UserDoc:Introduction to AmigaOS

AmigaOS, the flexible operating system

AmigaOS is an operating system that runs on hardware based on a PowerPC CPU. Basically these are the old Amiga computers (also called Classic Amigas) and the new generation Amiga computers. In this manual, we concentrate on newer hardware as these are the machines still manufactured. What is described here still apply to some extent to the Classic Amigas.

How is my data stored?

Files

Executable files

Programs you can start are stored in executable files. These are files with an executable bit, a flag that shows AmigaOS that such file will do something when started. An example is a music player. When you start this executable, the player opens and you can start playing music files.

Data files

Files that are not executable are data files. These contain some data that will be manipulated by programs. Some examples are a music file, a video file or a text document.

Directories/Drawers

In order to organise things a bit, files are not all of them in the same place. We create directories which like drawers of a cabinet will store different files of the same kind. The graphical interface of AmigaOS being called the Workbench, directories are often called drawers.

Disks and partitions

Disks

Disks are storage medium you can purchase on a computer store. We use them to store our files.

Partitions

A disk is often very big and many users prefer to make it more organised. This is done creating several partitions on the disk.

TODO: insert a disk image with partitions

Boot of AmigaOS

Basically a computer with AmigaOS does the following when the power button is pushed: - the BIOS of the computer initialises the hardware - the BIOS looks on the harddisk and finds a file called the Second Level Booter (SLB) - the SLB will then analyses all Amiga partitions and load each system configuration it finds - the SLB loads the kickstart files of the selected configuration - the kickstart files are executed, AmigaOS becomes alive - the file Startup-sequence is executed and with it all commands it contains - the Workbench is started

At this point the user can use his/her computer.