tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74229781412742870652012-01-26T14:59:34.147+01:00Icaros Desktop is a pre-configured AROS desktop environment for the PC platform, distributed on a bootable live media. The AROS Research Operating System is a open source lightweight, efficient and flexible desktop operating system, aiming at being compatible with AmigaOS 3.1 at the API level, while improving on it in many areas.Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comBlogger2591100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-42393097569606361792012-01-26T14:47:00.002+01:002012-01-26T14:59:34.166+01:00

Another little update for Icaros Desktop 1.3.3 is available for download. This patch introduces all the latest improvements from Krzysztof Smiechowicz (the ones he sent to AROS-EXEC.org on Jan. 20), but includes also latest updates to Zune NList classes and fixes AmiBridge's "ADD ADF" script, which didn't work correctly when the "AROS A1200" option was used for Amiga™ games. This update must be

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-81173403541708440052012-01-19T16:40:00.005+01:002012-01-19T16:57:45.495+01:00

If you have installed patch 03 (or 02 and then 03) on Icaros Desktop 1.3.3, you'd may be surprised to see that nothing has changed - at least in the user interface - in drawers and windows. The fact is that window can be iconified, but there's nothing to do that on title bars. So how can you iconify a window? The answer is that a button exists, but you have to enable it by yourself: just go to

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-53670014340322166282012-01-16T12:51:00.002+01:002012-01-16T13:07:11.065+01:00

1.3.3 will be probably remembered as the most patched release in Icaros Desktop life. The newest patch 03 is available for download, and it fixes some glitches introduced with the latest AROS features. More precisely, this patch include the following:- fix for commodities like FKey: they don't appear iconified on the desktop anymore- fix for italian translation: it will now be re-enabled in

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-1749343213283345302012-01-09T11:11:00.007+01:002012-01-09T12:09:09.836+01:00

The second patch for Icaros Desktop 1.3.3 completes the journey started with the former patch #01, adding the remaining bug fixes included in the first round of the AROS Paper-Cuts initiative. For those who don't know what we're talking about, a little reminder: in the last months of 2011 (and the first days of 2012...) some AROS developers decided to put on hold their AROS projects to do

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-54169810052950930212012-01-03T10:55:00.005+01:002012-01-03T11:48:11.809+01:00

Hello to everyone. It's the beginning of a whole new year and, even if politicians and economists always remind us (in particular here, in Europe and moreover in Italy) that hard times are coming, we would like to give our users and followers some good news, at least about our favourite hobby. First of all, I'd like to say "Thank you!" to Lloyd Blommaert, who not only made a kind donation, but he

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-8750662744736534222011-12-24T11:15:00.004+01:002011-12-24T11:44:07.238+01:00

Merry Christmas to everyone from Icaros Desktop! It has been a great year for AROS and we believe the next one will be even better. But, for now, let us give you a little gift: a patch which includes all the fixes to AROS system files and Wanderer which have been developed since the release of Icaros Desktop 1.3.3. Once again, users of supported netbooks will love this update: it enhances the

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-20947191356303716912011-12-16T17:19:00.001+01:002011-12-16T17:19:42.346+01:00

Downloads for Icaros Desktop 1.3.3 are operational again. Nothing changed since the original release, except for the InstallAROS tool, which is now working correctly. As already explained, the new feature “AROS is now installable from twice-partitioned USB pendrives” has been postponed to the next Icaros release. Users who wish to install Icaros onto a pendrive, should use a single partition, as

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-86287540032078127572011-12-16T15:51:00.003+01:002011-12-16T16:25:55.786+01:00

Time for a little, sad news. Download for version 1.3.3 of Icaros Desktop has been temporarily suspended, due to a bug found in InstallAROS after the release. Some users reported issues installing Icaros Desktop on a two-partition configuration (AROS: for system and Work: for... well... work!). To fix this, we decided to reintragrate the older version of InstallAROS, which doesn't support

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-58063058849151080252011-12-13T16:51:00.002+01:002011-12-13T17:29:57.052+01:00

A new, important update for Icaros Desktop is ready. This release introduces preliminary hardware 3D acceleration on Intel GPUs already covered by the Intel GMA driver. Preliminary means that there is still much work to do on this new Gallium implementation, but you can already play Quake III Arena and most AROS games on your netbook at decent speeds, which is a great news for Aspire

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-87597376156653469802011-10-15T21:45:00.003+02:002011-10-15T22:12:53.350+02:00

Version 1.3.2 of your distribution is ready for download. Great news for this release is support for Fermi-based GeForce graphic cards and many USB wireless network adapters based on the RTL8187B chipset. This means that GeForce GT/GTX 400 and 500 cards are now fully supported, both in 2D and 3D modes. And, obviously, that everyone can now connect their AROS machines to a wireless network using

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-69552929004908103802011-09-22T23:59:00.004+02:002011-09-23T00:39:54.236+02:00

Some people reported issues upgrading Icaros Desktop 1.3 once installed onto a pendrive. In practice, what happened to them was that LiveUpdater could update just bare AROS system files, but not stuff inside the Extras and Development drawers. I had a long discussion with a user on the Amiganews.it website forum (whose nickname is... Amiga!) but in the end, with his precious aid and patience

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-84962405540112046852011-09-02T14:34:00.002+02:002011-09-02T14:59:36.828+02:00

