AmigaOS is the proprietary native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. Since its introduction with the launch of the Amiga 1000 in 1985, there have been four major versions and several minor revisions of the operating system.
Amigaos Versions
During the five years of development, users of AmigaOne machines could download from Hyperion repository Pre-Release Versions of AmigaOS 4.0 as long as these were made available. As witnessed by many users into Amiga discussion forum sites, these versions were stable and reliable, despite the fact that they are technically labeled as "pre-releases".
The new version is PowerPC-native, finally abandoning the Motorola 68k processor. AmigaOS 4.0 will run on some PowerPC hardware, which currently only includes A1200, A3000 and A4000 with PowerPC accelerator boards and AmigaOne motherboards. Amiga, Inc.'s distribution policies for AmigaOS 4.0 and any later versions require that for third-party hardware the OS must be bundled with it, with the sole exception of Amigas with Phase 5 PowerPC accelerator boards, for which the OS will be sold separately.
AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions of AmigaOS required the Motorola 68000 series of 16-bit and 32-bit microprocessors. Later versions were developed by Haage & Partner (AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9) and then Hyperion Entertainment (AmigaOS 4.0-4.1). A PowerPC microprocessor is required for the most recent release, AmigaOS 4.
The Amiga intellectual property is fragmented between Amiga Inc., Cloanto, and Hyperion Entertainment. The copyrights for works created up to 1993 are owned by Cloanto.[3][4] In 2001, Amiga Inc. contracted AmigaOS 4 development to Hyperion Entertainment and, in 2009 they granted Hyperion an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to develop and market AmigaOS 4 and subsequent versions.[5]
AmigaOS is formed from two parts, namely, a firmware component called Kickstart and a software portion usually referred to as Workbench. Up until AmigaOS 3.1, matching versions of Kickstart and Workbench were typically released together. However, since AmigaOS 3.5, the first release after Commodore's demise, only the software component has been updated and the role of Kickstart has been diminished somewhat. Firmware updates may still be applied by patching at system boot. That was until 2018 when Hyperion Entertainment (license holder to AmigaOS 3.1) released AmigaOS 3.1.4 with an updated Kickstart ROM to go with it.
Kickstart contains many core parts of the Amiga's operating system, such as Exec, Intuition, the core of AmigaDOS and functionality to initialize Autoconfig-compliant expansion hardware. Later versions of the Kickstart contained drivers for IDE and SCSI controllers, PC card ports and other built-in hardware.
Since the introduction of AmigaOS in 1985 there have been four major versions and several minor revisions. Up until release 3.1 of the Amiga's operating system, Commodore used Workbench to refer to the entire Amiga operating system. As a consequence Workbench was commonly used to refer to both the operating system and the file manager component. For end users Workbench was often synonymous with AmigaOS. From version 3.5 the OS was renamed "AmigaOS" and pre-3.5 versions were also retroactively referred to as "AmigaOS" (rather than Workbench). Subsequently, "Workbench" refers to the native graphical file manager only.
AmigaOS 1.0 was released with the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. The 1.x versions of AmigaOS by default used a blue and orange color scheme, designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television screens (the colors can be changed by the user). Version 1.1 consists mostly of bug fixes and, like version 1.0, was distributed for the Amiga 1000 only.
Several features were deprecated in later versions. For example, the gauge meter showing the free space on a file system was replaced with a percentage in AmigaOS 2.0 before being restored in 3.5. The default "busy" pointer (a comic balloon showing "Zzz...") was replaced with a stopwatch in later versions.
The 1.x versions are the original implementation of AmigaOS. They defaulted to a distinctive blue and orange colour scheme which was designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television screens (it could easily be changed by the user). Versions 1.1 consisted mostly of bug fixes. Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were distributed only on floppy disks for the Amiga 1000.
Version 1.2 was the first to have Kickstart on a ROM and Workbench on one or two floppy disks. Workbench was then booted from floppy disk or installed on a hard disk on later machines. The early Kickstarts were still available on floppies for Amiga 1000 owners. These versions were shipped in ROM with the A500, A1500, CDTV (1.3 only) and A2000. Version 1.2 of Kickstart fixed many bugs, greatly improving the stability of the system, and added AutoConfig support which could automatically configure expansion boards. Release 1.3 had few changes to Kickstart (mainly to enable autobooting hard disks) but had many improvements in Workbench, including a much faster file system for hard disks, an improved CLI, and various extra programs.
