> but there's nothing it offers now that any modern OS doesn't do now
Did you ever go past your A1000? Did you use AmigaOS2.1 and up?
...like...scripting all your productivity applications with the same scripting language and have them interchange data, this way, orchestrating workflows I still dream about on other systems?
...like... mounting RAM: or SOUND: or HTTP: or IMAP: or FTP: or ARC(hives): or (raw) MEM(ory): ? All without any Virtual File System? Just real device level mounts?
#> mount HTTP:
#> COPY HTTP:hostname.tld/~user/index.html TO folder/
...like...having a hypertext standard, which can cross-reference all your includes, combine them with system documentation and have them appear on hover in your editor?
And so much more...
Yes, you can do all these things, the one way or other, on today's systems (except the mounting example,afaik). But with the Amiga these things were built-in. Which means, that, instead of system administration and time wasted on setup and tooling, you would just use the things and enjoy more productivity.
> All without any Virtual File System? Just real device level mounts?
Mounting "HTTP" counts as a virtual file system unless you have a real physical HTTP object plugged into your Amiga, surely?
> scripting all your productivity applications with the same scripting language and have them interchange data
Theoretically possible with both AppleScript and the much-hated VBA, but never quite as easy. Probably never will be as easy, as you can only have this kind of tight integration when there are no security boundaries between applications.
> - Compatibility with international character sets (UTF-8) for data exchange
>
> - Support for modern peripherals like LCD monitors, printers, wi-fi cards, etc.
>
> - Access to external filesystems (Ext4, NTFS, remote storage, etc.)
This is all supported with the current version of the OS (AmigaOS 4), however, due to no market share, only select devices are supported (the situation is like Linux (was), but much more extreme: printers (non-postscript) and WiFi cards, especially).
It is other things, where the system did not age well: no memory protection and no multi user support.
However, I do not want to place the Amiga as a viable solution for today's use. I just wanted to address the comment, I replied to, which was a bit too 'absolute' in tone for my taste. I did not find the criticism to be justified. Currently there is a hardware scene, that builds FPGA systems, that are fully compatible and meant to be run as stand alone, or as add-in systems and which can cope with most modern tasks, albeit CPU and GPU power is a limit, of course.
Did you ever go past your A1000? Did you use AmigaOS2.1 and up?
...like...scripting all your productivity applications with the same scripting language and have them interchange data, this way, orchestrating workflows I still dream about on other systems?
...like... mounting RAM: or SOUND: or HTTP: or IMAP: or FTP: or ARC(hives): or (raw) MEM(ory): ? All without any Virtual File System? Just real device level mounts?
...like...having a hypertext standard, which can cross-reference all your includes, combine them with system documentation and have them appear on hover in your editor?And so much more...
Yes, you can do all these things, the one way or other, on today's systems (except the mounting example,afaik). But with the Amiga these things were built-in. Which means, that, instead of system administration and time wasted on setup and tooling, you would just use the things and enjoy more productivity.