AROS

The Amiga Research OS


(C) Copyright 1996 AROS - The Amiga Research OS


Chapter 2. FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Ok, AROS is a rewrite of AmigaOS 3.1 (Kickstart 40.68 and up).

These are the main goals:

2.1 Why do you implement the current OS ?

There have been some talks about writing something which is something like an advanced OS with the features of the AmigaOS. This has been dropped for a good reason. First, everyone agrees that the current AmigaOS should be enhanced, but no one knows how to do that or even agrees on what has to be enhanced or what is important. Some want memory protection, but don't want to pay the price (major rewrite of the available software and speed cut-offs).

In the end, the discussions ended in either flame wars or "do it this way ! - Won't work because !". So we just said: First we do something we know to handle. Then we have the experience to decide what is possible and how. And then we decide.

Also we want to be binary compatible to the old AmigaOS on Amiga. The reason for this is just that a new OS without any programs which run on it has no chance to survive. Therefore we try to make the shift from the old OS to our new one as painless as possible (but not to the extent that we can't improve AROS afterwards). As usual, everything has its price and we try to decide carefully what that price might be and if we and everyone else will be willing to pay it.

2.2 Please implement this feature !

No. a) If it was that important, it would be in the OS already :-) b) Why don't you do it yourself and send it to us ?

See, there are plenty of people around who think that their feature is the most important and that "the AmigaOS has no future if this feature is not built in right now". We say: The AmigaOS' demise has nothing to do with missing features. The AmigaOS can do everything a modern OS should do. We see that there are possibilities to enhance the AmigaOS, but if we do it, who would write the rest of the OS ? In the end, we would have lots of nice improvements to the original AmigaOS which would break most of the available software and worth nothing, because the OS itself would be missing. So we decided to block every attempt to implement major new features in the OS until it's more or less done.

2.3 What is the legal status of AROS ?

AROS is Mailware as defined in the AFD-COPYRIGHT. This means that you have to write a postcard or email to us if you use AROS. The use of AROS is free.

If you want to use AROS' code in your project, you have to pay for this code if you earn money with the result. For PD developers, the code is still free.

2.4 How legal is AROS ?

Well, European law says "To gain interoperability, it is legal to apply reverse engineering techniques. It is illegal to distribute the knowledge gained by such techiques". So what does that mean ? It means basically that you are allowed to disassemble or resource any software to write something which is compatible (ie. it would be legal to disassemble Word to write a program which converts Word into ASCII text).

Now there are of course limitations: You are not allowed to disassemble a software if the information you would gain by this process can be obtained by other means and it can be expected that one would use this is other means. And you must not tell others what you learned. A book like "Windows inside" is therefore illegal or at least dubious.

Since we avoid disassembling techniques (hey, we want the spirit and not the bugs) but use common available knowledge (including programming manuals) which don't fall below the NDA, this doesn't apply directly to AROS, but what counts here is the intention of the law: It's ok to write a software which is compatible to some other software. Therefore we believe that AROS is protected by the law.

Patents and header files are a different issue, though. We can use patented algorithms (eg. screen dragging or getting a menu when you press the right mousebutton) in Europe but this must not be imported into the US. Header files on the other hand must be compatible but "as different as possible" from the orignal.

Therefore to avoid any trouble we applied for an official Ok by Amiga Int.

2.5 How compatible is AROS ?

Most compatible. We expect that AROS will run existing software on the Amiga without problems. On other hardware (like PCs), the existing software must be recompiled. We will offer a preprocessor which you can use on your code which will change any code that might break with AROS and/or warn you about such code.

2.6 For what kinds of hardware is AROS available ?

Currently AROS is available for Intel PCs with Linux (Linux/i386) or FreeBSD and Amiga with AmigaOS and Linux/m68. We are working on versions for SPARC, HPUX, Alpha, PIOS ONE/transAm and any other available hardware if someone wants to do that.

2.7 How about UAE ?

UAE is an A500 emulator. Its goals differ somewhat from that of AROS: UAE wants to be able to be binary compatible even for games and hardware banging code, while AROS wants to have native applications. Therefore AROS is much faster than UAE, but UAE has more software.

We are in loose contact with the author of UAE and there is a good chance that code for UAE will appear in AROS and vice versa. For example, UAE is interested in the source for the OS because it could run some apps much faster if it could replace the OS calls by native code. On the other hand, AROS needs hardware drivers (eg. audio.device).

2.8 You should not use Linux or X11 !

The final version of AROS will not depend on Linux or X11 anymore (but it will run on them if you insist). Currently, we use Linux and X11 to speed up development. For example, if I write a new function to open a window, I can write that single function and need not write hundreds of other functions in layers, graphics, etc.

2.9 How do you want to make it portable ?

One of the major new features of AROS will be the new Hardware Independent Device Drivers (HIDD). They will allow us to port AROS to any hardware with almost no fuzz. But that's a bit in the future. So don't worry that your old code won't work anymore, say, next month.

2.10 AROS won't make it

Yeah, we hear that all the day from every person. But most of them either don't know what we are doing or they think the Amiga is already dead. After we explained what we do to the former, most agreed that it is possible. The latter make more problems. Well, is Amiga dead right now ? I really can't say. Just a few hints: Did your A500 or A4000 blew up when C= went bankrupt ? Or when AT did ?

