What simply occurred? Although the Amiga {hardware} is lengthy gone, a small group of builders and testers are nonetheless engaged on the software program. A brand new replace to AmigaOS has simply been launched, bringing new options and bug fixes to machines that do not wish to die.
Hyperion Entertainment lately introduced the discharge of the second model replace of AmigaOS 3.2, the working system designed to run on basic Amiga machines based mostly on Motorola’s 68000 CPU sequence. The firm as soon as generally known as the Commodore isn’t any extra, the Amiga model’s historical past has been suffering from acquisitions, gross sales, and lawsuits, and but the corporate that now holds a “perpetual, worldwide license” for AmigaOS remains to be milking the Amiga fanbase.
The new Update 2 comes greater than a yr after the discharge of AmigaOS 3.2.1, launched by Hyperion in December 2021 as a bug repair and have replace to the landmark AmigaOS 3.2 launch. Amiga 3.2 did not use the PowerPC CPU structure like AmigaOS 4 did, however arrived 28 years after its final launch, and nonetheless retains compatibility with basic Amiga machines and the performance of the unique AmigaOS 3.1.
The AmigaOS 3.1 supply code lastly leaked onto the net in 2015, whereas the event of Amiga 3.2 took greater than two years of “intensive and tireless work” by a staff of greater than 60 contributors. The listing of options for this explicit launch contains integration of the ReAction toolkit for GUI programming, native help for putting in .adf disk picture recordsdata – the usual format for Amiga software program dumps within the emulation neighborhood – built-in assist and on-line documentation, and extra.
The first “minor” replace to AmigaOS 3.2 is usually a bugfix launch that provides some beauty enhancements, help for the traditional Rexx programming language in a brand new textual content editor, and extra. Hyperion now says that for the reason that launch of AmigaOS 3.2.1, AmigaOS builders and testers have been “tiringly” fixing (extra) bugs and implementing some new options.
As listed on the corporate’s official web site, highlights of the brand new AmigaOS 3.2.2 embody a number of new enhancements to the aforementioned textual content editor, a revision ID for the 68060 CPU, and higher dealing with of icon recordsdata. Additionally, AmigaOS 3.2.2 can now coexist with earlier variations of the working system due to help for the previous “Kickstart” boot element. Selected devices have additionally been improved or overhauled, and the RAM disk has been redone to make it much less more likely to trigger issues.
AmigaOS 3.2.2 is on the market as an official obtain from Hyperion’s web site for customers who have already got an formally licensed copy of AmigaOS 3.2. There’s additionally an official AmigaOS merchandise retailer for die-hard followers of the platform.
