nice review, I only haven my doubts what is stated about virusses and malware. It existed in the past on Amiga so I fear it will return in some day. Altough not so extensive like on windowsplatforms.

All in all it was a good article. It present a very good picture of the platform, which is really a nice to have and very well worth it

"Whats the TFB"


mwahahahaha... It's the sensible voice of computing !!


hehe

What about old 'classic' OS viruses, abusing Petunia?

Cheers,
James
x

@jmbattle:
Good luck for them with the new memory manager.

Last edited by Chip on 22-Jan-2007 at 12:39 PM.

Ye Gods! An external article that is actually balanced and objective, positioning Amiga where it's aimed!

I'd seen so many "reviews" of Amiga or OS4 lately that reviewed it as a wannabe M$-killer or focussed purely on an inability to perform some specific action that I'd lost hope of anyone giving it a fair look. The fact that the guy managed to successfully shift his workload to it for a day is very positive, if surprising.

Aside from the slightly overstated virus thing mentioned earlier in the thread, the only point I'd raise is the discussion of memory protection. As others have pointed out until they're hoarse, adding memory protection doesn't suddenly make the applications bug-free. It just means a buggy app will bomb out with an error instead of potentially trashing the machine. i.e. It forces developers to do their jobs properly, making the system more stable. Not that this is a bad thing at all, just that we shouldn't forget all those years AmigaOS 3 and before ran happily 99% of the time if you chose the right programs to trust.

(PS: Don't take that the wrong way. I know Hyperion have spent considerable effort to improve the memory system and I for one am very pleased they have done so. Perhaps I'm just a little weary of the continual harping on about memory protection from anti-OS4 quarters.)

Great review... I liked it very much....

It was nice to read that, for the writer, the daily work can be doen on the amiga...

Great :)

hmmm, now I need new HW even more...

Nice review!

Does it really take 30 minutes to install OS4? :/

lol, i dunno but its better than the couple of hours it take to get windows setup and updated

Quote:

Does it really take 30 minutes to install OS4? :/

Definately not for me. More like 10 minutes.

Quote:

Not that this is a bad thing at all, just that we shouldn't forget all those years AmigaOS 3 and before ran happily 99% of the time if you chose the right programs to trust.

It isn't so much about the user. The user has nothing to fear (except malicious programs) when a developer has done his job right. However, memory protection helps the developer, which is the reason why it should be available.

And of course, malicious code is always problematic.

@fryguy:

Don't know how did he managed to 30 mins, but I was always finished less than 10 minutes during my testing. Maybe his CD-ROM drive were too slow?
I'm just guessing.

I think it is a balanced review myself. AmigaOS 4.0 is quite an achievement, especially under the circumstances, and it is great to see the team's hard work confirmed with a good review.

The future is still a really big question mark with various hardware supply efforts going on in the background. Even with hardware availability I wonder how many users and developers can be gained. The Amiga brand acid test has yet to be attempted.

Quote:

However, memory protection helps the developer, which is the reason why it should be available.

Also, I think it goes without saying that tools such as Enforcer and Mungwall have historically showed that the development of stable software capable of leaving an open system untouched is in fact feasible. Although a complete protection scheme may be useful in some cases, I for one maintain that properly written programs that adhere a good development design is the way to go. Looking for shelter under an MMU protective umbrella will never justify writing poorly written software. No matter how waterproof it is, it will still rain on top of it so to speak.

@fryguy

I guess he connected both CD-ROM and HD to the one and only available ordinary IDE port (the other one is a 44 pin laptop style connector). If connected to separate Channels you get +/- 10 min. install time.

The author said he considers himself an Amigan. Population +1!

@Petah

While it is true that developing stable software that leaves an open system untouched, not everyone does it. Also, a good memory protection system can close the door to a number of possible malware exploits that might otherwise be available. I'd say memory protection is important because, while I strive to write safe legal code, one can't control the quality of everything a user tries to run on his/her machine.

@DaveAE, Chip, Gopal:

Ok, maybe he had a really slow CDrom then.

@fryguy
Quote:

Ok, maybe he had a really slow CDrom then.

Here's an insane idea. Just email the guy and ask.