A modern, but friendly environment
Icaros
Desktop welcomes you with Directory Opus 5 “Magellan” already configured to act
as a modern replacement for the Amiga Workbench. You can move between windows,
volumes and drawers like you did in the past, but you can now quickly open,
delete, rename, copy, compress files and directories using in-windows buttons or
right-click contextual menus.
More specific options are already available for many file types. For instance, you can convert a whole PDF file into several images, or an audio sample into a MP3 file with a couple of mouse click!
More specific options are already available for many file types. For instance, you can convert a whole PDF file into several images, or an audio sample into a MP3 file with a couple of mouse click!
On the bottom of the screen, the fully-customizable tool bar provided by AmiStart allows quick access to any program or file on the hard drives, with information and image previews. Just drag and drop your favourite applications on the dock, and it will be available with a single mouse button!
Tailored to your needs
Icaros Desktop comes into two different editions: Light and Live!. The former just provides the mandatory AROS files and third-party programs to set up a working Icaros environment, while the Live! edition also includes advanced tools and applications, from development tools to games, from media editors to drawing apps, from emulators to file managers. You can choose the Light edition if you wish to have a compact (less than 1 GB) system installation on a old PC, but we warmly suggest to take advantage of the full Live! edition, to make the most of the AROS world.
Icaros Desktop Live! has everything you may need. You can draw your vector graphics with ZuneFig, or edit your photos with ZinePaint, or just look at them, with thumbnail previews generated on-the-fly, with ZuneView. You can play your songs and your videos, but you can add subtitles with Slarti, compose new music with MilkyTracker (or ProTracker, or ProTrekkr, or HyvelyTracker, or BigBand, or...). You can play your classics with emulators for any kind of vintage computer and console: Commodore 64, Spectrum, Atari ST, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), Nintendo Super Famicom and many, many more.
> More information about Live and Light!, native and hosted
Play your Amiga games, demos and applications
Icaros Desktop includes AmiBridge, a technology based on the Janus-UAE emulator, which provides binary compatibility to Amiga programs, games and demos. Icaros Desktop does not need original Amiga ROMs and licensed system software to work: it provides cool AROS replacements for both Kickstart and AmigaOS 3.x, and includes a reduced installation of AROS M68K to support Workbench applications. To ensure the best compatibility, however, you can integrate some releases of Amiga Forever from Cloanto (not included with the distribution). |
| Some Amiga 68K applications running along with AROS ones in coherency mode |
Icaros on Linux (and Windows)
Icaros Desktop is a independent operating system which can run on your hardware directly. But what to do, if you don't know how to repartition your drive, if you haven't ever used a virtual machine, or if you just wish a quick run without hassles? You can run Icaros on top of your current operating system! In "hosted mode" Icaros Desktop runs like any other application, but it provides a cosy AROS window for your delight.
There are some shortcomings, but also a interesting opportunity: you can use host applications to open AROS files, and start them from Icaros Desktop as if they were Icaros programs. Click here for more information about HostBridge.
