BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

[gulliver]

BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

BetterWB is a new workbench pack, much like AIAB, Amikit, AmigaSYS, ClassicWB, etc. but applying a totally different aproach. It aims to be much like an enhancement, an updated extension to AmigaOS 3.1, without all those hardware requirement penalties typically associated with these kind of packs. It is indeed a better 3.1 than 3.1 itself!

BetterWB best targets:

-Purists that believe anything beyond 3.1 is an overbloated piece of crap
-Low end Amiga computers that are left in storage deprived from any usage, and only regarded as antiques
-Users that refuse to pay big bucks in order to be able to somehow upgrade their Amiga workbench experience
-Minimig users, that are restricted to a 68000 processor
-Anyone that wishes a clean AmigaOS 3.1 like experience

Advantages:

-Works on any Amiga.
-It occupies about 8MB on a harddrive
-It is distributed as a set of floppy images
-Its usage is simple and bares a high resemblance to an ordinary 3.1 install

Drawbacks:

-No eye candy at all
-Will appear incomplete, or even a piece of dog poo for high end or heavily expanded Amiga systems (They are probably better with other workbench packs), that take care of the visual appealing components.


Requirements:

Any Amiga computer
Kickstart rom 3.1 (May also work under 3.0)
AmigaOS 3.1 disk set (May also work under 3.0)
About 8MB of storage space on a harddrive

What is new in this update:

-camd.library and Midiports preferences for midi supported programs
-DMS command writes and reads its floppy images from cli
-Gzip, the very popular multiplatform compressor is now included
-LZX is yet another compressor
-PFS3 All in one (now requires less memory for usage and autodetects large drives)
-SuperPlus has been updated and no longer shows the infamuos beta warning message
-TSGUI lets you read and write adf and dms floppy images with an easy to use interface
-WBStartup preferences enables you to select the commodities you want to run when workbench loads
-New commodities: DontShowIBorder (removes icon borders), ModePro (screen promotion) and MagicMenu (flying menus)
-Printfiles tool has been updated with plenty of features and an arexx port
-TagLiFE is a simple patch for the utility.library to install a
new set of optimized assembler routines to get a faster TagList support.
-Now boot in CLI mode with maximum ram to run memory demanding games and demos by booting without startup sequence and running add44k from CLI
-Text datatype was rolled back, due to printing bugs
-Lha can now adequately work under low memory condition (Thanks Dwyloc)
-Boards.library allows proper identification of Amiga hardware
-WhichAmiga replaces showconfig, as it has plenty more features
-PatchWB solves many workbench bugs
-Many minor tweaks and bugfixes

[prowler]

Great work, Gulliver!

Thankyou very much!

[fitzsteve]

Nice Gulliver, thanks for the update, I've been using BetterWB as a base for some of my own installs now as it's a much more raw base to start from, keep up the great work

[Anemos]

Good work

[lesta_smsc]

Any screenshots for this?

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Any screenshots for this?

What do you want to see?

Originally Posted by gulliver

BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

-Will appear incomplete, or even a piece of dog poo for high end or heavily expanded Amiga systems (They are probably better with other workbench packs), that take care of the visual appealing components.

It's improvement is about speed, reliability, few Hd use and lot of chip mem.
I would like to watch a video though, just to see what I say.

Edit: Also to see how it manages the chip mem when opening large drawers.

[lesta_smsc]

The actual workbench screen layout

[mfilos]

Thanks for the update Gulliver my friend.

[mcbone]

Originally Posted by gulliver

BetterWB release 2.9 - 23.08.2013

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

BetterWB is a new workbench pack, much like AIAB, Amikit, AmigaSYS, ClassicWB, etc. but applying a totally different aproach. It aims to be much like an enhancement, an updated extension to AmigaOS 3.1, without all those hardware requirement penalties typically associated with these kind of packs. It is indeed a better 3.1 than 3.1 itself!

BetterWB best targets:

-Purists that believe anything beyond 3.1 is an overbloated piece of crap
-Low end Amiga computers that are left in storage deprived from any usage, and only regarded as antiques
-Users that refuse to pay big bucks in order to be able to somehow upgrade their Amiga workbench experience
-Minimig users, that are restricted to a 68000 processor
-Anyone that wishes a clean AmigaOS 3.1 like experience

Advantages:

-Works on any Amiga.
-It occupies about 8MB on a harddrive
-It is distributed as a set of floppy images
-Its usage is simple and bares a high resemblance to an ordinary 3.1 install

Drawbacks:

-No eye candy at all
-Will appear incomplete, or even a piece of dog poo for high end or heavily expanded Amiga systems (They are probably better with other workbench packs), that take care of the visual appealing components.


