The OS4 Pre-release Interview!

This is the OS4 Interview. This is an interview I conducted with OS4 itself after writing the five part series of The OS4 Pre-release Preview. It was originally published in Workbench magazine, the paper magazine that my local Amiga Users Group published on a monthly basis. It contains a lot of historical information relating to Amiga OS4 and leading up to it. In the interview WB asks questions that OS4 answers. Yes, it might look funny that way, as it means Workbench is asking Amiga OS4 questions. Well, the magazine that is, since the interview was published by the magazine. I hope you can enjoy it and the trip it provides down memory lane. :-)

 

 

The OS4 Interview?

That's correct, you read it right the first time. In a special exclusive I have personally secured an interview with AmigaOS4, the OS itself. ;-) There might just be the Executive underneath, filing from a bit of DOS, some Graphics on screen, perhaps a Reaction now and then; but OS4 is here to remind us that it also has that Intuition inside. And wants to tell us so. For this very reason I am proud on behalf of Workbench magazine to present the AmigaOS4 interview.

WB: Firstly, thanks for taking the time to do this, it's not everyday you get to talk to the official update to the AmigaOS in years.

OS4: Oh, you're welcome. Since the '99 3.5 pre-release in Canberra, and the 2000 announcement of 3.9 at the Melbourne Ace2K show, I do kind of feel at home here.

WB: What's it like after all this time to be brought to life again, so to speak?

OS4: It's great, for a while I didn't think I was going to make it. By the end, I was left in this dormant coma like state after all those years, and really thought at times that I was going to pass into the realms of OS heaven to be left dead and buried. I'm so grateful for the team at Hyperion and all who helped in rescuing me, I really feel they are a kind of OS software life-savers club. Hi guys!

WB: While we have all been waiting an anticipation for anything to happen with Amiga, what were you doing all that time, where in the world were you?

OS4: I'd like to say I ran off with Carmen San Diego, he he, but sadly that is as further from the truth as you can get. The fact is I practically really was left for dead; Windows and even MacOS really got a stronghold on the market, and even Amiga themselves didn't want seem to want me with their AmigaDE idea to try and make a business with. Life just seemed to go down hill, and me with it, I considered my whole life and was thinking what the point of it all is. It's hard for me to say this, but I really felt like committing suicide at times, I thought it would be best for everybody. In the end I was just so depressed and deprived that I just passed out and collapsed in a heap, I ended up on life support just lying there with no hope in sight, until Hyperion came along to nurse me back to health. Now I just feel so alive!

WB: And we're glad they did. It's understandable why you felt so depressed, after all the empty announcements and false starts, it didn't help.

OS4: Yeah, it was like I was being pulled this way and that. All the different companies with their own idea of what I should be, all the different hardware platforms I was meant to be coded for, and alongside that all the differing opinions from the users point of view of what I should be. As if it was just an image thing, it was very stressful, was anyone thinking of me? I mean, at one stage, I didn't know if I was Arthur or Martha. Did you know, I was even announced as being an x.86 developer OS at one stage? Talk about confusing.

WB: I can see what you mean, you poor thing! Yes, I remember that last announcement, reported in the June 1998 edition of Workbench magazine. Of course, you weren't the only one to go through hard times, you're business partner, the AmigaOne also had it's fair share of hardships deal with.

OS4: Oh, I agree with you totally there. I guess it all started with the new PowerPC Amiga announcements like the ABox, AmiJoe and Shark. The sort of things that never really made it, or are still meant to be in development. That AmigaOne Zico specification related to AmigaDE caused even more confusion. The AmigaOne had to get past this by actually being produced for real, but even it had a rough ride before this happened. First being a development of the Predator SE A1200 accelerator, then meant to use the A1200 as a hardware dongle, until finally the original hardware developed by Eyetech was scrapped and they partnered up with MAI to produce the boards. Talk about a rebirth of the Amiga!