Here is a little patch for Icaros Desktop 1.3.1. What's new: - adds PCI128 range of sound cards support (and sound in VMware) - adds C-media CMI8738 sound chip support - updates Intel GMA driver - updates Janus-UAE with official 1.1 release - updates MilkyTracker, compiled with newest SDL (no more choppy sound) - fix many missing icons UPDATING PROCEDURE 1. Please be sure you have already

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-36773880975625087312011-08-31T16:27:00.001+02:002011-08-31T16:27:39.210+02:00

Icaros Desktop will be somehow present at Amiganoid 2011, a new Amiga-oriented meeting/show in Essen that will be held on September 17th, 2011. We'll not have a stand for ours, but some Icaros pendrives will be available at the very low price of € 3,50. These pendrives will have a 1,5 GB special edition of the distribution (Icaros Desktop 1.3.1 Amiganoid Edition) and 512 MB available on a FAT

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-52081074648295976352011-08-28T23:23:00.002+02:002011-08-28T23:33:26.480+02:00

First of all, I'd like to apologize. I placed the update pack from Icaros Desktop 1.3 to 1.3.1 in the download section, but I totally forgot to warn users about this: In order to install the update pack correctly, you must apply patch 01 to Icaros Desktop 1.3, because it makes some important fixes to LiveUpdater itself. So, the correct procedure to upgrade Icaros from version 1.3 to version

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-1554030920603062882011-08-24T22:59:00.003+02:002011-08-24T23:29:41.142+02:00

A new, amazing release of Icaros Desktop is ready. This update won't include new applications or new features (the game Flare has been added to the Extras:Games drawer, though), but is more focused on enhancing what already existed, making it more reliable, more stable and easier to use. Many games and emulators have been recompiled with updated libraries, the amazing fpc development tool has

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-79287374856550922182011-08-18T15:07:00.001+02:002011-08-18T15:07:26.179+02:00

Ross Vumbaca's AHI driver for the SoundBlaster PCI128 range of sound cards will be re-released under the terms of the AROS Public License, and added to AROS repository. Icaros Desktop has funded the opening of driver sources, doing the first step towards our final goal: having sound in VMware virtual machines. Ross Vumbaca will also eventyually port the driver to AROS. We would like to thank him

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-42124139185616041042011-08-10T22:59:00.001+02:002011-08-10T23:09:48.441+02:00

(what's happening here? ;-)

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-19650119578280905722011-08-04T15:33:00.003+02:002011-08-04T15:40:20.349+02:00

Just an image of Icaros Desktop 1.3.1, and a nice new feature we're testing these days...

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-10305778539866970192011-06-23T17:22:00.002+02:002011-06-23T17:44:06.632+02:00

Our great friend Deadwood has released two amazing ports for AROS: Cube and AssaultCube. They both need 3D acceleration, so you won't run them smoothly without a graphic card supported by Gallium (this means a GeForce Fx, 6, 7, 8, 9 or GT200 series), and you will need a updated mesa.library to run them. The good news is that a proper patch is ready for Icaros Desktop 1.3, so you will just need to

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-79575189658697225122011-06-01T17:15:00.006+02:002011-06-01T18:01:44.418+02:00

It took a little longer than originally planned, but the new version of Icaros Desktop is now online. We've done all our best to make it better than before, with more stable system files and better polishing of all parts. Many little glitches of the past have been removed, many applications have changed place, AmiStart menu are now faster to load also in "full" mode and the look & feel of the

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-2838788784988225242011-05-15T18:11:00.002+02:002011-05-15T18:23:22.271+02:00

After many months, I decided it's time to place my hands again on AmiBridge scripts: in the old days of VmwAROS 1.1 or so, AmiBridge helped people "integrating" AmigaOS 68K applications inside AROS, with little effort but with the best degree of compatibility. There were many drawbacks, though: you had to run a whole instance of UAE for every application, 68K apps could share clipboard and

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-56845316882810584492011-04-30T23:02:00.002+02:002011-04-30T23:07:58.209+02:00

Ok, I admit being able to drag screen again, no matter what video card I am using simply amazes me. I would like to thank all AROS developers who made this possible, and I decided to grab a little video about it. Sorry for the slowness of some parts of the movie, but that's due to VMware's capture tool, and it's NOT AROS' fault. On a 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo, under VMware, speed is fine and execution

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-27453418704328959172011-04-27T17:25:00.003+02:002011-04-27T17:37:48.891+02:00

Screen dragging has always been one of the most iconic features of classic Amigas: you could open different screens at any resolution and have them partially shown on the same monitor, a kind of magic that following PC operating systems never managed to replicate on more powerful hardware. AROS and Icaros users could already drag screens with Nvidia and Intel native drivers for some time, however

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-5648176505004606262011-03-30T14:33:00.003+02:002011-03-30T14:50:43.358+02:00

As many of you probably noticed, the primary download/imagery server has gone down for 24 hours (thanks to everyone who reported this to me). The issue is now fixed and all links should work as well. This also means that people who want to get .7z files from the mirror on Lezard-Visuel.com should right click on the link and "save target as...", like they always did before (it's a known issue).The

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-56911552843657284842011-03-04T09:13:00.003+01:002011-03-04T09:29:02.601+01:00

