No Commodore but real USA
Workbench screen in front, web browser screen behind.
Booted from AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 Live CD.
A visit from the Grim Reaper.
Released for Amigas:
Released for AmigaOne motherboards:
Released for Pegasos systems:
Released for Sam440 systems:
| Version | Release Date | Introduced Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | Developer Pre-release[26] | April 2004 | First public release |
| 4.0 | Developer Pre-release Update[27] | 10 October 2004 | AltiVec support, PowerPC-native Picasso96 and MUI, USB support for input devices |
| 4.0 | Developer Pre-release Update 2[28] | 27 December 2004 | Mass Storage Support for USB |
| 4.0 | Developer Pre-release Update 3[29] | 14 June 2005 | PowerPC native Warp3D drivers for Voodoo 3 (Avenger), Voodoo 4/5 (Napalm) and the Radeon 7×00 series of graphics cards; WarpOS support |
| 4.0 | Developer Pre-release Update 4[30] | 8 February 2006 | Petunia just-in-time 68k emulator; Warp3D with support for Voodoo 3/4/5 and ATI Radeon models 7000, 7200, 7500, 9000, 9200 and 9250; Intuition supports screen dragging |
| 4.0 | The Final Update | 24 December 2006 | Virtualized memory and faster memory allocation system (Slab allocator); new icon theme (Mason icons) |
| 4.0 | July 2007 Update[31] | 18 July 2007 | Support for Shared objects; Python 2.5.1; merge of Tools and Utilities drawers |
| 4.0 | for Classic Amiga[32] | November 2007 | July 2007 Update baseline |
| 4.0 | February 2008 update for CyberStormPPC and BlizzardPPC[33] | 23 February 2008 | Addressed some issues and compatibility problems |
| 4.1 | AmigaOS 4.1 | September 2008 | Memory paging; JXFS filesystem; Hardware compositing engine; Cairo device-independent 2D rendering library[34] |
| 4.1 | Quick Fix[35] | 21 June 2009 | Addressed some issues (Warp 3D drivers, IDE drivers, JXFS) |
| 4.1 | Update 1[36] | 14 January 2010 | Improved compositing effects (fading and drop shadows); New notification system Ringhio; DDC support; AppDir: handler and URLopen; new Startup preferences; new icon set; MiniGL V2.2 |
| 4.1 | Update 2[37] | 30 April 2010 | Updated Python; Cairo 1.8.10 (partial hardware acceleration); AmiDock supports icon scaling |
| 4.1 | Update 3[38] | 29 August 2011 | USB 2.0 (EHCI) support; Updated MUI (for easier porting of MUI 4 applications) |
| 4.1 | Update 4 | 22 December 2011 | Emulation drawer with AmigaOS 3.x ROMs and Workbench files; RunInUAE contribution |
| 4.1 | Update 5 | 28 January 2012, 16 August 2012 | First public release for AmigaOne X1000,[39] later for other platforms.[40] Improved Warp3D and IDE drivers; optimized DMA copy support for Sam440ep and Sam460ex systems; improved Classic compatibility (support for Catweasel) |
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After Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994, its name and IP rights, including Amiga, were sold to Escom. Escom kept the Amiga products and sold the Commodore name on to Tulip. Escom went bankrupt in 1997 and sold the Amiga IP to Gateway 2000 (now only Gateway). On 27 December 1999, Gateway sold the Amiga name and rights to Amino Development,[3] who changed the company name to Amiga Inc once the assets had been acquired. The ‘Amino’ Amiga Inc and the ‘KMOS’ Amiga Inc are seen by Hyperion as legally distinct entities, contracts to one are of no relevance to the other.
Hyperion’s OS4 project
Hyperion Entertainment has released AmigaOS 4 (OS4) to the public in 2004. The five year development process led to accusations of vapourware and producing a modernPowerPC OS, given that Hyperion claimed that they had the original AmigaOS 3.1 source codes to reference (a claim later proven accurate). This was made worse by the apparent much more rapid progress and maturity of competitor and alternative AmigaOS clone MorphOS, which had been begun several years earlier. Perhaps the most important feature of OS4 as regards the legal dispute is the presence of an entirely new PowerPC native kernel. ExecSG replaces the original Amiga Exec is claimed entirely the work and property of Hyperion’s subcontracted developers Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden.[4] Neither Amiga Inc nor Hyperion actually own ExecSG, so technically cannot demand or hand it over, leaving the OS with fragmented and confused ownership.
