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I have read the two articles (so far) about os3.9 in "Amiga Aktuell International" and was very surprised by the obvious nearsightedness displayed by "experienced" Amiga-users. In one article the author disparaged 3.9 as an "os3.5 + shareware-collection" and claimed other programs would have been much better than those that came with os3.9.
Remarkably, the author contradicts himself. The "shareware-collection" is interpreted as an attempt to shortchange the customers while he wants other shareware-products integrated in os3.9.
Furthermore I could not accept all the (technical) criticism. The OS3.9 is sold as an operation system "for all", not for specialists, who are smart enough to replace the important functions with other (shareware) ones or just program them for their own needs. In this light the criticism of "PlayCD" is in no way warrantable. And the author obviously overlooked the new functions of "PlayCD". Hasn't anyone noticed, that when it is started, "PlayCD" immediately starts playing the inserted CD ? "PlayCD" searches for a CDROM and uses it automatically. Oh, I forgot, this function is a standard one in other players ;).
Seriously, in my opinion, there are too many comments made without a proper look at the material (and particularly in the Amiga market). What a pity, as the Amiga market reacts very sensitively to negative comments and criticism. This behaviour of by the Amiga community has not been good for the market.
But to return to the topic: OS3.9 is definitely misjudged. It was a more than masterly achievement to produce this system within such a very short time of development. It is often overlooked that the shareware-programs that come with OS3.9 are different from the versions found on the Aminet. One can assume that these programs have been extensively reworked, since they were integrated into the OS3.9's beta-test. That's what Jürgen Haage was on about at WOA 2000.
Sure, the errors in the production of the CD are regrettable, but they are pardonable. Other operating systems have a much bigger development crew concentrating on the product. H&P as a company with its focus on the Amiga market has the same problems as any other company that produces for the Amiga: there are not the resources to have a hundred or more people working full time on further development and quality assurance with the AmigaOS. Nevertheless I am sure that the errors of the CD can be corrected very easily and maybe for free.
From this point of view, there is another peculiar characteristic of OS3.9: it is a product that has been developed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, with very low financial expectations. A question to all readers out there: Would YOU do that? Would you invest work in something that earns little or no money? I bet 95% of all readers would pass on that and do something more profitable.
Nevertheless I want to do a full review to deal with the plentiful negative aspects (as certain users claim). For my part I will also be looking at the positive aspects. I want to illuminate OS3.9 for the average user:
Installation: If you've never had any IDE-toy-controller you've been on the safe side. However, IDE-FIX (even the express-version) is now automatically detected and used while making the emergency-disc (yes, they have learned from their mistakes! It's not a feature, it's a bug! Would MS admit that ever?). But there are still problems with other controllers. That is too bad, but there are technical reasons that mightn't be solved easily. Look at the article in Amiga-Magazin "Und es läuft doch! (But still it runs!)" by Martin Steigerwald, it can be found at the homepage of Amiga-Magazin.
Apart from that: insert, install, run! As an experiment, I upgraded my awfully jazzed up A4000 (nearly completely equipped) to OS3.9 without creating an emergency-disc. Hear it and be astonished: it booted immediately, faster than before and much more stable than with OS3.1. Without the incompatible WarpGIF-datatype, EVERYTHING would have been fine (AnimatedIcon didn't work for that. After installation of the standard GIF-datatype, everything was fine). Best of all: the CD errors were not noticeable.
Multimedia-Programs: Amplifier as the MP3-player for OS3.9 instead of AmigaAMP becomes understandable when you read the comments about OS3.9 by Thomas Wenzel (the author of AmigaAMP). In his opinion, OS3.9 is unneeded and he doesn't want it. Anything else would have been better, that's it! I don't know why he comes to this conclusion, as I have not questioned him personally, but he'll have some reasons. In fact, Amiga has its official (definitely not bad) MP3-player. It runs on my system a bit more stable than AmigaAMP and makes a good image. If you like AmigaAMP you can use it under OS3.9 without any limitations. OS3.9 does not set any conditions for replaying MP3s.
Selecting Moovid as AVI/QT-player was not a negative. Its plays very reliably and above all FAST, even on lower systems. A missing PPC-version could be developed. The author has to pay Intel's licence fees for the Indeo-Codec that is not part of the freeware-version. With more registrations, there would maybe exist an PPC-version in OS3.9. Too bad, but possible !
