Date:     Wed, 27 Oct 1999 17:48:38 +0200
From:     Sven Drieling Sven_Drieling@welcome.north.de
Subject:  [TA] AmigaOS Open Source (was Re: savetheamiga petetion)
To:       redaktion@amiga-news.de (Redaktion)

* Forwarded from newsgroup "a Mail"
* Originally from: Olaf Barthel (olsen-ta@sourcery.han.de)
* Original date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 18:38:30 +0100


On Oct 25 Nomad (Nomad of Norad (David C. Hall)) wrote:

> In a forwarded message, by "Steve Crietzman" president@savetheamiga.org.uk,
> which was written on 23 Oct 1999, was said:
>
> > I am considering creating a survey to collect some useful
> > numbers and statistics.  This should prove interesting either way,
> > but I am also considering making this into a petition, so that
> > those who would like to see AmigaOS open-sourced can give
> > their backing and support to the idea, and then have all
> > this information forwarding to Amiga President Tom Schmidt
> > - to help him in making his decision ;)
>
> Well, if we can get a huge enough group of people to go to the site and
> participate, then regardless of the answers we get, it might get GatesWay's
> attention simply from the numbers that show up.

   Before you start working on a petition, I'd like you to consider a few
things first. An open source AmigaOS is not going to cure all the problems we
are facing today. If you are going to ask for support, also ask why exactly you
want AmigaOS to go Open Source. What may come out of the equation might not be
what you are expecting. For example, AmigaOS is protected by a number of
patents of which the first may run out in the year 2003. Making the operating
system open source does not necessarily include the option that Gateway will
also hand over the patents. One such patent covers the way pull-down menus are
drawn on the Amiga. To avoid patent infringement, one would have to make major
changes to Intuition. Next thing, the name "Amiga" is a trademark, so is
"Kickstart", so is "Workbench", so is "AmigaGuide", so is "AmigaDOS" and a
number of other names. One would need to get permission to use these
trademarks, even for such innocent things as "amigaguide.library",
"workbench.library", etc. which concern the API. If you can't use those names,
you get into real trouble since the names are associated with the AmigaOS
programming interface. And don't forget that the material that ships on a
Workbench disk and the code and data you find in ROM is not exclusively owned
by Gateway. There is 3rd party material included which Commodore used to
license either in binary form or as a special kind of source code license
which did not allow for redistribution. This means for example, an open source
AmigaOS would not include ARexx, the Fountain/bullet.library font rasterizer,
CrossDOS, 68040.library, mathffp.library, the mathieee libraries, none of the
Adobe bitmap fonts, none of the AGFA CompuGraphic fonts, etc. Next comes the
question of build tools: a source code is dead material unless you can build a
working product from it. And AmigaOS is built using a variety of 3rd party
tools for which Commodore used to obtain licenses which did not allow for
redistribution either: part of the operating system is built using a `C'
compiler developed by Green Hills, Inc. You won't be able to use that compiler
without a license, and their products aren't cheap.

Ok, so far I have only touched some of the issues involved, but there are
plenty more (such as involving quality: most open source projects suffer from
ineffective to inexistant quality control; once this happens to AmigaOS, you
can expect most of the commercial developers left in the market to abandon
ship). The general impression I got so far is that the people who ask for
making AmigaOS open source do not realize what it is they would be getting.
Worse, they don't even know exactly why they are asking for it. All by itself,
the source code won't help us. There's plenty more to take into consideration.

Take great care, as it may be possible that Gateway, unaware of the details,
may make the decision to turn the AmigaOS source code loose, but fail to
provide for the means to allow it to survive. Then AmigaOS will be really
dead, killed by legal restrictions.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Home: Olaf Barthel, Brabeckstrasse 35, D-30559 Hannover
 Net: olsen@sourcery.han.de (Home), olsen@logicalline.com (Work)

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Date:     Wed, 27 Oct 1999 17:51:37 +0200
From:     Sven Drieling Sven_Drieling@welcome.north.de
Subject:  Re: [TA] AmigaOS Open Source (was Re: savetheamiga petetion
To:       redaktion@amiga-news.de (Redaktion)

* Forwarded from newsgroup "a Mail"
* Originally from: Olaf Barthel (olsen-ta@sourcery.han.de)
* Original date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:35:54 +0100


On Oct 27 wurzel (wurzel) wrote:

> Hiya, on Tue, 26 Oct 1999 18:38:30 +0100,
> Olaf Barthel wrote about *"[TA] AmigaOS Open Source (was Re: savetheamiga
petetion)".*
>
> >    Before you start working on a petition, I'd like you to consider a few
> > things first. An open source AmigaOS is not going to cure all the problems we
> > are facing today. If you are going to ask for support, also ask why exactly you
> > want AmigaOS to go Open Source. What may come out of the equation might not be
> > what you are expecting. For example, AmigaOS is protected by a number of
> > patents of which the first may run out in the year 2003. Making the operating
> > system open source does not necessarily include the option that Gateway will
> > also hand over the patents. One such patent covers the way pull-down menus are
> > drawn on the Amiga. To avoid patent infringement, one would have to make major
> > changes to Intuition. Next thing, the name "Amiga" is a trademark, so is
> > "Kickstart", so is "Workbench", so is "AmigaGuide", so is "AmigaDOS" and a
> > number of other names. One would need to get permission to use these
> > trademarks, even for such innocent things as "amigaguide.library",
> > "workbench.library", etc. which concern the API. If you can't use those names,
> > you get into real trouble since the names are associated with the AmigaOS
> > programming interface. And don't forget that the material that ships on a
>
> [Snip a whole load of well informed reasoning]
>
> Thanks, Olaf, for putting things straight!

