With AmigaOS 3.1.4 released by Hyperion Entertainment. The classic Amiga hardware platform is moving on with one of the biggest AmigaOS 3.x updates ever since 2000. Together with AmigaOS 3.1.4 lilliput released an extension. BestWB 1.0 is a new workbench pack, much like many of the AmigaOS upgrading packs for the system that you find on Aminet and other places. But this package aims at being an extension to AmigaOS 3.1.4, without all those hardware penalties typically associated with these kind of packs. It is indeed a better 3.1.4 than 3.1.4 itself the author of the package claims on his website.
BestWB will suit anyone that wishes a clean AmigaOS experience without the unneeded bloat often associated with these kind of distros. It persues speed and usability and does not focus on eye candy.
Feature list of BestWB for AmigaOS 3.1.4
- A Find system tool so that the workbench menu “Find…” gets activated (SimpleFind)
- New and Improved datatypes for gif, jpg, bmp, png, pcx, tga, tiff, and wav media
- New Removable media partition mounter (SCSIMounter)
- New System snooper (SnoopDOS)
- Fast and easy to use floppy disk copier application (SuperDuper)
- Libraries for cpu support and better hardware detection (MMULib+BoardsLib)
- A file manager to copy, move and delete files in an easier manner (DirWork)
- Lots of of handy commodities that make user experience much more comfortable (GrabIFF, AssignWedge, CleverWIN, FreeWheel, Rewincy, ToolsMenu, ToolAlias, NewMode, yStart, DosPrefs, BenchTrash, PowerSnap, CronTask, PM and MagicMenu)
- 58 additional workbench printer drivers (take a peek at your SYS:Storage/printers drawer)
- Complementary commands like AddMem, DMS, WBCtrl, and showboards
- ZIP and JAZ drive support and their corresponding mountlists (IOTools)
- XPKMaster offers a data compression/decompression library available to programs that support it
- Charmap is a tool that helps dealing with all the characters of a given font. Useful for accents and uncommon characters
- Prepcard+ helps the user to manage many hardware on the pcmcia port
- The popular LHA, LZX, GZIP and ZIP/UNZIP archiver commands are installed in their latest incarnation
- Compact Disk audio player with lots of great features (ACDPlay)
- Midi support for many programs with camd.library and the Midiports preferences application
- New graphic interface that lets you read and write back adf and dms floppy images (TSGUI)
- There is a new preferences program (WBStartupPrefs) that lets you easily handle the WBStartup and Commodities drawer
- The light weight but otherwise efficient Redit text editor is also included
- New monitors drivers for native Amiga chipset (Film24, HD720, HighGFX, SuperPlus and Xtreme)
- FontView is an app able to browse thru available fonts and report their characteristics
- A Backup tool that can even be made to work with non Amiga partitions (ABackup)
- Shell with command completion, scrollbars and lots of other nice features thanks to VinCed
- A workbench friendly NSD/TD64 compatible drive defragmenter (DiskOptimizer)
- Totalcalc is a replacement calculator that can even be configured as an advanced scientific one
- Unpacker aids the user in uncompressing archived files with a GUI
- A very fast antivirus that supports xvs.library is now deployed (Fungicide)
- TextView is an advanced text viewer that supports html between other formats
- DTView2 is a simple and efficient picture viewer
- IconLib 46.4 is a fast icon.library reimplementation that allows you to see all types of icons (standard, newicons, glowicons, png, etc.).-FullPalette will let you lock and optimise palettes
- A complete set of manuals that explain all these new features. They are inside HELP:.
Chrysalis 3.11 is a similar package made for MorphOS 3.11 Users
Not only classic AmigaOS owners got superb support by people making excellent packages. Also Chrysalis 3.11 for MorphOS 3.11 is a package you should get if you use that AmigaOS Compatible operating system.
These packages extends the user experience of AmigaOS and MorphOS. They provide excellent service. Both BestWB 1.0 and Chrysalis 3.11 can be downloaded for free.
BestWB 1.0 installer issues?
Amitopia have managed to install AmigaOS 3.1.4 on our Amiga 1200. Burned some AmigaOS 3.1.4 roms even. When everything is up and running, you will know our final verdict about the new AmigaOS 3.1.4 experience. BestWB is a must to have, but there are some warnings about using the installer script. In the forum at hol.abime.net there are people mentioning that the flags for the files is changed after unpacking BestWB in certain unpacking apps? Some did install the files manually.
What did you experience? Amitopia will make a full review soon. Until then download and try it!
Get one of these useful packages for AmigaOS 3.1.4 or MorphOS 3.11
Download BestWB 1.0 for AmigaOS 3.1.4 here |
Download Chrysalis 3.11 for MorphOS 3.11 here |
Source: BestWB lilliput website