It's alive!

p.OS - ProDAD's portable power OS !

It really exists - the p.OS preRelease - and you are one of the first to enjoy it !
p.OS is now installed and it runs ! However, before you start to experiment, we first would
like to say a few words on the basic concept and the target of
p.OS in general and specifically on this preRelease !
But first a few notes on this documentation in HTML-format:
This documentation can be viewed with the p.OS-HTML-Viewer;
and this is what it is meant for. Theoretically, any Internet-Browser
can be used as well. However, there are some Links to executable
p.OS-Programs for direct interactive start of example programs
from this document. These will of course not work, if the documentation
is viewed under a different operating system.

For those of you (and there will certainly be quite a few), who never
read the entire documentation on a software, there is a reference index,
briefly explaining in a few words all necessary terms and functions.
Nevertheless, the present page as well as the sections
"Why this pre-release?" and "Why p.OS at all?"
should be read by everyone!

We therefore hope you have fun clicking yourself through this documentation !

Back to top

Why This Pre-Release?

Well, everything starts being very small and then constantly grows.
In certain sections, p.OS is still under development, which you may
sometime or other note when using this version. Some features are
planned but are not yet active, and until the final version is released,
there will certainly be quite a few changes still. At present, different
AMIGA-drivers are still used for the graphic as well as for the hardware
access. The AMIGA-OS consequently builds the bridge between p.OS and
the hardware. On other platforms, this possibility does of course not
exist, since the AMIGA-OS will not run on those systems. There, other
hardware drivers are available and p.OS does perfectly run on the other
platforms without other OSs or external drivers.
This fact is, however, not really negative, since the advantage is, that
with the AMIGA-OS, which as well runs in multitasking, all devices such
as graphic boards, floppy drives etc. can be supported by p.OS right from
the beginning. The direct new programming under p.OS would not only
mean a loss of time, but would also have no advantages in respect to the
technology and applications. It is therefore, not of great importance - but
as already mentioned: this is only valid for the AMIGA-version !
The optical appearance is not complete yet either, but there are already
a few Icon-sets available. Until the final release of the full version, there
will be quite a few details to be worked on. Please let us have your suggestions,
requirements, etc. to take advantage of them in the full version - which other
operating system has ever offered you the possibility to integrate your personal
suggestions ?

The reason for this PreRelease is the following: We do not want to develop a
system which goes past the requirements of the users and developers. Everyone
should have the possibility to take part and influence the development of p.OS
and we therefore appreciate constructive and useful proposals of how to improve
and complete the operating system. This can be done via e-mail or mail.

So please do not simply complain or never touch the preRelease again if
something is not entirely to your satisfaction, but let us have your
comments and proposals of how to improve the p.OS.

By the way - before someone sees parallels to certain software-monopolists:
The p.OS pre-release isn't meant to pull the money out of Your pockets, it
can be upgraded for the price difference (and not more than this, we mean it!)
to the full version. This means, that purchasing this preRelease doesn't mean any
financial loss to You - it's just the other way round - you have the advantage of being able
to already work with p.OS now. This is just to be mentioned, to avoid
rumours on pseudo-disadvantages to arise... Furthermore, proDAD, being a relatively
small yet innovative software manufacturer, cannot afford to use the methods of
certain multis, since this might cause a negative image on the market and might destroy
the character of the company - you know what we mean....

Back to top

Why p.OS?

p.OS means "Portable Operating System", and presumes that in
future there will be many hardware platforms on which p.OS
will run. And this is exactly our intention. And I can already hear
someone saying: "But Linux and NetBSD are portable operating systems as well, and those You can get for free". This certainly isn't the
only advantage p.OS offers, then.
In fact, p.OS offers some other special features, which are so far
unmatched. Just to mention the compactness: Other well-known
Multitasking-operating systems, already showing their actuality and
innovation in their names ("New Technolgy" etc.) require a minimum of 32MB
RAM, to allow an acceptable Multitasking - not to mention the harddisk
requirements.

Admittedly, the hardware gets cheaper and cheaper, but a small amount of RAM
will always be cheaper than much RAM, and it is the same with the harddisk
capacity.
Operating systems are also judged by the number of crashes they produce....
Operating systems like the above mentioned ones and the UNIX-derivates, obtain
their security by running each program in its own private memory section (Memory
Protection) and the operating system keeping track of any action of the program (Resource
Tracking). This requires a huge amount of processing time and RAM, only to
keep some programmers with their (badly written) programs
from injuring the operation of the system.
Therefore, all data is checked redundantly and the same data is
present in memory in several instances at the same time. Data is constantly
copied, etc. Not to mention the effort, that would be necessary to run
15 year old programs...

p.OS however approaches the problem from the opposite direction:
An easy to learn, object-oriented and well-defined programming interface is
offered to the programmer, to guarantee that clean programs are
developed right from the very beginning. Software has the general problem
of being permanently buggy, which is often due to the programming environments
of the exisiting operating systems. This is why lots of effort has been invested
into the elimation of this problem with p.OS. It goes without saying, that also
with p.OS, the actions of the programer are controlled whereever this makes sense
and (in the Debug-version) useful error messages are displayed by the OS. The result
of all this is a better utilization of the existing hardware. Programs run faster in the
user-version and require less memory and less harddisk capacity.

Another advantage: p.OS can be run (as you see here) parallel to other operating
systems. You do consequently not have to decide which OS you wish to boot if a
special program is to be used. The old software can still be used on your old OS
while new, specific p.OS-software can run parallel under p.OS. This saves the enormous
effort of emulations which would deteriorate the whole system and has - so far - never
been a guarantee for comfortable operation....

The user interface does of course contain well-known elements, such as Icons and
Menus which are indispensable for modern operating systems.
The considerable innovations are to be found in the detail.
Toolbars or EasyPrefs for example are not that common.
Further innovations such as complete, system-wide Drag&Drop-support,
a straight
Datatype-concept and a powerful p.OS-Workbench
to mention just a few, guarantee lots of fun when working with p.OS.

This should be enough of praising now - let us now proceed to the practice......

The p.OS-Workbench

The p.OS-Shell

Contact:
proDAD Software
Feldelestr. 24
D-78194 Immendingen (Germany) Tel.: +49 (0) 74 62 / 911-34
Fax.: +49 (0) 74 62 / 74 34
e-mail: adver@prodad.de
WWW: http://www.prodad.de