Seems to me that most of the chatter in Amigaland on these forums tends to be about "what the future of the Amiga is", this to me seems kinda odd and I often wonder just what some folk actually do NOW with their Amigas (Classic or NG)...

Anyway, just wondering if folk would care to share how they actually use their current Amiga set ups instead of chatting about what the future may hold...

Myself, I use my (classic) Amigas everyday for all my computing needs except the internet, cos lets face it when it comes to the net a classic Amiga is hardly useful for the WorldWideWeb...


On the Amiga...

I edit/ make all my music CD's and MP3s...

Use it for D.T.P. and letter writing...

Creating GFX and editing photos...

Printing Cards, Letterheads, Pictures etc...

Writing my own utils in assembler when need be...

Keeping backups of all my DVDs and burning copies of them to use in various DVD players around the house...

Rarely play the odd game or two...

Use it for designing furniture I want to make or testing out colour schemes for decorating...

And probably a lot more that hasn't sprung to mind at this time, so what do you use your Amiga's for instead of a PC or Mac...

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When I first bought an Amiga is was for programming, artwork and word processing. Now it is 95% retro-gaming.

The more I think about it, the correct phrase would be "tinkering", because they all seem to be missing their covers and in some sort of disarray with cards and disks scattered all around.

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A4000(T), A3000, A2000, A1200(T), A1200, CD32, Minimig+ARM, FPGA Arcade, Chameleon64, C-One, C128, C128D, C64C, C64, VIC-20, CBM 8032, Efika.

Back in the day I did a lot with art & animation. Now it's almost exclusively for gaming.

@franko

Today I installed my AmigaOne 500 in my office, it will be used for visiting websites (MUI-OWB for now), sending out emails (SimpleMail) and spreadsheet entry (Gnumeric).

Gnumeric under AmiCygnix can adequately cope with MS Excel Spreadsheets (which will be its primary usage) unfortunately I discovered it can't open files created in the OpenDocument format, but that's no big deal.

On evenings and weekends I can come into my office and continue working on Amiga projects.

The AmigaOne 500 has been set up so it can reach my iMac over the network via SMB Mounter so I can work on 'JackTunes'. I've also copied all my music to my AmigaOne so I can begin to add local playback functionality.

I am also going to make an itunes library to playlist converter so you can simply play your music through AmigaAmp, TuneNet or whatever.... this is dead easy I've already done most of the legwork.

I digress, the AmigaOne 500, again using SMB Mounter can access my NetGear ReadyNAS Duo - so all documents are shared amongst the office staff.

ReadyNAS configuration was a breeze, for those interested, firstly open Prefs/Internet and move to Hosts, add an entry, give it a name, the correct IP Address and an alias - you should always add network computers/devices to Hosts or it will never work through SMB.
Secondly, open SMBMounter or Ctrl+Alt+S if the commodity is already loaded, add a new entry, fill in all the fields, if Server Lookup doesn't work for you (it doesn't for me) manually enter the IP Address of the network device, click ? next to Service, select the Shared volume and supply a valid account username and password - you should have set this up earlier when configuring your ReadyNAS device for users and shares.

Once the AmigaOS Netbook arrives I can enjoy coding from home - if only there was a Netgear ReadyNAS Remote client for AmigaOS I'd be sorted! Then again I can always use my Windows 8 NetBook - however sometimes its nice not to have to bring work home with me!

Last edited by djrikki on 09-May-2012 at 12:05 AM.
Last edited by djrikki on 09-May-2012 at 12:01 AM.

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@Franko

I'm working on a couple of Amiga games, Dream Deal and M.A.B.L. I'm learning how difficult simulation games can be. They're written in Visual C++. They're going pretty slow because I have a full-time job and am renovating a 132-year-old pioneer home in Fairview, Utah, which takes up most of the rest of my free time. I don't use my A1-500 for much because no matter what the die-hard Amiga fans say, using crippled software doesn't interest me much. I use Lightwave 9.6 a lot. Like most people I'm waiting patiently for drivers. The point I'm making is that much software is crippled because we don't have decent video drivers, like Blender.

