AROS Research Operating System

Last updated

AROS Research Operating System
Icaros131.jpg
Icaros (AROS distribution) Desktop 1.3.1 with Amiga 68K integration (August 2011)
Developer The AROS Development Team
OS family AmigaOS-like
Working stateCurrent
Source model Open source
Initial release1995;30 years ago (1995)
Repository
Platforms IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC, m68k, ARM
Kernel type Microkernel
License AROS Public
Official website aros.sourceforge.io

AROS Research Operating System (AROS, pronounced "AR-OS") is a free and open-source multi media centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 application programming interface (API) which is designed to be portable and flexible. As of 2021, ports are available for personal computers (PCs) based on x86 and PowerPC, in native and hosted flavors, with other architectures in development. In a show of full circle development, AROS has been ported to the Motorola 68000 series (m68k) based Amiga 1200, [1] and there is also an ARM port for the Raspberry Pi series.

Contents

Name and identity

AROS Kitty AROS Dark Kitty.png
AROS Kitty

AROS originally stood for Amiga Research Operating System, but to avoid any trademark issues with the Amiga name, [2] [3] it was changed to the recursive acronym AROS Research Operating System. [4]

The mascot of AROS is an anthropomorphic cat named Kitty, created by Eric Schwartz and officially adopted by the AROS Team in December 2002.

Used in the core AROS About and installer tools, it was also adopted by several AROS community sites and early distributions.

Other AROS identifiable symbols and logos are based around the cat shape, such as the Icaros logo, which is a stylised cat's eye, or AFA (Aros For Amiga).

Current status

Amiga family/development tree AmigaOS 3 and clones.svg
Amiga family/development tree

The project, begun in 1995, has over the years become an almost "feature complete" implementation of AmigaOS – which, as of May 2017,[ needs update ] only lacks a few areas of functionality. This was achieved by the efforts of a small team of developers.

It can be installed on most IBM PC compatibles, and features native graphics drivers for video cards such as the GeForce range made by Nvidia. As of May 2007 USB keyboards and mice are also supported. AROS has been ported to the Sam440ep PowerPC board and a first test version for the Efika was released in 2009.

While the OS is still lacking in applications, a few have been ported, including E-UAE, an emulation program that allows m68k-native AmigaOS applications to run. Some AROS-specific applications have also been written. AROS has TCP/IP networking support, and has available an experimental version of AMosaic web browser, for test purposes, among other Internet-related applications. The Poseidon USB stack has been ported to AROS. [5]

AROS is designed to be source-compatible with AmigaOS. On m68k Amiga hardware it is also binary-compatible, so binaries already compiled for AmigaOS 3 can be run on AROS. [6] On x86 IA-32 32-bit platforms Janus-UAE, [7] an enhanced E-UAE, integrates Amiga emulation directly into AROS to run AmigaOS m68k binaries nearly transparent to the user. As of August 2011, original AmigaOS 3 operating system files are needed for the emulation.

The aim of AROS is to remain aloof of the legal and political spats that have plagued other AmigaOS implementations by being independent of hardware and of any central control. The de facto motto of AROS, "No schedule and rocking" both lampoons the infamous words "On Schedule and Rockin" from Amiga, Inc. CEO Bill McEwen, and declares a lack of the formal deadlines. [8]

A workable AmigaOS Kickstart clone for the Motorola 68000 processor was released on March 31, 2011 as part of a programming bounty. [9] [10] The memory requirement is 2 MB Chip RAM and 1 MB Fast RAM. This software is a complete free open-source alternative to AmigaOS.

Distributions

The main AROS system files can be downloaded in many flavors from the project website. These files are compiled straight from the SVN source tree at night time, and are available as nightly builds. Nightlies also include some third party applications to allow people using the system to perform some very basic tasks.

