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Creative Computers CD-ROM, Volume 1 (Legendary Design Technologies, Inc.)(1994).iso
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why_os2.1
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1994-11-17
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A lot of people have been trying to decide whether 2.1 was worth upgrading
to. Here's a message from Martin "Vertex" Taileffer, author of TurboText and
a Commodore employee, that spells out the advantages:
-- --- -- --- -- --- --
I've seen many questions in this topic about what 2.1 is and why should
anyone buy it. Here is a fairly detailled list of the enhancements:
- Localization. The majority of the GUI-based system software can now run
in any of 10 languages.
- PostScript printing. A PostScript printer driver allows any Amiga
application to print to PostScript printers.
- CrossDOS. An integrated solution that enables any Amiga application to
read and write MS-DOS format disks transparently. This is not merely
throwing in the old CrossDOS software in the box. CrossDOS is full
integrated with the rest of the system.
- Improved ASL. A new ASL library provides for the fastest file requester
on the Amiga. It is now possible to delete files from within the file
requester. The font requester now caches the font list for much better
performance. There is a new ScreenMode requester that new applications
are begining to use. Finally, all requesters are font sensitive, so they
appear in the font you chose in preferences.
- Improved Outline Fonts. 2.1 provides phase 2 of the Compugraphic Outline
Fonts (2.04 had phase 1). This offers better printing abilities for DTP
software.
- Sound preferences. It is now possible to attach any IFF sound or beep to
the Intuition DisplayBeep() function. This means that whenever an
application flashes the screen due to an error, it can now be made to
make sound instead of, or in addition to, flashing the screem.
- Improved Commodities. commodities.library and associated commodity
programs consume much less RAM, and have much better performance. This
means that using any commodity program has a much smaller impact on total
system performance than in 2.04. The Blanker commodity now offers color
cycling and spline animation as options. The FKey commodity now offers
the ability to bind any of 8 commands to any key sequence that can be
entered. Two of these commands are "Run Program" and "Run ARexx Script",
which means it is now possible to have any program or ARexx script
executed from a hot key.
- Improved keymap selection. The keymap used by the system is now picked
from within the Input preferences instead of using the arcane SetMap
command.
- New display modes. A few new monitors are included with 2.1 that offer
various ECS display modes including some 72Hz refresh modes, and the
very nice 800x600 mode.
- New driver scheme. Printer drivers, keymaps, monitors, and mount list
entries, can now be fully installed and removed by dragging icons from
the Workbench.
- Format GUI. Format now has a nice GUI when run from the Workbench. It
allows easy selection of the disk format to use, such as FFS, or the
International Mode file system, whether to do a quick format, the name of
the disk, and whether to put a trashcan on the disk.
- Clock. Enhanced Clock program supporting localized date formats. When
used in analog mode, no longer consumes any chip RAM, whereas before it
could suck up to 32K of chip RAM.
- More RAM. Running 2.1 generally gives you more system RAM. The base
system consume less RAM than previous releases, and as you run more
system software, you save more and more RAM.
- More stable than even 2.04. 2.1 includes many bug fixes and miscellaneous
enhancements throughout the system. 2.1 and 3.0 are the most stable and
reliable versions of the Amiga operating system released to date.
- Much better documentation. The documentation that comes with 2.1 has
undergone a substantial upgrade from previous releases, and is
generally clearer and more detailed.
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