Last edited by thinkchip on 09-May-2012 at 12:27 AM.

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@thinkchip

Quote:

thinkchip wrote: @Franko I'm working on a couple of Amiga games, Dream Deal and M.A.B.L. I'm learning how difficult simulation games can be. They're written in Visual C++. They're going pretty slow because I have a full-time job and am renovating a 132-year-old pioneer home in Fairview, Utah, which takes up most of the rest of my free time. I don't use my A1-500 for much because no matter what the die-hard Amiga fans say, using crippled software doesn't interest me much. I use Lightwave 9.6 a lot. Like most people I'm waiting patiently for drivers. The point I'm making is that much software is crippled because we don't have decent video drivers, like Blender.

The Toaster was sadly one of the greatest things we missed out on this side of the pond as they never made a PAL version of it... :cry

Not sure what "Blender" is but obviously something to do with GFX but I thought if you had a Toaster and were using Lightwave that you'd already have the appropriate drivers for it...

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@Franko

You would be using Lightwave version2 (I think) if you're using it with a Toaster. We're all the way up to Lightwave 11 now on the pc. Blender is just like Lightwave (in that it's a 3d modeling and rendering package) but it's open source. It's quite powerful. Someone should port kdenlive for non-linear editing, then you would basically have a new toaster. :)

@Franko

... so what do you use your Amiga's for instead of a PC or Mac...

Poker!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11367727@N07/4144756024/

My favorites: Texas Holdem, Five Card Draw, Pai Gow...
They run on both the A1 and PC. I can't help dreaming about a nice Amiga Casino!

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@tommywright

Quote:

tommywright wrote: @Franko You would be using Lightwave version2 (I think) if you're using it with a Toaster. We're all the way up to Lightwave 11 now on the pc. Blender is just like Lightwave (in that it's a 3d modeling and rendering package) but it's open source. It's quite powerful. Someone should port kdenlive for non-linear editing, then you would basically have a new toaster. :)

Aaaargh... SACRILEGE...

Lightwave on a PC...

Good gawd... that must be one of the most bloated pieces of software ever if they ported it to them ruddy things...

Think I'll go throw up over the squirrels now after being informed of that bit of bad news...

Is nothing sacred in Amigaland anymore...

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@Franko

i do everything on my AmigaOne that i do on my PC netbook. I peruse the internet, download new software for the Amiga, write papers, and most of all, i find that whenever I need to do something actually useful graphics wise, I use my AmigaOne and the plethora of Graphics programs like Deluxe Paint, Image FX, Perfect Paint etc.
Why is it that the Pc makes the simplest photo editing job incredibly difficult, but on the Amiga it is incredibly easy? For example, I wanted to add the Amiga boing Ball and rainbow checkmark to one of Eric Schwartz pictures - but the images I had all used different color palettes. After wasting some time on the PC trying to do this simple thing, I went to my Amiga and within a minute found a graphics program that automatically matched the color pallette and remapped it so that i could paste the images exactly where I wanted.
The amiga is just SO MUCH easier to use to do anything. If I want to throw together a quick game for my son, I use Hollywood and Designer and put something fun together in minutes that would takes hours to do using Visual Studio on the PC. And yes, I have years of programming experience on the PC.

Scott

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@Franko

I know, I know.. but the Amiga never really had the horsepower needed for rendering. Foundation Imaging (the company that made made Babylon 5) switched to pc much earlier than I had originally thought. Sad.

I learned 3d animation on my A2000 in college before Pixar was even a twinkle in John Lasseter's eye. He was still sharpening his pencils when I was busting out sweet cg on my Amiga.

