A: Internal Amiga version numbers use "library revision" (rather
than product version) numbering. This numbering system starts from
version 30 for version 1.0 of the operating system, and evolves
to version 45 for the files included in the product known as
"Amiga OS 3.9". This is the same numbering which is used when you
enter "Version filename" in an Amiga Shell window to check
for the version of a system library or other executable file.
Amiga Forever up to version 5.0 included Amiga operating
systems up
to version 40 ("Amiga OS 3.1", as published by Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
and others) For Amiga Forever 6.0, Cloanto
extended its licenses to include the software from Amiga
operating system versions 44 (product known as "Amiga OS 3.5") and
45 (product known as "Amiga OS 3.9"). All three versions share the
same underlying version 40 Amiga ROM, with some patches applied.
Amiga Forever 6.0 includes the latest version 44 operating
system
files, plus a selection of the latest, most important and most
compatible version 45 and some later ROM and operating system
patches and files. For the reasons outlined below,
however, Cloanto specifically does not wish
to claim to be distributing a product known as "Amiga OS 3.9".
When, during the development of Amiga Forever 6.0, it became
aware of the fact that the legal status of certain files included
in the original "Amiga OS 3.9" distribution was under challenge,
Cloanto decided to additionally license certain third-party
version 45 and later contributions not only from the publishers, but also directly from the respective developers
and copyright holders (who never granted any exclusive licenses). While this
may result in a best case scenario where some version 45 files are
licensed not once but twice for use in Amiga Forever, in the worst case certain
files would at least be covered by the licenses granted for Amiga
Forever by the individual developers (plus the license which
applies to the previous code of which the new version may be a
derivative, e.g. Amiga code already
licensed for Amiga Forever by Amiga Corporation).
In consideration of the ongoing litigation between different
parties involved in the release of the product known as "Amiga OS
3.9", Cloanto also considered it prudent to avoid altogether the
use of the "Amiga OS 3.9" label in the context of Amiga Forever.
Therefore, although duly licensed by multiple parties to include
the latest version 45 system files, Amiga Forever continues to
refer to this set of files using the generic "3.X" description,
which Cloanto has been using ever since the release of Amiga
Forever 1.0.
Amiga Forever 6.0 and higher therefore include a set of version 44 (as in "Amiga OS 3.5")
files plus version 45 (or higher) files which may be either identical with, or newer
than, certain (but not all) files which were also included in the
product known as "Amiga OS 3.9". From a technical point of view, as in its tradition, Cloanto
carefully evaluated each individual system file, verifying the
latest version available (including files newer than those
distributed in the product known as "Amiga OS 3.9") and paying
great attention to factors such as compatibility and stability.
Third-party application software was deliberately kept separate
from the System partition, and is stored, as in previous versions
of Amiga Forever (which already included under license software
also bundled with the product known as "Amiga OS 3.9"), in the
Work partition.
Certain third-party application items which were included in
the product known as "Amiga OS 3.9", the use of which had been
publicly disputed before the publication of Amiga Forever 6.0,
such as for example the MP3 decoding technology (claimed to be
covered by a patent portfolio of Fraunhofer Institut für
Integrierte Schaltungen and Thomson Corporation), the GIF/LZW
functionality (claimed to be covered by one or more patents by
Unisys Corporation), and the TCP/IP software (claimed to be
covered by copyrights of Network Solutions Development, Inc.), and
other disputed items, were
either licensed independently by Cloanto, or not included in Amiga
Forever. For this reason, for example, the AmigaAMP player as
included in Amiga Forever does not come with any MP3 decoding
technology (as included in the product known as "Amiga OS 3.9"), as the license for commercial use was higher than
could be afforded (nevertheless, the required free mpega.library can be
downloaded separately from the original
sources and their distribution sites).
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