AmigaOS: Difference between revisions

[[Category:Operating Systems]]

'''AmigaOS''' is the native [[operating system]] of the [[wp:Amiga|Amiga]] personal computer, a series of workstations originally marketed by [[Commodore]] from 1985 through 1994, and later by other companies. For a brief history of AmigaOS and the Amiga in general, see [[wp:History of the Amiga|Wikipedia's Amiga history page]].

AmigaOS is notable as being an early GUI operating system, following in the footsteps of systems such as [[Mac OS]] and [[wp:Graphical Environment Manager|GEM]] (although GEM was only considered part of the OS on Atari computers -- see [[wp:Atari TOS|Wikipedia's Atari TOS page]] for more on that topic). (Unlike Mac OS, and like most other GUI systems, AmigaOS also included a command line interface.)

Like the [[Macintosh]], part of the operating system is contained in the [[wp:Bootstrapping (computing)|boot ROM], called '''[[wp:Kickstart (Amiga)|Kickstart]]'''. Unlike the Mac, however, large parts of the OS were contained in the Kickstart.

The command line portion of the OS, implemented by Kickstart, is called '''[[wp:AmigaDOS|AmigaDOS]]'''. While AmigaDOS is not to be confused with [[DOS|PC-style DOS]], it does share some similarities with DOS and other text-mode systems.

The actual GUI is called '''[[wp:Workbench|Workbench]]''', and as the name suggests, instead of the now-common GUI metaphor of a desktop (with files and folders), the screen uses the metaphor of a workbench, with tools, gadgets, drawers, etc.