The online magazine PCLinuxOS has published a (little complicated but) functional guide to install Icaros on VirtualBox, which can be read on line here. We'd really wish to thank Darrel Johnston for his article, which has been so kind to spend part of his time evaluating our distribution and talking about it on his magazine. And this is only "Part 1", so there will be more to come. Darrel

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-74451185969995770412011-02-03T11:01:00.003+01:002011-02-03T11:45:07.803+01:00

The latest version of Icaros Desktop has been released. The first update of 2011 refreshes AROS system files to january-26th nightly build, updates many programs included in the distribution and improves functionalities, adding also some new applications and features. As promised, it's time to host other operating systems inside Icaros with Bochs. Speed is quite low, but this is the first attempt

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-8454271335346135092011-02-02T12:05:00.002+01:002011-02-02T12:11:54.881+01:00

Users of Icaros Desktop 1.2.5 that wish to update their distribution to the incoming version 1.2.6 will have to install a corrected version of LiveUpdater, which unfortunately doesn't work anymore (we spotted the issue during our internal tests, when trying to update a 1.2.5 installation with the incoming update-disc). The new version of LiveUpdater comes as second official patch for Icaros

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-41755794625019888732011-02-01T18:21:00.003+01:002011-02-01T18:33:56.339+01:00

...because it's deadly slow! But, besides this, the good news is it's been possible for some times, thanks to the Bochs emulator Fishy_Fis released some months ago. An emulator which required some little tweaking, but that will be included - already configured as usual - in the next release of Icaros Desktop, which is scheduled really soon. Bochs will come with two disc images with FreeDOS and

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-41696821216221354962011-01-11T17:35:00.002+01:002011-01-11T17:44:13.356+01:00

It would be really awesome if Wanderer could just show media files by thumbnails, like many other mainstream OS GUIs do, however at the moment this feature is still missing. So, in order to help people managing their picture files, our good friend Yannick Erb made a wonderful CLI command called dt2thumb, which is able to create image thumbnails and associate them as workbench icons to their

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-58051137607128772912010-12-31T16:23:00.002+01:002010-12-31T16:29:52.874+01:00

Icaros Desktop wishes all a wonderful 2011, and would like to thank everyone involved in the AROS project at any degree: users, testers, developers, 3rd party application providers, evangelists and also simple curious people who downloaded the distribution, but never installed it. 2010 has been an important year for us, but it wouldn't ever been like this without your efforts.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-15554897143095437142010-12-27T12:39:00.002+01:002010-12-27T12:45:45.798+01:00

We've received some complaints about problems running Icaros Desktop on the recently-released version 4 of VirtualBox. AROS developers have been made aware of the compatibility issue, and will surely look for a solution (that will be hopefully integrated in Icaros 1.2.6, if it will be developed in time). In the meanwhile, however, we must suggest Icaros users (and people who wish to use Icaros

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-86211966204298997642010-12-13T12:37:00.003+01:002010-12-13T12:52:16.033+01:00

Icaros Desktop has been tested and introduced on Appunti Digitali, one of the best and most known italian sites about information technology. Cesare Di Mauro, who is a former Amiga user and already made many articles about our beloved platform, writes: "I must say I am enough satisfied (by Icaros), as I could find the same AmigaOS spirit I lost - quite sadly - 14 years ago, once I understood

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-77394466240746203932010-12-09T16:49:00.003+01:002010-12-11T18:16:39.176+01:00

Here is a little patch for Icaros Desktop 1.2.5 users. It fixes a bug preventing people to install the Live! version to a USB pendrive and then install it again from the same pendrive to a hard drive. People that tried to do this experienced a warning message at the next reboots, due to the fact that the S:buffer-add script still expected to boot from the DU0: partition. This had been corrected

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-33320975703937863602010-12-09T00:56:00.002+01:002010-12-09T01:05:40.340+01:00

Our friend Lorenzo Di Gaetano wrote a long and quite detailed article for the italian site GamesArk, analyzing and explaining the situation of the Amiga platform at the end of 2010. He defined AROS as the "most brilliant and flexible solution for a modern Amiga system", and also spent some good words about our distribution, Icaros Desktop (which I really appreciated, thank you!). Please click on

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-70252971267418352492010-12-02T11:28:00.004+01:002010-12-02T11:40:19.652+01:00

We're experiencing some issues with our main site. If you can't see images and download Icaros, please use these download links from our mirror site:> Download Icaros Desktop Live! (700 MB)> Download Icaros Desktop Light (200 MB)

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-1206845941865586482010-11-30T17:12:00.004+01:002010-12-01T01:01:22.756+01:00

The highly anticipated release 1.2.5 of Icaros Desktop is now available for download. It took much time, but there are many new features, many fixes and many enhancements that will drive you crazy. First of all, games and applications had been polished, in order to cut off the ones which made older version of Icaros crash (and also the current one). Some of them had been updated and others have

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-6431356548656855412010-11-24T15:02:00.002+01:002010-11-24T15:06:32.880+01:00

It has been a long and hard work, but the new version of Icaros Desktop Live! has just been released to internal beta testing team. Last stage will be deployment of the Light edition and of the update disc for current Icaros users, which will require some more love than before, since many things have changed in the new version and many improvements have been added to the distribution, mainly

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-53140842508456704652010-11-24T10:39:00.003+01:002010-11-24T10:53:44.033+01:00

