If you ever get a chance to look through the classic Amiga OS source-code still floating around some murky corners of the internet, it is a thing of beauty and astonishing capabilities. It’s an inspirational piece of computing history with unmatched capabilities for the time. Remember, this was all on a computer released in the 1980s with 512Kb memory, a 7Mhz 68000 16-bit CPU, and a single floppy drive with 880Kb storage. On these limited specs, AmigaOS provided a pre-emptive multi-tasking operating system, a full set of GUI primatives and built-in “Workbench” interface, expansion card auto-configuration and a fully-featured filesystem with some unique and powerful capabilities.
  • XTLEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    And the end result included a GUI where most window, widget, and even full screen moving and switching operations all worked faster than eye. Microsoft and Apple wouldn’t deliver that for decades, if ever.

  • FinalBoy1975@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I wrote all my papers in high school and my first two years of college on an Amiga 500. It connected to the internet service on campus and allowed me to keep my course work organized in the Workbench in both high school and college. It was a great system for getting work done, plus I could play my games. I ended up having to get a Windows / DOS computer for the rest of college, though, because stuff stopped being compatible for printing in the computer lab.

    • TwigOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Always good to hear little stories like this. Gets a great picture of how things were done back then.