@SOFISTISOFTWARE

As far as I am aware no one has got a PCI bridge/extender to work.

_________________
AmigaOS 4.x Beta Tester - Classic Amiga enthusiast - http://www.hd-zone.com is my Amiga Blog, check it out!

@tomazkid

Yes, it can be done. But I don't think anyone tried with UBoot 1.1.1.

damnit... i want my copy noooow :D

@Kicko

Me too! ACG (swedish Amiga computer club) is having a gathering this weekend in Umea, northern Sweden, and it would have been so neat to have OS4.1 on the AOne there...

Well, I guess I will have more time to program (be prepared for something useless on os4depot next week) there if I don't have installation and exploration of 4.1 to do at the gathering.... BUT I STILL WANT IT RIGHT NOW!!!

(Ordered mine from Hast Enterprises...)

My copy has arrived today! I will probably post a small review and some photos, stay tuned.

_________________
AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

@Varthall

looking forward to it!

_________________
4000T/BFG9060
CD32/Elsat ProModule, TF360
CD32/ Edu's CD32 <> A1200 Adapter, Vampire V2
CD32/ FMV Module

Here is the review!

AmigaOS 4.1 review by Varthall
04/09/08

Finally today my copy of AmigaOS 4.1 has arrived! Since a friend of mine has also an A1, he was also interested in OS4.1 and since we live in the same city, we decided to order two copies together. The package has arrived quickly, in a couple of days. Went to my friend's home, grabbed the box and headed home.

The box is well designed, with a simple yet elegant style. In the back, a list of the new features, some screengrabs and a "strong" slogan: "This is the Operating System that started it all. This is the Operating System reinvented. This is AmigaOS 4.1". Reminds me of a scene in the Disney's movie Tron, when Tron receives the data from his "user" which will destroy the MCP... The box includes a CD inside a paper sleeve, with a printed code which will be used for registration, and a 48-page booklet. Inside the booklet there's a short recap of Amiga's history, starting from its launch at the Lincoln Center on 1985, then it describes step by step the installation, lists all the features that have been introduced since the first release of OS 4.0, describes briefly to beginners the OS system files structure, and includes a list of the most useful native software available today, plus a list of the most visited Amiga web portals and printed magazines.

Time to install the software. I have decided to keep the original OS4.0 install, just in case I'll need it again in case of some incompatible software. I have copied the files to a spare partition, and I have decided to reformat the Work: partition with the new JXF filesystem, so I have made a backup of that as well. While waiting for the files to copy, I have taken a look at the CD's contents. Apart from the System folder it doesn't contain much, I was disappointed to not see any UBoot update nor any contribution software (althought some programs have been added in the Tools drawer, see below). There's still some bonus material in a "Media" drawer: first there's a very funny rendition of the "Lamp" animation by Pixar, this time with an "Amiga" writing and a lamp chasing a boing ball, simple but well done. There are also two sample MP3s from Susumu Hirasawa (called Philosopher's Propeller and Reverie Hill), the author of the OS' boot jingle, in symphonic j-pop style with some influences from new-age music (especially Enya). Incidentally I like listening to j-pop in general, and found the tracks to be moody and enjoyable.

After the backup has finished, I have reset the machine and booted the CD. A static AmigaOS logo has appeared, after that the installation has started with some configuration windows, very similar to those of the previous OS4 releases. When the Workbench screen has been loaded (off CD), I have quickly noticed two new features: the menus which are graphically richer (icons for key shortcuts and arrows, shadow dropped on the desktop) and the new transparency effects of the windows. An unselected window is now subtly transparent, while a selected one has no transparency apart from a slight one at the window's borders. There's a strong transparency when moving the window, too. I didn't like much how the MediaToolBox is opened during the install: on a custom screen which is a bit bigger than the physical screen (?), hence it scrolls when the pointer is placed at any of the borders. It is also heavily dithered to 8bit, in one occasion when switching forth and back the screen it had corrupted colors until the screen was selected. I don't understand why it has been set this way. I have changed my work partition from SFS to JXF (and set the blocksize to 512, which seems to be compulsory as suggested in a thread on amigaworld.net but I have found no mention of this in the manual). The copying procedure has been quite fast, after that I have done a cold reset, and the system has booted from the hard drive.

A nice addition is the post-install configuration which lets you select a permanent screenmode, the desired audio setting and the Internet connection. A quick look at the Workbench menu: Workbench is now at version 53.1, while Kickstart is at 53.5. Wanting to hear the infamous and long time ago announced boot jingle, I find out that it uses the Unit 0 in AHI.