AmiStart is one of the most discussed features of Icaros Desktop: it provides a customizable, powerful application/task bar, but its "start menu" requires pre-caching of menu icons, considerably extending boot times (moreover in Live-DVD mode). Due to the high number of applications and games provided by the distribution, this problem got worse and worse with the latest updates, to the point that

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-30053838067609328752010-11-20T16:08:00.002+01:002010-11-20T16:18:12.744+01:00

Users of Icaros 1.2.3 really liked the fact they could remote-control other computers on the network using rDesktop or VNC client, but some complained it wasn't possible to do the opposite. Yannick Erb listened to their cries, and provided a great new VNC server for AROS that Icaros 1.2.5 will provide as a service, allowing users to remotely control their Icaros workbench using another computer

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-48034356549816898022010-11-19T16:52:00.003+01:002010-11-19T17:09:37.085+01:00

After some weeks of hard work and at least four alpha-stage releases, I've just sent our beta testing team the address to download the first internal beta of Icaros Desktop Live 1.2.5, which will add new interesting features and corrections to the current distribution. So, it's time to unveil some of them.Today, we'll talk about the new MyWorkspace drawer, that will be automatically placed on the

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-61124203503878336132010-11-12T15:50:00.002+01:002010-11-12T16:10:36.724+01:00

Vintage gamers who have grown with a Commodore 64 or Amiga already know the meaning of "games that weren't": a poetic expression describing software, in particular videogames, which for a reson or another didn't make it to the shelves, and rested unreleased and forgotten in a dusty drawer for years. We can also say, more pragmatically, that what we are now calling "vapourware" some day will be "

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-63546635450483361062010-11-04T00:04:00.003+01:002010-11-04T00:16:12.928+01:00

It's quite some time I made my last script for Icaros Desktop (and it was ADF game/demo support to AmiBridge), so I decided to handle my poor shell knowledge again to do something useful. My current target is the recent wi-fi Atheros driver from Neil Cafferkey, which is a little miracle per sé, but for now it's not so much user-friendly to set up. Well, the fear for text configuration file is

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-92116974660789614352010-11-01T23:38:00.002+01:002010-11-01T23:49:22.913+01:00

I received many complaints about AmiStart "vanishing" after updating Icaros from version 1.2.3 to 1.2.4. As usual, the issue was really stupid (you fool, Paolo!) and the solution was damn easy to spot. However, easy solutions are the ones that take more time to come. In practice, people with this problem should edit their s:icaros-sequence file, in order to add the missing brackets from many IF

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15146989454244696875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-42721588701697975022010-10-10T22:19:00.004+02:002010-10-10T22:29:30.052+02:00

I really wish to thank Neil Cafferkey: in this exact moment, I am writing this post with Icaros Desktop 1.2.4, connected to the Internet without cables using his atheros 5000 wi-fi driver. I'm not the first AROS man surfing the web this way, and a few steps are still needed before this new addition to the OS will be mature enough for the mainstream, but it works, and this is the most important

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-44588112114295642952010-10-06T11:23:00.007+02:002010-10-06T11:59:06.836+02:00

VirtualBox is a quite good virtualization platform for Icaros, since it allows both AC97 and fast networking support, but it has a little drawback for today's standards: it allows using AROS at traditional VESA 4:3 resolutions only, and not all of them, just the most common ones. To get ahead of this, however, there is a quite simple procedure that has been discussed on this AROS-EXEC.org topic (

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-1410432468171321512010-10-01T16:29:00.001+02:002010-10-01T16:36:46.665+02:00

Here we are again! Icaros Desktop v1.2.4 has officially been released. 24 hours after the release of the update for Icaros 1.2.3 users, also Live and Light have been put into our download center (mirrors and torrent will follow). The new version provides more games and applications like MegaMario, OpenUniverse, LodePaint and the latest upgrades to AmiFIG, YAM, ProTrekkr, YTDM and many others.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-26129044759253960952010-09-23T22:45:00.005+02:002010-09-23T23:25:20.568+02:00

If you noticed, the Icaros Desktop summary on the top left corner of this site has slightly changed. Some words have been cut off, and these words are "running on real hardware or in a virtual machine". The motivations are simple: first of all, if you exclude real hardware and virtual machines, there aren't so many places left where you could expect Icaros Desktop to run; then, there was a Icaros

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-63753576268178604672010-09-17T16:33:00.003+02:002010-09-17T16:50:53.891+02:00

Good news for all italians readers! Icaros Desktop will be presented in a conference on saturday October 2nd, 2010, at the amazing italian event Videogames History, in the town of Monza, near Milan. Paolo Besser will talk about your distribution, and AROS in general, in the afternoon. Videogames History is probably the biggest event about gaming in Italy, with the exposion of over 1000 products,

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-60231518637013443452010-08-27T17:19:00.005+02:002010-08-27T17:24:40.527+02:00

Just a little news to advertise the official Icaros Desktop page on facebook. If you have an account on the popular social network, and you like our distribution, don't forget to add the following page to your favourites!> Icaros Desktop Facebook page

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-46277395415562838722010-08-05T11:59:00.003+02:002010-08-05T12:04:01.686+02:00

The popular retrogaming blog WoprBox has interviewed me. It's been a good occasion to talk about my past as editor of the italian magazines Zzap! and The Games Machine, and - most important - to talk about Amiga and Icaros Desktop. Our italian guests may read the interview here, while the others may take advantage of the robo-translation to English by Google (it's fun to read actual names

