Definition of Friend (Computer)

If you ask an older techie about Amiga computers, you can see the nostalgia on their face.

What did the Friend have that led him, more than fame, to become a myth?

The Amiga computers were born in 1985 by the same designer of the Atari 800, Jay Miner

In fact, the creations of Commodore and Atari bear parallels, and both companies were fierce rivals in the market in the mid-1980s.

The Amiga was advanced for its time in comparison with most of the machines that could be found on the market at that time; I remember that, in my youth, they explained to me that you could have a window open in your graphical environment with content in a different resolution than the rest of the graphical environment.

Amiga computers followed one another, but the great success of the PC ended up overshadowing them, and unlike Apple, in Commodore they did not know how to evolve

The decrease in the number of users with an Amiga and in the number of new users interested in acquiring one, was added to the bankruptcy of Commodore in 1994, which gave the folder definitive at

family Friend.

His "death" was not immediate; for years, the rights of operating system and the platform passed between several hands, with promises of its “resurrection”, even if it was for a very limited audience segment.

In fact, the software platform evolved, with a renewed version of the system being published, and introduced expansion boards for classic computers that allowed them to work with a microprocessor PowerPC.

Although the hardware platform is deadlocked, the AmigaOS software platform has left us a heritage that is still alive.

Embodied in systems like AROS, a reimplementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs available for x86 and PowerPC platforms, which has led to distributions like Icaros Desktop or AspireOS.

We also have MorphOS, heavily inspired by AmigaOS and running on both old computer hardware Amiga powered by expansion boards with PowerPC chips, as directly in old Macs with these processors.

The AmigaOS 4.0 is a non-canonical version of the operating system, later developed by the Hyperion company, and that works on computers with PowerPC chips.

While the legacy of software reaches the present and that of hardware no, Commodore left us a series of historical models:

• Friend 500. Released at the same time as the 2000 model, the 500 was dedicated to the domestic market. It had a very common shape for the time, with the keyboard attached to the CPU. With just adding a mouse and the screen, we could already work.
• Friend 2000. Released at the same time as the 500 model, the 2000 was geared towards the professional market, including a greater number of expansion slots. It also had a different layout than the 500, with the keyboard separate from the case.
• Friend 1000. Although the existence of a model 500 can deceive about the first computer of the saga, in fact it was the Amiga 1000 that the Amiga family inaugurated. It was released without monitor, and the case was slightly raised to allow the keyboard to be stored underneath.
• Friend 3000. It sought to bring to the market a professional computer for multimedia editing, tasks in which the Amiga had always performed very well.
• Girlfriend 1200. Back to the same Format "Keyboard only" (which included the CPU) for the home market
• Friend 4000. One of the latest models with the Commodore seal and successor to the 2000 and 3000 models for more professional users. It had more space for floppy drives, and for internal hard drives.
• FriendCD32. A game console that was ahead of its time and that, had it not been for the bankruptcy of Commodore, Perhaps it would have caused that, today, the panorama of video game consoles, was very different. It was the first to bring a 32-bit machine with a built-in CD player to the European market.

Photos: Fotolia - Blueringmedia / Gstudio

Themes in Friend (Computer)