For final/average user, like Linux, there are several distributions available:

Icaros Desktop

Since April 2009, the name VMWAros has been changed into "Icaros Desktop" to avoid ambiguities with any existing copyrighted Virtual Machine of any kind. Amiga 68K emulation integration, 3D acceleration for Nvidia cards and latest updates of applications can be found there. [11] The latest version of Icaros Desktop is version 2.3 (released 22 December, 2020). [12] [13]

Broadway

Broadway is a distribution of AROS begun late 2009. The goal is to provide an easy-to-use and complete AROS experience. AROS Broadway contains some commercial software such as a media center, a cloud storage service, and an app store. The latest version is 1.0 preview 5, released April 16, 2016. [14]

AspireOS

AspireOS is a distribution, begun in 2011, by Nikos Tomatsidis, which is focused on Dell Latitude D520 and Acer Aspire One 110, 150 computers. Latest version is 2.2, codenamed "Obitus", released November 2018. [15] [16]

AROS Vision

AROS Vision is a native m68k distribution, which can run on both real hardware or in emulators like UAE.

Apollo OS

ApolloOS is an active m68k distribution, crafted specially for the Vampire V4 Standalone FPGA-based system.

Influence on AmigaOS and MorphOS

Haage & Partner used small pieces of the AROS source code for AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9. [17] Large parts of MorphOS (AmigaDOS, Intuition [18] and more) have been ported from AROS. [19]

System requirements

x86

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga</span> Family of personal computers sold by Commodore

Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-bit or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems. These include the Atari ST—released earlier the same year—as well as the Macintosh and Acorn Archimedes. The Amiga differs from its contemporaries through custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites, a blitter, and four channels of sample-based audio. It runs a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UAE (emulator)</span> Computer emulator which emulates the Commodore Amiga

UAE is a computer emulator which emulates the hardware of Commodore International's Amiga range of computers. Released under the GNU General Public License, UAE is free software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MorphOS</span> Amiga-compatible computer operating system

MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like operating system designed for Power and PowerPC based computers. The core, based on the Quark microkernel, is proprietary, although several libraries and other parts are open source, such as the Ambient desktop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga 4000</span> 1992 personal computer

The Amiga 4000, or A4000, from Commodore is the successor of the Amiga 2000 and Amiga 3000 computers. There are two models: the A4000/040 released in October 1992 with a Motorola 68040 CPU, and the A4000/030 released in April 1993 with a Motorola 68EC030.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilisk II</span> Open-source 68k Macintosh emulator

Basilisk II is an emulator which emulates Apple Macintosh computers based on the Motorola 68000 series. The software is cross-platform and can be used on a variety of operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QEMU</span> Free virtualization and emulation software

The Quick Emulator (QEMU) is a free and open-source emulator that uses dynamic binary translation to emulate a computer's processor; that is, it translates the emulated binary codes to an equivalent binary format which is executed by the machine. It provides a variety of hardware and device models for the virtual machine, enabling it to run different guest operating systems. QEMU can be used with a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) to emulate hardware at near-native speeds. Additionally, it supports user-level processes, allowing applications compiled for one processor architecture to run on another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic User Interface</span> Widget toolkit for AmigaOS

The Magic User Interface is an object-oriented system by Stefan Stuntz to generate and maintain graphical user interfaces. With the aid of a preferences program, the user of an application has the ability to customize the system according to personal taste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phase5</span>

Phase5 Digital Products is a defunct German computer hardware manufacturer that developed third-party hardware primarily for the Amiga platform. Their most popular products included CPU upgrade boards, SCSI controllers and graphics cards.

Amiga emulation refers to the activity of emulating a Commodore Amiga computer system using another computer platform. Most emulators run on modern systems such as Microsoft Windows or Macintosh. This allows Amiga users to use their existing software, and in some cases hardware, on modern computers.

The Amiga computer can be used to emulate several other computer platforms, including legacy platforms such as the Commodore 64, and its contemporary rivals such as the IBM PC and the Macintosh.