The MPEG-player: Seriously: does anyone have fun playing an MPEG-movie on a 68k-system? I think not many. Think about the small number of PPC-owners: for them, no MPEG-player with OS3.9. I can imagine that it would be hard work to convince authors of such a program to integrate it into OS3.9. I'm thinking of M. Roslund who has released the only useable MPEG-Player. Perhaps he did not want to (maybe nobody has asked him), but it's fact. If there is anyone who declares he is willing to write a player, perhaps he should get in touch with H&P. Certainly, he won't become rich.
AmiDock: yes, it is just a start-bar and has not the features of ToolsDaemon, but it is VERY solid in what it does do. It runs programs, opens directories, and directs files to the programs within the dock. In my opinion, it seems to be written for users who don't want to handle thousands of features that are far away from the intention of the program. I used to work with AmiDock, daily. Finally, no configuration-orgy!
VincED: There is one other thing that disturbs me - again and again some people criticise the coders of OS3.9 for having to rely on Aminet. They forget that these products are PART of the new OS and will be included in every version that follows. If AmigaOS goes in the direction of PPC, all the components will do so, too. This is what many PPC-User are dreaming of (and most of the rest). In my opinion, that is a positive.
UnARC: On this point, criticism is justifiable. But who knows, perhaps there is a PPC-version to follow ? Maybe there was no time left to create a PPC-version. If only it was that easy: take the source and recompile it for WarpOS... that's unjustified criticism - and a wider problem for writers about the Amiga: insufficient research. In my opinion, everybody should think about this.
Contributions: What's the point of 'Contributions'? In general it means something like an accessory. How does it fit into OS3.9 ? People wanted to contribute something for the OS, profitably or not depends on the needs of the user. Looking at the accessories that come with OS3.9, it is for those users, who do NOT have already everything. It is a pleasant bonus, for example the big trailer in AVI-format that does not have to be downloaded manually.
Certainly, these contributions puffed up the whole CD to its 470MB (sorry, I have to laugh ;-)) ). Does this matter on a disk with 650MB of space? As the contributions have 370 MB, we can say the OS needs 100 MB, well? Can someone remember the amount of memory, OS3.1 needed? Yes? Ok. That is what makes AmigaOS so enviable: the low amount of space it needs.
So, where is the problem? Does anyone really want an OS that needs about 600MB space for full installation? You can have it: just get Windows 2000 and have fun with it.
This point shows that many advanced users only think about their own needs. For some coders, unfortunately, you can see this in their programs as well. Too bad, a little bit more consideration for less experienced users would be an improvement for many programs. For this reason I can not understand why nice contributions should not be integrated into the OS.
I understand this criticism even less when I consider that some of the integrated programs are not free on Aminet! I repeat: we have to think about the users who do not yet have everything.
The purists: sometimes I get the feeling they are too "pure" in relation to their Amiga. Ok, it is a reasonable criticism that the new def_icons need more RAM and can be a problem with lower-spec systems with insufficient RAM-space. This is a real dilemma: which systems should be supported by newer OS versions? Modern, upgraded systems, that allow reasonable working with newer techniques like MP3 etc, or those non-AGA-systems with a 68020/14 MHz-processor, out of date since 1992? Yes, GFX-cards for amiga are rudely expensive, but memory is not (for the PC it costs the same).
Some patches that let Icons be moved into fast-ram collide with many older programs. Sure, that is a problem, but not one to be solved with a newer OS-version, but with a new program (for example DeluxePaint, really an oldtimer, and in no way written OS-compliant).
For those users I have only one suggestion: get a little bit up to date. Buy a new program (or use one from the freeware-section), buy a little bit more memory and the programs are out of sight! Perhaps it is time to buy a new GFX-card, too? Then buy one! As a nice side effect, that helps Amiga firms to stay alive. And that is what we all want.
I hope this criticism of the criticism has helped to tackle the problem from the stance of the user who is glad to be able to do things on the Amiga that were only possible on a PC before, and without huge effort.
Anyhow, I stand by AmigaOS3.9 and will inspect coming versions carefully and buy them. And not only to support the severely weakened Amiga market...
Wolfgang Hosemann <whose@gmx.de>
P.S.: Has anybody read the various articles about the BoingBag for OS3.9? I guess the critics have not, otherwise they would never have suggested the OS3.9 to be a marketing-trick, as the Update is for free.
Perhaps the time in development for the improvements does not cost anything, either?? ;-))
