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[TrevorDick]

Originally Posted by Digiman

WinUAE is, AF specific bits written by Cloanto are not.

(if you own even a yellowed dead A500 you can legally download KS 1.3/2.04 and use the FREE WinUAE emulator they are charging you for)

The bit written by Cloanto make WinUAE usable for most people.

The Retro Player is a great utility for automatically setting up the playing Classic Amiga games. I've also used it for running most of my classic Amiga productivity software (and I use Amiga Explorer to connect the PC to my Amiga and drag across the ADF file without messing with shell command - very simple. The RP9 wrapper makes it easy to create your own self contained executable files.

Of course if you have every single Amiga model and understand the intricacies of various Chipset, Ram, video modes and CPU settings,etc etc thensetting then perhaps AF is not for you.

But everyone to their own.

TrevorD

[fishy_fiz]

That's gotta be one of the dumbest things Ive seen written for a while, and being that I frequent a lot of amiga sites there's plenty of competition.
XP+SP3 is no more bloated than SP2, it's more secure and more stable. I prefer it to any other MS OS. The only thing you miss out on apart from eye candy is directx 10.x upwards. Dont want all the bloat, fine dont install all the bloat, its not exactly rocket science. My XP+SP3 iso is significantly smaller than a default xp iso (ie. without sp1,2, or 3), and a heck of a lot more upto date and stable.

Only illiterate "nobs" (its knobs by the way) use default installs.

The "coming from a technician" remark was also funny. Ive been a technician for decades and I sure as heck wouldnt recommend osx or linux over Windows,... I'd recommend the best tool for the job which on any day could be any one of them.

[Ami_GFX]

Just a note on on Xp SP2. I have one machine still on it--an old Sony Vaio Laptop that I use just for audio. It has a port replicator with normal RCA audio jacks and I have it hooked up to my stereo system for recording, Internet Radio and MP3 playback. I tried updating to SP3 and got audio glitches playing .mp3 files. It ended up being the fault of Internet Explorer 8, not SP3, but I never bothered reinstalling it. I'm still getting security updates for SP2 via automatic update in 2012. I update its virus definitions about once a year. I use the firewall/antivirus that Sony provided for it. No security issues ever. I do use it in user mode and only go into administrator mode to install software or updates which doesn't happen very often. I rarely even open a web browers on this laptop and the only internet app I use with regularly with it is Radiosure.

On the other hand the laptop I use for business, is SP3 with all updates and security fixes. I still use Xp because I have an industrial strengh printer/scanner setup that I need for my work and neither HP or Microsoft provide Windows 7 drivers for it. I really hate the upgrade for upgrade's sake culture. There are sensible upgrades and there are senseless ones based on a lot of hype and marketing. If you have a system that works for you that you've invested some money in, there is no point in upgrading it until it doesn't do the job it needs to do. This is why business users have stayed with Xp so long. If I upgraded this laptop to Windows 7, I would lose speed, hard disk space and access to periphials that are worth as much as the laptop. No point in it. I will use Windows 7 when I buy a machine that comes with it and I will probably still keep scanning and printing with this machine.

I've been using Winuae since around the year 2000. It is one of the best emulators ever and it is constantly improved.

[paul1981]

I installed SP3 on my XP setup 2 years ago, and it actually increased the speed of my internet connection (or network connection) by a significant amount. I was pleased with that and wished I had installed it earlier (I play online games).

[Duce]

Originally Posted by Digiman

Don't. XP SP3 is for nobs in suits who have no clue. No software of note requires it, including WinUAE.

You do realize anything prior to SP3 is no longer supported, therefore leaving gaping holes in your security with the older service packs?

Never heard a more foolish comment in my life, to recommend running a less secure operating system version - even if it is a MS product, and all.

[ral-clan]

I've got a PC set up wonderfully just the way I like it - running Windows XP-SP3. Pretty responsive for my needs and I've carefully set up all the video apps, emulators (WinUAE) etc., audio recording apps I use so that they are running perfectly. I does everything I need and more and I plan to keep using Windows XP for many more years, until it can't do what I need it to anymore.

I too hate the upgrade for upgrading's sake culture. Takes tons of time to get everything perfectly set up again.

I also use both WinUAE and Amiga Forever 2012. I like them both. WinUAE for when I want to set up a complete Amiga virtual system with all my productivity apps carefully tweaked, and Amiga Forever for quickly starting up single games.

I rarely used Amiga Forever's "Player" until the RP9 format was released. Now I really like it. A single file holds all the disks, screenshot, manual, and UAE configuration in a single wrapper. Games start up hassle free with a click.

[persia]

Windows 7 is far better than XP unless you are a computer historian and like running old OSs

[kedawa]

There are plenty of perfectly functional PCs that don't meet Windows 7's hardware requirements, especially when it comes to RAM.