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-18703139530864784252010-08-03T16:32:00.002+02:002010-08-03T16:30:20.007+02:00

I've always believed in AROS and I have great hopes for it. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have ever considered the idea to start a voyage like this Icaros Desktop one, but there are days and events which make me deeply wonder about the results AROS has got in time. And I get astonished every time. Please have a look at this video: it shows some steps from two well known 3D-accelerated games,

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-22956661341647515502010-07-07T11:27:00.003+02:002010-07-07T11:55:12.424+02:00

As you may know, our browser OWB can't play YouTube video directly, due to (currently) missing support to both Flash and HTML5 formats, but the good news is that we can access to YouTube contents as well, using our traditional MacGyver-like ability to adapt available instruments to do something they weren't originally supposed to. This time, our saviors will be OWB (obvious), MPlayer and a

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-50205908118962057522010-07-06T22:48:00.007+02:002010-07-07T11:04:08.245+02:00

We're really happy to announce that a new version of Icaros Desktop is already available for download. Version 1.2.3 is what 1.2.2 should have been, if only my hard drive didn't crash so hard a month ago. This new release adds two really interesting features: a more advanced support for 3D and 2D graphic acceleration with Nvidia cards, covering most GeForce GPUs from the old FX models up to the

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-83278926989548377162010-06-29T00:18:00.002+02:002010-06-29T00:28:44.723+02:00

Ok, I admit it: from time to time I google for "Icaros Desktop" to see what people is saying about our distribution (that's a good way to spot weakness and problems that people might not report, when they have to speak directly) and it has been a really nice surprise to read what Demether has written about us! Unluckily my Français is something I should really reprise some day (I studied it a

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-69572219958073047682010-06-12T02:28:00.003+02:002010-06-12T02:37:56.055+02:00

I've promised long ago to explain the procedure to create a Icaros pendrive, but spare time to write it has been scarce, so you had to wait a little longer than expected. But now, my step-by-step how-to is finally ready! Since it is a PDF document, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it, but if you already are a lucky Icaros Desktop user, you can use ArosPDF as well. To donwload the manual

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-972628250359146572010-05-28T09:40:00.002+02:002010-05-28T10:48:48.289+02:00

It has been a really troubled release, but time for Icaros Desktop 1.2.2 has come! This update is quite different from the others: it can be used stand-alone, like AROS nightly builds or Icaros "point releases", or used with LUPD to upgrade a older installation. You can also decide to install it using InstallAROS over a previous version without formatting the AROS partitions, to get the new GRUB

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-86702615846802764362010-05-27T11:11:00.002+02:002010-05-27T11:29:13.833+02:00

I have a good news (for you) and a bad one (for me, but not necessarily only). The good news is that the long awaited 1.2.2 release of Icaros Desktop will be probably out today or tomorrow, depending on time zones and upload times. The bad news is that I have been forced to release it in the current state, whatever it is, due to the sudden death of my primary PC hard drive, which stored all my

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-50747410943444572932010-05-12T23:58:00.003+02:002010-05-13T00:41:56.161+02:00

In the latest days I went a little further with Icaros Desktop 1.2.2. As like as it happened for the current version, it won't add many new programs (although some new additions will be done), but it will mainly refresh your AROS system files, adding a lot of new features. First of all, this will be our first release which will go (and come) on a pendrive too. The first batch of pendrives is 2 GB

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-24675793141446680732010-05-01T00:53:00.003+02:002010-05-01T01:28:47.988+02:00

Hello my dear fellows, it's long time since I wrote something really interesting here, so I can understand if you're getting a little upset about Icaros Desktop. But don't worry, your distribution is alive and well, it's just waiting for some nice new additions you'll sincerely love. First of all, the base AROS system is getting better and better every day: with Pavel Fedin working on the graphic

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-60214053697544344082010-03-24T23:29:00.000+01:002010-03-24T23:29:16.486+01:00

Just a little post to mention a nice web page (in Italian!) for anyone interested in a VirtualBox machine with Icaros Desktop. > Leggi qui la versione italiana. I also provide a robo-translation for international readers > Click here for english robo-translation. A big thank you to our friends from oscene.net.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-9636457633634397112010-03-23T23:42:00.000+01:002010-03-23T23:42:04.187+01:00

Necessary premise: since anyone enough skilled will be able to create a Icaros stick from a regular release of the distribution, I have no plan to create a proper ISO or something similar. But I am thinking about a "final product" that people can buy already pre-formatted and pre-configured. Prices will be honest and will cover the cost of the USB sticks, plus a little extra that will be spent to

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-72397142091138906762010-03-17T17:19:00.000+01:002010-03-17T17:19:09.284+01:00

People having issues reaching this site and/or clicking on right side links, shouldn't have them anymore. I've accidentally let icarosdesktop.org domain expire, but now I have renewed it for many years. People still having problems should refresh their browser's cache or just wait for some hours. Thank you for your kind patience.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-21403424014883175552010-03-15T23:24:00.000+01:002010-03-15T23:24:47.559+01:00

Some people might have experienced graphic issues with the latest release of Icaros Desktop. To fix them, please look in your sys:Libs directory. You'll find a "Softmesa" drawer which contains the traditional, software-only rendering library which always managed OpenGL calls on AROS. Just overwrite the mesa.library file included in sys:Libs with this one, and your issues will be fixed. However,

