AROS Research Operating System
Encyclopedia
AROS Research Operating System (AROS - pronounced "AR-OS") is a free and open source
multi media centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1
API
s. Designed to be portable and flexible, port
s are currently available for x86-based and PowerPC
-based PC
s in native
and hosted flavors, with other architectures in development. Also ported to m68k-based Amiga 1200
.
name, it was changed to the recursive acronym
AROS Research Operating System.
The project, started in 1995, has over the years become an almost "feature complete" implementation of AmigaOS - with currently (as of October 2008) only a few lacking areas of functionality. This was achieved by the efforts of a small team of developers.
It can currently be installed on most IBM PC compatible
s, and features native graphics drivers for video cards such as the GeForce
range made by Nvidia
. As of May 2007 USB keyboards and mice are also supported. AROS has been ported to the Sam440ep PowerPC
board and is also planned to run on Efika
.
While the OS is still lacking in applications, a few have been ported, including E-UAE
, an emulation program that allows 68k-native AmigaOS applications to run. Some AROS-specific applications have also been written. AROS has TCP/IP networking support, and has available an experimental version of AMosaic
web browser, for test purposes, among other Internet-related applications. The Poseidon USB stack has been ported to AROS.
AROS is designed to be source-compatible with AmigaOS
. On 68000 Amiga
Hardware it is also binary-compatible, so that you can run binaries already compiled for AmigaOS
3. On x86 32-bit
platforms Janus-UAE, an enhanced E-UAE, integrates Amiga emulation directly into AROS to run AmigaOS
68000 binaries nearly transparent to the user. Currently (as of August 2011) original AmigaOS
3 operating system files are required for the emulation.
The aim of AROS is to remain aloof of the legal and political spats that have plagued other AmigaOS implementations by being independent both of hardware and of any central control. The de-facto motto of AROS, "No schedule and rocking" both lampoons the infamous words "On Schedule and Rockin'" from Amiga, Inc.
CEO Bill McEwen, and declares a lack of the formal deadlines.
A workable AmigaOS
kickstart
clone for the Motorola 68000
processor was released on 31 march 2011 as part of a programming bounty
. The memory requirement is 2 MB chip and 1 MB fast RAM. This software is a complete free open source alternative to AmigaOS.
For final/average user, like Linux, there are several distributions available:
of any kind. Amiga 68K emulation integration, 3D acceleration for Nvidia cards and latest updates of applications can be found there. The latest version of Icaros Desktop is version 1.3.1 patch 01 (released September 2, 2011).
used little pieces of AROS source code for AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9.
Large parts of MorphOS (DOS
, Intuition
and more) have been ported from AROS.
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
multi media centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
s. Designed to be portable and flexible, port
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
s are currently available for x86-based and PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
-based PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s in native
Native mode
The term native mode or native code is used in computing in two related senses.*to describe something running on a computer natively or in native mode meaning that it is running without any external support as contrasted to running in emulation....
and hosted flavors, with other architectures in development. Also ported to m68k-based Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...
.
Name
AROS used to mean Amiga Research Operating System, but to avoid any trademark issues with the AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
name, it was changed to the recursive acronym
Recursive acronym
A recursive acronym is an acronym or initialism that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands...
AROS Research Operating System.
Current status
It can currently be installed on most IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
s, and features native graphics drivers for video cards such as the GeForce
GeForce
GeForce is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Nvidia. , there have been eleven iterations of the design. The first GeForce products were discrete GPUs designed for use on add-on graphics boards, intended for the high-margin PC gaming market...
range made by Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
. As of May 2007 USB keyboards and mice are also supported. AROS has been ported to the Sam440ep PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
board and is also planned to run on Efika
EFIKA
Efika are a line of mobile computing Power Architecture and ARM architecture based computers manufactured by Genesi.In Esperanto efika means "efficacious, effective, or efficient".-Efika 5200B:...
.
While the OS is still lacking in applications, a few have been ported, including E-UAE
Unix Amiga Emulator
UAE is a computer emulator which emulates the hardware of the Commodore Amiga range of computers. Released under the GNU General Public License, UAE is free software.-History:...
