| From: | Anthony W. Prime |
| Date: | 2 Apr 2001 at 18:04:46 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga announcements - any questions? |
Hi Alan
>> better than the current crop of JVMs? One of the earlier strengths stated
>> of the DE was the ready back catalogue of classic line software. Now, it
>> seems this "great strength" is lost. Are the wheels finally coming off.
>they said there'd be a classic emulation layer in the AmigaDE. I dont
>recall them withdrawing this effort. But if all you want is access to
>classic Apps, then UAE is still the way. I guess someone can come along
>with an AmigaIntution.dll and allow Amiga stuff to run as if its native
>(Like WINE does under Linux). you get different looking windows etc, but
>all the chip/cpu/intuition emulation is hidden from view.
This is what I was really hoping for. I don`t want to run lots of Amiga
games. I want to continue to use the OS because a lot of the software that is
there is damned good (and how nice it would have been for classic developers
to be able to ambush other OS users by allowing them to run their software
because they happened to aquire the DE to be able to run a certain game or
games). But unfortunately its scope is becoming more and more limited. Fleecy
said (on the A1 list) that the decision had been taken to seperate the OS4
and DE in to two distinct product lines (with the caveat that the DE would be
built in to OS4.2). But he was clear that OS4.2 required a ZICO spec machine
including PPC (though the ZICO spec was originally any DE friendly
processor).
Sadly I`ve had /very/ limited success with UAE, largely because its design
brief seems to be to run .adf games well, which I`m sure it does, but sadly I
can`t get it to install anything remotely serious without either UAE bombing
on the Amiga file system or the BSOD interupting me. This is a shame really
because something like V runs almost as quickly on an AGA only 030/50 as IE
on my Athlon 700, so I`d have loved to have seen the pace of V running on my
Athlon box. :)
I might give UAE under Linux a try, as at least I`ll have solid foundations,
but as I say the *Amiga* side of UAE often fails me. :(
>> Sorry if all this sounds a bit negative, but I think it`s only realism :/
>theres always a lot of -ve stuff after big announcements, people want the
>moon on a stick they do! :-)
But the point is there`s been no "big" announcement, just some progress and
some retrenchment, and from a personal perspective the progress isn`t where I
want it, and the retrenchment has somewhat negated my optimism for the DE.
In summary if I can`t have the moon on a stick (tm) then what I really want
is a platform that fulfills the following criteria
1. Fast
2. Compact but extendable if required
3. Easy to use
4. Stable, stable, stable (did I mention stable?:)
5. Flexible
6. Supported
7. Cool (how does one define that :)
How many of those does Classic miss? Not too many really, but support is a
big issue.
Now I still see the DE as having potential here and when(if) it becomes
available hosted on Windows or Linux, you can bet I`ll be flashing the cash,
but Fleecy noiw says that he sees the DE as "adding value to windows where we
can" rather than replacing it. I`d have much rather been able to run it
cleanly as the native OS, say dual booting to windows for the stuff I (or
more specifically my kids) can`t presently do on Amiga OS.
Oh and I get very woried when people start talking about "adding value". It
usually means they can`t really think of anything better to say :p
I know AmigaOS better than any other, I like it more than any other, but as
it stands my needs are outgrowing it, which is very, very sad. I accept that
inventiveness can solve some issues, but sadly the list that can`t be is
growing.
I`ll not be giving up my Amiga, but sadly like so many it`s getting used less
and less often, so it`s in danger of ending up in that big box in the loft
next to my QL (which I can emulate nicely thankyou :), Electron and Spectrum
:(
http://www.amiga.com So the world may know...
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