Conference hydra::amiga_v1

	Hi Jamie,

	as far as I know (I got the info of a Commo technical support person
	over here in Austria), Commodore does not plan to ship the A500
	with KS/WB 2.0. They even tend not to ship the A2000 with the new OS.
	
	What I think is that they could not dare not to ship the A2000 with
	the new OS, but even in the A500 it would be a big improvement.
	But there are also the consideration to distinguish between the 
	low end and the midrange/high-end of the Amiga series.

	But it wouldn't be for the first time that Commo had changed its mind.

	Helmut

>	What I think is that they could not dare not to ship the A2000 with
>	the new OS, but even in the A500 it would be a big improvement.

This should of course read "they can not dare to ship the A2000 without
the new OS.

	Helmut

    Thanks, Helmut.
    
    I've looked through this conference with AVN and can find no note that
    descibes the differences between 1.3 and 2.0; does anyone know what
    they are ?
    
    One of the criticisms of the Amiga is that floppy disk access is slow;
    does the new version correct this in any way ?
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    				Jamie.

	Hi Jamie,

	some of the major differences are:

		� full support of FFS (even on floppies) 
		  (this is the FastFileSystem introduced in 1.3 for HDs)

		� full multitasking
		  you don't have to wait for completing e.g. disk io on
		  the workbench. You can immediatly continue with your work

		� support for the new Enhanced Chip Set (which has some
		  new display modes)

		� new look and feel on the workbench (with enhanced and
		  more powerful functions for manipulating files)
		  This also contains: displaying files without an icon
		  with the help of a standard icon. Displaying disk contents
		  as text ...

	That's most what I know about the new WB. I'm sure there are 
	some who know more, mainly the lucky ones who already own a copy.
	(sigh... I too wanna have an A3500).

	Helmut

	P.S.: What about VAXmud ? Has it died away totally ?

    Thanks!
    
    Vaxmud ? I've done nothing more on it for months. It's a bit of a
    system killer too so I haven't been running it on my machine. Perhaps
    I'll set it up again sometime!
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    				Jamie.

Re: .1

I find it very hard to believe that Commodore will not start shipping
500s and 2000s with Kickstart 2.0 shortly after its release.

Commodore has always had a policy of doing rolling upgrades: as soon
as they run out of the previous version of a ROM or custom chip, they
start shipping new systems with the revision of the ROM or custom chip.

There are two reasons for this.  First, it is cheaper.  It does not
require Commodore to have have inventories of the old part and the
new and improved part.  (If Commodore has any overwhelming talent at
all, it is cost reduction.)  Second, Commodore invested a great deal of
money in developing the new OS because it puts the machine in a better
competitive position.  This does Commodore no good if it doesn't get
used.

The new OS has better support for features like overscan, which required
some hacks to use in 1.3.  It also makes it easier to develop programs
with gadgets, and it helps programs have a more consistent look and feel.
Commodore needs 2.0 to be accepted by the Amiga community for this stuff
to pay off.  The best way is to make it the version of the OS on all
new machines.

Kickstart 2.0 was basically good enough to ship with the 3000 a year ago.
The upgrades for 2000s were scheduled for six months ago (with mumbling
about when it would be available for the 500).  The delay in getting the
new Kickstart out seems to have been adding all sort of compatibility
to make sure that old software continues to work.  I heard the claim
that just about every program that runs on the 3000 under 1.3 will
run on the 3000 under the latest version of 2.0.  The best motivation
for providing such compatibility is that it allows 2.0 to be made the
only supported version of Kickstart.

I expect that the first people to get the official released version of
2.0 will be people who get upgrade kits.  Then 2.0 will appear in new
machines as Commodore depletes its existing inventory of machines
manufactured with the old Kickstart.  I have no idea how long this
will take.

I don't have any inside information from Commodore.  So, all of the above
is pure speculation on my part.  However, I do feel confident about it.
I also have worked for a computer company long enough to know that not
all employees are kept well informed on what the plans are.  Since the
Commodore employee who was quoted in .1 disagrees with me, I'm willing
to believe he is as uninformed on the big plan as I am :-).

    A recent blurb in the April 91 issue of Compute (Amiga Resource) says:
    "...we were pleasantly surprised to hear that not only is 2.0 finished,
    but that soon it will be shipping as standard equipment on all versions
    of the Amiga, from the 3000 on down to the 500. Does that include the
    500C, the 512K mass-market version that is being sold at Montgomery Ward
    for only $499? Only time will tell". 

    They state earlier that "...the 500P comes with everything necessary for 
    giving it a megabyte of CHIP RAM like the 2000. Those who want the extra
    CHIP RAM can perform some simple board modifications, but Commodore warns
    that such modifications will void the warranty, a threat made stronger
    by the recent extension of warranaty to a full year."

    And, for you 1000 folks, get this...

    "Even 1000 owners won't be left out in the cold, apparently, although
    the machine only has 256K of Kickstart RAM,  and Kickstart 2.0 is 512K
    in size. Commodore is said to be working on a 1000 version that loads
    half of the operating system into Kickstart RAM and half into user
    memory, a system that will probably require more than the standard 512K
    of user memory found on most 1000s."

    There's further mention that a bug fix release (1.3.3) of 1.3 is in
    the testing phase? Why? 'Cause CDTV uses it.

    [Reprinted w/o permission]

    -Dom