33-year-old AmigaOS for Commodore Computers Gets an Unexpected Update

"It is somewhat remarkable that work on AmigaOS 3.X continues in 2025," notes Tom's Hardware, "given that Commodore International released AmigaOS 3.0 in 1992..."

AmigaOS 3.1 came in 1993. And now... Work continues on AmigaOS 3.2 with the stewards of this classic Motorola 680x0 friendly operating system, Hyperion Entertainment, releasing version 3.2.3 a few days ago.

In a news bulletin on the official site, Hyperion highlighted that the third update for AmigaOS 3.2 includes two years of (more than 50) fixes and enhancements... Hyperion began its quest to modernize and improve this classic version of AmigaOS for Motorola 680x0 platforms in 2018 when it released version 3.1.4. The AmigaOS 3.2 lineage began in 2021...

This release is provided as a free update to owners of AmigaOS 3.2. If you don't already have this OS, you can get it now at official resellers like RetroPassion UK... Nowadays, Arm-based accelerators seem to be the path forward for modern Amiga, as opposed to retro Amiga, enthusiasts. AmigaOS 3.2.3 has a feather in its cap as it also supports classic 68K Amigas boosted by Arm accelerators such as the PiStorm.

Good stuff

[MarkHughes4096]

I have the 3.2.2 roms in my 1200 already, While I should be eligible for this upgrade for free it turns out I threw out my serial number, So I will just buy it again a bit later on, Look forward to seeing the improvements. It's so nice to use an OS that is entirely in my control, Nothing forced and everything stays exactly how I left it. I find myself spending more and more time on a 30 year old computer than my modern ones...

Re:

[mustafap]

I would be very interested to hear what you use it for, and what the benefits are to you. ('Fun' is acceptable :)

Re:Good stuff

[MarkHughes4096]

Fun yes, Coding in C and C++ mostly which is why I have an 060 and plenty of ram, Also games, I have quite a lot of them and they all still work just fine. Sometimes a demo or two. I also have all the usual office software if needed. I like to try and draw on deluxe paint :) Almost any mid 90's computer can do all this and I find them more fun to use.

Re: Good stuff

[zawarski]

Third thing that comes up when talking about Amiga starts with Kiki.

Re:Good stuff

[arglebargle_xiv]

I would be very interested to hear what you use it for,

Dialling into CompuServe to flame all the Atari ST losers.

Re:

[MarkHughes4096]

I don't, I can use it all perfectly well on the 3.2 roms, or even the 3.1, Nobody is forcing me to upgrade. I am choosing to do that.

The bugs you know vs. the bugs you don't

[Trilobyte]

One of the benefits of staying on 3.0 or 3.1 is the bugs have mostly been figured out and worked around by this point, 15-20 years later.

I'm scared of upgrading to the 3.2.x line because what new bugs are being introduced versus those which are being fixed? How much attention is being paid to legacy software compatibility (those programs which will never be updated ever again)? What if those programs had workarounds which are no longer necessary...?

Some of the well-known bugs in 3.1 would be nice to final

Re:

[sg_oneill]

I'd presume monitoring the appropriate Reddit groups for a while will give you that information, give it a few months and see where the consensus is on the topic.

Where's my stake?

[hawk]

Damnit, where's my stake?

[*pound*][*pound*][*pound*]

now *stay* dead this time!

[*grumble*]

Re:

[registrations_suck]

Amen.

Re:

[msk]

I'm in the four-digit club, too.

My Commander X16 came together a week ago, and while I haven't had much time with it yet, I do find it fun.

I never did get to experience the Amiga, but an OS fully in ROM is sort of nice to have again.

Re:

[hawk]

I still have my "Macintosh Classic" from the 90s, bought for secretaries at my office (I had a long-lead SE/30).

It, too, can boot entirely from ROM, into the then current Mac system (6.0.something). The catch was that system extensions had to be in the system folder at boot time, so you only had a limited system available.

They never did this again, although there is a limited function in ROM on many OS/X machines.

Re:

[Maavin]

Yeah! And while we're at it, let's recycle all the "historical cars" and clean out museums of all things older that an iPhone X, shall we?

Question Marks over PiStorm32 support.

[polyp2000]

There is no mention of it in the release notes.

Not so unexpected

[frambris]

It has been getting updates every few years since 1992.

Does it Support Touch Screens?

[TheWho79]

20 years dead, and it still beats a Mac book to a Touch screen support?

The one thing AmigaOS needed back then

[DrXym]

Was virtual memory support on 68k processors that had an MMU. It probably didn't get it from the complexities of fast/slow RAM or whatever but it absolutely crippled the Amiga especially for high end work.

It wasn't the only problem of course but it was a glaring example of rival platforms like the PC and Mac getting VM, and getting better graphics & audio capabilities while the Amiga belatedly got a few improvements but nothing that allowed it to catch up. And then it died as a viable platform.

Dang

[Virtucon]

I thought it was that zero-day vulnerability when you ran "Custers Revenge." [wikipedia.org]

OS update

[John.Thompson]

Cool! But what I'd really like is a new version of Irix for the SGI Indy in my basement.