So, I've been trying out Icaros as I think it would be really cool to be able to use an amiga based OS as a daily driver, however I just cannot find anything that tells either how to install new programs, or what executable type files are supported. This is important for me as there are various programs I would like to install on a baremetal installation of icaors. Any ideas?

Hi Ticbow,

Here are some things that might help you:

1) With regards to Icaros, I assume you are using a version downloaded from here https://vmwaros.blogspot.com/. Icaros itself is a distribution that takes core AROS system and enhances it with 3rd party software. So in other words you should have most of software available for AROS already boundles with Icaros. I don't remember whether that software is installed by default or you need to use some Icaros software to install the packages, however I'm sure this is described in the manual that comes with Icaros.

2) In general, the AROS Archives is the site where 3rd party AROS software gets published. Here is a link: http://archives.aros-exec.org/. Just download the package you like and unzip it. 90% of times that's all that is needed to use the software

If you have additional questions, please let us know.

@ Ticbow
Are you by any chance referring to 68k software? i.e. native Amiga OS?

No, I'm referring to more modern software. I just feel that if you're trying to make an operating system work that's based off the amiga but is meant to be more than just an emulator, then it should be able to run modern software through common executable types (such as exe and .deb etc...) and so I was testing icaros for that.

With regards to this, AROS executables are ELF objects files, but AROS cannot run Window (.exe) or Linux (.deb) software - only software ported and compiled for AROS.

only aros executables work on your system

Ah, fair enough. Will there be support in the future for such compatibility?

in the future there will be axruntime aros will be integrated on linux

I doubt there will be support in AROS for running Windows or Linux executables in future. If you want to join there two worlds there are two solutions:

1) Run AROS in hosted mode on top of Linux or Windows. You basically use Windows or Linux but you get a separate "window" with AROS system
2) AxRuntime will enable AROS programs to be run "integrated" into Linux. You will still be running Linux as your main operating systems, but AROS programs will look as if they are running directly on Linux as well.