   Credit where credit is due, the issue was originally raised by
Holger Kruse on a private mailing list. I have both abridged and
tried to add to his original argumentation (for example, the
term "open source" is very loosely defined today; one would have
to agree on a common definition).

> I am not a developer and do not jump onto the bandwagon "Make AmigaOS Open
> Source", because I did not know exactly what that meant. Now you have
> clearly shown what it entails and I agree with you that it is a bad idea.
> FWIW, IMHO etc.

   I tried to keep the message neutral. Making AmigaOS Open Source may
work out, but there are risks attached to such an attempt which may make
it impractical. Whether this makes it a good or a bad idea is a decision
that's up to the reader. I used to advocate making AmigaOS Open Source,
but Holger made me reconsider.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Home: Olaf Barthel, Brabeckstrasse 35, D-30559 Hannover
 Net: olsen@sourcery.han.de (Home), olsen@logicalline.com (Work)

From:      Giorgio Signori yurex@tin.it
To:        team@amiga-news.de
Date:      Tue, 26 Oct 1999 17:20:16 +0200
Subject:   Softwave Announces a new CD based Amiga Magazine

For Immediate Release

Napoli, Italy, 25 October 1999

Web Site: http://www.skylink.it/ear

Dear Amigans,

My name is Giorgio Signori, and I am the director of Softwave, a new company
born in Italy this summer. I have been writing on the only Italian Amiga
magazine, Enigma Amiga Run, in the past years, and I am in Amiga
environment since years. After years writing for Amiga, I decided to build
up a new company to publish an Amiga-only, CD-based magazine. After a lot
of work, at the Amiga show Softwave was there with the first issue of
Amiga.it, showed during the conference with Petro Tyschtschenko. After
this, we decided to publish Amiga.it, under the name Amiga.news, also
outside Italy. We put much effort in this, translating, for now, the whole
magazine in English. We will show and sell the first issue of Amiga.news at
the next Home Electronics World of Cologne, on 12-14 November.

We hope that the public response will be enough to convince us to keep doing
a multi-language magazine also for the next issues. If so, since the 3rd
issue, we will translate it also in German, as many of you already
requested. In the next days in the site www.skylink.it/ear will be published
the summary of
the first issue.

But now, some of the highlights of Amiga.news:

The magazine part count many important writers here in Italy. Editors like
ing. Massimo Gais, system administrator of the Italian Aminet node and of
the Astronomic Observatory of Naples, like ing. Alessio Cappelli, expert in
Amiga and NetBSD environments. People like Massimo Marino, writer for the
biggest selling videogames magazine in Italy, The Games Machine, and Nick
Mordock, experienced Amiga writer since years. Not to mention Andrea
Favini, the 3000+ staff and Laura Falzone, writers of proved experience.

The CD part of Amiga.news differs from what we are used to see on the
market. it will not be a simple shareware collection. Of course it will
contain the recent shareware software from month to month, with index and
search function, but it will be thematic. The first issue of Amiga.it,
published only in Italian, had Linux as theme of the month, with a
RedHatPPC distribution and a serie of articles dedicated to installation of
Linux, but not only. Every month a different theme will fill the CD. I can
anticipate that on the issue that will be presented at Cologne, there will
be a much requested Linux68k/RedHat68 distribution, and a special on Star
Wars on Amiga.

I am available for every question, I will be happy to give all the answers
you may need, if you are a user or an Amiga distributor/reseller. You can
find me at the mailbox yurex@tin.it.

Giorgio Signori
Director of Softwave

-----------------------------------------------------------
Giorgio Signori "Yure^DKG"  ICQ:20451038  \  PowerUP 040+603@240 SCSI  \
Amiga.it Staff  -  Italian Amiga magazine  \  AIT HP:www.skylink.it/ear \
Home Page: http://space.tin.it/io/giorsign  \  System Shock Solutions PR \