Requirements:

Any Amiga computer
Kickstart rom 3.1 (May also work under 3.0)
AmigaOS 3.1 disk set (May also work under 3.0)
About 8MB of storage space on a harddrive

What is new in this update:

-camd.library and Midiports preferences for midi supported programs
-DMS command writes and reads its floppy images from cli
-Gzip, the very popular multiplatform compressor is now included
-LZX is yet another compressor
-PFS3 All in one (now requires less memory for usage and autodetects large drives)
-SuperPlus has been updated and no longer shows the infamuos beta warning message
-TSGUI lets you read and write adf and dms floppy images with an easy to use interface
-WBStartup preferences enables you to select the commodities you want to run when workbench loads
-New commodities: DontShowIBorder (removes icon borders), ModePro (screen promotion) and MagicMenu (flying menus)
-Printfiles tool has been updated with plenty of features and an arexx port
-TagLiFE is a simple patch for the utility.library to install a
new set of optimized assembler routines to get a faster TagList support.
-Now boot in CLI mode with maximum ram to run memory demanding games and demos by booting without startup sequence and running add44k from CLI
-Text datatype was rolled back, due to printing bugs
-Lha can now adequately work under low memory condition (Thanks Dwyloc)
-Boards.library allows proper identification of Amiga hardware
-WhichAmiga replaces showconfig, as it has plenty more features
-PatchWB solves many workbench bugs
-Many minor tweaks and bugfixes

so go on any Amiga no it dose not if you do not have a harddrive how dose it work with any amiga only work if you get a harddrive with and with 8MB on a harddrive and you need 3.1.The a500 Amiga come with no harddrive come with 1.2 or 1.3, A600 come with no harddrive 2.00 or 204 205 and only come with a harddrive if update A600 to 3.0 or 3.1 so not all amiga it work with

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by mcbone

A600 come with no harddrive

it did if you chose the A600HD

all fair points though, but generally if you dont have a hard drive, you dont tend to use workbench aside from booting productivity software, most of which have their own bootloaders (eg Dpaint, Wordworth et al). so this really only applies to hd/cf users. Anyone looking to use this also probably has no fastmem, so whdload wouldn't be possible in most cases either. And besides, users without or not willing to purchase a HD would simply boot from floppy.

I think it's an excellent idea Gulliver, and fills a gap in the Amiga Workbench offerings

now if only there was something similar for KS <3.0 owners

[mcbone]

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

it did if you chose the A600HD

all fair points though, but generally if you dont have a hard drive, you dont tend to use workbench aside from booting productivity software, most of which have their own bootloaders (eg Dpaint, Wordworth et al). so this really only applies to hd/cf users. Anyone looking to use this also probably has no fastmem, so whdload wouldn't be possible in most cases either. And besides, users without or not willing to purchase a HD would simply boot from floppy.

I think it's an excellent idea Gulliver, and fills a gap in the Amiga Workbench offerings

now if only there was something similar for KS <3.0 owners

yao right A600 and 1200

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by mcbone

yao right A600 and 1200

i was leaning more toward A1000, A2000, CDTV, A500, A500+ and A600, ie Kickstart 1 through to 2.5 (3.0 assumed as supported by author)... those without the new rom chips.

[mcbone]

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

i was leaning more toward A1000, A2000, CDTV, A500, A500+ and A600, ie Kickstart 1 through to 2.5 (3.0 assumed as supported by author)... those without the new rom chips.

me bthoer just update our rom in a600 from 2.00 to 3.1 hope to get a harddrive to

[diablothe2nd]

well, then this software will be great for you! so quit complaining :P

[mcbone]

Originally Posted by diablothe2nd

well, then this software will be great for you! so quit complaining :P

not complaining just point out no hard drive it will not work that all

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by mcbone

not complaining just point out no hard drive it will not work that all

of course it wouldn't

[Kitty]

Requesting screens too despite how plain it may look.

[mcbone]

world of be nice to see photo of screen of betterwb so we could make up our mind to load and install it or not

[fitzsteve]

It just looks like WB3.1

[Leffmann]

Yep, plain WB 3.1 looks, with some extra tools and utilities. You pretty much install it for the patches and updates, but here's a screenshot if anyone finds WB 3.1 interesting

@Gulliver:

Thanks a lot for the update! There's a problem with DirWork, nothing happens when I click Edit or select the external editor from the DW menu, so there doesn't seem to be a way of editing files from within DW, or a way of configuring it. How can I fix this?