Tempest Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 I've got a Mega STE running TOS 2.06 right now, and I want to upgrade to a better OS. I've heard of two alternative OS's for the ST: MiNT and MultiTOS but I don't know which to use. My understanding is that MiNT came first, then Atari bundled it together TOS 4.02 and called it MultiTOS. Then after Atari exited the computer biz development of MiNT continued as FreeMiNT. So if I want the best looking, most capable OS for my Mega STE, should I go with the latest version of FreeMiNT? I assume I can't use MultiTOS because TOS 4.02 is for the Falcon (or maybe I'm wrong about that). I also heard it was slow and hasn't been updated as recently as FreeMint. Now there's also something else that I just learned about. I guess that TOS is the underlying OS (sort of like DOS), but the GUI is called AES (sort of like Windows). That analogy may not be 100% right, but you get the picture. The GUI in TOS 2.06 (AES ?.??) looks boring and really hasn't changed since TOS 1.0, I'd like to do something about that. I see there's something called XaAES that looks really nice (actually I may get called down for blasphemy, but it reminds me of the Amiga Workbench) that I'd like to use. I also see that it is compatible with FreeMiNT. So I guess I'd want to use the latest version of FreeMiNT and XaAES. Does anyone know what the latest versions are and where to get them? I also want to use MiNTNet so I can use my EtherNec card to get online (if my IIgs can go online, then so can my ST!), is that a separate download? I know I'm asking alot of confusing questions, but I'm pretty new to the alternative ST OS's. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paolo Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 You know, I find your conclusions right, but you took some weird road to reach them :-) I used MultiTos (MiNT came later) with my MSTe because I had to use a PPP connection to my ISP since they dropped SLIP. I couldn't setup STiNG so I bought CAB+PPPconnect and I HAD to use Multitos. It was ok, nothing impressive, though. A little bit unstable, and nothing new in the GUI/AES department, but it got the job done. MTOS evolved, and new AES started appearing, as well as new desktop managers. MiNT (MINT is NOT TOS) took the Unix route (and became MINT is NOW TOS) and now is a walk in the park for linux experienced users. It allows multitasking, and manages various filesystems (more than windoze can handle) including NFS for network shares. AES can be somehow considered the equivalent of X in unix/linux, the graphichs device manager that allows application to run in graphics mode (so to say). We have N.AES (commercial, pretty solid, no more supported/developed), MyAES (very nice and cool, I'd say early beta), Xaaes (mature and developed, it currently became a kernel module for MiNT, so it's fast and powerful) and there still is the plain old AES4. Then we have the desktops. Thing, Teradesk, Jinnee. They just let the user be at ease with folders, files, programs, doubleclicks, file associations, copying and such. My favourite is Thing. I am "studying" Jinnee, I don't like Teradesk too much (I find it just plain, however I sometimes skip the desktop altogether and run my apps directly from N.AES) PS: I am not reading again what I wrote, so, please, you probably would just ignore my post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Don't forget Geneva and Neodesk!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I've got a Mega STE running TOS 2.06 right now, and I want to upgrade to a better OS. I've heard of two alternative OS's for the ST: MiNT and MultiTOS but I don't know which to use. My understanding is that MiNT came first, then Atari bundled it together TOS 4.02 and called it MultiTOS. Then after Atari exited the computer biz development of MiNT continued as FreeMiNT. So if I want the best looking, most capable OS for my Mega STE, should I go with the latest version of FreeMiNT? I assume I can't use MultiTOS because TOS 4.02 is for the Falcon (or maybe I'm wrong about that). I also heard it was slow and hasn't been updated as recently as FreeMint. Now there's also something else that I just learned about. I guess that TOS is the underlying OS (sort of like DOS), but the GUI is called AES (sort of like Windows). That analogy may not be 100% right, but you get the picture. The GUI in TOS 2.06 (AES ?.??) looks boring and really hasn't changed since TOS 1.0, I'd like to do something about that. I see there's something called XaAES that looks really nice (actually I may get called down for blasphemy, but it reminds me of the Amiga Workbench) that I'd like to use. I also see that it is compatible with FreeMiNT. So I guess I'd want to use the latest version of FreeMiNT and XaAES. Does anyone know what the latest versions are and where to get them? I also want to use MiNTNet so I can use my EtherNec card to get online (if my IIgs can go online, then so can my ST!), is that a separate download? I know I'm asking alot of confusing questions, but I'm pretty new to the alternative ST OS's. Tempest I wouldn't expect too much from MiNT running on a 4MB 68000. As far as I know XaAES is not 68000 compatible too. In your place I would try a "light-weight" solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 MiNT and XaAES are now fully 68000 compliant. You can get them at http://xaaes.atariforge.