BAB5_Txt.lha       biz/dbase   35K   0 Babylon 5 Episode Text / StarBase (115a)
cycledbase.lha     biz/dbase   26K   0 Cycle trip database inc. search function
STDB-full.lha      biz/dbase  4.4M   0 Star Trek Database v1.4
STEP_Txt.lha       biz/dbase  234K   0 Star Trek Episode Text / StarBase (590)
Trekkie.lha        biz/dbase  900K   0 Star Trek Database, V2.17final Data V2.19final
Super_Dopus58.lha  biz/dopus  519K   0 The Best DOpus Filetypes, etc.
G5_Aux.lha         comm/bbs    94K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (AUX-Handler)
G5_Batch.lha       comm/bbs    38K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (batches)
G5_bin.lha         comm/bbs   325K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (third party programs)
G5_bin68000.lha    comm/bbs   1.1M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68000 programs)
G5_bin68010.lha    comm/bbs   1.1M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68010 programs)
G5_bin68020.lha    comm/bbs   1.1M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68020 programs)
G5_bin68030.lha    comm/bbs   1.1M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68030 programs)
G5_bin68040.lha    comm/bbs   1.3M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68040 programs)
G5_bin68060.lha    comm/bbs   1.3M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (68060 programs)
G5_binppc.lha      comm/bbs   2.1M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (PowerUP programs [beta])
G5_binwos.lha      comm/bbs   1.3M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (WarpOS programs [beta])
G5_Bretter.lha     comm/bbs     1K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (boards)
G5_Default.lha     comm/bbs     1K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (default files)
G5_Diverses.lha    comm/bbs    18K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (various)
G5_Doku.lha        comm/bbs   552K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (documentation)
G5_FTest.lha       comm/bbs   4.8M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (filetester)
G5_Manual.lha      comm/bbs    88K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (online manuals)
G5_Menu.lha        comm/bbs    20K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (user menu)
G5_Netz.lha        comm/bbs   197K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (network)
G5_Spiele.lha      comm/bbs   1.5M   0 Gateway-5-BBS (online games)
G5_Statistik.lha   comm/bbs     7K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (statistic files)
G5_Sys.lha         comm/bbs   770K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (SYS: files)
G5_System.lha      comm/bbs    55K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (system files)
G5_Texte.lha       comm/bbs   446K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (online ansi texts)
G5_User.lha        comm/bbs     3K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (user files)
G5_VT.lha          comm/bbs     4K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (tools)
G5_VTX.lha         comm/bbs     0K   0 Gateway-5-BBS (full text search)
StarGate2_2.lha    comm/mail  1.4M   0 StarGate v2.2 MUI internet mailer/news reader
pmenu.lha          comm/maxs   18K   0 Security door for menus
dvbcontrol.lha     comm/misc  239K   0 V1.23 D-Box/Mediamaster Settings Editor
MLocator.lha       comm/misc   30K   0 HAM grid locator <-> lati/long (v1.08)
selUser.lha        comm/misc   14K   0 Start tools 'multiUser' likely (yam,ibrowse,voyage
SnoopTAT.lha       comm/misc   22K   0 Internet Phone Cost V 1.0 By 41 (Italian)
GoFetchFTP.lha     comm/net   201K   0 V0.9b FTP Client designed to download a queue of f
nc_update.lha      comm/news  110K   0 Offline Newsreader Version 1.17 (MUI)
facts.lha          comm/tcp    60K   0 V2.9/GUI - NTP clock syncroniser/AutoDST
KnowledgeSvr.lha   comm/tcp   656K   0 Knowledge Based System Inference Net Builder
samba_2.0.5a.lha   comm/tcp   2.7M   0 Native port of the free SMB client and server
GMAutoWrite.lha    comm/thor    7K   0 Automatically post messages with Thor, v4.0
tablePlugv11.lha   comm/www    79K   0 An HTML catalog creator v1.1
APX-SAT9.lha       demo/aga   257K   0 Satellite'99 party invitation.Polish/English.
APX-SAT99.lha      demo/aga   254K   0 Satellite'99 party invitation.Polish/English.
APX-SATF.lha       demo/aga     2K   0 Satellite'99 Inv.-missed fonts req.to run.
hla-smoked.lha     demo/aga   132K   0 Smoked (128k intro) by Horizontal Lamerz
i2k-dgt2.lha       demo/aga   959K   0 1st place @ Terminal Frost
ESA.lha            dev/asm     62K   0 Extended Syntax Assembly v1.11
vbccwosnative.lha  dev/c      397K   0 Vbcc executables compiled for PPC/WarpOS
COP.lha            dev/debug  157K   0 Low Level Debugger
TRSaferPtch.lha    dev/debug   22K   0 Safer Setfunctions Debug and Control Tools
Vivid.lha          dev/debug   12K   0 Trace the origin of memory flushes.
2b_CreativE.lha    dev/e       70K   0 AmigaE compiler
powerd.lha         dev/e      209K   0 New programming language based on E
SlimPython.lha     dev/lang   574K   0 AmigaPython stripped edition (source)
MCC_SpeedBar.lha   dev/mui     59K   0 Highly configurable toolbar class
SmartInfo.lha      disk/misc   19K   0 SFSQuery and SFSdefragmentGUI replacement with MUI
turbocat-prov2.lha disk/misc  166K   0 Disk cataloguing utility (Made AS coverdisk)
MusicBase_2.25.lha docs/hyper 276K   0 Music lyrics database v.2.25
amiuserlist.lha    docs/lists  40K   0 AmigaUserList V6.37 of Germany, Switzerland and Au
AIOV29.lha         docs/mags  437K   0 Amiga Information Online, Issue 29 (October 1999)
AO_0105.lha        docs/mags   14K   0 AO newsletter - volume 1, issue 5 - 22 October, 19
Nintendo01_11.lha  docs/mags  149K   0 German NINTENDO Magazin  01.11.1999
freeciv.lha        game/2play 746K   0 Amiga Version 1.4 => Freeciv 1.9.0
F1GP_1999.lha      game/data   10K   0 1999 F1 season data for F1GP-Ed (17 October)
FoundCard.lha      game/hint  179K   0 Foundation Card-Hints Miss01-28.
WaxworksSol.lha    game/hint   11K   0 Waxworks (Elvira 3) Walkthrough and tips
RackRunner.lha     game/jump  104K   0 Old platform game with level-editor.
Arkanos.lha        game/misc  148K   0 Break out game with new features
qbic.lha           game/misc  182K   0 An old but great Q*Bert clone
ZInstall.lha       game/patch  38K   0 HD Installer for Zeewolf
KC0.6.lha          game/role   83K   0 Create your hero for RPG Krysztaly Czasu
Marryampic.lha     game/think 103K   0 A CardSet game to find sound-pairs
r4_Lara_Croft.lha  gfx/3dobj  587K   0 Lara-Croft-like girl for monzoom 3d pro
PVS.lha            gfx/board   26K   0 Global Prefs setter for Picasso96
mpeg2enc+.lha      gfx/conv   221K   0 MPEG1/2 encoder V1.4 + GUI (PowerUP / WaupUp+ppcli
scene-handler.lha  gfx/conv    22K   0 Direct access to a MovieShop Partition/Scene
PicScale.lha       gfx/edit    59K   0 Scale Pics in a WB window
SkinCrop09.lha     gfx/ifx     10K   0 Easy xxxAMPxxx Skin creation script for ImageFX
SvIIFix837.lha     gfx/misc    33K   0 *Fix* for SViewII V8.37 (19.10.99)
AMP.lha            gfx/show   255K   0 MPEG1/2, FLI/FLC, AVI, QT player for WarpUP, v1.26
Frogger.lha        gfx/show   307K   0 Ultimate MPEG video player (68k & PPC v1.4)
Spitfire.lha       hard/drivr 413K   0 A Palm Desktop for the Amiga!
ICS.lha            hard/misc  1.6M   0 V1.07 ICS - professional color correction for scan
amigacursor.zip    misc/emu     2K   0 Amiga Mousecursors for PC
ASpEmu.lha         misc/emu    15K   0 V063. ZXSpectrum48K emulator. AGA only.
cp4.lha            misc/emu   578K   0 C= Plus4 Emulator - V0.68
DarcNES.lha        misc/emu   132K   0 NES, SMS/GG, PCE emulator for WarpUP v991017a (991
imdbDiff991015.lha misc/imdb  1.7M   0 Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
crystal.lha        mods/jungl 347K   0 Drum'n'bass by spook
divert12.lha       mods/midi   19K   0 Divertimento12, GM song by Stefano Regattin
rNO-L005.lha       mods/misc  275K   0 Rno-label release no.5 by cie (detroit)
rNO-L007.lha       mods/misc  224K   0 Rno-label release no.7 by tang (funkyhouse)
rNO-L008.lha       mods/misc  356K   0 Rno-label release no.8 by kure (triphop)
TheBeggar.lha      mods/misc  337K   0 DBM Relaxe by Mr.Lou / Dewfall Productions.
Alienz.mpg         mods/mpg   2.4M   0 Dark Amen Drum`n`Bass/Jungle tune by NoctReX
Atmosfear.mpg      mods/mpg   3.0M   0 Dark experimental Drum`n`Bass tune by NoctReX
KillinNightmar.mpg mods/mpg   1.5M   0 156BPM-Gabber-MPEG audio by "Borschtsch"
Kure-Sun.mpg       mods/mpg   5.0M   0 "The Sun Shower" trance-song by Kure/RNO^WPZ
SWAP.mpg           mods/mpg   721K   0 262BPM-Gabber-MPEG audio by "Borschtsch"
Up_Down.mpg        mods/mpg   1.3M   0 140BPM-Gabber-MPEG audio by "Borschtsch"
ms-pod2.lha        mods/xm    1.8M   0 Macabre Studios "Picture of Distance" (XM)
SampleE.lha        mus/edit   266K   0 16Bit Stereo HD-Edit Sample Editor AHI-support
SampleDumper.lha   mus/midi    28K   0 Dump Samples to your synth, via MIDI (SDS) or SCSI
EasyPlayer.lha     mus/play    88K   0 GUI for *all* shell-based module players
EP_Mugician.lha    mus/play     7K   0 EaglePlayer "Mugician" external replayer
EP_Mugician2.lha   mus/play     8K   0 EaglePlayer "Mugician II" external replayer
EP_PaulShields.lha mus/play     4K   0 EaglePlayer "Paul Shields" external replayer
EP_RobHubbard.lha  mus/play     5K   0 EaglePlayer "Rob Hubbard" external replayer
EP_TFMX.lha        mus/play     7K   0 EaglePlayer "TFMX" external replayer
Sid4Amiga.lha      mus/play   360K   0 Plays C64 Sid Music Files - PPC/68K/GUI
Lch-Caramba.lha    pix/art     10K   0 Handdrawn italian policemen [PNG format]
Lch-RisikoPlus.lha pix/art     65K   0 Pixelled Risiko Plus Logo
Sahara_Girl.jpg    pix/art    101K   0 "Sahara_Girl" created by Dr.Ferkel
SBillBan.lha       pix/misc   151K   0 Various anti-MS/MS-Free pictures
YAM2logo.lha       pix/nicon   17K   0 Unreal's Yam Newicon Logo
OS3.5Snaps.lha     pix/wb     282K   0 Some snaps of my OS 3.5 setup.
wbgrab05.jpg       pix/wb     187K   0 JPG Grab of my 16Bit CV64/3D DOpus WB
prtman39.lha       text/print 160K   0 Printmanager for AmigaOS3 (39.29)
Cybermagic.lha     util/blank 472K   0 Blanker for Cybergraphix (0.4.1)
ConsoleFix.lha     util/boot    4K   0 Fix a bug in the console.device
RemAPollo.lha      util/boot   33K   0 A1200 040\060 MMU Apollo Turboboard Remapper
GatewayTools.lha   util/cli   842K   0 Various tools for use in CLI
iconcopy.lha       util/cli     3K   0 V1.2 of the shell Command to copy icons
VersCheck.lha      util/cli   525K   0 Check your libs,MUI,devs,dtypes,classes,handler
VersCheckGUI.lha   util/cli   166K   0 A simple GUI for VersCheck (incl. source)
akJFIF-dt.lha      util/dtype 319K   0 AkJFIF-dt V44.48 (JPEG, 68000-060, PPC/WOS)
akNAIL-dt.lha      util/dtype  91K   0 AkNAIL-dt V44.6 (NAIL, 68000-060)
akPNG-dt.lha       util/dtype 351K   0 AkPNG-dt V44.48 (PNG, 68000-060, PPC/WOS)
akTIFF-dt.lha      util/dtype 401K   0 AkTIFF-dt V44.48 (TIFF, 68000-060, PPC/WOS)
IconDT44.lha       util/dtype   4K   0 Os3.5 dt for .info files (44.0)
sdiREKO-DT.lha     util/dtype   9K   0 40.6 datatype for .REKO/.RKP cardsets
GatewayLibrary.lha util/libs   80K   0 Shared Library with many functions
WBStartEmu.lha     util/libs    4K   0 Os3.5 version of wbstart.library
Quinielista.lha    util/misc   27K   0 Design, development and analysis of quinielas (onl
De-Archiveur.lha   util/pack   97K   0 GUI for LHA.LZH.LZX.ZIP.DMS.UNARJ.UNRAR (V1.4)
RAWBInfo.lha       util/sys    16K   0 ReAction based icon information (1.3)
StringSnip.lha     util/sys    12K   0 Much better editing features in string gadgets
WBCtrl.lha         util/sys     2K   0 Controls undocumentated wb3.5 features (1.1)
ABeat.lha          util/time   12K   0 Simple Swatch-Beat clock.
Safe.lha           util/virus  24K   0 Best new linkviruses detector v11.5
vht-vc25.lha       util/virus 587K   0 VirusChecker II v2.5 (Brain v3.0)
xvsLibrary.lha     util/virus  47K   0 V33.18 External Virus Support Library
Gurus2000_1610.lha util/wb    1.2M   0 Shows infos about Gurus (German + Engl.)
VisualPrefs_PT.lha util/wb     55K   0 VisualPrefs: Portuguese catalog and docs
wbthemes.lha       util/wb    328K   0 Themes for workbench, like dopus

