Okay yet another thread of mine, I think there will be a lot more interest in this one.

Please post your top 10 favourite Amiga OS 4.1 Applications and include a link or a mention where they can be downloaded from; if not on OS4 Depot.

If your feeling adventurous I'd love to see a screenie of it running on your machine.

Thanks in advance.

Its crossed my mind recently now that Timberwolf has pretty much landed on the Amiga platform with a resounding thumbs up how many Amiga-related websites that don't use various web standards such as frames, javascript and css to name a few.

Will be interesting to see which and how many sites will be brought up to date to support all this new potential.

Aside from the big three amiga forums (in order of positivity and pleasant to read from good to bad) Amigans, Amigaworld and Amiga.org there are certainly a lot of sites although are very functional look very dated now.

IntuitionBase
AmigaKit
OS4 Depot
AmiBounty
UtilityBase

What is the likelihood that any of these will have a touch of paint over the next few months?

Personally I would deem it absolutely essential that OS4Depot and AmigaKit be brought up to date. Especially as AmigaKit has just been named the official distributor of the X1000.

Okay so die-hards will often say what about backwards-compatibility... I would say simples offer them an alternative version of the site. And to be absolutely honest if Hyperion/A-Eon and AmigaKit want to make some serious money backwards-compatibility should be at the bottom of the pile.

Thoughts and opinions.

ssolie: fixed spelling errors (AmiKit is something else entirely)

Thanks for the contributions so far still need a few pieces to finish my jigsaw.

Chiefly:

Themes: I have Novo Metal, Dark OS and Simoami. 1 more required showing timberwolf with a popular social networking site open.

Backgrounds: I have Curve, Amiga Connected, Ball Alone, Machine, Amiga Box and Xmas Boing. I require two more, once again timberwolf showing a popular website - how about youtube or idk - you decide... twitter or something.

Desktop: Finally I need two complete screenshots of your workbench to complete my set of four. Running any popular software or timberwolf (did i say timberwolf already!?) and an eye-candy amidock that doesn't use copyrighted images or rips from other oses. Sexy drawers (haha) open in the background also helps, but not default icon sets. Once again pick/arrange screenies that showcase Amiga OS as being apart of the 21st century.

Free cookies for the next person to post a contribution!

@nubechecorre

In that case, new features first, epic bug fixing later.

@samo79

I suspected it might, but as I don't have an Amiga yet its hard to tell because Hyperion don't mention what is actually included in the kit. ^.^

@ChrisH

Its all speculative my friend. I guess we shall find out soon.

@nubechecorre

Well to summarise.

1. Hyperion must catch-up on the last 10+ years of software dependancies such OpenGL and Java that modern software applications and programmers have come to rely on and path the way for easier porting of code between platforms.

2. At the same time it must ensure that the OS takes full-advantage of the X1000 in all respects.

3. In parallel it must develop and make available a comprehensive Software Developer Suite rather than a myriad of downloads of X, Y and Z. The suite should include a Debugger, Editor and Interface builder that maximises the full potential of the platform.

4. Additionally to go hand-in-hand with the Developer side it requires a comprehensive back-end online help repository and to compliment all this a central download area where only software application developers that conform to Amiga-style guides can upload to.

Lots of work.

@kas1e

Including YouTube videos in my 'project' that sounds like an interesting idea.

Although the big problem is that everyone seems to just point a camera at the screen lol

@kas1e

Ah excellent in-built theme. Hate to be a pain, but can you post 3 more like your TW one, different theme, different websites sil vous plait? If you could include one with logged into facebook and a page from youtube I'd love you forever.

@all

Thanks for the input so far, much appreciated. Need more posts like kas1e's, rather thank links and such, but its all helping and giving me ideas.

Kas1e, I've seen that theme in numerous pictures. What is it called? And is there a Os4Depot link for it? Or is it part of the standard distribution? :D

@daniel

Ouch, amiga-look.org has a nastly XP theme.. yuck :)

Please keep your entries coming as per post 1.

@djrikki

Hmm, any takers? Doesn't take much effort to open Timberwolf and capture the screen does it as per spec?

I would do it myself, but alas I do not have a modern Amiga (yet).

Hi all,

I hope some current Amiga users can post the following images for a 'project' I am currently working on. I need to see some genuine eye-candy Amiga GUI themes that a non-Amiga user or ex-Amiga would find appealing; for want of a better word.

1. Tell me the name of the skin/theme that you are using when adding a comment to each image here on Amigans. Include a link OS4Depot (or wherever it maybe found), I am not interested in pre-OS4 themes. Please add your three images to the Backdrops category. Finally clearly title each image you submit with the prefix THEMES-JUN10: so I can find them easily.

2. POST FIRST IMAGE showing Timberwolf as the only program running WITHOUT AmiDock visible; ie. Timberwolf covering over it. The menu bar of Timberwolf should be active and not greyed out/inactive.

3. POST SECOND IMAGE showing Timberwolf as the only program running WITH AmiDock underneath the Timberwolf window. The menu bar of Timberwolf should be active and not greyed out/inactive.

4. Website shown in Timberwolf can be just anything with the following exceptions: Do not show Amiga, Mac OS, Linus, OSNews or god-forbid M$ forums, Geek Sites or any other computer-related sites. Feel free to show any 'cool' sites like FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube or whatever the younger generation are into these days. Please ensure the chosen website has displayed correctly on-screen.

5. Any icons in the AmiDock should not look like this: http://www.amigans.net/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=298. I love this theme so would like to see it, but please ensure all icons that are visible in your AmiDock ooze quality and do not remind of the past. Sorry RibDevil!

6. This rule applies mostly to the AmiDock. The AmiDock should not include graphics that have been clearly ripped from other OSes like Hard Drive images or Mac OS X application images etc.

