Try It For A Week: AROS Part 3

Alright, so here is the third part I promised.

AROS was originally called the Amiga Research Operating System. This was later changed to the recursive name AROS Research Operating System. It is based around AmigaOS, which was originally developed by Commodore in the mid 80's for the Amiga computer. However, the Amiga was not doing well, and rather than lose it entirely a open project began. This is where AROS came in with the goals:

1. Is as compatible as possible with AmigaOS 3.1.
2. Can be ported to different kinds of hardware architectures and processors, such as x86, PowerPC, Alpha, Sparc, HPPA and other.
3. Should be binary compatible on Amiga and source compatible on any other hardware.
4. Can run as a standalone version which boots directly from hard disk and as an emulation which opens a window on an existing OS to develop software and run Amiga and native applications at the same time.MorphOS
5. Improves upon the functionality of AmigaOS.

-From aros.sourceforge.net

In fact, software that is designed for AmigaOS usually compiles and runs fine on AROS. This was important as AROS was supposed a parallel to AmigaOS. Even though AmigaOS is still around, and on version 4, many people prefer AROS due to the convenience of having it run on any system you want.

AROS is not the only company cloning AmigaOS, there is another. It is called MorphOS, and it contains several key differences between AROS. For example, it only runs on Powerpc architecture and contains proprietary software as well as some open software. Some of the open code in MorphOS actually came from AROS.

This image represents the development of AmigaOS

Final Thoughts

Well, I tried it for a week and I must say I am impressed. Although I had problems at the beginning of the week, the important thing is that I was able to resolve them. AROS would function as a desktop OS if it weren't for the same problems that all 'alternative' OS's have and that is compatibility with standards like windows. I can't wait to see how far AROS will progress in a few years.

Remember to check out the website at aros.sourceforge.net, and give AROS a try.