Amiga software is computer software engineered to run on the Amiga personal computer. Amiga software covers many applications, including productivity, digital art, games, commercial, freeware and hobbyist products. The market was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s but then dwindled. Most Amiga products were originally created directly for the Amiga computer, and were not ported from other platforms.

AmigaOS is the proprietary native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. Since its introduction with the launch of the Amiga 1000 in 1985, there have been four major versions and several minor revisions of the operating system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatari (emulator)</span> Atari computer emulator

Hatari is an open-source emulator of the Atari ST 16/32-bit computer system family. It emulates the Atari ST, Atari STe, Atari TT, and Atari Falcon computer series and some corresponding peripheral hardware like joysticks, mouse, midi, printer, serial and floppy and hard disks. It supports more graphics modes than the ST and does not require an original TOS image as it supports EmuTOS. The latest version has no reported issues with the ST/STe/TT applications emulation compatibility and also most of the ST/STe games and demos work without issues.

Hunk is the executable file format of tools and programs of the Amiga Operating System based on Motorola 68000 CPU and other processors of the same family. The file format was originally defined by MetaComCo. as part of TRIPOS, which formed the basis for AmigaDOS. This kind of executable got its name from the fact that the software programmed on Amiga is divided in its internal structure into many pieces called hunks, in which every portion could contain either code or data.

This article deals with productivity software created for the Amiga line of computers and covers the AmigaOS operating system and its derivatives AROS and MorphOS. It is a split of the main article, Amiga software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AmigaOS</span> Operating system for Amiga computers

AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions of AmigaOS required the Motorola 68000 series of 16-bit and 32-bit microprocessors. Later versions, after Commodore's demise, were developed by Haage & Partner and then Hyperion Entertainment. A PowerPC microprocessor is required for the most recent release, AmigaOS 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga Forever</span> Amiga preservation, emulation and support package published by Cloanto

Amiga Forever is an Amiga preservation, emulation and support package published by Cloanto, allowing Amiga software to run on non-Amiga hardware legally without complex configuration.

This article deals with programming languages used in the Amiga line of computers, running the AmigaOS operating system and its derivatives AROS and MorphOS. It is a split of the main article Amiga software. See also related articles Amiga productivity software, Amiga music software, Amiga Internet and communications software and Amiga support and maintenance software for other information regarding software that runs on Amiga.

References

  1. ↑ "AROS m68k-amiga". Evillabs.net.
  2. ↑ Mendoza, Nicolas (May 5, 2007). "AROS drops Amiga from its name!". AmigaNN. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Evert Carton of Hyperion Entertainment claims AROS is "probably illegal"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 21, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  4. ↑ "AROS.org". AROS.org. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Poseidon USB Stack Bounty Reached: Open Source, AROS Port". OSNews. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
  6. ↑ Wikibooks:Aros/Platforms/68k support
  7. ↑ "Janus-UAE on SourceForge".
  8. ↑ "AmigaDE Party Pack Announcement". Amiga Inc. June 11, 2001. Archived from the original on June 19, 2001.
  9. ↑ "Kickstart ROM Replacement (Phase II) Assigned". amiga.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Kickstart ROM Replacement (Phase II)". power2people.org.
  11. ↑ "icaros desktop". icaros desktop. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Download". Icaros Desktop. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  13. ↑ Pearce, Rohan (November 4, 2014). "Icaros, the Amiga-like desktop OS for x86, hits 2.0". Computerworld.com.au. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  14. ↑ "AROS Broadway". www.aros-broadway.de. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  15. ↑ "AROS Aspire". sites.google.com. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  16. ↑ "AspireOS v2.2 codename "Obitus" is ready". ae.amigalife.org. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  17. ↑ "What is the relation between AROS and Haage & Partner?" . Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  18. ↑ "Ralph Schmidt responds to criticism that MorphOS is 'stolen' AmigaOS code" . Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  19. ↑ "What is the relation between AROS and MorphOS?" . Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  20. 1 2 3 "Aros/Platforms/x86 support". Wikibooks. May 27, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.