AROS Research Operating System
Icaros (AROS distribution) Desktop 1.3.1 with Amiga 68K integration (August 2011)
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| Developer | The AROS Development Team |
|---|---|
| OS family | AmigaOS-like |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | 1995 |
| Platforms | IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC, m68k, ARM |
| License | Proprietary software: AROS Public License (that possibly has "problems" according to debian-legal, so may not be free software); various files entirely without a license, etc. |
| Official website | aros |
AROS Research Operating System (AROS – pronounced "AR-OS") is a free and open source multi media centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs. Designed to be portable and flexible, ports are currently available for x86-based and PowerPC-based PCs in native and hosted flavors, with other architectures in development. AROS, in a show of full circle, was also ported to the m68k-based Amiga 1200, and the Raspberry Pi series.
AROS originally stood for Amiga Research Operating System, but to avoid any trademark issues with the Amiga name, it was changed to the recursive acronym AROS Research Operating System.
The mascot of AROS is Kitty created by Eric Schwartz and officially adopted by the AROS Team in December 2, 2002.
Used in the core AROS About and installer tools, it was also adopted by several AROS community sites and early distributions.
Other AROS identifiable symbols and logos are used around the cat shape, such as IcAROS logo which is stylised cat Eye, or AFA (Aros for Amiga).
The project, started in 1995, has over the years become an almost "feature complete" implementation of AmigaOS – with currently (as of October 2008) only a few lacking areas of functionality. This was achieved by the efforts of a small team of developers.
It can currently be installed on most IBM PC compatibles, and features native graphics drivers for video cards such as the GeForce range made by Nvidia. As of May 2007 USB keyboards and mice are also supported. AROS has been ported to the Sam440ep PowerPC board and is also planned to run on Efika.
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Wikipedia