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 MiNT and XaAES are now fully 68000 compliant. You can get them at http://xaaes.atariforge.net As far as I know "2006-09-27 XaAES pre-alpha" is not working properly. Have you tried that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 MiNT and XaAES are now fully 68000 compliant. You can get them at http://xaaes.atariforge.net http://www.atariforums.com/read.php?26,2337,2338#msg-2338 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I' ve heard that it is OK, even under STEEM, but unfortunately I don't have an ST to test so you may be right. On the other hand there are various incompatibility problems that I can't seem to pinpoint where they come from. On the memory issue you popint to, a 4Mb ST will be barely able to run Highwire (I had this tested on 4Mb Falcon) but cab will be OK. With 4Mb's of RAM it is best to follow the Multitos approach in having a MiNT setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krupkaj Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Yes there are problems with low memory machines running MiNT. It is not easy to live even with 16MB Falcon. Especially if you want to compile application yourself. You can also try magic which is not so memory hungry. But it is not free and has not UNIX like environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Can I easily bump up the memory in my 4MB Mega STE? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krupkaj Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 The simplest way is to find Magnum card. There are various versions for various Ataris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Ack! So my Mega STE isn't powerful enough to run FreeMiNT and XaAES? Bummer. I guess I could go to a Falcon, but I'd rather not due to the cost (and finding one) and limited backwards compatibility. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jens Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 You might want to try CrippleMiNT which should run just fine with Gemini 1.a as a desk. You'd have long filename support, can use bigger partitions (apart from the boot parttition), and the desk would look quite nice. Without additional AES you'd still have a sigle-tasking machine, but the amount of ram used should be low enough to be able to surf the web with cab or do some FT'ing. Wdialog is sort of a must in the auto folder to run cab without multitasking AES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 23, 2007 Author Share Posted November 23, 2007 With 4Mb's of RAM it is best to follow the Multitos approach in having a MiNT setup. Sorry to bump this again, but I now have some time to fiddle with this. Can someone explain how I might go about doing this? Also, will his break compatibility with games? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krupkaj Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I think the easiest way to install MiNT is use the EasyMiNT installer. http://atari.st-katharina-apotheke.de/home...&texte=news Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[ProToS] Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 sorry for a mega ste MagiC/Mag!X is the way, mint will go to run very slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javiero Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 Ack! So my Mega STE isn't powerful enough to run FreeMiNT and XaAES? Bummer. I guess I could go to a Falcon, but I'd rather not due to the cost (and finding one) and limited backwards compatibility. Tempest Dear friend, i use the falcon for my little coding for the st due to the lack of a hd for the 1040, so i code and compile on the falcon and run the final program on the st. also the falcon is a real beauty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggn Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 Geneva/Neodesk should be a nice enviroment too. I tried geneva yonks ago on my ste, small(ish) mem footprint and nice performance. Of course I didn't have a hdd back then so there wasn't much to do with it, but it was well cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 Plus you can use atari's MiNT kernel with Geneva so you don't have that buggy atari AES but still have preemptive multitasking with low memory footprint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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