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-18333173363400012012010-03-08T00:41:00.000+01:002010-03-08T00:41:16.095+01:00

As promised, the first update for Icaros Desktop 1.2 has been released. This update CD includes the most updated system files (up to march 6, 2010 nightly build) and some interesting new features like (still work in progress) 3D hardware acceleration on GeForce 5, 6 and 7 cards (both AGP and PCI Express versions supported), changeable pointers, .backdrop file support for placing icons on the

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-73862714715407556972010-03-07T01:11:00.000+01:002010-03-07T01:11:46.116+01:00

Some months has lasted since Icaros Desktop 1.2 release, and now it's time to announce a nice refresh to Icaros system files. Beware that this update will be different to the others, since it won't introduce all the new programs that have been released for AROS in the meanwhile: they are just too many, and this eventually brought some questions about the direction that Icaros Desktop would take.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-38090300313342648532010-03-04T00:37:00.002+01:002010-03-04T00:39:18.839+01:00

Just a little update about a topic most Amiga fellow are interested in: Oliver's Janus-UAE is progressing very well, and this will help me enhancing AmiBridge. Just a screen of current work in progress... (click on the thumbnail for a larger size)

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-43599013217787786342010-02-20T23:22:00.001+01:002010-02-20T23:23:06.293+01:00

We would like to thank PC Professionale for having included Icaros Desktop Live! on the covermounted DVD-ROM of its february issue. It is one of the most ancient and well known magazines in Italy, and we are extremely proud and excited to be there. News about the covermount appeared also on Amiga-related sites in Italy. It's not the first time PC Professionale talks about Icaros (a news about

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-38542684595078478722010-02-17T12:42:00.000+01:002010-02-17T12:42:10.224+01:00

If one image worths thousand words, a video's value should be greater, much greater. And since words doesn't work particularily well when they have to describe a video, you really should look at this new AROS videoclip from Roman Eberle. There's a mention for Icaros too. Thanks, Roman! If you enjoyed it,don't forget to pay a visit to Roman's website.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-52268727069841489052010-02-14T16:07:00.000+01:002010-02-14T16:07:35.254+01:00

While I am still getting accustomed to my new life as IT specialist and system administrator, I'm doing my best to stay in sync with AROS which, luckily, is doing huge steps every day. It is not time yet for a new Icaros update, though, because the two big features being worked on are still... being worked on. In the meanwhile, however, I could give a peek to Gallium hardware acceleration and

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-59284194557963876072010-01-22T17:00:00.000+01:002010-01-22T17:00:26.252+01:00

Hello to everyone. I've not written anything here for a month now, even if many interesting things happened in the meanwhile. So this "ping" post is just like saying "hey, you've not missed me, I'm still alive". Reasons for this long delay are simple. First of all, holiday: I just stopped everything else to spend some time with my family. Then, a new job: I've been principally a IT journalist for

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-54689917773812645602009-12-23T08:36:00.003+01:002009-12-23T08:56:35.308+01:00

I'm really, really happy to announce that another very exciting, important piece of the puzzle has been placed: thanks to the efforts of Stephen Jones, who paid for it, and Davy Wentzler, who actually coded it, AROS is getting an AHI driver for Intel's HD Audio. This basically means that many systems using compatible chipsets should get sound too. The driver is still in development, so you won't

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-51683524342893126882009-12-12T11:06:00.003+01:002009-12-12T11:18:18.177+01:00

One of the most welcomed features of Icaros Desktop 1.2 is the ability to launch Amiga games and demos straight from their ADF files. I noticed that on Amiga forums this has got even more popular than 3D Acceleration, so I'd like to do something to every retro-gamer out there. Unluckily, when the Amiga was a very popular gaming platform, I didn't really like it for the gaming side, but I

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-32080912810984308102009-12-09T01:18:00.005+01:002009-12-09T02:07:20.292+01:00

It's been a long time since our latest "point release" (v1.1), and now I am proud to announce the immediate availability of the new one. Version 1.2 introduces lots of new programs, features and graphic enhancements, leveraging Icaros Desktop to a new level of realiability and user experience and so on (please insert any attractive marketing stuff you like here, I'm just too tired to do so).

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-64393846408196523862009-12-09T01:11:00.000+01:002009-12-09T01:14:36.981+01:00

Icaros Desktop LIVE! is a complete distribution of the AROS desktop operating system. Icaros Desktop LIVE! comes on a bootable live DVD-ROM which runs directly on your hardware (it must be already supported by AROS). It can be installed on the hard drive and can coexist with Microsoft Windows XP, in a dedicated partition. A quick reference guide and some AROS PDF manuals are included. This

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-12980752962304850732009-12-09T01:10:00.004+01:002011-02-02T12:31:42.727+01:00

Icaros Desktop VE (Virtual Environment) was a complete AROS desktop environment running on VMware and VirtualBox. Icaros Desktop VE has been retired and is not available anymore. People interested in using Icaros Desktop should look for the Live! or the Light version, and install one of them in a virtual machine like if it was on a physical computer. Installation procedure is quite easy and well

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-29307579532550417062009-12-09T01:05:00.002+01:002009-12-09T01:08:14.858+01:00

Icaros Desktop Light is a CD-ROM size distribution of the AROS desktop operating system, for computers without a DVD drive. Icaros Desktop Light comes on a bootable live CD-ROM which runs directly on your hardware (it must be already supported by AROS). It can be installed on the hard drive and can coexist with Microsoft Windows XP, in a dedicated partition. A quick reference guide and some AROS

