Historial de versiones de AmigaOS

AmigaOS es el sistema operativo propietario nativo del ordenador personal Amiga . Desde su introducción con el lanzamiento del Amiga 1000 en 1985, ha habido cuatro versiones principales y varias revisiones menores del sistema operativo.

Inicialmente, el sistema operativo Amiga no tenía un nombre ni una marca definidos, ya que simplemente se consideraba una parte integral del sistema Amiga en su conjunto. Entre los primeros nombres utilizados para el sistema operativo Amiga se encontraban "CAOS" (que significaba "Commodore Amiga Operating System") y " AmigaDOS ". ^{[ 1 ]} Otro nombre no oficial era "Workbench", derivado del nombre del entorno de escritorio Amiga , que se incluía en un disquete llamado "Amiga Workbench". ^{[ 2 ]}

La versión 3.1 del sistema operativo Amiga fue la primera versión a la que Commodore se refirió oficialmente como "Amiga OS" (con un espacio entre "Amiga" y "OS") ^{[ 3 ] [ 4 ] .}

La versión 4.0 del sistema operativo Amiga fue la primera versión en ser denominada como un "AmigaOS" menos genérico (sin el espacio). ^{[ 3 ]}

Las que muchos consideran las primeras versiones de AmigaOS (Workbench 1.0 a 3.0) se indican aquí con el nombre Workbench de sus discos originales.

Workbench 1.0 se lanzó por primera vez en octubre de 1985. ^{[ 5 ]} La serie 1. x de Workbench viene por defecto con un esquema de color azul y naranja distintivo, diseñado para ofrecer un alto contraste incluso en las peores pantallas de televisión (los colores pueden ser cambiados por el usuario). La versión 1.1 consiste principalmente en correcciones de errores y, al igual que la versión 1.0, se distribuyó solo para Amiga 1000. El sistema operativo completo de Workbench constaba de tres disquetes: Kickstart , Workbench y ABasic de MetaComCo .

El Amiga 1000 necesitaba insertar un disco Kickstart en la unidad de disquete para arrancar. Una imagen de una mano en blanco, sosteniendo un disquete Kickstart azul, invitaba al usuario a realizar esta operación. Una vez cargado el Kickstart en una sección especial de la memoria llamada almacenamiento de control de escritura (WCS), la imagen de la mano volvía a aparecer, esta vez invitando al usuario a insertar el disco Workbench.

Workbench version 1.2 was the first to support Kickstart stored in a ROM. A Kickstart disk was still necessary for Amiga 1000 models; it was no longer necessary for Amiga 500 or 2000, but the users of these systems had to change the ROMs (which were socketed) to change the Kickstart version.

Workbench now spanned two floppy disks, and supported installing and booting from a hard drive (assuming the Amiga was equipped with one), the name of the main disk was still named "Workbench" (which is also the user interface portion of the operating system). The second disk was the Extras disk. The system now shipped with AmigaBasic by Microsoft, the only software Microsoft ever wrote for the Amiga.

Kickstart version 1.2 corrected various flaws and added AutoConfig support. AutoConfig is a protocol similar to and is the predecessor of Plug and Play, in that it can configure expansion boards without user intervention.

Kickstart version 1.3 improved little on its predecessor, the most notable change being auto booting from hard drives. Workbench 1.3, on the other hand, users can find several significant improvements to Workbench, including FFS a faster file system for hard disks storage which resolved the problem of old Amiga filesystem which wasted too much hard disk space due to the fact it could store only 488 bytes in any block of 512 bytes keeping 24 bytes for checksums. Many improvements were made to the CLI (command line interface) of Amiga which was now a complete text based Shell, named AmigaShell, and various additional tools and programs.

Kickstart/Workbench 1.4 was a beta version of the upcoming 2.0 update and never released, but the Kickstart part was shipped in very small quantities with early Amiga 3000 computers, where it is often referred to as the "Superkickstart ROM". In these machines it is only used to bootstrap the machine and load the Kickstart that will be used to actually boot the system. The appearance of a very early first release of 1.4 was similar to 1.3, but with colors slightly changed. A second version was similar to that of 2.0 and higher, with just minor differences. It is, however, possible to dump out of the OS selection screen by clicking where one would expect to see a close gadget. This will cause the machine to boot Kickstart 1.4 using either the wb_2.x: partition, or from a floppy.