@Franko

What I do on AOS4 system (@home):
-e-mail (simplemail, I used YAM on my classic)
-most of web browsing (I mainly use IBrowse, currently my MUIOWB setup is broken)
-small doc writings (notepad so far)
-very little gaming (I should try get Railroad tycoons and Elite...Oolite working on SAM)
-coding (only helloworld is done for now)
-try to read PDF documents (sometimes SAM440 is too slow)
-AOS4 tuning
-LAN maintenance (thanks to Timberwolf I can now access also Lacie NAS Dashboard)

What I would like to do on AOS4 system (* marked I do on x86 Linux for now):
-*larger documentation work
-presentations (interactive and slides)
-*web site development stuff
-*access the most heavy duty web sites
-*photo handling
-drawing
-CAD
-3D modeling
-UML modeling
-more multiplatform coding with state of the art debugging
-PCB designs
-Music listening
-*Video playig
-Video editing
-*DVD ripping
-MIDI things & Music making
-play C64 and other 8bit + MAME stuff
-play 16 and 32bit retro content
-emulate windows (or x86linux+wine) to run some mandatory windows apps
-play some nice car game (GP2 or Torc or anything to AOS4, please)
-*printting
-*DVD/CD burning
-*Bank access (access to Bill Gates account would be nice)
-Rdesktop and VNC stuff
-*DTV
-etc etc...

My A4k is not in active use at the moment.
(I also have A600, some A500s, A2000, MosMini and load of old crappy x86 HW somewhere in the basement)
I used to do "everything" (more than anyone could on a standard x86) on my Classics.

I find it require a lot of time to set up AOS4 system to function perfectly to do productive work on it. Currently I try to produce rather than tune+setup the system and produce nothing. That's I would love to see some superb bundle/extras/amigasys/amikit kind of preset package (or one click setup everything via Crunch) to become available.
AND it would be very, very nice if we could use same NG applications on every AOSNG flavour. That way I would be able location independant when I want to do Amiga stuff.

I find AOS friendlier environment for me than any of those mainstream alternatives. If only we had all the needed SW... And low end starting from 1Ghz+L2 rather than 400...667Mhz+noL2.
HW wise I would be perfectly Happy with affordable 1Ghz dualcore PPC... I think.

@tommywright
Untill middle 90's we hand enough power for rendering.
Amiga Lightwave could also use MIPS and x86 clusters to speed up rendering.
One extra reason for 3D professionals to move away from Amiga was CBM's death. You can not base your business on devices that are not available (with warranty + spare parts). That's also one reason why I vote for new HW instead of Apple HW from the dumpster.

Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 08:41 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:44 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:40 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:39 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:38 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:35 AM.
Last edited by KimmoK on 09-May-2012 at 07:34 AM.

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- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
// "priest" is just the RED goaul in me
// The multicolor AmigaFUTURE IS NOW !!

Since i bought the asus laptop i run amiga less then before. But now when i have the x1000 im using my time more on it. When OS4.2 comes out i will be sitting even more.

Anyway i use for most stuff like surfing the internet, updating homepage, making music, listening to shoutcast, trying out new apps, betatesting 3rd party apps, chatting irc/msn/fb/g+ etc. When i get 3D drivers i will probably play some q2/q3 a couple of times ;)

I use my Amigas for one thing above all else - enjoyment.

Amigas are the last of the computers that I enjoy using, and by Amigas I include OS4 machines as OS4 for me is simply superb. I enjoy all sorts of machines before Amigas, but none after. Unless include my PetersPlus Sprinter. That's a cool machine (but I need a better case for it).

There's one major thing I need before I can use my Amiga for work - I need OpenOffice.org Base. Because I have a relatively large stock to keep track of, I need to use Base so I know what I've got and what state it's in.
I do also need to do some work with Eclipse, so I could never use an Amiga entirely - but at least my shop I could run with my Amiga with no problems, now that Amiga browsers are so mature.

What do I do most on my OS4 machines? Coding. Catweasel, MAME, TV card, that sort of thing.

@Franko

Quote:

Seems to me that most of the chatter in Amigaland on these forums tends to be about "what the future of the Amiga is", this to me seems kinda odd and I often wonder just what some folk actually do NOW with their Amigas (Classic or NG)..

I think really your on the wrong forum, yes their no problem talking about classic Amiga on here but I guess because this is a news site and generally news is about what's happening now in Amiga land which is usually going to be on NG Amiga stuff the classic stuff isn't talk about.