• Sterndatenbank mit ca. 500.000 Sternen bis 16 m.
• Cross-Index für SAO, PPM, HD, YBS und GC Kataloge.
• Etwa 40.000 Deep-Sky-Objekte (Messier, NGC, IC, UGC, Abell, Zwicky und weitere verschiedene Objekte).
• Über 55.000 Kleinplaneten und Asteroiden, sowie die Kometen Halley, Hyakutake und Hale-Bopp.
• Hochgenaue Mond- und Planetenberechnung mittels JPL-Integrationstabellen (DE404). Genauigkeit teilweise < 0.1¨ über einen Zeitraum mehrerer Tausend Jahre!
• Monde von Jupiter, Saturn und Uranus.
• Texturen für alle Planeten und Monde.
• Milchstraßenstruktur.
• Ansicht des Sternenhimmels von jedem beliebigen Objekt des Sonnensystems.
• Speichern von Animationen im IFF-ANIM-, QuickTime- oder MPEG-Format.
• Laden und Speichern von Konfigurationsdateien.
• Hochoptimierte, meist in reinem Assembler geschriebene Routinen für maximale Geschwindigkeit. Selbstständiges Erkennen der CPU für maximale Geschwindigkeit.
• Viele verschiedene Einstellungsmöglichkeiten.
• Online- und Menühilfe mit HELP-Taste sowie MUIs Sprechblasenhilfe.
• Volle Drag&Drop-Unterstützung.
• Erstellen und Exportieren von Ephemeridentabellen.
• Erstellen einer eigenen Bildergalerie.
• Erstellen einer eigenen Datenbank mittles Bahnelemente.
• Einbindung des Hubble GSC-Sternenkataloges.
• Programmkontrolle mittels ARexx-Skripts.

