amigaos
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Commodore USA to relaunch Amiga brand with series of AROS desktops
Barry's back, kids! The CEO of Commodore USA just informed us that, in addition to slapping Commodore stickers on various all-in-one PCs, he has acquired the rights to the Amiga name (we only hope that the process went a little smoother this time around). The plan is to sell machines that fully support AROS -- an open source variant of AmigaOS 3.1 that y'all seem to go crazy for. We can't wait to get a look at these bad boys, but for now we'll have to settle with the picture of an old Amiga 3000 he inexplicably included with the PR. The PR, that is, that can be seen in its entirety after the break.
MorphOS for Amiga adds Mac mini support, someone in Europe is delighted
Amiga owners are a loyal bunch. And they have to be -- stuck with a machine frozen in time (even if OS 5 was claimed to be "better than OS X") and little in the way of support, the manner in which they've stubbornly stuck with the platform over the years can only be described as a labor of love. If you've been wondering what all the fuss is about but no longer have a PowerPC-based Amiga system handy, the MorphOS Dev Team has just announced that its latest -- MorphOS 2.4 -- now supports Mac mini G4 machines. Available now, you can either hit the read link to download for yourself, or wait until the upcoming Amiga user group meeting in Bad Bramstedt, Germany. You know, whatever you find more convenient. As for us, we're going to go play a game of Ooops Up! for old time's sake.[Thanks, Antti Jarvinen]
OLPC hacked to run Amiga OS
Clearly a match made in heaven, the doomed-but-beloved Amiga OS has been made to run on the maybe-doomed-but-beloved OLPC. It's not running natively, sadly, so the real hack here is getting the Amiga Forever emulator running on NickNeg's baby, but still, this combination is just beautifully tragic.
Amiga returns to the hardware game, promises two new PPC desktops
Don't call it a comeback. Or, um, something like that. Amiga hasn't been exactly prolific since 2001, when it "began" development of AmigaOS 4.0, but now that it's finally shipping that retro-modern OS, attention has turned to hardware: where oh where is a modern PowerPC machine to run this on? To that end, Amiga is teaming up with ACK Software Controls to build two new desktops, both offering complete experiences to new and seasoned Amiga users. Twelve months in the making, the flavors are a $500 consumer version and a $1500 "power design." Both seem rather cheap, given the exclusivity of the Amiga market these days, but we're not complaining -- and we're sure the imaginary people who will actually buy these aren't either. Full launch deets and hopefully specs should be unveiled next week sometime. [Via TG Daily]
AmigaOS 4 reviewed
ArsTechnica got a look at a pre-release version of AmigaOS 4 a full two years ago, but as those familiar with the much-loved platform know all too well, things move slowly in Amigaland, which accounts for why the final version of OS is only now available for download. As before, the folks at ArsTechnica got one of the first looks at it, installing the OS on their coveted Micro AmigaOne box in hopes of reliving good old days of 1989. While they end up giving the OS a thumbs up for the most part, it's unfortunately not without its failings, and probably only of interest to die-hard Amiga fans and those curious what all the fuss was about. On the upside, the installation is apparently fairly straightforward, and the OS itself has been given a bit of facelift, with the usual shininess added to spruce things up. The OS hits its biggest snags when you go online, with a browser that doesn't support CSS and an email application that doesn't support HTML, although both would seem to be only temporary problems should development pick up. Of course, to try out the OS for yourself, you're gonna have to track down an AmigaOne system of your own, which is no easy feat, given that the only company making 'em has ceased production. Those of us not so lucky will just have to hold onto the faint hope of an Intel port somewhere down the line.
