amiga-news.de - Advent Calendar: Door 23

23.Dec.2022 Advent Calendar: Door 23 - George Sokianos
One more time we will be awake...;) George 'walkero' Sokianos will shorten the time until Christmas Eve with his story for our 23rd door.

George is currently the driving force behind many AmigaOS 4 projects and it is always surprising how varied his software theme choices are and where he finds the time to tackle it all. In addition, he has also been providing MorphOS versions of his software lately. At least here with us, his "career" began with the release of Comicami, a viewer for comics in .cbr and .cbz formats for AmigaOS 4.

George tirelessly tries to improve the user experience under the Amiga operating systems and to make standards from the PC world available for the Amiga with smart ideas:
For example, he has released aiostreams ("All In One Streams"), a collection of Python scripts that make it possible to watch retro streams on Twitch.tv and Mixer.com also under AmigaOS 4, AmigaOS 3, MorphOS and AROS instead of on the PC. Likewise, he publishes and updates scripts for the Odyssey web browser (AmigaOS 4 port) on his website, which succeed in displaying, for example, GitHub or itch.io websites.

However, he is also venturing into the really big chunks that could make his just-mentioned efforts obsolete at some point: as we reported at the beginning of November, he has formed a small team that has started porting WebKit.

The developer is also significantly responsible for the Software Development Kits for AmigaOS 4.1, ports the Editor Lite XL for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS and maintains iGame, his MUI-based frontend for launching WHDLoad titles. Using MediaVault, online radio stations can be streamed and podcasts listened to.

We also want to mention his ported games, for example BreakHack, which was only released yesterday, BlobWars: Attrition or The Battle for the Solar System - The Pandoran War.

On his Ko-fi website you will not only find a lot of interesting background information, but also the possibility to donate a coffee or more to him as appreciation (of which he gives 50% back to the community at the end of each month by supporting projects or developers). We wish George continued joy and success with his projects and look forward to many more interesting news here with us. His anecdote:

"I'd like to share a little story of how I got into the Amiga NG scene. As I've been an Amiga user since around 1989, I was watching all the news for our beloved machine, and of course, I was drooling watching videos of the AmigaOS 4 running on PPC computers back then. I wanted... No. I needed an Amiga capable to run that operating system.

So every day I was watching those youtube videos people were uploading from their AmigaOne XE and SE. Every day I was thinking about how I could buy one. Back then there were not many computers left to buy, as the availability was reducing dramatically. And there were no announcements for new machines to be released.

The cost was high. That year was crucial for me since in May that year I got married to my wife, and we were expecting our first kid around October. So the family expenses were at a high grade. But I could stop thinking that fabulous computers with this exceptional OS.

The funny thing is that I remember that every day I was going to work and I was visiting the online Amiga shops to check the availability. Every day I was filling up the order form and kept my hand from hitting that "Submit" button. Every day I was sooooo close, but yet so far.

The nightmares started when shop by shop began to show the "Not available" label beside the AmigaOnes photos. That awful red label made my sweat grow and my heartbeat increase. Up until a hot day in June 2005 when that "Submit" button finally got clicked. For one more time, I was visiting the website of GGS-Data in Sweden and I was drooling at the photos of a microAmigaOne. And YES... that microAmigaOne became mine. I completed all the necessary payments and got the confirmation for my order, saying that everything was fine.

The next day I visited the shops' web pages again and I was looking at the red label without caring anymore. That label appeared on the GGS-Data's website as well. Was the microAmigaOne I bought the last one that was for sale? Did I manage to get the very last AmigaOne back in 2005? What would happen if that day I didn't click that "Submit" button at the end of the order form? Would I be here with all of you developing software for the AmigaOS?

I guess we will never learn what would happen. The only thing that I know is that while I am writing those words, I have that microAmigaOne beside my desk, ready to put a smile on my face, as it did 17 years ago.

And most importantly, I survived my wife's menace to tell you the story. Take care of your Amiga computers and have fun with them." (dr)

[News message: 23. Dec. 2022, 08:37] [Comments: 0]
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