, an emulation program that allows 68k-native AmigaOS applications to run. Some AROS-specific applications have also been written. AROS has TCP/IP networking support, and has available an experimental version of AMosaic
AMosaic
AMosaic is an Amiga port of the Mosaic web browser, developed beginning in 1993, and was the first graphical web browser for the Amiga. AMosaic was based on NCSA's Mosaic, but was not distributed by the University of Illinois or NCSA...
web browser, for test purposes, among other Internet-related applications. The Poseidon USB stack has been ported to AROS.
AROS is designed to be source-compatible with AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
. On 68000 Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
Hardware it is also binary-compatible, so that you can run binaries already compiled for AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
3. On x86 32-bit
IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
platforms Janus-UAE, an enhanced E-UAE, integrates Amiga emulation directly into AROS to run AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
68000 binaries nearly transparent to the user. Currently (as of August 2011) original AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
3 operating system files are required for the emulation.
The aim of AROS is to remain aloof of the legal and political spats that have plagued other AmigaOS implementations by being independent both of hardware and of any central control. The de-facto motto of AROS, "No schedule and rocking" both lampoons the infamous words "On Schedule and Rockin'" from Amiga, Inc.
Amiga, Inc.
Amiga, Inc. is the company that holds the intellectual property associated with the Amiga personal computer , including the Amiga trademark.-Brief history of Amiga brand:...
CEO Bill McEwen, and declares a lack of the formal deadlines.
A workable AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
kickstart
Kickstart (Amiga)
Kickstart is a commonly used term for the bootstrap firmware of the Amiga computers developed by Commodore.Most Amiga models were shipped with the Kickstart firmware stored on ROM chips...
clone for the Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
processor was released on 31 march 2011 as part of a programming bounty
Open source bounty
An open-source bounty is a reward, usually monetary, for making contributions to an open-source project. BountySource and many other websites have been established to advertise such bounties....
. The memory requirement is 2 MB chip and 1 MB fast RAM. This software is a complete free open source alternative to AmigaOS.
Distributions
The main AROS system files can be downloaded in many flavours from the project website. These files are compiled straight from the SVN source tree at night time, and are available as nightly builds. Nightlies also include some third party applications to allow people using the system to perform some very basic tasks.For final/average user, like Linux, there are several distributions available:
Icaros Desktop
Since April 2009 the name VMWAros has been changed into "Icaros Desktop" to avoid legal problems with any existing copyrighted Virtual MachineVirtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
of any kind. Amiga 68K emulation integration, 3D acceleration for Nvidia cards and latest updates of applications can be found there. The latest version of Icaros Desktop is version 1.3.1 patch 01 (released September 2, 2011).
Broadway
Broadway is a new distribution of AROS, which was started late 2009, and hopes to provide a simple and complete introduction to what AROS has to offer. Last version is 0.05, released June 14th, 2011. It cames installed by default in theAspireOS
AspireOS is a distribution, started in 2011 which is focused on Aspire One computers. Last version is 1.1, codenamed "Powerage", released 14th August 2011.Influence to AmigaOS and MorphOS
Haage & PartnerHaage & Partner
Haage & Partner is a German company established in 1995. They distribute software products where they usually are the exclusive distributor. Products are aimed at Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. The primary destination countries are Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.Other areas include translations...
used little pieces of AROS source code for AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9.
Large parts of MorphOS (DOS
AmigaDOS
AmigaDOS is the disk operating system of the AmigaOS, which includes file systems, file and directory manipulation, the command-line interface, and file redirection....
, Intuition
Intuition (Amiga)
Intuition is the windowing system and user interface engine of AmigaOS. It was developed almost entirely by RJ Mical. Intuition should not be confused with Workbench, the AmigaOS spatial file manager, which relies on Intuition for handling windows and input events.Users may remember the initial...
and more) have been ported from AROS.
See also
- Zune (GUI toolkit)Zune (GUI toolkit)Zune is an object-oriented GUI toolkit which is part of the AROS project and nearly a clone, at both an API and look and feel level, of Magic User Interface , a well-known Amiga shareware product by Stefan Stuntz....
- AmigaOS 4AmigaOS 4AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
- EmulatorEmulatorIn computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
- Virtual machineVirtual machineA virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
- PortingPortingIn computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
- Open source software
- MorphOSMorphOSMorphOS is an Amiga-compatible computer operating system. It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the...