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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

930.0. "NEW_KICKSTART" by DCC::AZUBI () Fri Nov 27 1987 10:23

 
I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS TO SOME RUMOURS ABOUT KICKSTART 1.21/1.3/1.4
AND  ABOUT A NEW VERSION OF THE WORKBENCH (1.3)
    
  - WHAT FEATURES WILL BE ADDED TO NEW KICKSTART & WORKBENCH VERSIONS ?
  
  - WHEN WILL THOSE NEW VERSIONS BE RELEASED ?
    
  - WILL THERE BE ROM-KITS FOR THE A500 AND A2000 ?
        
  - WHAT ABOUT COMPATIBILITY (KS 1.2 => KS1.3) ?
    
 I KNOW IT IS DIFFICULT TO ANSWER ALL THOSE QUESTIONS, BUT MAYBE
 SOMEONE HEARD SOMETHING ABOUT THE NEW WORKBENCH & KICKSTART VERSIONS...
    
    THANKS IN ADVANCE
    
    BERNHARD

T.R Title User Personal
Name Date Lines

930.1 Future Kickstarts TLE::RMEYERS Randy Meyers Tue Dec 01 1987 23:42 39

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
930.1	Future Kickstarts	TLE::RMEYERS	Randy Meyers	`Tue Dec 01 1987 23:42`	39
	Re: .0 Yes, future updates to Kickstart will be offered on disk (for Amiga 1000 owners) and ROMs (for Amiga 500/2000 owners). The ROMs in the 500/2000 are socketed, so you could even replace them yourself if you are brave. Probably, Commodore would prefer that you let your dealer install them. Different versions of Kickstart have been pretty compatible. (Well, I was only around for the 1.1 to 1.2 upgrade.) Almost all the complaints of incompatibility between Kickstart 1.1 and 1.2 had nothing to do with Kickstart--the problem was extended memory. Brain dead programs that ignored the difference between chip and fast memory would work under 1.1 because 1.1 required you to do special work to "turn on" extended memory. Under 1.2, extended memory was automatically recognized by Kickstart, and the brain dead programs didn't have the option of pretending it didn't exist. I expect that future upgrades will be very painless. Kickstart 1.2.1 will be a fairly small upgrade from what I hear. There will be a new hard disk filesystem that will increase the speed of Amiga hard disks to speeds comparable to hard disks on IBM pcs and Macintoshes. (The new filesystem will speed up hard disk access by about a factor of four.) Kickstart 1.2.1 will also contain rewritten printer drivers that are supposedly improvements (but I don't remember that is being improved about them). I was told that Commodore is thinking about trying to do any early release of just the printer drivers for people not interested in the upgrade. Unless up have a hard disk, you may not want to bother with upgrading to 1.2.1. Rumored release date: within a two-three months. Kickstart 1.3 (or 1.4) is claimed to have lots of unspecified new stuff in it. So much new stuff that the Workbench is going to be kicked out of the ROM to make room for new stuff. (Workbench is going to become a program or library on the disk. The good old LoadWB command will be modified to look for it on disk rather than in to ROM.) I don't know what all this great new stuff is going to be though. Kickstart 1.4 will do all good things and no bad things. It will be universally recognized as the greatest operating system around, causing Microsoft to go bankrupt, AT&T to drop Unix, and DEC to offer an Amiga compatibility mode (AmigaShell/VMS). :-)

Re: .0

Yes, future updates to Kickstart will be offered on disk (for Amiga 1000
owners) and ROMs (for Amiga 500/2000 owners).  The ROMs in the 500/2000
are socketed, so you could even replace them yourself if you are brave.
Probably, Commodore would prefer that you let your dealer install them.

Different versions of Kickstart have been pretty compatible.  (Well, I was
only around for the 1.1 to 1.2 upgrade.)  Almost all the complaints of
incompatibility between Kickstart 1.1 and 1.2 had nothing to do with
Kickstart--the problem was extended memory.  Brain dead programs that
ignored the difference between chip and fast memory would work under 1.1
because 1.1 required you to do special work to "turn on" extended memory.
Under 1.2, extended memory was automatically recognized by Kickstart,
and the brain dead programs didn't have the option of pretending it didn't
exist.  I expect that future upgrades will be very painless.

Kickstart 1.2.1 will be a fairly small upgrade from what I hear.  There
will be a new hard disk filesystem that will increase the speed of Amiga
hard disks to speeds comparable to hard disks on IBM pcs and Macintoshes.
(The new filesystem will speed up hard disk access by about a factor of
four.)  Kickstart 1.2.1 will also contain rewritten printer drivers that
are supposedly improvements (but I don't remember that is being improved
about them).  I was told that Commodore is thinking about trying to do
any early release of just the printer drivers for people not interested
in the upgrade.  Unless up have a hard disk, you may not want to bother
with upgrading to 1.2.1.   Rumored release date: within a two-three months.

Kickstart 1.3 (or 1.4) is claimed to have lots of unspecified new stuff
in it.  So much new stuff that the Workbench is going to be kicked out
of the ROM to make room for new stuff.  (Workbench is going to become a
program or library on the disk.  The good old LoadWB command will be
modified to look for it on disk rather than in to ROM.)  I don't know
what all this great new stuff is going to be though.

Kickstart 1.4 will do all good things and no bad things.  It will be
universally recognized as the greatest operating system around, causing
Microsoft to go bankrupt, AT&T to drop Unix, and DEC to offer an Amiga
compatibility mode (AmigaShell/VMS).   :-)