I was wondering just where the A600GS sits in relation to AROS. Given that FinalWriter 68k runs on AROS but not AmigaOS and it was announced that FW would be included with the A600GS, does this mean it's running AROS 68k (under emulation)?

If so, given this thread on Amigaworld https://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=45250&forum=27 that talks about replacing OS components with ARM native code, is this progressing AROS on ARM?

Just wondering...

Cheers,
Nigel.

A600GS is based AROS 68k, but beware not the deadwood AROS 68k fork (Compiled C library), but official AROS 68k.

Final Write 68k is also compatible with ApolloOS and AROS One 68k (Old version based on Official AROS 68k, see screenshot)

Final Write 68k cannot run on any Amiga because the executable is in the native AROS 68k ELF format

Many thanks for rthe clarification. So the question is, if ARM versions of system components are being produced by AmigaKit (e.g. datatypes is mentioned), will they be fed back into AROS or be proprietory to AmigaKit? Ideally the former, of course. I'd love to be able to build a pocket-sized ARM AROS machine.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Here I do not know how to answer!

As far as I know these are prioprietary components.

Hmmm... So taking from AROS to get their system to market but not giving anything back? Not even a mentiion of AROS being used in their publicity. Doesn't feel very fair...

Cheers,
Nigel.

It's against the license, isn't it?

http://www.aros.org/license.html

Wouldn't that be a violation of the APL

They should be asked for the Source Code under the APL if they are not willing to contribute it

AFAIK they use AROS components and their own, it's not like they pick an aros app source code, base the code on it and not release it. The impression I have is that AROS core is at it is, and the same way you can have AmigaOS components and programs running on it, they have their own system.

They have stated on their wikipages:
"AmiBench is a proprietry desktop environment developed by AmigaKit Ltd for the A600GS, Commodore-Amiga computers and Next Generation Amiga-like computers.
It is built upon AmigaKit's System Release V46 distribution supplemented by some AROS components."
Amibench

There you can find all the software they have done themselves based on system release V46

"AROS components are distributed under the terms of the AROS APL v1.1 licence"
A600 GS Wikipedia

But indeed it is quite distasteful to base a product on AROS and not plan to give something in return, it would benifit AROS and in the end it would benifit themselves...

It is a bittersweet sensation.

In the one hand AROS is mature and good enough to be used on several commercial products and in the other hand it's not getting more traction and it seems that it's only accepted if it has an Amiga logo stuck on the box.
It's quite sad as the Amiga hardware usually has had a very high price tag, with crowds willing to spend big money on it and almost no one uses or contributes to a free alternative. Seems that the developers, distro mantainers, translators, testers, and everyone in the community are feeding the vampires and the vultures that have been flying over the platform since 1994.

A lot of people want the Amiga OS to be opensourced and refuse to accept that we already have an opensource amiga-like OS.

Telematix I approve of everything, they want an AROS that has nothing AROS about it, but has something Amiga even if only in name.

However, we are talking about a few old Amigans who only like to play games and who never cared to have a modern Amiga.

Many years ago Amiga was the most advanced Computer and Amiga users were proud of the Progress, today it is the opposite, today's Amiga users love the Regress, they even drool over a little game that years ago we would have thrown away without trying it.

Finally, they do the same thing with AROS x86, there are users who, in order to make it look like an Amiga, "scrutinise" it by removing colours and themes, thus mortifying those who do their best to improve and beautify AROS !

It's true, but there are also a lot of amigans whose first steps with computers were with this platform, they learned how to code with it, defined their professional life and still enjoy tinkering with it. People that not only love to play old games or like to bolt new hardware to a classic machine, but they also would like to develop for it. The scene is quite broad and there is place for everyone but I think that those are very interesting for us.

I love the magicworbench icons and look, even use it my classic machine, but I do not use it in Aros and I am not able to understand the theme removal you are talking about as those beautiful themes do not take space.
I also think the best way to use an Amiga system nowadays is to boot the modern Aros distribution of your choice and use coherency mode, and I also believe this is the way a lot of users could enter the Aros world and perhaps be the spark to become contributors.

Yes I had excluded the few Amiga users who remained faithful to the operating system and its development, I am one of those despite being 70 years old.

Of course AROS to be attractive would have to be modern, presenting AROS with ugly icons with no colour and no themes makes one think of an old OS, consequently it would be ignored.

Magicworbench was nice 30 years ago on Amiga, in my opinion installing them on AROS x86/68k would be more than mortifying today given the potential and compatibility of Wanderer with any Icon.

I fully agree with the comments above. It's difficult to understand why anyone interested in the Amiga's heritage would not be intrested in a system which takes all the best of that legacy, adds moden functionality and runs on hardware vastly faster than that available to the other options and can be picked up for pretty much pocket money. In any other aspect of life this would be a 'no brainer'.

I do feel there's a lot of missconceptions around AROS in the wider community. There have been a couple of recent UK Amiga shows and I did send messages to the organisers to ask if they would like a display of AROS machines (thinking that a bit of hands-on demonstration might help overcome some of this) but didn't receive any reply at all, not even a 'no thanks'. It's a shame, beacuse I think seeing the system 'live' could persuade sa few more Amigans to try it.

This also comes back to my original thoughts on the A600GS. How many users will appreciate that AROS is driving it? And if they did, would that encourge them to try a full AROS disro? Difficult to know as AmigaKit are not exactly going out of their way to advertise this.

Cheers,
Nigel.

When they find out that with A600GS many Amiga applications and games will not work they will change their opinion.

AROS 68k does not support OS 3.5, 3.9 and 3.2 applications, but only "part" of the OS 3.1 software, all of which will make people think that AROS 68k is an immature system, which it is not because with AROS 68k if you use native software it works perfectly!

it is the licensing that is the problem

I expect that when an entity has a vested monetary interest in any given product that they will ensure to minimize its short-comings, for me the only question is really if they do it on the AROS side of things, improving it overall (regarding AmigaOS compatibility) or if they chose to do it through their own set of software, the Release V46.

From a resource point of view, it is natural they start from sorting a solution that allows them to run 95%* of the software and then focus on what's need to run the rest.

*this isn't an exact figure

I do not know exactly what components are being taken from Aros, but as the web states "AROS components are distributed under the terms of the AROS APL v1.1 licence" and that means the changes made to those components must be open sourced.

"3.2. Availability of Source Code.
Any Modification which You create or to which You contribute must be made available in Source Code form under the terms of this License either on the same media as an Executable version or via an accepted Electronic Distribution Mechanism to anyone to whom you made an Executable version available; and if made available via Electronic Distribution Mechanism, must remain available for at least twelve (12) months after the date it initially became available, or at least six (6) months after a subsequent version of that particular Modification has been made available to such recipients. You are responsible for ensuring that the Source Code version remains available even if the Electronic Distribution Mechanism is maintained by a third party."

https://wiki.amiga.org/index.php?title=A600GS#Legal

But they can use their own parts and substitute it bit by bit, like the Theseus' Ship. It seem they have recently improved Zune, which was giving them some issues with YAM, they should commit those changes, and I guess some other issues they may find with AROS components, but their own set of software, which isn't related to AROS, they don't have to.

Form AmigaKit's update on Amigaworld:

"There were some lockup bugs in Zune and YAM itself with timers that took some days to diagnose and fix. These are now resolved and YAM is working well."

I assume the Zune fixes were fed back to the main AROS sources. YAM is interesting - the last thing I read was that it was no longer being developed; Does anyone know if these YAM bugfixes are for the A600GS only or will they become available at some point for the wider community?

Cheers,
Nigel.