The supposed rebirth of Amiga
AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1
In 2007 The Inquirer reported [5] that the Amiga was inching closer to rebirth with the long-awaited release of AmigaOS 4.0, a new PowerPC-native version of the classic AmigaOS (Motorola 68k) from the 1980s. This new PowerPC OS would run on theAmigaOne machines, now out of production, which could only run Linux while waiting for the new PowerPC OS to be released. The year after, Amiga Inc also announced a new AmigaOS 4 compatible system that would be available shortly.[6] The new machine was neither Genesi’s Efika, nor the project codenamed Samantha, (now known as the Sam440ep from ACube Systems). The new hardware was from a new entrant, the Canadian company ACK Software Controls, and would have consisted of a budget and advanced model.[7]
The dispute
Four days after Amiga Inc announced the new Amiga OS4 (OS4) compatible machines they sued Hyperion Entertainment(Hyperion). Amiga Inc stated that it decided to produce a PowerPC version of AmigaOS in 2001 and on November 3, 2001 they signed a contract with Hyperion, (then a game developer for the 68k Amiga platform as well as Linux and Macintosh). Amiga Inc. gave Hyperion access to the sources of the last Commodore version, AmigaOS 3.1, but access to the post-Commodore versions OS3.5 and 3.9 had to be purchased from the third party responsible for their development since Haage & Parnter (developers of OS 3.5 and 3.9) never returned their AmigaOS source code to Amiga Inc.
Amiga Inc also said that its contract allowed Hyperion to use Amiga trademarks in the promotion of OS4 on Eyetech’s AmigaOne and stipulated that Hyperion should make its best efforts to deliver OS4 by March 1, 2002. A port of an elderly Operating System (68k) for an entirely different processor architecture (PowerPC) in just four months, an optimistic target that Hyperion failed to meet.
According to Amiga Inc, the contract permits the purchase of the full sources of OS4 from Hyperion for US$25,000. The court filing says that Amiga Inc paid this sometime in April–May 2003, to keep Hyperion from going bankrupt, and that between then and November 21, 2006 Amiga Inc paid another $7,200, then $8,850 more which it says Hyperion said was owing.
Furthermore, in the filing, Amiga Inc. President Bill McEwen revealed that Amiga Inc still hasn’t received the sources for OS4, that he’s discovered that much of its development was outsourced to third party contract developers and that it’s not clear if Hyperion has all the rights to this external work. Eventually, after five years and $41,050, on 21 November 2006, Amiga Inc told Hyperion it had violated the contract and gave it 30 days to sort it out – to finish the product and hand over the sources. This didn’t happen, so the contract was terminated [8] on 20 December 2006. Hyperion claims in its defence that Amiga Inc rendered the contract null through dealings with KMOS, a company which acquired the Amiga assets and renamed itself Amiga Inc over 2004-05.[9]
Four days later, 24 December 2006, Hyperion released the final version of OS4 – although according to Amiga Inc, Hyperion claims that this was merely an update of the developers’ preview version of 16 April 2004. Since the contract ended, Hyperion had no rights to use the name AmigaOS or any Amiga intellectual property, nor to market OS4 or enter into any agreements about it with anyone else. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4 was still being developed [10] and distributed. Furtermore, ACube Systems released a series of Sam440ep motherboards, which run AmigaOS 4.
For a time, the case seemed deadlocked with neither side being apparently able to prove the point either way. Without Amiga Inc‘s permission Hyperion Entertainment(Hyperion) could not use the AmigaOS name or related trademarks. Hyperion’s defence centred around the potentially contract-voiding nature of the Amiga Inc/KMOS handover, the problems they faced in acquiring the post-Commodore OS3.x source code which Amiga Inc claimed to own and have access to, and the presence of new work and open components in the new Operating System.
Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement
On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted, „an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x.[11]
AmigaOS 4.1 Update 5 has now been released.
More details and a place for registered users to download the update can be found at Hyperion’s main web site.
The following AmigaOS platforms are supported:
AmigaOne 500 (460ex)
Sam440ep and Sam440ep-flex (all variants)
AmigaOne XE
MicroA1-C
Pegasos II
CyberStorm PPC
Blizzard PPC
Besides the usual bug fixes, some highlights include:
Optimized DMA copy routines for 440ep and 460ex based platforms.
SM502 audio driver and Mixer for AmigaOne 500 systems (460ex).
Updated Radeon, R200 and Permedia2 Warp3D drivers. Per-application configuration is now possible to help work around bugs in old software. User documentation is provided on the wiki.
Catweasel driver for floppy disk, SID chip and joystick support.
MIDI support now included via the camd.library.
Professional photograph backgrounds provided by mediacube.
Improved Amiga 68K emulation. A full Workbench 3.1 installation is now included. Authentic Amiga ROMs and Workbench files are provided in the new Emulation drawer.
AmigaOS support is available via Hyperion’s support forum.
A special thanks to the AmigaOS development and testing teams for their hard work on this release!
Posted by Steven Solie
Download for registered users at Hyperion website
Official website
Act 1: OS News reports C=USA existence, thanks to Amiga Inc
http://www.osnews.com/story/23753/Commodore_Gets_Rights_to_Amiga_Hyperion_Takes_Legal_Action
„Our American lawyers will take action against this,“ Hyperion states, „This is blatant violation of the rights Hyperion Entertainment secured in the settlement agreement with Amiga Inc., Itec and Amino.“
The facts here are that if there’s two companies I would blindly trust in the Amiga world, it’s Hyperion and ACube. These are the only two companies that have kept their promises and delivered actual working products we can buy today. Everyone else – including A-eon (until they ship the X1000) – are fair game.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that my initial distrust of this Commodore USA thing was more than justified. Their website (shoddy doesn’t even begin to describe it), their rebranded products, their unilateral press releases which can’t be confirmed anywhere else but on their site… It all reeks of a massive con. Are their products even shipping, after months of promises?
Unless proven otherwise, I’m assuming for now that Commodore USA is, at best, a hoax, and at worst, a very inept con. They are properly registered as an LLC, though.
Act 2: Barron responds
http://www.osnews.com/story/23756/Commodore_USA_Threatens_OSNews_with_Legal_Action
Certainly a phone call would be considered appropriate before you print something, so you can have all the facts before determining your position.
The three points above came from me – before I would even be open towards changing my position on Commodore USA, the idiotic [my words] legal threat had to be retracted and an apology had to be made. The last point, about shipping something, refers to the fact that I believe Commodore USA should actually ship something as well.
My original opinion of Commodore USA, the opinion that started all this nonsense, still stands, and nothing has happened between then and now to soften that position (in fact, the threat only made it worse). We’ll have to see what the future brings, but in all honesty, I don’t have high hopes at this point.
Still, that silly threat has been retracted and apologised for, and that’s something I’m very happy with. No matter how silly it was, having a legal threat hover above your head simply isn’t something I particularly like.
1) Fake Commodore Amiga domain owned by CommodoreUSA
Nothing to do with real Amigas, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS with extreme censorship
Every criticism or anything Amiga related get deleted and users get banned for it
Other faked Amiga resources owned by CUSA
All under EXTREME censorship!
2) DiscreetFX hosts Barron interview where everything Amiga is sipitted on, all the brave ideas of innovation
3) AmigaWorld.net has Amiga Inc discussions in basement and tolerates their promo
4) CommodoreUSA Wiki page we fight for less propaganda (also: Talk page, COS page)
5) Amiga4be fake Amigan pages You Tube and Blog
6) Example of CUSA threating people that expose the truth
7) List of C=USA promoters that rarely do help AROS, MorphOS, AmigaOS and yet claiming to be Amigans
8) Barry Tweets
As opposed to Real Amiga resources
On the Edge: Spectacular rise and fall of C=USA 