[smerf]

Originally Posted by kedawa

There are plenty of perfectly functional PCs that don't meet Windows 7's hardware requirements, especially when it comes to RAM.

Hi,

You have got to learn to give up the old and go with the new (I mean in PC's they are so cheap, you can buy one new modern up to date computer for about $200 less than an Amiga 4000).

smerf

[desiv]

Originally Posted by smerf

You have got to learn to give up the old and go with the new

That all depends what you want to do with the computer.
If it does what you need it to do with those specs, and it's not being used for anything critical...
Yes, you could spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade it to do what you are doing now..

Or you could not spend the few hundred dollars, and use it for Amiga purchases. ;-)

I have a fairly old PC (by today's standards) that does what I need.
Instead of upgrading that PC, I have an accelerated Amiga 1200 with a MAS Player Evolved (just got that today)....

I think, for me, that was a better choice for my money..

Yes, I still can't play <insert latest game here> on my PC, but I'm OK with that.

desiv

[haywirepc]

I got it working fine using an older version of winuae. But I agree I can't stand aforever player and the encrypted roms. Hopefully, with aros 68k and the kickstart replacement, we won't need afroever anymore.

I don't like using the player, I just want games/demos loaded by the os.

I don't see much of use in throwing a 2.0ghz windows xp computer with 4 gigs away and buying a win7 computer. for most day to day tasks, xp is fine and win7 offers no major advantages, just bloat and bogging down your system.

If I'm just using it for winuae, its fine. This pc was free. I'm broke so I just have to use what I have around.

Steven

[Ami_GFX]

You're much better off buying Amiga gear than a new PC: You'll defintely get your money back and maybe a return on your investment if you're a smart shopper. That new PC will be an old PC in no time and it won't be worth anything unlike an old Amiga.

If I'm just using it for winuae, its fine. This pc was free. I'm broke so I just have to use what I have around.

That's one reason I keep using Xp. People just give me their old Xp machines. The Vaio laptop with Xp Pro I use as a digital recever/tape deck came to me because the former owner couldn't remember the password and didn't want to bother with it any more. It had a system recovery partition and I restored the system which came with all kinds of cool software courtesy of Sony.

I have another IBM laptop of similar vintage which is devoted to Winuae and backing up and editing files for my satellite receivers. I bought a lot of 3 non working thinkpads and put one working one together out of it and got the parts to fix the other one I'm writing this on. Cost was something like $60. Not free but not much either.

[fishy_fiz]

As I mentioned before, the only thing you really gain by upgrading beyond XP+SP3 is DX10+. Apart from that Win VIsta/Win7 only add unneccesary bloat and next to no functionality. Win XP is a nice balance between modern and streamlined. I like to know my OS and what its doing inside out, with my own customisations (why I like amiga oses) and XP isnt a bad option for that.
The only system I have that's running anything more recent is my media centre machine, but only because it's also my main gaming rig (i7-2600k/gf570gtx/etc.).
I have a couple other decent machines (core2duos@3.86ghz and 4.1ghz respectively) and theyre running XP, my preferred OS for "serious" work. An OS should be there just to guide/drive the software. It's freaking crazy for it to be the biggest, most resource hungry program running and XP has a big advantage here.

Even MS seem to be aware that XP is pretty good. If they didnt they wouldnt have enforced artificial restrictions on it (ie. techincally there's nothing that it cant run that's available to Vista/7 so they had to artificially restrict latest IE and DX, etc. from working). If they hadnt done that there'd be no reason for people to upgrade.

[Lurch]

Don't think it's a problem with the OS at all, just hasn't been updated. As with anything you need to maintain it.

However the thread title is incorrect.

As for the support dropping for XP, XP is too old now. It's been around since 2001 that's a very long time for an OS (let alone computer hardware).

I ditched XP as soon as Windows 7 was released, I know there are MS haters out there but Windows 7 is a huge leap forward. Faster than my XP build and more stable, even self repairing. Of course there are people out there trying to run 6+ year old hardware with it which is crazy.

[Duce]

XP is still a completely viable OS, and as others stated, especially for older HW and in cases where it's simply not worth the $ to invest in W7. Just be aware support ends on it in 2014 (XP SP3) - SP support on SP1 and SP2 ended in 2006.

Honestly though, even on older machines that are of the XP era, I find Windows 7 to run on said hardware just as well as XP does, but you'll occasionally hit driver availability issues. I'm having that problem atm trying to find W7/WHS 2011 RAID drivers for a 680i (Asus P5N32 E SLI Plus) based board. XP drivers are readily available, but Win 7/WHS 2011 ones aren't.

As for AF, I think it delivers a good initial, easy to use experience - many people get back into the Amiga scene via Amiga Forever, but personally I have outgrown the encrypted ROM's and instability issues with it and just headed to standalone UAE or Amithlon.

I would not buy AF again myself, but I would not hesitate to recommend it to someone that just wants an emulated blast from the past in an all in one package.