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-14361597688167058102009-11-28T23:29:00.004+01:002009-11-28T23:39:50.962+01:00

It's time for a little preview of the incoming Icaros Desktop v1.1.6, which includes also version 1.6 of the AmiBridge scripts, which currently allow launching AmigaOS Workbench applications straight from the AROS side. The next version, however, will also add support to ADF files, which means that Icaros users will also run classic Amiga games and demos from their AROS computers. AmiBridge 1.6

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-19568126369212508192009-11-28T01:53:00.004+01:002009-11-28T02:26:29.527+01:00

When I was younger, so much younger than today, I had two wet dreams: a date with Claudia Schiffer, and owming an Amiga notebook. While I am still waiting for Claudia to call me, I just realized the second one, at least from my current point of view. Some times ago I read a message from Yannick on Aros-Exec.org, where I got the description of the Compaq Evo N610c, a old but wonderul laptop

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-52153212631090196492009-11-20T23:41:00.004+01:002009-11-21T01:49:09.908+01:00

In Italy we say "un'immagine vale mille parole", an image worths one thousand words, and I frankly couldn't be happier this time: Hitchhikr has posted on AROS-EXEC a new driver for RTL8169 and similar network adapters, which eventually covers also my netbook's one. So now I can do networking with Icaros on my Acer Aspire One, and that's another important piece of the puzzle, before having a

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-42064084734561514842009-11-13T12:28:00.003+01:002009-11-13T12:36:29.079+01:00

Icaros 1.1.6 update is on the works (slowly, slowly, but it will come), and I am collecting ideas and files also for the next point release, which will be obviously called 1.2. For that release, I'd love to have a new look. Icons will be the same, but I start feeling the default OS4-like windows borders a bit... abused. Unluckily, I am not a good graphic artist, even if I contributed some

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-54620201328248059262009-11-02T02:03:00.002+01:002009-11-02T02:08:11.984+01:00

Ok ok, we have talked about this before, and GLExcess running on AROS with hardware 3D acceleration is no more a fresh news. However, I noticed that current videos are not very well done, so I decided to grab the TV output of my Icaros machine (yes, you can connect an AROS machine to a standard TV set if you like, you just need a good video card) with a Pinnacle Dazzle, and this is the result:

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-76479404997942253052009-10-31T21:35:00.002+01:002009-10-31T22:05:30.767+01:00

I don't like comparisons between operating systems' boot times. There's something completely odd about them: an operating system should be valued for its stability, its reliability, its user-friendliness, compatibility and price, not for its boot times, which practically don't matter when you use a computer. That's why, when I saw this video, I really couldn't stop myself.This video is from

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-54859528052458533182009-10-27T14:28:00.005+01:002009-10-28T22:19:52.655+01:00

After a little pause, Stanislaw Szymczyk has come back and updated his port of the Origin Web Browser (OWB), adding some nice missing features like the upper menu and a quite amount of speed in page rendering. Some bugs, which prevented OWB to correctly hande some sites, have also been fixed. Before the official 0.9.9 release, he has published three RC versions. You can get the latest one here,

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-47279297530587780142009-10-26T16:42:00.003+01:002009-10-26T17:03:05.612+01:00

The incredible coder Krzysztof "Deadwood" Smiechowicz has released an "alpha demo" of 3D acceleration under AROS, and you can already use it on Icaros Desktop 1.1.5, you just need a GeForce card supported by the nuveau driver (GeForce 4, FX, 6 and 7 series, except probably some cut-down models). Following the link below, you will get an updated version of AROS MESA-demos and, for your delight, a

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-67586946906212809162009-10-21T12:29:00.002+02:002009-10-21T12:44:06.702+02:00

Krzysztof "Deadwood" Smiechowicz's port of Gallium 3D is progressing quite well, at least according to this new video:What he has done so far is simply amazing. This new video shows GLExcess running on a GeForce 5200 with hardware acceleration. I used that demo-benchmark long ago to test video cards for the magazines I work on and, honestly, I didn't believe I could see it on AROS some day. This

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-74032965851827724152009-10-08T00:53:00.002+02:002009-10-08T00:54:44.349+02:00

People following the AROS developers mailing list had already noticed some works by Krzysztof "deadwood" Smiechowicz on Gallium3D, but the news is finally official and I can spread it on this site: the heavy task to bring 3D acceleration to AROS has finally started! Gallium3D is an increasingly popular software library which enables hardware and software acceleration on a wide range of video

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-28256121136095766332009-09-29T15:04:00.007+02:002009-09-29T16:31:03.851+02:00

So, it happened. I went to Pianeta Amiga 2009 and I brought there my Icaros machine and netbook, to show people that yes, AROS works and - you can't believe it! - it may be useful too, since nowadays applications for AmigaOS are often available on AROS too, and Icaros Desktop already provides them. On the table at my left side, there was Steve "ClusterUK" Jones with his iMica system, showing

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-1294760717819438422009-09-18T00:27:00.004+02:002009-09-18T00:41:36.762+02:00