Workbench 2.0 se lanzó en 1990 ^{[ 5 ]} e introdujo muchas mejoras y avances importantes en la interfaz gráfica de usuario (GUI) del sistema operativo Amiga. El esquema de colores azul y naranja, que resultaba estridente, se reemplazó por uno mucho más agradable a la vista, en gris y azul claro, con un efecto 3D en el borde de las ventanas. Workbench ya no estaba limitado a los modos de visualización de 640×256 (PAL) o 640×200 (NTSC), y gran parte del sistema se mejoró con el objetivo de facilitar futuras expansiones. Por primera vez, se añadió una apariencia estandarizada. Esto se logró mediante la creación de la Guía de Estilo Amiga , e incluyendo bibliotecas y software que ayudaban a los desarrolladores a crear software compatible. Entre las tecnologías utilizadas se encontraban la biblioteca de creación de elementos de la GUI , gadtools , el lenguaje de scripting para la instalación de software, Installer , y el sistema de ayuda hipertextual AmigaGuide .

Workbench 2.04 introdujo ARexx, un lenguaje de scripting para todo el sistema. Los programadores podían añadir los llamados "puertos ARexx" a sus programas, lo que permitía controlarlos mediante scripts ARexx. Con ARexx, era posible integrar sin problemas dos programas completamente diferentes de distintos proveedores. Por ejemplo, se podía convertir en lote un directorio de archivos a imágenes en miniatura con un programa de manipulación de imágenes compatible con ARexx, crear e indexar una tabla HTML de las miniaturas que enlazara con las imágenes originales y mostrarla en un navegador web, todo desde un único script. ARexx se hizo muy popular y fue ampliamente adoptado por los programadores.

AmigaDOS, que anteriormente estaba escrito en BCPL y era muy difícil de desarrollar más allá de la manipulación básica de archivos, fue reescrito en su mayor parte en C.

Lamentablemente, algunos programas mal programados , especialmente juegos , no funcionaban con la versión 2.x, lo que provocó el descontento de muchos usuarios con esta actualización. En la mayoría de los casos, el fallo se debía a que los programadores habían manipulado directamente estructuras privadas del sistema operativo, en lugar de utilizar las funciones oficiales. Muchos usuarios solucionaron el problema instalando los llamados "conmutadores Kickstart", una pequeña placa de circuito que contenía un chip Kickstart 1.3 y otro 2.0, con los que podían alternar entre las versiones de Kickstart.

La versión 2.x se incluyó con los modelos A500+ (2.04), A600 (2.05), A3000 y A3000T. Workbench 2.1 fue la última versión de esta serie y solo se lanzó como actualización de software. Incluía funciones útiles como CrossDOS , que permitía trabajar con disquetes formateados para PC . Dado que la versión 2.1 era solo una actualización de software, no existía una ROM Kickstart 2.1.

La versión 2.x también introdujo la compatibilidad con tarjetas PCMCIA para la ranura del A600.

Workbench 2.1 introduced also a standard hypertext markup language for easily building guides for the user or help files, or manuals. It was called AmigaGuide. Release 2.1 was also the first Workbench release to feature a system-standard localization system, allowing the user to make an ordered list of preferred languages; when a locale-aware application runs, it asks the operating system to find the catalog (a file containing translations of the application's strings) best matching the user's preferences.

Amiga OS 3.0 was released in 1992 and version 3.1 between 1993 (for the CD32) and 1994 (for other Amiga models). Amiga OS 3.1 was the last version released by Commodore.^[5]

The 3.x series added support for new Amiga models. Other new features included:

• A universal data system, known as DataTypes, that allowed programs to load pictures, sound, text and other content in formats they didn't understand directly, through the use of standard plugs (seeobject-oriented operating system) (3.0)
• Better color remapping for high-color display modes and support for the new AGA chipset. (3.0)
• Improved visual appearance for Workbench desktop. (3.0)
• CD-ROM support as required for Amiga CD32.^[6] (3.1)

3.x shipped with the CD32, A1200, A4000 and A4000T.

