The first quarter meeting got underway on Febuary 7, 2004. Upon arrival I was greeted by two members, Chris Morrison and Lyle Hazelwood, already awaiting my arrival. The meeting room was opened as I began to setup the refreshements and chatted a bit with Chris and Lyle. This was the first meeting for both of them, and it was nice to get to meet more of our members and chat in person. Chris inquired about the OS4 demo and said he had some business to address, and would return around noon, leaving Lyle and myself to chat up AmigaOne and OS4.

Cameron arrived shortly after with his Amiga 2000, which we decided would be fun to play around with while waiting for Doug to arrive with the A1 and OS4. Some idle time was spent playing classic games on the A2000 like "The Killing Game Show" and "Shadow of the Beast II". We all discussed the Amiga and ventured into answering as many questions as possible about OS4, while waiting for the others to arrive.

Doug and Ray arrived at the meeting around 12:30 with the AmigaOne and OS4 Beta. The system was setup and running shortly after allowing the demonstration to begin.

The AmigaOne was running the latest Uboot and had 512MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000 16MB, and an Audigy 2 sound card (which worked beautifully, I must say) connected to a set of Altec Lansing AVS500 speakers. It was connected to a broadband cable connection and a Linksys EtherFast Router.

The first thing you notice different is that now a visible "Kickstart Load" bar is displayed just before the OS boots. Once the system booted, it was apparent that things have advanced much more than they were at our December meeting. The entire OS looks more polished, and seems faster... even more than before. We were able to load a number of applications including MicroDot, AmiIRC, Ibrowse 2.3, and of course, you know that Quake made the rounds. Quake was very nice and even when cranked up to 1280X1024 (still using software render) it just never missed a beat.

There were a couple of times where we saw a Grim Reaper, but overall, I would say that the OS "felt" finished. I'm sure there are a few bugs left to iron out, but my impression of this newest Beta OS4 is that it must really be getting close to what we are all waiting for. As a special treat, we got to actually watch the AmigaOne boot to the OS4 install CD. It boots directly into a Workbench setup with full access to Media Toolbox and everything needed to setup the system from scratch. A job very well done, Hyperion.

There were a few guests who dropped in from both NC and SC. It was good to see that there are others out there still learning about our group and the AmigaOne/OS4 in general. We were happy to be able to host this first worldwide public presentation of the OS4 BetaCD release. Thanks to all members and guests who participated.