AeonOS - A new OS coming from A-EON ?

[kriz]

From Amiga-News.de:

"A-EON is already internally testing Alpha releases of their own operating system Allegedly, A-EON's OS4 licenses expired quite some time ago and sources claim the company is not trying to apply for a new one. amiga-news.de has now received screenshots from an anonymous source that seem to be from a private forum A-EON is running for their betatesters.

The screenshots show a posting from late May, in which Matthew 'Amigakit' Leaman announces the availability of the first Alpha release of "Enhancer Software Release V54". The term "Operating System" is never used, but Leaman's description clearly refers to a standalone system.





Leaman refers to the download available to Betatesters as a "Distribution". It's said to be a bootable ISO image, although the installation instructions explain how to use an existing AmigaOS 4.1 installation to set the new system up. The OS modules not yet reimplemented for the Enhancer project need to be copied from an existing AmigaOS installation into a drawer of the Enhancer system called 'Legacy:' - the distribution's installer apparently takes care of that. Leaman's description of the process is like this: "We are no longer installing the Enhancer Software over the OS 4.1.The OS 4.1 files are complementing the main Enhancer Software system".

In his announcement, Leaman lists the developers who have contributed to the project so far (surnames added by amiga-news.de staff where known):

Classes, Commodities: Daniel, Massimo [Tantignone], Thomas [Frieden?]
Datatypes-System: Kevin
Multiview, MultiEdit, X-Dock: Andy [Broad]
Utilities, preferences, system tools: Fredrik [Wikstrom], Javier, Guillaume [Boesel]
Neue Sensor-API, rejuvenated Mediatoolbox: Andrea Vallinotto
Updated versions of Ringhio: Max [Tretene]
Warp 3D Nova, (upcoming) modernised 2D graphics: Hans [de Ruiter]
Shell commands: Constantinos
Icons, other artwork: Martin [Merz]

Other components owned by A-EON such as MediaToolbox, DVPlayer and the original Warp3D will "of course" (Leaman) also be included in the distribution."

Are they really trying to recreate OS4 themselves, from scratch ?! This is why Amigakit is so aggressive on their copyright agenda ?

[Romanujan]

Unbelievable. We’ll end up with 3 PPC systems:

- MorphOS
- AmigaOS 4
- the Enhancer

With no PPC-compatible hardware in production, with Tabor still not being released :/

[Tigerskunk]

I'd really wish they'd all put their eggs into the MOS basket.
Anyway, I think Enhancer is a continuation of 4.1, not a contender.

[Seiya]

or Enhancer will run on A-Eon hardware and OS 4.1 will run only on Classic PPC, WinUAE and Sam4x0.

[Doc]

Is A-EON still operative? There are no signs of life.

[Minuous]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Anyway, I think Enhancer is a continuation of 4.1, not a contender.

It is no continuation, it is an attempt to replace it when the real thing is alive and well. However given how poorly development is/was managed there, and the fact that they claimed the OS3 Enhancer Software and other things were imminent 5 years ago, and they never appeared, I don't think there is much chance it will be a real contender either :-D

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Romanujan

With no PPC-compatible hardware in production, with Tabor still not being released :/

Even if Tabor ever gets released, it will be nothing more than a curio. There is no future using PowerPC. Won't be as easy as a 68000 to emulate/replicate in FPGA and there is no new CPU in production.

They should just salvage AOS4.x or whatever they're gonna call it by porting it to ARM.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by jbenam

--><8

They should just salvage AOS4.x or whatever they're gonna call it by porting it to ARM.

This is a choice they should have made by the time Raspberry Pi became a hit.
Why waste so much R&D on their own hardware that is obsolete years before the products hit the market..

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

This is a choice they should have made by the time Raspberry Pi became a hit.
Why waste so much R&D on their own hardware that is obsolete years before the products hit the market..

Yup. It may not have been obvious with the first-gen RPi, but the 4th-gen and future models are overwhelmingly competitive on performance and absolutely unbeatable on price.



It surprises me that the AROS and MorphOS guys haven't done a fully native RPi port yet...

[BSzili]

Originally Posted by Minuous

It is no continuation, it is an attempt to replace it when the real thing is alive and well. However given how poorly development is/was managed there, and the fact that they claimed the OS3 Enhancer Software and other things were imminent 5 years ago, and they never appeared, I don't think there is much chance it will be a real contender either :-D

Uuummm...

[Minuous]

@BSzili:

Yes, there was an update this year; you didn't know?

https://www.hyperion-entertainment.c...e-for-download

[BSzili]

As a matter of fact I did know, and I have it installed since it came out. Regardless I find calling OS4 "alive and well" a very amusing statement, but I guess everyone has different standards

[4pLaY]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

Yup. It may not have been obvious with the first-gen RPi, but the 4th-gen and future models are overwhelmingly competitive on performance and absolutely unbeatable on price.

It surprises me that the AROS and MorphOS guys haven't done a fully native RPi port yet...

Short answer, lack of developers.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by 4pLaY

Short answer, lack of developers.

You're probably not wrong, but it needs to be seen in a wider perspective.. They "threw away" lots of R&D resources on the hardware. If they instead focused purely on porting to ARM resources could have been shuffled around..
Also, deadlines don't seem to be a thing in OS4 land so a slow road to ARM would look good today if they started say when RBP 2 was released way back in 2015.