fredag 6. mai 2016

A Slow Comeback

My new little home office ;)
Hello everyone and absolutely good to see all of you, dedicated Amiga users.

Earlier, i said i was to leave the Amiga. I did for a while, due to Hyperion Entertainment's inactivity of updating AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. Especially for the last 12 months, but now i'm back to stay. Albeit a rather slow comeback, as i'm more careful watching the Amiga situation.

Despite slowly coming back to Amiga, i must say i have changed a lot during my insight into Amiga, after being a die-hard Amiga fan for more than 27 years now. Things have changed, and also in my life at the age of nearly 41. Been through far too much in life and one will always discover that there are far more things to life, usually far more important things, than one would think in the beginning. Perspectives change, personality changes. You get the picture. Life changes. I'm definitely a different man than i used to be when it comes to the Amiga. The simply word i would use is being more realistic.

Alongside using my AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex system, i'm also using a Windows 10 PC for more serious photo-work. Especially if i want to scan and print photos, then i use the PC, or if something happens with the Amiga and i would be forced to wait while problems with Amiga get fixed, then i can use my PC next to it. Hypotetical referance, of course. Having two different computers is useful.

The Force Awakens background
Now recently, i have finally downloaded and installed the new Workbench Enhancer Plus Edition bundle from A-EON, with success, so i am relieved!

Workbench Enhancer is a new bundle, containing a couple of improvements to AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. It's meant to fill the "void" of Hyperion Entertainment's inactivity of updating AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition's many bugs, which they haven't for more than a year. A-EON are to have credits for their outstanding work on bringing new software, hardware and functionality to the Amiga.

Most improvements from the bundle are "hidden stuffs" that happen in the background. Like a brand new updated version of SmartFileSystem V2, many new classes and Warp3D Nova. You will notice this in play if you have the newer RadeonHD cards. I only have RadeonHD 6670, so this is not yet supported.

Warp3D Nova is a long-expected more modern 3D graphic system for AmigaOS4. At least until AmigaOS 4.2 is out, with Gallium3D and hopefully Vulcan - the open source successor to OpenGL. Time will show, of course. But for now Warp3D.

Otherwise, there are some new versions of Format and Multiviewer. Now it's easier and better ways to format SFS-partitions, along with a new version of Partition Wizard. What more, there are some new tools as well. MultiEdit replaces NotePad with much more editing features. ClipViewer and ExChanger are two new Commodities that run in background inside WBStartup. Multiviewer that replaces the old Multiview with more features, has also been updated. I left it out to update, due to some erros when trying to install everything from the Workbench Enhancer bundle. So i left it out, along with CANDI. I'm very happy with my setup.

Another interesting new thing is X-Dock. A more future-proof dock system to replace AmiDock in the future. In the bundle, it's very new and lack several of the flexibility that AmiDock has, but X-Dock has potensial, so it will be interesting to see how the new stuffs will progress further in the future, which is good news.

The new MultiEdit replacing Notepad
Like i said, Workbench Enhancer can be assumed to fill the "gap" Hyperion Entertainment left with a more or less buggy AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. At least until AmigaOS 4.2.

The bundle might not solve all of the problems with AmigaOS 4.1 Final, as it's not an update Hyperion Entertainment were meant to do, but bringing in a couple of new and updated stuffs, so it makes the AmigaOS4 more useable at least, which of course is good, so we should be grateful for that and have fun with it.

Amiga's excellent Tunenet Internet Radio!
A great welcome introduction in the bundle is Tunenet - The great Amiga Internet Radio Player. A-EON have taken up the development of this player. One of many excellent projects A-EON are working on. From the bundle, Tunenet has been greatly updated and is back on track!

With it, you can listen to broadcast music from internet on radio channel all over the world! All kind of music to small radio talks! With an audio card handling 32 bit audio, you get fantastic audio quality! Add that to a true digital home cinema equipment with great speakers, and you enter a wonderful world of music!

My ultra home cinema at home
All in all, i am happy with the Workbench Enhancer bundle, so again a great congratulation to A-EON!

Another product that has seen some improvements, is Odyssey Web Browser 1.23r3. A patch (which is an ongoing project and now at version 7) that allows Odyssey Web Browser to log into sites like Blogger and YouTube with ease! I'm actually writing this blog with Odyssey! Cool, isn't it?

This update of Odyssey Web Browser is really nice to have, until version 1.25 is released for AmigaOS4. It's now currently only available to AROS, but will make its' way to AmigaOS4. Patch 7 surely helps version 1.23r3 a lot! A great welcome! A great thanks to Kas1e for working on this patch, making Odyssey truly useful!

Odyssey loggin into Blogger with Patch!
Amiga might again feel a little more modern, and it's all due to instant work from A-EON and several developers.

Hyperion Entertainment are mostly these days more or less blamed for their inactivity of bringing important updates to the more or less buggy AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. It is believed they are working on AmigaOS 4.2. I'm sure they do and that is great, but it would help a lot to update AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition, erasing annoying and critical bugs, maybe even improve some visual look while we are waiting for 4.2.

A-EON end up to be the true HERO for Amiga these days. They seem to have done more (with many developers) for the community than Hyperion Entertainment have done for the past 5 years! No kidding!. I'm at least watching the Amiga situation carefully.

As we are ending this blog for now, i would like to say i'm really happy to be back to the Amiga. Albeit not quite like before and not as active as i used to be, but still hanging around and using both Amiga and PC now and then. I'm still part of the Amiga community, and i will keep watching what direction Amiga takes into future.

The best thing with all these good Amiga news is that Amiga again is more useful to use, even as a "pathetic hobby" with some limitations, but if you have both an Amiga and a PC (or Mac for that matter), then you can always switch between the two of them or run both at the same time. If you get tired of the Amiga, then you can use the other one, until you get tired of using the other one, and then be using the Amiga. Best from both world, and no need to feel bored or limited.

Amiga blogs won't happen as often as earlier, but the wait will never be long. Until next time, enjoy reading this blog and have fun with your Amiga. I'll try to do too ;)

Written by
Helge Kvalheim, Norway




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