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[DonP1]

I'm still on 3.1 and was wondering what the benifits are in 3.5 or 3.9.

Thanks,

Don

[amiga92570]

http://www.haage-partner.de/aos39/index-e.html

[pjhutch]

Benefits of OS 3.9 are:

* Multimedia programs (MP3, AVI, QT, CD)
* AWEB Web Browser
* Genesis Internet connectivity
* WarpOS 5.0
* AmiDock
* Iomega Tools
* More Powerful Shell
* Auto datatype recognition
* Fast search
* Unarchiver
* New Picture datatyp;e
* New tools
* HTML Documentation

Plus
* HP Printer drivers
* 16 AVI Video trailers
* 5 Audio tracks
* CacheCDFS
* OS 3.5 included
* Full colour icons
* Contributed tools: AHI, P96, CGFX, Warp3D, AWNP, LPR etc

Of course this was 6 years ago so some of it is a bit out of date. These days people are concentrating on AmigaOS 4.

[Jupp3]

* Genesis Internet connectivity

With unlicenced, but fully working AmiTCP

* Full colour icons

I would hardly call 8bit icons "full colour"

It's also worth mentioning that you can get many of the advantages (same or similar) for free from Aminet. The mentioned comparison was (obviously) againist plain 3.1 with no (free or commercial) extra tools / patches / programs installed.

Of course this was 6 years ago so some of it is a bit out of date. These days people are concentrating on AmigaOS 4.

Mostly different people (H&P did 3.5 & 3.9, Hyperion is doing 4.x). Of course some "external contributors" might be the same for all three projects.

But indeed, most "amiga people" nowadays focus on AmigaOS4, MorphOS or AROS.

[DonP1]

Thanks for the help. I've read most of this and think these newer O/S's are probably not for me.

But the one thing I don't understand:

* WarpOS 5.0

Is this OS/2 Warp version 5.0, or am I (most likely) way off base.

[keropi]

warpOS is the system/set-of-libs+programs that amigaos uses to utilise the ppc cpu's found in blizzardPPC and CyberStormPPC dual cpu cards...
if your hardware allows it upgrade to AOS3.9, it is a good improvement over 3.1 , it has good eye-candy :-D and many built-in features...

[amigakit]

One of the most important updates in OS 3.5 and 3.9 is Large Hard Disk support- standard OS 3.1 does not work with hard disks above 4Gb and even with patches cannot report large hard disk capacities correctly and perform a full format.

OS 3.5/3.9 has a new FastFileSystem, fixed HDToolbox, fixed scsi.device and updated Format tool. IMHO, very important if you want to use a new hard disk in your Amiga.

[itix]

OS 3.5/3.9 has a new FastFileSystem, fixed HDToolbox, fixed scsi.device and updated Format tool. IMHO, very important if you want to use a new hard disk in your Amiga.

There is 64bit FFS at Aminet but it requires that IDE/SCSI driver supports 64bit addressing. Internal IDE driver for A1200/A4000 in Kickstart 3.0/3.1 doesn't.

In short: (only) if using an internal IDE 3.5 or 3.9 is required for large HD support.

[amigakit]

Unfortunately OS 3.1 does not support 64-bit addressing in ROM so even with third party patches, you still cannot do a full format with Workbench - also the Workbench will fail to correctly report the capacities of the larger hard disks.

Only 3.5/3.9 does this correctly as it patches the Kickstart ROM.

[itix]

* 16 AVI Video trailers
* 5 Audio tracks

Thank god I never bought 3.9 :-P

[tonyvdb]

DonP1 wrote:
I'm still on 3.1 and was wondering what the benifits are in 3.5 or 3.9.

More bells and whistles, easy CD installation and no need to worry about the floppies getting damaged or erased.
Better hard drive support for larger drives but as mentioned most if not all advantages with OS.3.5 or 3.9 can be downloaded from Aminet but these take alot more work to install and dont always work as well.

[Jupp3]

most if not all advantages with OS.3.5 or 3.9 can be downloaded from Aminet but these take alot more work to install and dont always work as well.

And some others might also work better :-)

With OS3.5 and 3.9 you get pre-set feature set, whether or not you like certain features or not (which CAN be edited, but that's not far from the said "aminet installation" way)
Personally I chose to at least use a better way to handle big hard disks, probably disabled some others aswell. Can't remember, it's so long ago :-)

Oh, both of them also add one additional reset when you power up your amiga (which can result in 2 boots if you have blitzkick installed (as you should) but you CAN make all the rom updates with blitzkick, took a while to figure out how, but I can't remember it anymore)

Personally the biggest letdown with both was the fact, that neither one comes with registered MUI.

[InTheSand]

@DonP1: IMHO, it's only really worth upgrading beyond 3.1 if you have a graphics card and >= 68060 CPU. The benefits of the "eye candy" will be pretty much lost on AGA or ECS, and the added stuff with the OS requires a reasonable processor to be of any use...

- Ali

[DamageX]

editpad comes with 3.9

[DonP1]

InTheSand wrote:
@DonP1: IMHO, it's only really worth upgrading beyond 3.1 if you have a graphics card and >= 68060 CPU. The benefits of the "eye candy" will be pretty much lost on AGA or ECS, and the added stuff with the OS requires a reasonable processor to be of any use...

- Ali

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I guess this is the key reason for not upgrading. I have an A1000, 2MB chip + 2MB fast ram, and hard drive is only 540MB (not upgrading). No issues with the CD-ROM either, so I guess I shouldn't mess with anything if it isn't broken.