Icaros Desktop will be at the 13rd edition of Pianeta Amiga, the longest running Amiga event in Europe. See you on Saturday, September 26th 2009 at the "Palaesposizioni" of Empoli, near the wonderful town of Florence, Italy. It will be a good place to meet other AROS and Amiga fans, see with your eyes and touch with your hands the power of new iMica systems and other PCs running Icaros Desktop.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-31751332026820135922009-09-11T12:11:00.000+02:002009-09-11T08:59:53.742+02:00

A new update for Icaros Desktop is available on the main server. Users of Icaros Desktop 1.1.4 can download and install it straight from AROS using OWB, unpacking it with untgz and installing it with Icaros' LiveUpdater, while others should manually download update discs and bring their version up to 1.1.4 as well. Complete releases of Icaros Desktop Live! and Light will follow in the next hours.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-91744489065820206932009-09-10T14:41:00.001+02:002009-09-11T07:01:37.965+02:00

Icaros Desktop Light is a CD-ROM size distribution of the AROS desktop operating system, for computers without a DVD drive. Icaros Desktop Light comes on a bootable live CD-ROM which runs directly on your hardware (it must be already supported by AROS). It can be installed on the hard drive and can coexist with Microsoft Windows XP, in a dedicated partition. A quick reference guide and some AROS

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-59642077266457901252009-09-10T14:40:00.001+02:002009-09-11T07:02:51.869+02:00

Icaros Desktop LIVE! is a complete distribution of the AROS desktop operating system. Icaros Desktop LIVE! comes on a bootable live DVD-ROM which runs directly on your hardware (it must be already supported by AROS). It can be installed on the hard drive and can coexist with Microsoft Windows XP, in a dedicated partition. A quick reference guide and some AROS PDF manuals are included. This

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-57543530868346339922009-09-05T00:42:00.003+02:002009-09-05T00:57:20.993+02:00

You shouldn't ever do experiments at night, before going to bed, or you'll risk to rest much, much later than you expected. I was just placing my netbook (an Acer Aspire One) on charge, when I thought: "why don't I try booting Icaros Desktop 1.1.4 using my USB DVD drive?". And so I did. I turned on my computer, pressed F12 at boot to choose the boot device, entered my USB DVD drive and... boot

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-63307228480436168002009-08-31T09:34:00.003+02:002009-08-31T10:21:02.458+02:00

Some people complained that automatic update from version 1.1.3 to 1.1.4 doesn't work, as the procedure stops somewhere when de-compressing the downloaded ISO image and mounting this one as virtual CD. I sincerely apologize for the issue, but I can't really figure out its origins: the routine is exactly the same that allowed the first two updates (from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2 and from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3)

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-32613696257216636722009-08-28T15:49:00.006+02:002009-08-30T21:59:25.148+02:00

Icaros Desktop has reached version 1.1.4. This quick update is needed to refresh many system files, since AROS has now got better SDL and MESA support, and various libraries has changed to enhance compatibility with other AmigaOS flavours. This means that system files must be updated to prevent compatibility issues with applications compiled with the latest builds of AROS. But this is not only a

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-84691662772997311092009-08-01T13:53:00.004+02:002009-08-01T13:55:40.097+02:00

According to our counter, Icaros Desktop website has been visited more than 250,000 times! Thanks for your warm and growing interest in our AROS distribution.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-13949076345048677592009-08-01T11:28:00.006+02:002009-08-02T09:07:36.150+02:00

A new, important update for Icaros Desktop is ready for download. It adds to your operating system USB support, thanks to the much awaited Poseidon stack from Chris Hodges, which has successfully passed a huge (at least for AROS habits) beta testing session. USB should now work on about 80% of PC platforms out there, supporting both USB 1.1 and 2.0 controllers and devices, allowing easier file

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-34465700072881791602009-07-20T00:21:00.012+02:002009-07-25T10:53:13.378+02:00

Thanks to all the people that tested Poseidon in the latest days, Chris Hodges fixed many issues encountered during the AROS port and now our USB stack should be enough stable for most configurations. Anyway, today Poseidon entered its official test week and, if everything is fine, it will be released under the terms of the AROS Public License. On our mirror there is a NEW ISO from July 25th,

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-78338723169445764132009-07-16T18:08:00.005+02:002009-07-17T16:37:01.820+02:00

After so long talking about new Icaros updates, new features, new USB stak, new everything, let me talk about something really old. Since from Icaros Desktop 1.1.2 we've got also DosBox (which is not fully working, however, due to some issues with international keyboards makeing it crash hard pressing special characters keys), I just asked myself if it was usable for something better than gaming.

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-6498263733043468362009-07-16T15:44:00.005+02:002009-07-16T16:13:21.580+02:00

Icaros is a funny thing for an old computer geek like me. When I was younger, I spent (too) much of my spare time trying to get things working like I wanted, and then I transformed this old passion in a job. The lucky thing about this, is that now I have easy access to hardware, and I can even test Icaros on different configurations, looking how it works with different devices. Yesterday I

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7422978141274287065.post-41043177110204812362009-07-15T16:45:00.008+02:002009-07-15T17:37:45.275+02:00

Since AROS people is really interested in trying Poseidon, I'd like to make all the bravest Icaros users happy with a "unofficial" test update to Icaros Desktop with Poseidon enabled. Please notice that this is not a mainstream update to our distribution, it won't change your version number and it is meant only to test the new amazing AROS USB stack. The meaning of this little update is only to

Paolo Besserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05890810286277328232noreply@blogger.com