If you would add ONE new feature to OS3.x...

[eXeler0]

Even though OS 4 development is slow... it is now a totally different beast than OS 3.9. If you could add ONE new major feature to the old OS 3.9 what would it be?

[frank_b]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Even though OS 4 development is slow... it is now a totally different beast than OS 3.9. If you could add ONE new major feature to the old OS 3.9 what would it be?

I'll give you two

1) Fix the font spacing in the title bar. There should be a gap at the top and bottom as per 1.3.

2) Large disk support.

We really should just kicktarter and get the OS opened. The 68k one. I don't really care about PPC.

[brett71]

It would be kinda cool if someone could convince Hyperion to open up the 3.x source and allow it to be forked. Surely they can't see AmigaOS 3.x as still being some sort of cash cow greater than AmigaOS 4 was.

[Arnie]

Why they made OS4 run on PPC only doesn't make sense to me.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by brett71

It would be kinda cool if someone could convince Hyperion to open up the 3.x source and allow it to be forked. Surely they can't see AmigaOS 3.x as still being some sort of cash cow greater than AmigaOS 4 was.

Yea, you'd think they'd let that one go by now..
Question is if there still are dedicated individuals with the right knowledge and motivation to take over a project like that?

[Megol]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Even though OS 4 development is slow... it is now a totally different beast than OS 3.9. If you could add ONE new major feature to the old OS 3.9 what would it be?

Multiprocessing.

[eXeler0]

You already have it, CPU+ copper ;-)
I would be tempted to say memory protection but Im not going down that road. I know its practically impossible to implement as an afterthought.
Though a rewritten Intuition with some intelligence in scalable windows handeling would be high on my list.

[Locutus]

a permissive source code license

[eXeler0]

The OS 3 license is probably a mess smeared across Cloanto, Haage-Partner, Hyperion and probably Santa Claus...
Yes they should give it up already and let the community do something useful with the source...

[Leandro Jardim]

Datatypes with high quality dithering for images.

[Amiga1992]

In-built ability to load graphic data on Fast RAM like FBlit.

[Thorham]

I would add improved IDE device handling to Kickstart (this includes handling new SATA stuff through a SATA to IDE bridge).

PPC Emulation *snicker*

[Paul_s]

Commodore Activation Wizard.


Like Microsoft's... but when you phone Commodore to activate... the automated voice compliments you on buying an Amiga and offers a free massage at a designated Commodore service centre.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

I would be tempted to say memory protection but Im not going down that road. I know its practically impossible to implement as an afterthought.

Yes but we could have resource tracking, and maybe some sort of task manager, so if a program exits without freeing the memory it used, one could manually nuke it.

Though a rewritten Intuition with some intelligence in scalable windows handeling would be high on my list.

I'd quite like a few features from a new version of intuition. It would be nice if it directly supported skinning/window themes/styles, rather than having to rely on a 3rd party hack or patch. Actually tbh, i might be on my own here but i kind of prefer the original Workbench 1.x look and feel to the 3D bevelled look of 2.0.

Also it would be nice if you could open more than one workbench screen, like having multiple workspaces in X Windows systems.

[beezle]

I'm happy enough with AROS.
It exists, it *is* open source. Its written by friendly people. It already has enhancements vs 3.x. People can actually have a say rather than dreaming about having a say.

Its like having 2 doors leading to the same place, one open, one locked/chained and with a plethora of barricades.
Yet for some reason, time and time again people seem to disregard the open door and ponder how to get through the other.

In regards to a task manager and the ability to free memory from a crashed program, its been possible for decades. My preference is Scout.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

I would be tempted to say memory protection but Im not going down that road. I know its practically impossible to implement as an afterthought.

That reminds me of the old days and FidoNet..
I remember a long technical discussion about adding memory protection the the Amiga, among some very smart (sounding at least, way over my head..) people.
There were 2 sides (I can't remember the sides or specific issue), one led by Matt Dillon (no, not the actor, the guy who wrote DICE and went on to do lots in the BSD world) and the other side by someone else I didn't know.
(I only knew of Matt because I was a DICE user... so I was on his side by default..)
Anyway, of course it was never resolved, but I did read that the other guy got a job at Commodore later (of course, no idea doing what) and we never got memory protection.
I'm my memory, I always imagine that if Matt had somehow "won" the discussion, Commodore would have hired him and we'd have memory protection..
I know that's not the case, but still... ;-)

I know this sounds silly, but I always wanted DCTV (or HamE, I had that back in the day, DCTV now) support in Workbench..
You didn't say they have to be good ideas!! ;-)

desiv

[beezle]

Better memory protection is more accurate

All Amiga-noid have some limited page based memory protection.

[kolla]

Ability to change resolutions without needing to close windows and programs.

[BarryB]

boot/mount IPF/ADF natively with write support.