Hi.

I am totally new to AROS or any other AROS distro.
Since I love alternative OSes and specially uncommon ones, it seems AROS might be perfect for me.

After trying and trying, I finally managed to install ICAROS desktop on real hardware and I am planning to use it quite often. I am not sure if I can use it for my job, but we will see...

Coming from Linux, I thought that installing it would be a piece of cake, but actually it was pretty darn difficult for one reason or another. Basically the HDD that had HaikuOS installed is now with AROS instead.

Also, since AROS is quite different than Linux or Windows, it was rather difficult to figure out what drive and partition is what, and since I don't want to wipe my Linux or Windows partitions, I had to use another SATA disk for AROS, that I simply hot-plugged into a 5.25 inch drive front bay.

After going forth and back and fighting with several other issues for literally 2 days, finally I managed to do it. I am not a fan of VMs or running one OS over another.

Also I have many questions, so hopefully someone would be willing to help me out a bit when I ask something... I think I am too much used to Linux and Windows...

Cya!

Hello Khadas,

Nice to see you here AROS has a different structure than Windows and Linux so it requires some time to get used to, especially if you never owned an Amiga before. Ask your questions - there are a lot of people willing to help new users here!

Unfortunately Icaros is actually based on an old aros core.
Suggest you to use aors one or tiny aros that are more up to date.

Hello Khadas.

Welcome to the AROS-Community!

For first:
As Ex-newbie, I recommening you to launch AROS inside an VM and playing with it - even if you are not a fan of VM's. AROS / Amiga is pretty different in some point in code, handling and also in daily use next to mainstream OSes. It makes first steps much easier when you are not in trouble by finding out, what driver for ethernet / wireless you require or if you running AROS on IDE / SATA or AHCI - those problems can be handled easily later when had first experiences with AROS.

For second, Icaros Desktop Live was and is a famous distribution with many abilities for daily usage. Since after 2.3 had gain no update over approx. a year, it's better to use AROS One or Tiny AROS as your distribution to keep sure to be up to date with the lastest features.

For third, you should check (if having no compactable hardware) the list of recommened hardware (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Aros/Platforms/x86_Complete_System_HCL#Recommended_hardware) to gain full compactible hardware, where you can run AROS and using it as game-machine, office-computer or developing-source without having regular knowlegde-issuses as researching for ethernet-controller or graphic-card inside.

Hopeing, you having fun while staying here.

Welcome!

Yes. AROS is definitely an alternative OS compared to Windows or Linux. It is quite different yet that difference makes it enjoyable to use.

AROS is most similar to Amiga OS. So when searching for information about libraries, system files or file system structure you can also query the search engine (Google or whatever) for Amiga OS.

Although AROS is different in some ways, usually the Amiga way is the AROS way as well.

When installing AROS there are a few things to consider. First how compatible is the hardware. Also, I've installed AROS many times on real hardware and hosted on Ubuntu Linux. I've had no problems with Hard Disks or SSDs of 128GB or less. But anything larger may require some extra partitions. Then there is IDE vs AHCI modes.

But thankfully there is much information available online and this forum is great to find answers to difficult or easy questions. Lots of good, dedicated, hard-working people here!

Welcome among us

Well you already have the system installed even if icaros desktop is quite obsolete, I deal with tiny aros another distribution, aros many years ago boasted of a state of the art browser now it doesn't but you have a dual boot system so in emergency you can use the mainstream browsers and work on aros at your leisure, unfortunately we don't have a printing system also but with brother printers you can use cloud printing with odyssey which is the browser of aros, if you want to play opengl games you have to have a compatible graphics card and these are not up to date but i don't know if that's a problem for you, for the network you always need a compatible ethernet card but it can be recovered with little money as for the graphics card, the applications do not need installer you unzip the archive and copy the content where you want, you should always have two partitions with aros one for the system and the other for your data so when you need to update you format only the system partition so that you always have with you your data, files always available, if you need clarification we are here