They should make a Windows like Amiga OS so it runs on a PC

[DisasterIncarna]

the solution still looks like an Amiga OS 3/4 themed window manager for linux, it simply gives all the positives ofa modern OS with no negatives. Only other thing would be a sort of WINE like compatibility/translation layer for amiga programs so emulation wouldnt be required, i think there is something like that which was mentioned here a few times but i forget the name of.

https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools/tree/master maybe? not sure.

[Retro1234]

I mean how often have you crashed Amiga OS and thought Oh darn if only I had memory protection?

But yeah if I had to choose an OS I would probably go with Android. I mean my phone has never ever had a problem.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

But yeah if I had to choose an OS I would probably go with Android. I mean my phone has never ever had a problem.

You could try Bliss then: https://blissos.org/

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Have you considered that maybe you're chasing an impossible Unicorn OS?

Would be a good name "IU-OS"

Plus, even Amiga OS wasn't all these things to start with....

They tried and it was pretty amazing at its time. As mentioned, they had not the time and manpower, to do everything they wanted and it was tailored to 80s hardware ... but they came pretty far.

My point is, we should take that approach and re-imagine an OS in that spirit on today's hardware.

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by TCD

You could try Bliss then: https://blissos.org/

I mean the only reason I resort to Windows is because of the library of software really but every time I have to restore or sort Windows out etc I'm wondering why the hell am I doing this?

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by TCD

You could try Bliss then: https://blissos.org/

wasnt that a totally safe chinese OS named after an old linux virus?

[TCD]

No idea. It is open source though, so you could always check for yourself if is safe to use.

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

Only other thing would be a sort of WINE like compatibility/translation layer for amiga programs so emulation wouldnt be required, i think there is something like that which was mentioned here a few times but i forget the name of.

AxRuntime?

The runtime allows developers to continue developing Amiga applications in unmodified way while at the same time being able to utilize modern development tools available on Linux or Windows like IDEs, debuggers, profilers, etc.

This solution lets developers compile their Amiga API-based applications as Linux binaries. Once the features are implemented, tested and optimized using the runtime on Linux or Windows, developers re-compile their applications for their Amiga-like system of choice and perform final quality checking.

I think this is a close to WINE as one can get without resorting to full emulation.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by swoslover

An Amiga that could browse the web and had a decent word processor would be enough for most people's everyday needs that much hasn't changed in about 25 years.

Indeed, but browsing the web and word processing have changed massively in the past 25 years. It's easy to say "just browse the web" and forget that using a site like Facebook or Youtube is a *massive* task that we take for granted on mainstream platforms. And similarly, "just" word processing is one thing, but very quickly you realise you can't import Word documents or drag & drop chunks or reference databases or have nested tables or use templated style sheets or drag & drop images or export to PDF or use complex numbering and paragraph setups...

Having said that, OS4 and MorphOS both have reasonable options given the obscurity of both platforms. MorphOS has a reasonably up-to-date browser. OS4's browser is a good bit older, but still light-years ahead of anything on OS3, at least supporting CSS and reasonable Javascript. And OS4 has a port of AbiWord, which is a reasonably modern word processor - again, well behind mainstream solutions but head and shoulders above any OS3 software.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by tero

AROS is a nice System, but too close to classic Amiga imo. It 'feels' too old for more modern hardware.

OS4 for Pi4/5 on the other hand, i would buy it.

AROS would be in a MUCH better place if there was more than two full time developers on it (kudos to Deadwood and Kalamatee) - actually to be in the place it is now is already almost a miracle!

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by minator

Does it have memory protection?
Can it use more then one core?
Can it access more than 2GB RAM?
Can it run on silicon developed this century?

AROS 64-bit has three out of four of those features, beside the memory protection; but i remember Michal was thinking at some remedies there...

[minator]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Alternatively, you should check out Haiku, which is a modern implementation of BeOS, a lightweight alternative OS and has many Amiga-like qualities while also having much more support than AROS.

When I used BeOS in the 90s it felt very like the Amiga. Unlike Windows it was very fast and responsive and you could multi-task happily without it crashing.
I used it for a few years, it was always a pleasure to use after using Windows.

I moved to the Mac after that, it became a lot more interesting once they moved to a Unix base. There is the Apple tax to pay, but every time I use Windows I'm reminded why I pay it.

I've not tried Haiku for quite a while, but it was snappy on an Intel Atom over ten years ago, so it should go like a rocket on modern hardware.

[BSzili]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Indeed, but browsing the web and word processing have changed massively in the past 25 years. It's easy to say "just browse the web" and forget that using a site like Facebook or Youtube is a *massive* task that we take for granted on mainstream platforms. And similarly, "just" word processing is one thing, but very quickly you realise you can't import Word documents or drag & drop chunks or reference databases or have nested tables or use templated style sheets or drag & drop images or export to PDF or use complex numbering and paragraph setups...

Having said that, OS4 and MorphOS both have reasonable options given the obscurity of both platforms. MorphOS has a reasonably up-to-date browser. OS4's browser is a good bit older, but still light-years ahead of anything on OS3, at least supporting CSS and reasonable Javascript. And OS4 has a port of AbiWord, which is a reasonably modern word processor - again, well behind mainstream solutions but head and shoulders above any OS3 software.

Yeah, "browsing the web" changed massively, perhaps more than anything one can do with computers these days. I'd like to quote a portion of the TenFourFox post-mortem:

For better or for worse, web browsers' primary role is no longer to view documents; it is to view applications that, by sheer coincidence, sometimes resemble documents. You can make workarounds to gracefully degrade where we have missing HTML or DOM features, but JavaScript is pretty much run or don't, and more and more sites just plain collapse if any portion of it doesn't.

And this was 4 years ago

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by Gorf

It should defientitvly not be "Windows-like" but Amiga-like.

What does 'Amiga-like' mean?

Why not 'Windows-like'?

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

What does 'Amiga-like' mean?

Thank you. I was kind of waiting for someone to raise that question.
It is an important question.

What does it actually mean? When can we call a system 'Amiga-like'.
What are the specific traits besides window decorations and icons?
And how would that translate into a modern system?

I have a pretty good picture of that in my mind, but at this point I am more interested in what others think.
So what is the Amiga-essence for all of you?

[robinsonb5]

The Amiga essence for me has always been the feeling that I have the computer's full attention.

You click, the computer gives immediate visual feedback (even if the actual action taken in response to the click takes some time). You right-click, the menu is rendered as rapidly as chip RAM bandwidth will allow - no random half-a-second of disk activity followed by a grudging and jerky rendering. If one program's busy you can flip to another one without fear of triggering a swap-storm and locking up the user-interface for a couple of minutes.

I don't know how much of that would survive the addition of virtual memory - probably none of it if "modern" software was ported across from other platforms.

Which is the crux of the issue - it's not just the OS that would need to be Amiga-like, but also the software running under it. I think it would need an almost monastic discipline from developers to resist the patterns of bloat that are normal on other platforms and retain the minimalist approach. The system-resource equivalent of a vow of poverty!