The best forum I have found for the classic scene has to be English Amiga board.
http://eab.abime.net/index.php

But any way what do I use my Amiga for, generally my classic Amiga is store away now and if I do get it out its only really ever to play games on it now, just seem to slow now when compared to my Amiga Forever setup, which again I do admit to generally just playing games on recently, I use to do a bit of graphic work on it for the odd gif anim or work for web but not done that in a while.

however my new Amiga, the AmigaONE X1000, I currently trying to get my head around Hollywood programming, (so basically learning to program, done a bit on blitz basic and internet coding but never really learnt a program, not doing brilliantly, mainly due to lack of time than anything else, such as life) also of course just getting back to grips with AmigaOS, might do the odd graphic work on my new system and docs now that Google Docs seems to be a lot more stable in Timberwolf. When OS4.2 comes with the new 3d support I might try and get to grips with Blender and I might also try and get to grips with Linux a bit better once I find the time to install it on my system all this should really keep me busy with my Amiga for a good while. (oh and of course play the odd game or two )

One thing I do wish i could do on my Amiga is video editing and watching Youtube, I do spend far to much time on that site, but then I barely watch anything on TV anymore, hopefully one day my system can do this.

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I use my Amiga as a time machine. ( Play some retro games when I need to kill time )

I use my PC for productivity stuff, because it's just easier to use. Amiga's / Amiga NG's software is too faaaaaar behind.

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hardware-intensive solutions. And they'd go faster.-- D.Haynie

@Franko

Using it for everything :) no PC or any other machin here ;) still only Amiga :)

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@amigang

Quote:

amigang wrote: @Franko [quote]I think really your on the wrong forum, yes their no problem talking about classic Amiga on here but I guess because this is a news site and generally news is about what's happening now in Amiga land which is usually going to be on NG Amiga stuff the classic stuff isn't talk about.

Not sure why you even said that as I clearly asked what do folk do with their Amigas CLASSIC or NG !!!

You may not have noticed (which I find kinda hard to believe) but people DO talk about Classic stuff here and strangely even special sections on the site dedicated to it...

I am a member of EAB but don't post or visit there as the talk is mainly about games and I'm not a big game fan...

I do use OS4.0 occasionally on my A1200 with PCC but not very often, and I would much rather read about what folk do with their NG machines if there is not much classic chat going on here rather than gibber about games over on EAB...

Comes as a bit of a surprise to me that you class AW as a "news" site as it title says "Amiga Community portal" and most of the posts are about people discussing all sorts of Amiga related subjects, problems, questions, etc... and not "News" !!!

PS: I've had plenty of conversations here about "Classic" Amigas, perhaps you just make it your choice to ignore them and have come to actually believe that no one does so here...

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@scabit

Quote:

scabit wrote: @Franko Why is it that the Pc makes the simplest photo editing job incredibly difficult, but on the Amiga it is incredibly easy? For example, I wanted to add the Amiga boing Ball and rainbow checkmark to one of Eric Schwartz pictures - but the images I had all used different color palettes. After wasting some time on the PC trying to do this simple thing, I went to my Amiga and within a minute found a graphics program that automatically matched the color pallette and remapped it so that i could paste the images exactly where I wanted. The amiga is just SO MUCH easier to use to do anything. If I want to throw together a quick game for my son, I use Hollywood and Designer and put something fun together in minutes that would takes hours to do using Visual Studio on the PC. And yes, I have years of programming experience on the PC. Scott

Couldn't agree with you more on that...

Having owned and used nothing but Amiga's since 1986 then buying an old second hand iMac 2 years ago and discovering first hand just how unfriendly & unusable they are when it comes to something simple like photo editing, then I have to say I was always right in my opinion that PC's and Macs are just useless for anything computing wise other than the internet (which is to me the only thing lacking on classic Amigas)...

I've never understood why anyone uses a PC at home for computing, they may be fine in the business world and for the internet but for fun and enjoyment (which home computing should be) they are the naffest things ever created...

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@amigang

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