Celestia ported to AmigaOS4.1

[mpiva]

I've been using Celestia for years and love the program but I've always wished that it could be ported to my favorite computer platform, AmigaOS. Now, it seems someone has done just that. I was just reading someone's report of the Pianeta Amiga 2008 show last weekend (Sept 27-28) and was shocked and delighted to see that someone has fulfilled my dream. Read here, about half-way down the post.

I don't know many of the details yet (version, stability, ability to use addons, etc) but I'll try to find out.

[t00fri]

I've been using Celestia for years and love the program but I've always wished that it could be ported to my favorite computer platform, AmigaOS. Now, it seems someone has done just that. I was just reading someone's report of the Pianeta Amiga 2008 show last weekend (Sept 27-28) and was shocked and delighted to see that someone has fulfilled my dream. Read here, about half-way down the post.

I don't know many of the details yet (version, stability, ability to use addons, etc) but I'll try to find out.

Could you explain in a few sentences why in these days with core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's someone would want to use an Amiga with own OS? I thought Amiga is history since decades?

Fridger

[BobHegwood]

I also thought that Amiga's were history. They are not?
Will wonders never cease... At any rate, it's great to know that our favorite, realistic as Hell,
scientific program is getting so many outlets to run on. This is great news as far as I'm concerned.

[mpiva]

Could you explain in a few sentences why in these days with core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's someone would want to use an Amiga with own OS? I thought Amiga is history since decades?

Fridger

Sure, I'd love to. It's all down to one thing, the OS. AmigaOS4.1 is faster, more efficient, and generally a lot more FUN to use than those "other" OS' running on "core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's". Sure there's limitations, namely slow/expensive hardware and your software library is a lot more limited, but with people porting things like Celestia to it, things are improving. AmigaOS4.1 was released just last month and is REALLY sleek and powerful. I won't waste more time raving about the virtues of AmigaOS... there's google for people who want to use it or you could read this ArsTechnica Review.

The biggest thing holding AmigaOS back right now are the idiots at Amiga Inc. To make a LONG story short, Amiga Inc contracted Hyperion VOF to update the aging OS and port it to PPC hardware. But now that Hyperion has done just that, Amiga Inc is refusing to allow any PPC computer manufacturers to obtain a licence to run the OS, essentially killing the OS. Now Amiga Inc and Hyperion VOF are in court fighting over ownership of the OS. Despite this, a couple weeks ago Hyperion gave ACube Systems SRL a licence to use AmigaOS4.1 on their SAM440 motherboard. If Amiga Inc were out of the picture, Hyperion might just port AmigaOS4.x to those same "core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's" that you mentioned.

[Reiko]

Could you explain in a few sentences why in these days with core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's someone would want to use an Amiga with own OS? I thought Amiga is history since decades?

Fridger

Sure, I'd love to. It's all down to one thing, the OS. AmigaOS4.1 is faster, more efficient, and generally a lot more FUN to use than those "other" OS' running on "core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's". Sure there's limitations, namely slow/expensive hardware and your software library is a lot more limited, but with people porting things like Celestia to it, things are improving. AmigaOS4.1 was released just last month and is REALLY sleek and powerful. I won't waste more time raving about the virtues of AmigaOS... there's google for people who want to use it or you could read this ArsTechnica Review.

The biggest thing holding AmigaOS back right now are the idiots at Amiga Inc. To make a LONG story short, Amiga Inc contracted Hyperion VOF to update the aging OS and port it to PPC hardware. But now that Hyperion has done just that, Amiga Inc is refusing to allow any PPC computer manufacturers to obtain a licence to run the OS, essentially killing the OS. Now Amiga Inc and Hyperion VOF are in court fighting over ownership of the OS. Despite this, a couple weeks ago Hyperion gave ACube Systems SRL a licence to use AmigaOS4.1 on their SAM440 motherboard. If Amiga Inc were out of the picture, Hyperion might just port AmigaOS4.x to those same "core2Duo PC's and fancy MAC's" that you mentioned.

You know you can strip windows down to run much faster and more efficient.

[t00fri]

Well,

this sounds hardly convincing to many, I am afraid.

Since years, we do enjoy 3 VERY mature and well serviced OS's, ie Windows XP, MAC OS and Linux, which are consistently supported by industry. The required hardware has an excellent performance/price/reliability ratio. We have a HUGE amount of popular software for any of these three OS's at our disposal (including Celestia of course ).. All three are highly configurable...

