AmigaOS Aros clone on Icaros Desktop version 2.2.5



Icaros Desktop New Install
I had some extra time recently, so I decided to try out the Icaros Desktop 2.2.5, which was released in December 2018. Icaros Desktop is an AmigaOS clone that runs on x86 hardware. Icaros is based upon Aros. Aros in an operating system that can be installed on an x86 computer and it requires no host operating system to run. Most AmigaOS emulators require a host operating system such as Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Aros, however, eliminates the need for a host OS.


OWB web browser running on Icaros Desktop
It took maybe 10-15 minutes to install Icaros into a Virtual Machine (Oracle VM Virtual Box, to be precise). During the install I selected to install the Extras as well as the Developer tools.

I tested the default web browser, OWB, soon after installation. It handled many website adequately. However, I was unable to compose this article using Icaros because I was unable to login to my blogging website, blogger.com, with OWB. And, oddly enough, OWB had trouble rendering Icaros' web site and eventually crashed the VM. After a reboot, I retried the Icaros website and I was able to browse the site for a while. Amiga related websites rendered fine in OWB.

Trouble dragging OWB window
I encountered problems resizing windows. Additionally, I was unable to click and move windows around when the window was shrunk as shown in the screenshot to the left. This could be a VM issue although other VM operating systems that have been run; such as FreeBSD 12, Linux Mint 19, and Haiku; do not have this problem. I tested a previous version of Icaros a few years ago on a physical system, and I do not remember having this problem, so I'll hold to it being a VM issue.


bwBASIC running small program
There are several development tools installed with the Developer Tool extras. There is a GUI builder named, MUI Builder, that I tried out. I didn't spend a lot of time with this tool, yet it is something that could be very helpful with creating a GUI for an Amiga-Aros application. SDLBasic is also an available dev tool in Icaros. I managed to load a few of the example BASIC files and run them as well as create a small program of my own. SDLBasic did, however, crash on me several times when attempting to close the program, but it's neat nonetheless. Several other languages are available in the Extras/Development/Languages folder.


Successful g++ compile and run
With the gcc developer tools I managed to create, compile, and run a simple "Hello, world" program in both C and in C++.  Maybe some day I'll write and compile a larger program that is more useful.

Well, this was my initial experiment with the new Icaros Desktop v 2.2.5 released on Winter Solstice 2018.

Cheers to the Icaros and Aros development team.

Comments

  1. Paolo BesserJanuary 9, 2019 at 1:03 PM

    Thank you so much. If you can, please choose VMware Player instead of VirtualBOX as virtualization technology. It's far better, stabler, and more reliable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David's BlogJanuary 15, 2019 at 6:39 PM

      Thanks for your comment. I will try it on VMware Player soon.

      Delete

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