You need the Unix emulation for AmigaOS, whose most important part is ixemul.library. For a minimum setup, get the latest versions of the following packages from the Aminet archives ( aminet/ ):
Each Kickstart version is tied to a particular version of the Amiga's operating system software, so users should only boot Workbench 2.0 on a machine with a 2.0 Kickstart ROM. It is possible to boot incorrect versions (Workbench 3.1 will boot on Kickstart 3.0, with some problems). The exceptions are Workbench 1.3 and 2.1, which work with Kickstart 1.2 and 2.04 respectively. Also, the latest Workbench versions, 3.5 and 3.9, use Kickstart 3.1 and load ROM updates at boot time.
The 1.x versions are the original implementation of AmigaOS. They defaulted to a distinctive blue and orange colour scheme which was designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television screens (it could easily be changed by the user). Versions 1.1 consisted mostly of bug fixes. Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were distributed only on floppy disks for the Amiga 1000.
Versions 1.2 and 1.3 were the first versions to be put in ROMs (allowing their use on models with Kickstart in ROM) but were still available on floppies for Amiga 1000 owners. These versions were shipped in ROM with the A500, A1500, CDTV (1.3 only) and A2000. Version 1.2 of Kickstart fixed many bugs, greatly improving the stability of the system, and added AutoConfig support which could automatically configure expansion boards. Release 1.3 had few changes to Kickstart (mainly to enable autobooting hard disks) but had many more changes supplied with Workbench, including a much faster file system for hard disks, an improved CLI, and various extra programs.
The new version will be PowerPC native, finally abandoning the Motorola 68k processor. Since there is no more 68000 based Amiga hardware, AmigaOS 4.0 will run on PowerPC hardware, which currently only includes 1200 and 4000 with PowerPC accelerator boards and AmigaOne motherboards. Amiga, Inc.'s distribution policies for AmigaOS 4.0 and any later versions requires that for third party hardware the OS must be bundled with it, with the sole exception of Amigas with Phase 5 PowerPC accelerator boards, for which the OS will be sold separately.
Distributions are preconfigured, and tested, versions of AROS. Theycontain a lot of useful 3rd party applications that don't come with thedefault AROS.org binaries, and will be of great interest to users.
Third party development also provided new, interesting software. MarcusSacrow prepared versions of his EdiSyn and Maporium applications for AROSARM platform, which is a very welcomed development as ARM platform has veryfew 3rd party applications at the moment. Yannick Erb provided a newversion of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machines Emulator) which can be downloadedfrom AROS Archives.
AmigaOS is a multi-tasking, shared library and device, even driven operating system for the Amiga family of computers based on the Motorola 680x0 or PowerPC processors. To write for AmigaOS you need to learn how to use Amiga's shared libraries. There are a number of shared libraries, some are located on the Kickstart ROM and some on disk in the LIBS: folder. Each library contains functions needed to perform particular functions such as disk i/o, graphics, sound, process management, memory management, keyboard/mouse and so on. More libraries are added as AmigaOS is updated, some libraries will not exist on older versions of AmigaOS.
Starting QuakeWorld client The program qwcl will automatically use CyberGfx, when cybergraphics.library was successfully opened, otherwise it tries to open an 320x200 AGA screen. Sound is played using Paula by default, except MorphOS and AmigaOS 4.x, which default to AHI. You can force AHI with the -ahi option though. Note: Make sure that you have set the stack size to 500000 bytes before starting the PowerUp or AmigaOS4 versions. The other ports have automatic stack extension. When running on CyberGfx you will first be asked for a screen mode. The program stops in the Quake console where you want to connect to a QuakeWorld server.
Starting QuakeWorld server When the qwsv program was started it loads the first map and awaits user input. Use map to select a specific map or gamedir to use a different mod. More informations can be found on the net (yes I know I should write something more here ;). You need qwprogs.dat in the id1 directory to run a server! Note: Make sure that you have set the stack size to 500000 bytes before starting the PowerUp or AmigaOS4 versions. The other ports have automatic stack extension. 06-Jan-2005. Release of V2.10. qwcl_68k.gz QW client for AmigaOS 3.x/68k. qwsv_68k.gz QW server for AmigaOS 3.x/68k. qwcl_os4.gz QW client for AmigaOS 4.x/PPC. qwsv_os4.gz QW server for AmigaOS 4.x/PPC. qwcl_mos.gz QW client for MorphOS. qwsv_mos.gz QW server for MorphOS. qwcl_wos.gz QW client for WarpOS. qwsv_wos.gz QW server for WarpOS. qwcl_pup.gz QW client for PowerUp. qwsv_pup.gz QW server for PowerUp. qwsrc.lzx Quake World source text. Where is the Quake World server? 2ff7e9595c
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