AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Review

I recently updated my AmigaONE 500 to AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition (FE) and have decided to write this review giving my first impressions of this 'final' update of AmigaOS 4.1.

Installing AmigaOS 4.1 FE must be done as a fresh install, from scratch, there is no update option. With this in mind I backed up my existing system to a CD-ROM and made a start. Knowing that writing to JXFS formatted drives is no longer possible under FE I also backed up the rest of my SSD.

Having backed everything up I inserted the FE disc expecting it to boot automatically, no luck. I tried changing the boot priorities in U-Boot, but to no avail. Next I swapped around the optical and SSD drive's SATA cables and the problem was solved. It seems the optical drive must be plugged into the SATA port nearest the motherboard to work as a boot device. Before updating AmigaOS I also added an additional SSD to my AmigaONE 500 and while doing this I must have replugged the SATA cables in a different order.

The optical drive's SATA cable connected to the correct port

Once the SATA cables were in the correct order the FE disc booted and I set about the install. I first had to format my two SSD drives, partition and change the file system to SFS for all the partitions. This was all pretty simple using Media Toolbox. While partitioning the drives I found an oddity, there was no SWAP partition on my original drive. The SWAP partition is used for virtual memory and although you can run the OS without one this can have an adverse impact on performance. I think the original SWAP partition must have been lost during a repartitioning of the SSD sometime ago, an oversight on my part. I set up the partitions and formatted the drives, one thing to note is that you must only format an SSD with the 'Quick Format' option and never the full format. I have a 60GB SSD which I partitioned into SWAP, System and Work and then a 240GB SSD I partitioned into Games and Media.

Editing the SSD partitions with Media Toolbox

Installing FE was relatively simple once the SATA issue was resolved, the installation went very smoothly. This was a much better experience for me than installing from the original OS 4.1 Update 2 disc, which I found to be thwart with USB issues on my AmigaONE 500. Once FE was installed I removed the disc and rebooted into the newly installed system, I was pleasantly surprised to find a significantly faster boot time than before.

Once Workbench opened I set about installing all my applications from the backup disc. This was for many a matter of simply copying drawers over to the newly formatted drive. However, for some programs I also had to also find and install third party libraries, MUI classes and in a few cases edit the User Startup file. This is a bit tedious and it would be nice if there was some option in the AmigaOS installer for copying over this stuff automatically. This said it is not often you need to undertaken a fresh install like this. I needed to now install the RadeonHD driver to get the screen mode back up to 1920x1080, again it's a shame copying this over from a previous installation isn't better integrated into the install and setup process.

Next I started to configure various Preferences to suit my tastes, here as well it would be nice to have an option to import the old settings. Adding everything to AmiDock again took a while, particularly as I had reorganised and renamed my partitions. In the end I decided not to bother rebuilding my various SmartButton sub docks. This is perhaps best seen as a good opportunity for a spring clean and getting rid of stuff that is rarely used. I also decided not to reinstall LimpidClock as I don't use the calendar and reminder functions much and instead decided to try out DateTime.docky again. I was pleased to find this docky has been substantially updated since I last used it and now has the ability to show reminders and a pop-up calendar when clicked. I added DateTime.docky to a dedicated AmiDock in the top right of the screen where LimpidClock used to to live.

The Workbench theme after installing FE was the 2nd look, which I can't say that I am fond of. I changed this to the standard theme which has a more 'flat' and modern look in my opinion. I also made some changes in Font Preferences as I'm not keen on the italic fonts used on the Workbench and in Drawer windows. To me the regular font has better readability than the italic font.

Font Preferences

In Amiga OS 4.1 Final Edition there are some new icons that have a more modern look and a shiny new default backdrop. The new icons are great, however it seems that some inconsistency has crept in, for examples the drawer icons in Storage and Devs still have the old style monitor, key and printer images rather than the new ones seen elsewhere. A minor detail I know, but it would have been nice if these had been updated to match. I also noticed that NotePad has some old toolbar images from way back.

Some icons have been given a make over

The new tabbed Shell works well and gives a better work flow, making working in Shell much more pleasant than before. There are also new commodities, namely AutoBorderSize and AutoInfo. AutoBorderSize allows windows to be re-sized by clicking and dragging any edge, rather than only the gadget in the button right corner. Although hardly ground breaking this is a useful feature I think, but it's good that it was included as a commodity as I don't think everyone would like this behaviour as default. I've added AutoBorderSize to my WBStartup so it loads every time the AmigaONE boots. AutoInfo gives some basic information about files when you move the mouse over them and I can see how this could be useful but for now I've not added this one to WBStartup.

ContextMenus have had an overall and now feature small icons alongside the text. Some useful functionality has been added such as 'Extract here' and 'Extract to...' options when right clicking an archive. There is still no preferences program for editing the content of these which is a shame. This said their configuration is stored in a fairly easy to understand text file that can be edited by the user with some care and I've added a 'Shutdown...' option to mine linking to the Poff tool. I found the old ContextMenus to be quite crash prone on my system, I am pleased to find they are almost rock solid now, however one that always results in a visit from the GrimReaper for me is 'New textfile here'. It would be nice to see these menus become smart, for example perhaps automatically adding third-party utilities the user has installed in the System partition. On a similar note an automatically populated applications menu might also be a neat edition.

Workbench's improved context menus

Personally one of my favourite new Workbench feature's is the thumbnail previews of images. I did found the feature a little tricky to find at first, as there is no option for previews when going through context menus. You must instead go to the main Workbench menu at the top of the screen. Caching can be switched on in Workbench Preferences and I found the thumbnails load much faster upon returning to a drawer with caching switched on and would recommend this, the difference may not be as noticeable on an X1000 of course. The ability to switch this feature off or on for specific drawers is welcome. As a bonus previews of text files are also shown, although I'm less convinced about the usefulness of this.

Overall I am very pleased with my upgrade to AmigaOS 4.1 FE and feel it represents good value for money. It is reassuring to know I have a boot disc I can use to emergency boot my AmigaONE 500 without the USB troubles experienced with the original Update 2 disc. The new features are very welcome, for me the AutoBorderResize and thumbnail previews are my favourites right now. Finally, I will leave you with a grab of my lovely new Workbench. Thanks for reading!

Workbench showing MPlayer, Shell and thumbnail previews