• Test "Gut" in Zeitschrift AmigaOS 5'99
• Multithreading auf der WB bei Nutzung der EASys! WB-Wizards mittels erweitertem WB-Menü oder per Shortcuts: cut(rAmiga x) copy(rAmiga c) paste(rAmiga v) delete(rAmiga d)
• EasyNet: Internet Seiten als Icon/Menü von der WB erschließen
• EasyMail: WB-Dateien als eMail versenden: einfachst per Menü-Auswahl.
• Komfortable Menü-Erweiterung und Funktions-Ergänzung zur WB
  • keine Stundenlange extra-Konfiguration nötig
  • wie sensitives Menü verwendbar: Präsentation, Datei, Icon, Internet, Programme, Einstellungen, Hilfe
• EasyIcon: Dateien ohne Icons einfach per Menü mit passendem DefaultIcon versehen (Dateityp-abhängig). Ist schon ein Icon vorhanden, einfach per FileRequester Programm- Icon "einwerfen" und fertig.
• System-Dock inklusive Drag&Drop WB-Docks für Präsentation, Editor, Drucken, GlobalHelp, Internet
• Internet-Dock (aufklappbar)
• Office-Dock (aufklappbar)
• EASyView: Präsentation aller Dateitypen mit Benutzer-spezifischen Anzeigeprogrammen - nicht nur auf der Workbench, sondern direkt auch in vielen Anwendungen nutzbar:
  • Komplette Defnition von Dateityp-abhängigen Anzeigeprogrammen (Viewer), Dateityp-abhängigen Bearbeitungs-Programmen (Editors), und Dateityp-abhängigen Programmen zum Ausdruck (Printers).
  • Offen und direkt verwendbar für neue Dateitypen
  • EASyView ist auch als Viewer für Aminet-CDs vorkonfiguriert, dadurch immer und überall (nicht nur auf der Workbench) Benutzung der aktuell eingestellten Anzeigeprogramme.

• EasySave: Speicherpfade zur direkten Übergabe von Dateien, die gerade in Anwendungen bearbetet werden an die EASys! Wizards EASyView, EASyArc, EASyPrint, EASyMail
• EASyArc Archive-Manager mit Drag&Drop Schnittstelle - nutzbar auch direkt in YAM und vielen anderen Anwendungen für: lha lzx arj zip tgz dms tar xpk
• GlobalHelp - bietet komfortablen Zugang und Verwaltung per Drag&Drop zu allen auf dem System installierten Online Dokumenten in beliebigen Dokument-Formaten. Immer und überall auf Tastendruck abrufbar.
• On-the-fly FileManager mit ausführlicher Datei-Information beim Überschreiben von Dateien. Überschreiben wahlweise inklusive Zeitstempel-Backup. Eigenständig auf jedem Screen, beliebig oft gleichzeitig und in Kombination mit der Workbench (Multithreaded) betreibbar. Natürlich komplett integriert in die gesamte System-Umgebung.
• Durchgängig konsistent entwickelte Benutzerführung Benutzer-Interface
  • komplett per Maus oder Tastatur bedienbar
  • Anwender-Dialog mit natürlicher Sprach-Ausgabe
  • komplett lokalisiert (auch Sprachausgabe)
  • OS3.5 Tastatur Shortcut kompatibel
• Eine zentrale Programmreferenz für System und Anwendungen
• transparente Einbindung aller Anwendungen des Systems: unabhängig von persönlich bevorzugten Anwendungen / Tools.
• Einsatz auf schnell wachsender Anzahl von Benutzersystemen.
• Auch auf SCALOS Systemen komplett im Einsatz.
• Produktpräsentation auf der HEW'99 in Köln am AMIGA-Stand.
• Ständige Weiterentwicklung

