Scalos v1.2a

Scalos, for those who haven't been awake for a while, is a replacement operating system for the Amiga. The PD/Shareware version isn't actually capable of replacing Workbench, but when you register, you do get that privelage. This piece of software now brings more than the regular 2 OS's to the Amiga. Now there is much more choice.

Other OS's like DOpus and MBench have their problems (DOpus needs too much hardware and MBench is a bit unstable at the moment). If you've got the hardware, then you might be tempted to go for DOpus because of the fact that it is commercial and gets brilliant reviews in nearly all magazines its reviewed in.

You might want to think twice though. Shareware is intended to give a demo of the product before you buy it. And you really must check out Scalos. It's available from Aminet and has a nicely designed support site at www.aliendesign.net, from which it is also downloadable.

Scalos, as mentioned, can replace Workbench (just like DOpus) if you register, it's 99.9% (according to the author) compatible with existing Workbench programs and functions, and it's configurability even beats that of DOpus in many ways.

Not least because it's got a wonderfully flexible menu editor which, unlike DOpus, lets you lay out ALL the menus in the way you want them laid out, while DOpus merely lets you edit the User menu.

Also, Scalos isn't particularly fussy about the hardware it is run on. OK, so you're really going to need something with a little more than 2MB to get anywhere near decent performance, but I think most people will have moved above that amount by now.

OK, it can be processor intensive and hardware intensive if YOU WANT it to be. In that, it will take advantage of any good, fast hardware. It supports Graphics cards, has loads of features, is very configurable, uses a nice module interface which means anyone can expand it, and is freely available on the net!

What excuse have you got not to try this software out?

NEIL BULLOCK