Timberwolf (a.k.a. Firefox) Alpha 1 For AmigaOS

An anonymous reader writes "We're happy to announce the availability of the first alpha release of Timberwolf, the AmigaOS port of the popular Firefox browser. Timberwolf needs AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2 installed. Please read the documentation for information about usage and limitations. This is an alpha release, meaning it will have a lot of problems still, and be slower than it should be. We are releasing it as a small 'Thank you' to all those that have donated in the past to show that development is still going on. Timberwolf is available on os4depot.net. For further information and feedback, check the Timberwolf support forum on amigans.net."

Re:...really?

[cupantae]

...and Commodore64 application development continues unfalteringly.

I can understand it perfectly. It's the novelty, the nostalgia, and the challenge. If people think they'll enjoy the results, why not?

Re:Reality Check

[Red Flayer]

Could someone with mad hacker skills and way too much time on their hands please post some figures comparing the computing power of an Amiga to an iPad?

Sure. This is the computing power of an Amiga:

.

See it? Now this is the computing power of an iPad:

o

And that's about as exact an approximation as we need... computing power is not a complete metric for comparing computing systems. More important is the computing ecosystem -- the applications available, the restrictions on use of the system, etc. I'm sure that there are some people out there for whom an Amiga is better suited to their computing needs than an iPad, since it is largely an open ecosystem.

But you have to recognize that your "hobby time" spent with antique hardware and software is of very little benefit to the world.

Which is why it's called a hobby.

Actually, almost everything I do is of very little benefit to the world. Yet my job is not a hobby, my family is not a hobby, breathing is not a hobby... and yet, one of my hobbies is maintaining hiking trails. Probably this is the one thing with the most positive impact on the world that I do, and it's a hobby.

My main point here is that someone spending time on Amiga development may be pursuing a hobby... but whether their hobby benefits the rest of the world in a measurable manner is beside the point. The only concern is whether or not it fulfills them without harming others. And you'd be hard pressed to demonstrate harm to others without introducing societal opportunity cost, which is a tough selling point when it comes to individual fulfillment.

All that said... congrats to the developers on a (somewhat) stable release. They should take pride in their accomplishment, regardless of how important that accomplishment is to society as a whole.

Re:...really?

[lena_10326]

People still use Amigas? Why?

If you have to ask, then you're not a nerd. Go away. Shooo!

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:...really?

[commodore64_love]

>>>an obsolete OS - I think my question has some merit.

Your question makes an invalid assumption, which is why it was labeled "flamebait" or "troll" by moderators. AmigaOS 4.1 is just over 1 year old. You can that "obsolete"? Hardly. It's younger than the Vista, XP or OS X 10.5 operating systems many of us are still using. - And "I didn't know" isn't a defense when you're only a mouseclick away from google: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=amigaos+4.1 [lmgtfy.com]

The Amiga hardware is a bit slow (~800 megahertz), but then again it's always been a lightweight OS, so it doesn't need much speed. The original Amiga did true multitasking with just 0.25 megabytes of RAM and the modern Amiga OS is just as efficient.