From:       Andreas Magerl Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de
Reply-To:   Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de
To:         Amiga News Petra petra.struck@online-club.de
Date:       Sat, 23 Oct 1999 22:55:39 +0100
Subject:    APC & TCP News                                                                           x

1) german
2) english


The Best of Airsoft Softwair CD-ROM
-----------------------------------

Pünktlich zur Home Electronics World `99 in Köln wird die
'The Best of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM erscheinen. Diese CD-ROM
ist eine Kollektion von fast allen Programmen, die jeweils
von der Usergruppe Airsoft Softwair veröffentlicht wurden.
Alle Shareware Veröffentlichungen von Airsoft Softwair sind
selbstverständlich als uneingeschränkte Vollversionen auf
der CD-ROM enthalten. Auch viele der übrigen Programme wurden
nochmals überarbeitet und sind in brandneuen Version auf
der CD-ROM vorhanden.

Folgende exklusive Vollversionen sind auf der 'The Best of Airsoft Softwair'
CD-ROM vorhanden:

- CD32 Games Install Kit v3.1NG
- Da Cool Installer
- NewInstaller
- Rainboot Pro
- Rainboot Configuration Creator (RCC)

Zusätzlich sind viele, teilweise noch nicht veröffentlichte,
Programme auf der CD-ROM vorhanden, wie z.B.:

- AHelp
- alle Rainboot Konfigurationen (über 80!)
- Bilder
- Cheater und Trainer zu vielen Spielen (über 30!)
- Da Cool Booter
- Da Cool Patcher
- Da Cool Quiz
- DMS2HD
- Entwicklersektion mit vielen Quelltexten und Dokumentationen
- File2Disk
- Flip Da Scrip
- Geschichtssektion mit den legendären '1.0-Versionen' vieler Programme
- HD Installer für viele Spiele
- kompletter Soundtrack des Adventures 'The 3 Islands'
- kompletter Spiegel der Airsoft Softwair Homepage inklusiv allen Dateien
- kompletter Spiegel der CBM Fan Page inklusiv allen Dateien
- LaunchHTML
- Module
- Needin' Speed
- PianoPlayer
- Piktogramme zu vielen Anwendungen und Spielen
- PlayMOD
- RandomStartup
- SNES9xGUI
- Sounds
- The 3 Islands Giga Preview (über 130MB!) mit Videos und mehr
- The 3 Islands spielbares Preview
- TUP
- XTreme Mod

und noch vieles mehr!

Das CD32 Games Install Kit v3.1 Next Generation ist das
Ergebnis einer fast kompletten Neuprogrammierung des beliebten
CD32 Games Install Kits, welches CD32 Spiele auf Festplatte
installiert und diese von dort aus auch lauffähig macht.
Momentan werden über 170 CD32 Spiele unterstützt, von denen
auch viele auf Amigas ohne den AGA Chipsatz mittels des
CD32 Games Install Kit lauffähig sind. Diese Version besitzt
viele neue Features wie z.B. einen direkt integrierten CD32
Emulator, einem komplett neuen viel stabileren Bootsystem
(Install2001NG) und außerdem bietet das CD32 Games Install Kit
jetzt erstmals die Möglichkeit, auch nicht vordefinierte CD32
Spiele zu installieren. Damit besteht also die Möglichkeit
fast jedes CD32 Spiel zu installieren (!!).

Der bekannte Da Cool Installer ist ebenfalls in einer
neuen, vielmals überarbeiteten Version auf der CD-ROM
vorhanden. Da Cool Installer erlaubt es dem Benutzer mittels
einer einfachen Prozedur viele Sorten von Spielen auf
der Festplatte zu installieren. Der Vorteil von Da Cool
Installer liegt darin, dass eine generelle Methode benutzt
wird, um die Spiele zu installieren. So lässt sich fast
jedes Spiel ohne weitere Probleme installieren. Da Cool
Installer unterstützt dabei eine trackdisk.device Emulation,
Spiele über mehrere Disketten, Degrade2ECS Unterstützung,
Installation von DMS gepackten Disketten sowie vieles
mehr.

NewInstaller ist das ultimative Multimedia Addon zu dem
veralteten Commodore Installer. Mittels NewInstaller ist
es jetzt erstmals möglich, Installation mit Sounds, Bildern
und vielen anderen Multimedia Elementen auszustatten. So
kann NewInstaller auch Online Registrationen verwalten,
Homepages zum Besuch anbieten, UnInstall Skripte erzeugen
und viel mehr. Dazu kommt die Möglichkeit, Commodore Installer
Skripte vom NewInstaller einfach automatisch erstellen zu
lassen, d.h. es wird einfach das Verzeichnis des zu
installierenden Programms angegeben und sofort generiert
NewInstaller ein Installationsskript für das Programm,
welches genau an dessen Bedürfnisse angepasst ist.
NewInstaller ist ein Muss für jeden Amiga Besitzer!

