CompuServe Thread

Escom is putting OS3.1 with the new A1200. That sounds like it's official to me 😉 Jeff Walker, JAM magazine jwalker@cix.compulink.co.uk

John, Check out the messages from the UK Press Conference! IMO, all Amiga users who can *afford* it, should upgrade to 3.1. I also think 3.1 should be priced at about 50% of what it is now! It's priced too high for the 'average user'! Just my $.01985 worth!<g>….the inflation factor. Tom

John, <Do you know whether this is supported by Escom as an official Amiga release? My understanding is that it was never released by Commodore.> The release of OS 3.1 was always an official release. VillageTronics signed a contract with Commodore before the liquidation. Part of your confusion could come from the fact that, at first, VT thought that it was only for Picasso users (the reason they were so hot to get it released was improvements that affected the Picasso). Later, after re-reading the contract they realized they could sell it to anyone, so they did, and, as far as I know still are. It is also shipping in all the new machines AmigaTech is shipping soon. The reason why some mail order houses are still selling OS 2.04 and OS 2.1 is because they still have stock on hand. I suspect that they'd be selling OS 1.3 if they had kits and thought anyone would actually buy it. <g> Asha @}–`–,-

AmigaDOS 3.1 is safe, and was officially sanctioned and finished by Commodore, though they liquidated before they sold it. But while C= was still in business (but after they announced their demise) they authorized Village Tronic to carry it. The problem was that some people made illegal copies of it. Only the ones from Village Tronic, with color manuals etc. are REAL. There were a lot of cheap fakes with photocopied manuals made. Most of these bogus copies disappeared once it became clear to mail order companies etc. that the real one was from VT. Any OS release by Escom will include and supersede 3.1 – it will include all 3.1 functions, and Escom will recognize the improvements and additions in 3.1. Commodore was already working on 3.2, or 4.0, and were at work on RTG and networking was nearly complete. It is safe to get 3.1, and the VT version is NOT a beta version, it is a final release. If you have the opportunity to upgrade, do so I recommend it. But if you have 3.0 ROMS, just get the 3.1 software, the ROMS for 3.1 don't do much more than 3.0 roms, the difference is mostly software. (sort of like the 1.2/1.3 difference, or 2.1/3.0.)