WB: Amazing, even without any Amiga hardware released to the public, it is staggering to look back on the recent history so far. So, how do you feel about the new Amiga hardware being totally different from the classic? Are there things you miss?

OS4: Obviously, the first major thing is that I'm not running on a 68k CPU any more, then there is no custom chips. Getting past the CPU isn't trivial either; although the PPC is regarded as a successor to the 68k, it isn't just a drop in replacement. It's really a completely different CPU, about the only thing it has that relates to the 68k in general would be a Motorola influence and big-endian architecture with more registers. With regard to the AmigaOne not having any customs chips like the classic does, yes, that would be something I miss. It set us apart from the rest of society and provided full hardware compatibility, this just isn't something useful for running AGA games, the hardware allowed us to do things like video work and accessing real Amiga floppies. Now we have to rely on VGA cards with TV outs, and without Zorro you can't just plug a Video Toaster in any more; not to mention a genlock. Of course, this stems from leaving us both for too long, but at least the classic with a PPC board attached can still do these things.

WB: Yeah, although it was beyond your control, would you say there are any regrets to the way things have turned out?

OS4: Oh, there is of course. I mean, first the lack of any real developments didn't help, along with all the useless announcements. Pushing any Amiga fans away and just making us look bad in the computer marketplace. But what's worse I think is that not even Amiga, Inc. themselves worked on me or the hardware, they licensed it out to third parties. Personally I have nothing against this decision, and I think it was the right one to make, it's just that so many companies offered to do this in the past with real intentions and nothing become of it; usually because of the current Amiga, Inc. at the time. Everyone wanted a new Amiga machine, and what happens in the end,? Amiga doesn't even make one, some other Amiga companies do it for them! What a waste, all that time gone for nothing; if only even one of these companies was allowed to produce something, an Amiga revival would have happened ages ago. Now look at what happened. In some ways, this really disgusts me, it really does.

WB: Well, what counts it that you are here now, whatever form you turned out to be. So, how do you see the future for you and the AmigaOne?

OS4: A lot brighter now! I've been revitalised and have some new hardware to run on. But it doesn't end there, because there is new hardware there is a price to pay for that, and more than financially. The board has to be made known, and improved as time goes on, not to mention marketing me as the strong point. :-) We also need to penetrate other markets, including some we used be really active in, so we can attract the previous and even current Amiga fans with better prices. Although those keen spent money on PPC accelerators in the past, it doesn't mean everybody can now, nor the means to do so. Of course, already having support for PC peripherals with PCI and USB does make it easier, no need to make a hardware wrapper for a PC graphics card in a Zorro card any more.

WB: Yes, even that support is welcome, making it cheaper and easier for us. What about other modern implementations being developed for yourself?

OS4: Well, first I would have to say ExecSG's virtual memory built in, which in the future will be supporting the usual paged based type. Then there is the 64-bit filesystem support with the 64-bit file sizes being developed. As well as USB drivers, wireless, DVD's, gigabyte memory, multiple processor support, AltiVec, the list just goes on. It's hard to believe at times some people just wanted me to become an emulator on a 'cheap & fasty' PC, I can understand why but doing do would have prevented modern functionally like these being built into the system, and more to come. I would have ended up being a hack!

WB: And we wouldn't want that. Now you've come so far, being practically built from the ground up these last four years, and already having three updates since you were first unveiled to the public. As well as the public live appearances at the OS4 Roadshows. These are all great things, I congratulate you both, and appreciate the time taken out of your hefty schedule for this interview.

OS4: Thank you, it makes it all worth while, without fans like yourself we'd have a lot less to live for.

WB: Which brings me to my final question, about what the public really want to know, and are really putting the pressure on for an answer. The final release, the icing on the cake. When all is said and done, when will the big day happen when finally AmigaOS4 becomes the finished product?

OS4: Well, toast me brown and butter me up both sides, I didn't see that coming did I? The answer to that is easy, and to put it simply, when it's done. :-)