Now, some of the things I have discovered so far:
- There are some new tools in SYS:Tools. IBrowse is still there, while there's also OWB at version 2.5 (not the latest anymore, now it's at 2.7). SGrab has been added, and DVPlayer has seen an update. There's also a standard YAM 2.5 installation available. The IconEdit tool is unfortunately still the same, this means it only supports New/GlowIcons up to 256 colors.
- I had a problem under OS4.0 + July update, my Trust keyboard and Logitech mouse won't be recognised if plugged together (they're both USB), I had to boot with only my keyboard plugged in, when the system was ready I plugged my mouse and they would both work. Now they're both correctly recognised.
- There's no UBoot upgrade, so unfortunately my keyboard still isn't recognised at boot time.
- The "solid" resize of the windows isn't perfect: when resizing, the wallpaper inside the window is resized and drawn before the window's borders.
- The PTP feature works very well. I have plugged my camera and a window has appeared showing all the pictures as thumbnails, and any video or generic file with a default icon. There seem to be no resizing, as the images are loaded instantly, perhaps they're already stored inside the photos. You have the option to copy the files to any desired drawer, the only drawback is that when I have tried the "Abort" button it wasn't working, so I was unable to abort the copy process. PTP support is a very welcome addition, my camera only supports this protocol so I have been never able to copy stuff from it under OS4.0.
- The demos showing fullscreen zoom and windows with irregulars borders have sadly not been included.
-There's still the scrolling window bug: any window's contents can be scrolled ad infinitum, showing a blank space when there are no more icons.

I have still some tests to do: to check how the JXF filesystem performs, to try the new MiniGL library, to try to compile bigger sources which require more than the available physical memory... I'll have time for this in the next days :) In the end, it's a worthwile upgrade, apart for the problems I have encountered, which I hope will be fixed in the next update.

A couple of photos are here: http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff261/Varthall/

Varthall

Last edited by Varthall on 05-Sep-2008 at 01:35 PM.

_________________
AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

@Varthall

Thanks for the mini review.

Bye,
TMTisFree

_________________
The engineering approach to our non-problems: "build a better washer".
The scientific approach to our non-problems: "find a new energy source".
The environmentalist approach to our non-problems: "stop washing your shirts".

@Varthall

Thanks the review, sounds really cool.

_________________
A1200, 68060/64MB/1.2GB/WiFi/AGAtoCRT/OS3.9 Pegasos I, G3 600Mhz/512/9200SE/80GB WinUAE, Ryzen 5 2400G/Vega11, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD,Win 10 Pro x64 Amiga Forever !

@Varthall

Great little review, sounds good! Think I missed the first batch of 4.1 from AmigaKit, but I'll have it in a few weeks hopefully. Just a thought though: You mention the window scrolling bug... I'm not sure that's a bug at all, what if you want to move a file out of view? You need to scroll down to some blank space. By dragging the scroll bar rather than using the arrows you can just get to the bottom/top of the window... Or maybe I've got you wrong...

_________________
RobTheNerd.com | InstallerGen | SMBMounter | Atoms-X

Now I really want an A1

_________________
A2000 OS3.1, 5MB RAM, Opalvision + 1960 monitor
A4000, PIV, CS MK3 060 50MHz 128MB RAM 14GB UW SCSI
A500

@Daedalus

I'm wondering if I've missed it too. AmigaKit is only about 20-30 minutes away from where I am.

Last edited by Rob on 05-Sep-2008 at 02:51 PM.

Seens a bit odd that there's a Caché disk icon, but then some people would say the same about a ram: disk.

Don't think I'll get my copy till after the weekend..

_________________
Rage quited 29th May 2011

@Varthall

Thanks!

Someone send this to reviews, please!

Last edited by Comi on 05-Sep-2008 at 04:57 PM.

_________________
F1 Srbija

We have received AmigaOS 4.1 today.

We have processed many of the back-orders and will work extra hours today and Saturday to ship all orders out.

Thank you to all customers who pre-ordered this product from www.amigakit.com

_________________
Amiga Kit Amiga Store
Links: www.amigakit.com | New Products | A600GS

So, I've done it.....

I just replaced my 7000 with a second hand ATI 9250 I bought from a very nice guy at 'marktplaats' (the Dutch equivalent of ebay) for 22 Euro.
And it works....

So now I'm awaiting my copy of OS4.1 from Vesalia

Oh.. And I'm dating a girl I met a few weeks ago Things are getting better again, finally... Ahem.. sorry 'bout that...

Cheers,

Martin

_________________
Theres a time to live and a time to die
When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

@amigakit

Is there one waiting there for me to pick up.

@Rob

Yes there is

_________________
Amiga Kit Amiga Store
Links: www.amigakit.com | New Products | A600GS

@amigakit

Great when can I pop by to collect it.

@Naz

Quote:

... some photos of the packaging and manual etc. ...

shakes head, I don't get this excitement

_________________
"The system no longer works " -- Young Anakin Skywalker