Auch das ultimative Bootprogramm Rainboot für den Amiga ist
auf der CD-ROM in einer vielfach erweiterten und verbesserten
Pro-Version vorhanden. Rainboot ermöglicht es dem Benutzer,
komplette Multimedia Shows während dem Bootvorgang anzuzeigen.
Die Palette der Features reicht dabei von der Unterstützung
von Animationen, Sounds, Copper Regenbögen, Passwortschutz,
Pinseln, verschiedenen Schriften, Modulen, Fades, CyberGraphX
und Picasso96, Boot Fortschrittsanzeigen, Auslesen der Daten des
Amiga Systems bis hin zu grafischen Effekten und dem Scrollen
von Bildern. In der Pro-Version ist es jetzt erstmals möglich
mehrere Animationen einzubinden, eine Steuerung zu den
Konfigurationen hinzuzufügen und vieles mehr. Rainboot ist
ein einzigartiges Programm, was in Leistungsumfang und
Effektivität bisher weder auf dem Amiga noch auf dem PC
übertroffen wurde.

Damit auch jeder seine Rainboot Konfigurationen auf eine
einfache Art und Weise erstellen kann, wird auf der CD-ROM
auch noch eine exklusive Vollversion vom Rainboot Configuration
Creator, RCC genannt, mitgeliefert. Dieses Programm ermöglicht
es mittels einer grafischen Benutzeroberfläche kinderleicht
Konfigurationen für Rainboot zu erstellen. Der RCC unterstützt
fast alle Rainboot Funktionen und ermöglicht auch eine
Weiterbearbeitung von schon vorhandenen Rainboot Konfigurationen.
Dazu bietet er eine umfangreiche Online Hilfe, die direkt
aus der Oberfläche heraus angesprochen wird. Für jeden Rainboot
Benutzer ist der RCC praktisch ein Muss.

Auf der 'The Best of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM ist also
für jeden Geschmack einiges dabei. Sowohl für den ernsthaften
Anwender als auch für den Zocker. Die CD-ROM ist das Ergebnis
jahrelanger Arbeit am Amiga und sollte in keiner Sammlung
fehlen. Außerdem steht sie in einem einfach unschlagbaren
Preis/Leistungs-Verhältnis. Obwohl eine Registration der
in Vollversionen auf der CD-ROM enthaltenen Shareware
Programme schon über 60 DM kosten würde, ist die CD-ROM
für nur 29.95 DM zu haben.  Und da man noch viel mehr
auf der CD-ROM bekommt als 'nur' die Vollversionen, ist
der Preis nahezu unschlagbar.

Die 'The Best of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM erscheint
pünktlich zur Messe in Köln beim APC&TCP zu einem empfohlenen
Verkaufspreis von 29.95 DM.


Weitere Informationen erhalten Sie bei:

APC&TCP
Postfach 83
D-83236 Übersee
Tel: 08642/89995
Fax: 08642/895004
Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de
http://www.chiemgau.com/apc&tcp

Wollen Sie zukünftig immer automatisch über neue Produkte und Updates aus dem Hause
APC&TCP informiert werden? Schreiben Sie einfach eine email an Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de
mit dem Subject "Subscribe NEWS".



The Best of Airsoft Softwair CD-ROM
-----------------------------------

At the Home Electronics World `99 in Cologne the 'The Best of
Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM will be released. This CD-ROM is
a collection of nearly all programs, which have ever been released
by the usergroup Airsoft Softwair. All Shareware releases by
Airsoft Softwair are as full versions on the CD-ROM of course.
Many of the programs have been reworked and are available in
brand new versions on the CD-ROM now.

The following exclusive full versions are on the 'The Best
of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM:

- CD32 Games Install Kit v3.1NG
- Da Cool Installer
- NewInstaller
- Rainboot Pro
- Rainboot Configuration Creator (RCC)

Additionally there are many, partially not released, programs
on the CD-ROM, as for example:

- all Rainboot configurations (actually over 80!)
- AHelp
- Cheater and Trainer for many games (over 30!)
- complete Soundtrack of the game 'The 3 Islands'
- complete mirror of the Airsoft Softwair Homepage including all binaries
- complete mirror of the CBM Fan Page including all binaries
- Da Cool Booter
- Da Cool Patcher
- Da Cool Quiz
- Developersection with alot of sourcecodes and documentations
- DMS2HD
- File2Disk
- Flip Da Scrip
- HD Installer for many games
- Historysection with the legendary 'version 1.0' of many programs
- Icons for many applications and games
- LaunchHTML
- Modules
- Needin' Speed
- PianoPlayer
- Pictures
- PlayMOD
- RandomStartup
- SNES9xGUI
- Sounds
- The 3 Islands Giga Preview (over 130MB!) with videos and more
- The 3 Islands playable Preview
- TUP
- XTreme Mod

and alot more!

The CD32 Games Install Kit v3.1 Next Generation is the result
of a nearly complete rewrite of the famous CD32 Games Install
Kit, which installs CD32 games to harddisk and patches them
to run from there. Actually over 170 CD32 games are directly
supported. Many of them do even run on Amigas without the
AGA chipset. This version has alot of new features like for
example an integrated CD32 emulator, a complete new and much
more stable bootsystem (Install2001NG) and additionally there`s
now the possibility to install even non predefined CD32 games.
So it`s possible to install nearly every CD32 game to harddisk (!!).

The well known Da Cool Installer is also available in a new,
many times reworked version on the CD-ROM. Da Cool Installer
allows the user to install all sort of games to his harddisk.
The advantage of Da Cool Installer is, that it uses a general
method of installing the games. So it`s possible to install
nearly every game without problems. Da Cool Installer supports
a trackdisk.device emulation, games with more than one disk,
Degrade2ECS support, installation of crunched DMS disks and
many more.

