First AOS 4 Roadshow reports from Brisbane Australia
Date 18-Oct-2003 15:59:59
Topic: Events
| AmigaWorld members csirac and vortexau are the first to report from the first of a series of AmigaOS4 demonstrations planned for Australia. Read more for the reports.
csirac wrote:
Quote:
Hello everyone,
I was at the ADUG Brisbane OS4 presentation for a few hours today (didn't stay till the end - got assignments to do, buses to catch, hope I didn't win the door prize  ) and I must say - seeing AmigaOS4 in action was great!
There was the usual stuff, overview of history of Amiga, the hardware etc. but I saw what I wanted, AmigaOne running AOS4.
We also got to pick up & play with an Actual A1 lite! It was tiny! Apparently it's a pre-production board, and will have more frills when it is finalised.. looks like it will probably be G3 only, and it currently has a mobility radeon 7000, 1x SO-DIMM slot, ps2, usb, ide, 3com ethernet, etc.
It had the same via686b south bridge that the current A1s use. We did not see it in action though.
Highlights:
1. Seeing AmigaOS 4 in action on an AmigaONE
2. Seeing AmigaOS 4 run some 68k apps very, very fast (well, WordWorth 7 anyway) and apparently flawlessly (though it wasn't given a very extensive work-out)
3. Seeing exactly HOW tiny the A1 lite is
4. Seeing AmigaOne run Linux, and my favourite distro at that (Debian )... extraordinarily well! It was fast and responsive, definately makes a good linux box by the looks of things, though some would argue that's what x86 PCs are for
5. Seeing AmigaOne running Linux, runing Mac On Linux, running MacOS X - fantastic! I was shocked to see how quickly it booted, it must have been under a minute.. It was MacOS 10.2, I have only seen up to 10.1 running on 600MHz G3 iMacs w/256MiB and on those machines it is SLOW (you don't want to turn it off once it is going). But 10.2 on MOL with a 800MHz G3 A1 was quite fast, very impressive.
6. Hearing AnythingAmiga business owner Doug Moir say positive things about the Amiga market in Australia, saying that it was actually GROWING. He reckons there is a market for A1 lites in industrial applications even in Queensland.
Ross Vumbaca answered most of the questions, he is apparently an AOS4 developer/tester and is responsible for the A1 Debian installer.
It wasn't the most proffessional event I've been to but I got a kick out of it... too bad there were heaps of QUT loser students there (I'm from Griffith  ), the turnout was about what I expected (a bit over 20 people).
I had to laugh when the QUT geeks started playing/showing off with the A1 Linux setup down the back, Ross and Doug seemed a bit annoyed that people thought they could start messing with the X configuration... then again it was logged in as root, but I would have been annoyed too I guess. No I don't hate QUT students, not even the ones I met today, and some are even my friends  However every Linux geek I have met seems to think that they know it all and a) think they know better b) think you care c) think you don't know something and have to be informed, since they assume (b).
There was one guy filming and someone else taking photos, but apart from the A1 lite there wasn't really anything new that hasn't already been shown on the 'net.
Well that's my mini report, I think an ADUG member will probably do a more extensive one with pics for you all...
End result... I think now that buying an A1 system is *NOT* an outrageous waste of money as could possibly be construed with the purchase of classic Amiga hardware, since it is now modern enough that it runs several major operating systems apart from AOS4 (Linux, MOL-MacOSX) very well. I mean... you could actually get work done on this thing... Work? An Amiga? My next PC will definately be an AmigaONE!
- Paul |
vortexau wrote in reply:
Quote:
Hi Paul,
Its 11.44pm as I start on this! You can't imagine the mood of being involved in something such as this!
First correction:- I was helping out at the entrance desk, and I have to say that the numbers exceeded 40 which may not seem a lot, but was a 50% improvement over the Sydney event held the W/e before!
I'd been in to inspect the venue on thursday, and somehow Doug and I must have gotten our wires crossed because I 'thought' that I had heard him say that he'd pick me up at 9.00am!
After breakfast this sunday, I cleaned up my household convertable handtruck/dolly and added a craftwood-panel deck to it. The time was ticking by and I tried Doug's mobile number three times without success! By 10.25am I decided that I better get in there under my own steam, so I left the household dolly just inside the front door and set off for the bus.
Arriving at the QUT, I shared an elevator and had a chance to tell a total stranger about what I was there to experience and help with. Unfortunitely, although he'd had a little knowledge of the Amiga, he had no time that saturday to drop by. I left him with details of the RoadShow website.
Entering the threatre, I found things were being set-up; hardware out on the dias, the transparent A1 (with Linux) up the back, and the big banner up under the main screen.
Dropping my backpack under one of the rear tables, I helped with a load of gear to be brought in from a car. The closest parking was 40-50 metres away and, after helping load two 19" CRTs screen-down on a dolly, I loaded up with a laptop-strap over my sholder while I carried one mid-tower. Later I was sticking up some banners & posters outside the theatre.
Only two or three visitors (as distinct from presenters & workers) entered before the 1.00pm kick-off time!
Come 1.00 o'clock, however, and short lines began to form at the enterance door!
Unfortunitely the NAME - EMAIL ADDRESS & Sign-the-doorprize-docket procedure slowed things up at the entrance. The low-light and shadows didn't help that either. (The door prize was a snappy-looking 5¼" bay-Mounted cooling fan) I tried to assist by handing out the information packs.
Unfortunitely, after the presentation started, I missed a bit as visitors continued to arrive. Because of what I missed, I hope someone else will write-up a better report.
Anyway, the 1.00 - 5.00pm RoadShow presentation was divided up by two breaks which split the segments on Amiga History - The Comeback Story - The Developer Talk (Ross- I think) - OS4 Talk - and the Hardware Talk. Questions were feilded from the audience.
Doug Moir presented the final session - quite busy as he wore (figuretively speaking) many hats: representing ADUG, the reforming QLD users group, his business as distributer to the EAST-half of Australia-N.Z.-& S.E.Asia! He also has a lot of contact with various Australian developers incl several already onboard to write drivers for the mini ITX board!
° Speaking of which- Doug slipped that board out of its foil pack and held it up beside the A1XE board! WHAT A CONTRAST!
Physically it seems slightly smaller than- the Dwarf's Guide to Debian GNU/Linux (which I took home with me).
-List of similar size books follows (for those who havn't seen THIS book):
° HARD DISK/SCSI CONTROLLER A2091-40 A2091
° A2000 User's Manual English
° PicassoII Manual
° AMIGA Hard Drive User's Guide (from OS3.0)
Anyway, I'm sure you get the impression - it would fit inside a CD32 Case! Aparently, it takes a Laptop-type Ram Simm, has a 2.5" IDE Header (& can Boot from a Memory Card in a no-moving-parts type configuration), onboard sound, onboard Gfx, onboard Firewire, incl VGA & SVideo outputs.
I can forsee someone fitting it into a Laptop Case, for one application!
WELL - to round-up:- last event was an IRC Session with Fleecy (10 Hrs behind Oz E,S.T)
FOR MYSELF -- the last thing was to arrange a lift homewards, since I wasn't about to take my NEW A1XEG4 System home on a BUS! John (another one!) and his better half kindly ferried me in their car! |
|
|