavior, on cheap hardware. We’re not in war with anyone. Users and developers are allowed to use and improve our sources… so, what’s all this hate for?
AmigaOS and MOS users should be very glad if AROS gets widely adopted, since it would increase the “Amiga” userbase in a easier, faster and much more realistic way than other flavours, and this would lead to more programs developed for the platform that could be easily ported to AmigaOS 4.x and MOS too.
Instead, I have always to read the same rants from “mine is better than yours” people.
This is great and that’s really cool that ACube is going to bundle AROS. I’ve always thought that AROS is sort of the Haiku of Amiga-like OSs.
About the MorphOS comments in the article: Thom is incorrect say that Efika “lacks the graphical chipset to power the new 3D features of MorphOS 2.0.” As someone already said, Efika makes use of a card, so the gfx chipset part is dependent on what card you put in there. Some Radeons of 7XXX, 8XXX, and 9XXX series are supported, as are some Voodoo cards. If you have a less-supported card, some M2 features may not be as fast but they’ll still work.
He may be thinking of Altivec instruction set support, the Efika CPU doesn’t have this, nor does Pegasos G3, but it’s another case where the features are still present, you just don’t get the enhanced performance that you would if you had the hardware.