NewInstaller is the ultimate multimedia addon for the old
Commodore Installer. With NewInstaller it`s now possible
to add graphics, sounds and other multimedia elements to
an installation. Even Online Registrations can be maintained
by NewInstaller. Other features are for example the possibility
to visit homepages, creating UnInstall scripts and much
more. Additionally it`s possible to make NewInstaller create
scripts for the Commodore Installer automatically.
NewInstaller only needs to know the path of the program
to be installed and it will generate the script according
to the program automatically. NewInstaller is a must-have
for all Amiga owners!

The ultimate multimedia boot, Rainboot, is also on the CD-ROM
in a much improved and extended Pro-version. Rainboot allows
the user to show complete boot shows during the bootup. Rainboot
supports nearly everything you can think of: Animations, sounds,
copper rainbows, password protection, brushes, different fonts,
modules, fades, CyberGraphX and Picasso96 support, progressbars,
retrieving and displaying information about the used Amiga
system, graphical effects, scrolling of pictures and much much
more. In the Pro-version it`s now possible to use more than
one animation, add user-controls to the configurations and much
more. So it`s now also possible to create real multimedia
applications with Rainboot. Rainboot is a unique program, which
has neither been beaten in features and effectivity on Amiga nor
on PC.

In order that everyone is able to create his own Rainboot
configurations in an easy way, the Rainboot Configuration
Creator, called RCC, is also contained in a full version
on the CD-ROM. This program makes it possible with the
help of a graphical user interface to offer a very easy
way of creating own Rainboot configurations. The RCC
supports the most Rainboot functions and allows also
reediting of already created Rainboot configurations.
Additionally it has a wide Online help, which can be
accessed directly from the interface of RCC. For every
Rainboot user the RCC is a must-have!

The 'The Best of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM is something for
everyone. For serious users as well as for gamers. The
CD-ROM is the result of many years of work on Amiga and should
not miss any collection. Additionally the CD-ROM is very
cheap. Registering each Shareware program apart would cost
over 60 DM and the CD-ROM costs only 29.95 DM. And as there`s
much more software than 'just' the full versions on the
CD-ROM, the price is nearly unbeatable.

The 'The Best of Airsoft Softwair' CD-ROM will be released
by APC&TCP at the show in Cologne for an advised price of
29.95 DM.

For more information contact APC&TCP at:

APC&TCP
Postfach 83
D-83236 Übersee (Germany)
Tel: +49 (0)8642/89995
Fax: +49 (0)8642/895004
Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de
http://www.chiemgau.com/apc&tcp

Do you want to be noticed about new products and updates from APC&TCP? Then just
send an email to Andreas@chiemgau.baynet.de with the subject "Subscribe NEWS".



-----------------------------------------------------------

Andreas Magerl

APC&TCP, Postfach 83, D-83236 Übersee
Größter Amiga-Computerclub Deutschlands!
Chefredaktion Amiga-Future, Chefredaktion NoCover
Clubleitung APC&TCP-Computerclub
Geschäftsführung APC&TCP-Vertrieb
Voice: +49-8642-899953, Fax: +49-8642-895004
http://www.chiemgau.com/apc&tcp  http://www.amigafuture.de

Date:          Sun, 24 Oct 99 17:00:37 MET
Reply-To:      rc5@amiga.cistron.nl
From:          aTmosh@amiga.cistron.nl (Thomas Tavoly)
To:            petra.struck@online-club.de
Subject:       PR: The Amiga RC5 Team effort celebrates second
                   aniversary of RC5-64 challenge


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22nd 1999

The Amiga RC5 Team effort celebrates second anniversary of RC5-64 challenge

The Amiga RC5 Team effort has now been participating for two years in the
Distributed.Net/RC5-64 challenge. During the first two years of the effort
we managed to reach a ranking of fifth overall out of over 8000 teams with
a total of 200,000 participants. There are now over 2000 people
participating under the Amiga team, accounting for about 1.1% of all the
work done (or 110 million blocks of 2^28 keys).

During this period, 14% of the keyspace has been searched, progressing 2.5
times faster in the second year compared to the first. At current growth
rate the correct key will be found within the next two years, whereas this
was previously thought to take a century or more, clearly showing how good
encryption and the free availability thereof is important to security and
privacy on the Internet and elsewhere.

The Amiga RC5 Team effort focuses on bringing exposure to the Amiga and the
community spirit and strives to achieve this by ranking high in distributed
computing projects such as the RC5 and DES challenges, using otherwise idle
computing power only.

With your help, we hope to increase our momentum and show the world the
Amiga is not dead, in spite of a total lack of support from parent
companies over the past five years. There is still plenty to come, with the
recent release of AmigaOS 3.5, and upcoming G3 and G4 accelerators and
peripherals. A G4/AltiVec optimized client could be as much as four times
faster MHz for MHz as current code, and only a few hundred people upgrading
would propel us into the top 3 if not higher (over 660 Amigas participating
in the effort are already PowerPC equipped). Also, work on an
improved/faster 68k client is still progressing.

Everyone is cordially invited to join, with any kind of machine, though one
Amiga at least is appreciated. For a full explanation of what the effort is
about, where we are heading, how to participate and everything from
statistics to member listings, please visit the Amiga RC5 Team effort
homepage at http://distributed.amiga.org

The Amiga RC5 Team effort is also providing a mailinglist as a forum for
the discussion on above topics and the effort in general.


Sincerely,

Amiga RC5 Team effort coordinator
Thomas Tavoly - rc5@amiga.cistron.nl


      ...
      _ . Thomas Tavoly
 . _ // . aTmosh@amiga.cistron.nl
 . \X/    http://www.cistron.nl/~ttavoly
 ...  5.1