Running Amiga-like OSes on QEMU | Hacker News Reader

Running Amiga-like OSes on QEMU

zero.eik.bme.hu

74 pointsdoener12 comments

I recently learned that the FS-UAE (which is a macOS/Linux port of the WinUAE) supports Amiga PPC emulation using the QEMU plugin. I've spent this weekend installing Amiga OS 4.1 on something that was my dream machine two decades ago (but emulated): A4000 060/PPC 604e with 128 MB.

Works great! I love installing classic OSes :)

https://imgur.com/a/z7T8Z53

Is anyone using one of these OSes for "real" work. By that I mean, something key to their livelihood. I'm just curious, not trying to say that hobby OSes are in anyway a derogatory thing.

I guess that the most common case is not an interactive work, but some kind of automation systems built a long time ago, that just works, eg. Amiga 2000 running school heating system [1] or C64 running driveshaft balancing calculations [2].

[1] https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/1980s-computer-cont...

[2] http://wbj.pl/auto-garage-in-poland-uses-commodore-64-to-run...

There is a remarkably active Amiga fan scene that continues to use these OSes for "real" and develop new applications and games. Frankly, it's amazing; random examples: https://amitopia.com/muimapparium-0-7-for-amigaos/ , https://amitopia.com/inviyya-shooter-for-amiga-500-in-develo... .

I've fantasized about doing it myself on more than one occasion. The price of new Amiga hardware sort of puts me off, but it's not outside the range I could afford. Unfortunately, I don't quite have the time right now (and, for once in my life, it's not a silly "i don't have time" excuse), so I'm watching it from afar.

This is childish: "AmigaOS can do ALL of the mentioned things above, including browsing OpenStreetMap maps better than on ANY other operating system out there."

Well, I did warn you this was a fan scene :-).

Maybe some of those people who make money in retro computing? It seems to be a growing niche, with people making new hardware and software for old machines, and other people splashing their work all over the internet.

I don't know if anyone can actually make a "living" doing that, but it would be cool if they did.

Excellent website design.

So little effort (just AmigaOS 2+ colors and some amiga-ish gadgets), yet so much better than the average site these days.

I think it looks off putting, but it really depends on the audience.

For people wanting to try this, but not having the right OS installer, see https://pastebin.com/9JK1i7aD

Does anyone know of a good up to date guide on QEMU? I have run into some bad old information.

https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation

If there is something missing, just drop a mail to the list. The devs are pretty responsive.

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