After the demise of Commodore, Workbench 3.5 was released on 18 October 1999 and Workbench 3.9 in December 2000 by German company Haage & Partner,^[5] which was granted the license to update the Amiga operating system by its new owners. Whereas all previous OS releases ran on Motorola 68000, AmigaOS 3.5 onwards required a 68020 or better, CD-ROM and at least 4 MB RAM. Unlike previous releases, 3.5 and 3.9 were released on CD-ROM. Kickstart 3.1 was also required, as the operating system didn't include the new ROM.

Updates included:

• Supplied with TCP/IP stack (unregistered time-limited free MiamiDX demo in 3.5, unrestricted AmiTCP in 3.9), web browser (AWeb), and e-mail client
• Improved GUI and new toolkit called "ReAction"
• AVI/MPEG movie player (OS3.9)
• New partitioning software to support hard disks larger than 4 GB
• HTML documentation in English and German
• MP3 and CD audio player (OS3.9)
• Dock program (OS3.9)
• Improved Workbench with asynchronous features
• Find utility (OS3.9)
• Unarchiving system called XAD (OS3.9)
• WarpOSPowerPC kernel to support PowerUP accelerator boards

AmigaOS 3.1.4 was released in September 2018 by Hyperion Entertainment with many fixes and enhancements. In particular, support of larger hard drives including at bootup; the entire line of Motorola 680x0 CPUs up to (and including) the Motorola 68060; and a modernized Workbench with a new, optional icon set.^[7] The version number caused some confusion in the community as it was released after AmigaOS 3.5, 3.9, and even 4.x, but relates to the fact that the codebase is a clean slate building from the original 3.1 source code from Commodore. The source code for both 3.5 and 3.9 by Haage & Partner could not legally be used due to licensing reasons, and 4.x is built and reserved for the PowerPC platform. Unlike AmigaOS 3.5, AmigaOS 3.1.4 still supports the Motorola 68000 CPU, thus the complete range of classic Amiga computers.

In May 2021, Hyperion Entertainment released AmigaOS 3.2, which includes all features of the previous version (3.1.4.1) and adds several new improvements such as support for ReAction GUI, management of Amiga Disk File images, help system and improved datatypes.^[8]

A new version of AmigaOS was released on December 24, 2006, after five years of development by Hyperion Entertainment (Belgium) under license from Amiga, Inc. for AmigaOne registered users.

During the five years of development, users of AmigaOne machines could download from Hyperion repository Pre-Release Versions of AmigaOS 4.0 as long as these were made available. As witnessed by many users into Amiga discussion forum sites, these versions were stable and reliable, despite the fact that they are technically labeled as "pre-releases".

Last stable version of AmigaOS 4.0 for AmigaOne computers is the "July 2007 Update", released for download 18 July 2007 to the registered users of AmigaOne machines.^[1]

AmigaOS 4 Classic was released commercially for older Amiga computers with CyberstormPPC and BlizzardPPC accelerator cards in November 2007. It had previously been available only to developers and beta-testers.

• Versiones Kickstart

1. ^AmigaOS First Update Release announcement at Hyperion site.
2. ^AmigaOS new memory system revisited article on OS4.Hyperion site
3. ^AmigaOS new system for allocating memory article on OS4.Hyperion site
4. ^ AmigaOS 4.0 image included in this article is intended for fair use. In the past, neither Hyperion VOF (Belgium), nor Amiga Inc. (USA) were opposed to publishing in internet sites of AmigaOS 4.0 screenshots kindly donated by users. Owners of copyrights are free to register and write in the talk page of this article to ask for the removing of this image from article, and to ask also for its deletion.
5. ^Hyperion Entertainment announces Amiga OS 4.1