I can understand (and do this myself at times) if someone loves old HiFi amplifiers (like my old Swiss-made ReVox). But I am sorry, I can't see ANY good point for Amiga OS restricted to old and expensive hardware

Fridger

[BobHegwood]

Since years, we do enjoy 3 VERY mature and well serviced OS's, ie Windows XP, MAC OS and Linux, which are consistently supported by industry. The required hardware has an excellent performance/price/reliability ratio. We have a HUGE amount of popular software for any of these three OS's at our disposal (including Celestia of course ).. All three are highly configurable...

If I may here Good Doctor, make that four operating systems. Windows Vista is quite happy with Celestia (in all versions.)

[t00fri]

Since years, we do enjoy 3 VERY mature and well serviced OS's, ie Windows XP, MAC OS and Linux, which are consistently supported by industry. The required hardware has an excellent performance/price/reliability ratio. We have a HUGE amount of popular software for any of these three OS's at our disposal (including Celestia of course ).. All three are highly configurable...

If I may here Good Doctor, make that four operating systems. Windows Vista is quite happy with Celestia (in all versions.)

Sure Bob,

but leaving Vista out was not an oversight of mine . What I emphasized was

3 VERY mature and well serviced OS's, ie Windows XP, MAC OS and Linux

Lets wait for a couple of Vista service packs first... before adding Vista to the VERY mature crowd

Cheers,
Fridger

[BobHegwood]

Lets wait for a few Vista service packs... before adding Vista to the VERY mature crowd

Got one so far, and at least on MY system, Celestia is, as always, and due in LARGE part to your efforts, a fantastic
way for non-astronauts to explore the Universe. My unending thanks to you sir, and to you ALL on the development team.

[mpiva]

You know you can strip windows down to run much faster and more efficient.

Yes, I'm QUITE familiar with that... right now I'm replying to you via a HIGHLY trimmed down version of XP I made with nLite for my Asus eeePC 701 which only has 4Gb of storage space (on which I also have a copy of Celestia BTW ). I WISH I could run AmigaOS4.1 on this thing as it would probably boot in 5 sec, run WAY faster, turn off instantly, and be more than happy with the default 512Mb of RAM. (With XP I needed to buy 2Gb of RAM for the eeePC so that I could turn off Window's stupid paging system which kills the lifetime of the eeePC's SSD).

[mpiva]

Well,

this sounds hardly convincing to many, I am afraid.

It wasn't my intent to convince anybody of anything. Someone asked a question so I answered. Use whatever OS you want, I don't care. Some people don't like Windows or MacOS, or Linux. Some people like using AmigaOS, RiscOS, AROS, Haiku (BeOS), or SkyOS. If I wanted to write a lengthy message explicitly detailing all the things I personally like better about AmigaOS I could but that's not what this thread is about and this hardly is the correct forum to do that in. This forum is about Celestia so I reported some interesting news regarding Celestia. If you don't care about AmigaOS, fine... don't read the thread, but for those who care, I thought I'd point it out. Or do you like to complain just for the sake of complaining?

Oh, and one more thing... AmigaOS4.x isn't "restricted to old and expensive hardware". "Expensive" I'll grant you (considering these motherboards aren't made in the millions, low volume production runs do mean a higher price tag unfortunately). However, "old"? Nothing could be farther from the truth. ACube's SAM440ep motherboards were only designed a couple of years ago and it looks like ACube hopes their SAM44ep-flex motherboard will be out before Christmas this year.

[afxgroup]

Hi all,
i'm the author of the port of Celestia for AmigaOS4.
Well, actually there are no reasons to use AmigaOS4 these days but..

but. you will not have the feelings that you have with AmigaOS wit any other OS. And i can assure you that is so. I have a Mac here at home and use Windows, Linux at work so i'm speaking knoweing what are the other os.
Of course the three other OS are more sophisticated and enhanced of AmigaOS, but we are speaking of an os bort in the end of 1990 and that is actual also these days
And also..
You will found anything you want on other platforms and is not the same on AmigaOS, so port a program for my platform or also a simply utility that can make happy a single user is a satsifaction that no other os can give..



P.S.
you can always buy a SAM that is capable of run AmigaOS4 and tell me if i'm wrong..

Andrea