7. Please resist the urge to 'photoshop' any images.

8. POST THIRD IMAGE, I'd like people to upload their workbench background. The plain-vanilla jpg or png or whatever. No icons overlapping, the actual image itself. Simple rules on this one, it must be totally Amiga, it must absolutely, positively and without question include the Boing-Ball on it. It can be seasonal, comic or relevant to the here and now. Please no 'history of Amiga backgrounds' or nostalgic images.

9. For those who are not willing to post the first or second images, please upload your background.

In summary, post two images of your workbench theme with Timberwolf running with AmiDock visible on the first image and not visible on the other. Tell me what theme this is and a link to where it can be downloaded. Finally upload your plain background image that you use everyday (or a selection!) without the OS sitting on top; the plain image untouched.

Thanks in advance to everyone and anybody who chooses to take part and helps me with my project. Hoping with your help it may come to something.

Thanks for reading. Now get busy!

@kas1e

All though not strictly a pixel paint package - I have mentioned InkScape elsewhere Kas1e if your up for that challenge, but I believe there are few dependancies (more sigh) that need to be in os4 first. Although maybe worthwhile getting the ground work in place.

So many dependancies missing from os4, Trevor and his team sure got a busy year ahead of them.

@Daniel

Yeah sure all them things are valid and should be given more priority, grey is fine, but a darker grey would be more appropriate to bring the blue and white text more into focus and stand off from the background; eg. listing files in a folder as a list.

So much for Open-source... not being able to use the name and any associated artwork surely goes against the principles and spirit of the Open-source community. I can certainly understand Mozilla wanting 'some' control, but at the same time it seems a little heavy handed given the above. Download links to Debian and Amiga versions should be included on Mozilla.org as I am pretty sure that developers of both do mean to port as close as possible to the original only changing the necessary code to get it working natively on said platform.

Talking of Open-source, I predict that Flash will become Open-source in the next 1-2 years, Adobe will have to shift their ethos toward HTML5 if they are to survive. in the Internet world. I don't know if anyone has read Steve Jobs statement about Flash, but I agree with 99% of what he had to say. Its ludicrous that their key products have only just adopted Apple's style interface guidelines.

Flash as always been a resource-hog, especially on Apple technology, only just adding limited 3D acceleration support after all this time. Who really wants a plug-in that zaps so much processor time?

---
Key point:

There is no such thing as bad publicity, use the FireFox brand in its entirety to get as much publicity about the Amiga release and its future potential as a viable platform. When you hear from the Mozilla Foundation pretend to fight against their judgements for a couple of weeks with the intention to revert to Timberwolf anyway.

Zero risk, 100% reward, all successful businesses pull such stunts... get people talking about the platform by pulling of stunts as such as these.

Just look at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, that Flash Mob dance at the end of the show was inspired directly from T-Mobile's TV advertisements in the UK - great publicity for a company doing something a little bit different to the norm.

@Daniel

Cools look pretty good. I love SimCity and Settlers type games, I think they got coined as 'God' games when Populous came out - the birth of a new genre.

Talking of games, I've been playing Captive a lot recently through E-UAE - still a great playable game even 20 years later.

I remember owning Liberation on the CD32 and thinking 'this is so fail'. The sequel was just too ambitious and I never knew exactly where I was to go and what I was to. I think the best game I can recall playing on the CD32 was Microcosm it was just so unique even though I knew it was just simply a video playing with sprites on top - it did feel pretty special at the time.

Of course after Commodore's demise in 1994, '95 saw the release of Winblows 95 and that electronic giant that was best known for making Walkmans and Hi-Fi systems came from absolutely nowhere and just dominated the console market to this very day.

Ah a bit of a nostaligic moment there. ;-;

I digress back to the point I was trying to make.

I would love to see a modern remake of Captive or even Dungeon master - not more of this Doom clone crap which requires no strategy.

@Mikey_C

I'll be there saturday, can't wait to look around Bletchley Park, I don't even know what is open and what is closed. I should read their web site and see what the place has to offer.

My reason for going is to see what this all new singing dancing X1000 looks and performs like.

Although I hardly know any names here it will be good to meet some of you guys.

See ya next week!

@TrevorDick

Yeah seriously you might as well considering the momentum is building.

@afxgroup

True, but check out the graphics on http://lincity-ng.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page .... completely different game. Looks wicked... so which is the Amiga version representative of? The 80s game of the 00s game? Who knows.

Hi all,

First off, thanks to everyone posting their great software on OS4 Depot - even though I am not playing any of it I certainly may do in not so near future.

But I have something that really does irk me..... when it comes to submitting screenshots people post 1 or just don't bother - how does this inspire new users to get interested in what Amiga has to offer?

So all I ask is that developers of both games (and ports) and applications spend a little more time and show as many as possible of the graphics/user interface.

Whilst trawling through the games section there I found a game called LinCity - hmmm 120Mb+ download; the only scrap of information that told me it was modern and worth investigating further. So I clicked through... not one screenshot! Oh sure, give me a link to the official game developer web site - wow this game looks great and I didn't think there was modern games of that quality on the Amiga in 2010. But a link to a official game developer website just isn't enough because a) most computer users these days don't wanna click, link after link after link and b) by not including any screenshots you are not showcasing your hours, days and weeks of programming efforts and people don't download something just because its called MegaDeathUltimateBestGameEver2.0.lha.

Just a rant, but I think my point is valid.

On a lighter note, I often frequent 'the other two forums' I must say this is the best as it is very rare to see negative posters in fact the opposite is true so many positive posters with well-thought out constructive advice and criticism. Also its great to witness an explosion of interest in FireFox.. oops Timberwolf with the number of bug reports flooding in - sure gonna keep the Freiden brothers busy for months to come.

As you were.