Fact is that there is only few new software for the Amiga (although Aminet has never seen better times) and that hardware is also developed at a lower speed (but the most amazing gadgets appear right now). I say, the Amiga community (which is still there) just sits and waits. And if someone releases something which is a bit like the Amiga back in 1984, then that machine will boom again. And who knows, maybe you will get a CD along with the machine labeled "AROS" :-)

2.11 AROS won't compile

We still have trouble generating the distribution lists. So if some file is missing, tell us and it will show up on the FTP site as soon as possible.

There will also be an archive with all tools we have installed to develop for AROS for the Amiga any time now (Linux and other Unixes find their developer packages pre-installed or at least much more easy to install from the Internet, eg. from www.suse.com (Germany) or www.redhat.com (USA)).

2.12 Memory protection, VMM, RT, ... *Update*

Hot themes. Oh well...

Several hundred Amiga experts (or at least what they thought of themselves) tried for three years to find a way to implement MP (memory protection) into the AmigaOS. They failed. You should take it as a fact that the normal AmigaOS will never have something like Unix or WindowsNT.

But not all is lost. There are plans to integrate MP into AROS which will allow to protect at least new programs which know about MP. Some efforts in this area look really promising and in the end: Is it really a problem if your machine crashes ? Let me explain, before you nail me to a tree :-) The problem is not that the machine crashes, the problems are: 1. If that happens, you have no good idea why it did, so you have to poke with a 100ft pole into a swamp with a thick fog. 2. You loose your work. Rebooting the machine is really no issue.

So what we try to establish is a system which will at least alert if something dubious is happening and which can tell you in great detail what was happening when the machine crashed and which will save your work and *then* crash. There will also be a means to check what has been saved so you can be sure that you don't continue with corrupted data.

The same with VMM, RT, SMP and RTG. We are currently planning how to implement them and we make sure that adding these features will be painless, but they are no #1 priorities right now. A very basic RT has been added recently, though.

2.13 Why no AROS on PIOS ONE ?

Because no one has a PIOS ONE to do it. We are willing to port AROS on any available machine but it must be available to us. We got in contact with PIOS and talked to them several times and they are willing to spare a machine (at least that's what we think they said :-) but mailing them that you want to see AROS on PIOS ONE might help :-)

2.14 How about PPC or PPC cards ?

We are regularily asked about AROS on PPC. The answer has always been the same: There is no one on the AROS team who owns a PPC, so we can't do anything about this. We have ordered a PPC card from phase5 and a PIOS ONE and when they become available, AROS will be ported. But no one can tell at this stage, when that will happen. So it's not that we don't want, it's just that we can't.

2.15 What does Amiga International say about AROS ?

Short: They are not sure if they like it. Long: We are now in contact with both Amiga Int (Petro Tyschtschenko) and Amiga Inc (Jeff Schindler). Aaron Digulla had a long talk to both Petro Tyschtschenko and Jeff Schindler at the Computer '97 in Cologne in November 1997. Petro Tyschtschenkos' point was that he doesn't really like it because he can't oversee all possible implications. From his side, we could simply buy a license and then there would be a contract and that would allow us to continue - if we had any money. But on the other hand, he saw the potential of AROS and proposed that we talked to Jeff Schindler. He should have a look at our project from a more technical point of view and if he thinks our knowledge and sources are valuable enough, we can get a license in exchange for knowledge and sources. Thus Aaron Digulla met Mr. Schindler and presented the project to him. Mr. Schindler seemed to be very interested and he promised that a decision would be made soon.

To understand the full complexity of the situation better, here are some explanations: First of all, we'd like to say that we fully understand and agree to AI's point. They are treating us fair from what we can tell. The talks were in a kind and friendly atmosphere and the AROS team agreed before this that we would stop the project without any fuss if AI asked for it but we also agreed that our project could help the Amiga so much that it would be worth to try to continue it.

Secondly, we must have a license if we want to continue the project. This is necessary in order to protect us from any legal hassle (eg. illegal use of trademarked names, patents and header files; it might be arguable if we make illegal use of any of them but you can get that some lawyer will find a way to sue us). Since we don't have any actual money, we can't pay for a license and Amiga Int. can't give it away for nothing (if they did, then all the firms who pay for their license would be very upset).

But all is not lost even if we can't get a license. As of yet, we have developed some extensions to the AmigaOS (HIDDs, RT and Purify) which we can develop further. It would just be a pity if several man years of work would be lost in a situation where the Amiga needs every support it can get.

2.16 I want to be a beta tester

Sure, no problem. But we don't keep a list of beta testers, so all you have to do is to download the part of AROS you want to test and send us the report.

2.17 What mailing lists are there ?

Currently we have these lists:

aros-user
This is a public list on which we post announcements and updates. The language is english.

aros-gfx
This is a public list where we discuss RTG and HIDDs. The language is german for now.
There is also a list for developers, but that list is private. Ask me if you want to be added to it.

To add yourself to any of the open lists, write an EMail to <listname>-request@aros.fh-konstanz.de (replace <listname> with the name of the list) with SUBSCRIBE <youremail> in the body (the subject is ignored), for example, SUBSCRIBE digulla@fh-konstanz.de. Note that for security reasons, the EMail after the subscribe must match your local address (ie. where the mail comes from). This is to protect you from beeing added by someone else.


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If you have comments or suggestions, email me at digulla@aros.fh-konstanz.de. 24. Jul 1999