[Coco] OS9-L2 vs NitrOS9

Sat Sep 20 07:00:20 EDT 2008

Tim,

NitrOS-9 runs virtually all of the software that was available for  
OS-9 Level Two and OS-9 Level One.  There are exceptions that arise  
due to the renaming of certain modules and the changing of syntax  
(i.e. tmode).

What NitrOS-9 gives the CoCo community is a (mostly) bug-free version  
of OS-9 with all of the patches and enhancements that accumulated over  
the years for OS-9 Level One and OS-9 Level Two.   All of this is  
packaged in a nice distribution which you can download and install  
easily.

I have to take issue with your statements that NitrOS-9 is "stripped  
down" and that the team has "tweaked themselves into a corner."   
Please give specific examples to support these statements.  NitrOS-9  
is more robust than OS-9 from Tandy, and includes more features and  
commands.  How can this be considered stripped down?  As for tweaking  
ourselves into a corner, I'm not even sure what you mean by that.

For some reason, NitrOS-9 has tended to be misunderstood.  It's not a  
different operating system from OS-9.  It is OS-9 with some modules  
renamed, more commands, speed enhancements and supports machines like  
the CoCo 1, CoCo 2, CoCo 3, Dragon 64, Dragon Alpha and Tano Dragon  
across the board with one unified distribution.

NitrOS-9 is the holy grail of OS-9/6809 distribution and unification.

I think it's the name that throws some people off.  We couldn't just  
call it OS-9 V3.0 or OS-9 V4.0.  It had to be named something different.

George, to answer your two questions:

1. Yes, NitrOS-9/6809 Level Two drivers can cross over to OS-9 Level  
Two.
2. Depends on who "we" is.  I see NitrOS-9 as OS-9 Level Two with  
patches and enhancements.  They are virtually the same in every other  
respect.

Regards,
Boisy G. Pitre
--
Tee-Boy
Email: boisy at tee-boy.com
Web: http://www.tee-boy.com

On Sep 20, 2008, at 12:51 AM, Tim Fadden wrote:

> I agree. Nitros9 is fine if you are a guru programmer and can create  
> your own drivers and programs, But the OS is so stripped down there  
> is little left of any use other than to manipulate the os.
>
> I personally would prefer to go a bit slower, and have everything at  
> hand.  If I wanna go fast I get on my vista64 machine.
>
> Now much trouble would it be for the people with the know-how and  
> source to create the drivers/software to use the new stuff on OS9L2,  
> the ORIGINAL coco3 os9 with tons of software available for it.
>
> No disrespect to those who have spent countless hours tweaking and  
> creating Nitros9, but I think they have tweaked themselves into a  
> corner.
>
> Tim
>
>
> George Ramsower wrote:
>> I'm curious about this:
>>
>> Nitros9 is somewhat faster than OS9 and requires a Hitachi 6309  
>> chip. Of course, there's Nitros9-6809 but still, it's Nitros9.
>>
>> In recent times, some folks have introduced new hardware which is  
>> really cool stuff but, the drivers and whatever other software  
>> provided in the package claim to be  Nitros9 stuff.
>>
>> There are a few of these hardware things that interest me. Next  
>> month, I'm getting three of those Pupo style? keyboard things to  
>> put a PC type keyboard on a coco.  It's a Plug-N-Play thing that  
>> will work. I'm almost out of keyboards now.  I think it's Cloud 9  
>> that handles or makes those. It would eliminate that darned, fat  
>> and cumbersome ribbon cable I use to relocate the Coco keyboard.
>>
>> The vendors which have other products that interest me, advertise  
>> they provide Nitros9 drivers.
>>
>> This is why I haven't acquired any of the latter items available to  
>> date. I have asked the vendors if those drivers would work on my  
>> OS9 L2 system and haven't received replies.
>>
>> So there are two questions in this post...
>>
>> 1. Will a Nitros9 driver work on a Mircroware OS9 system on a 64K  
>> CC  or a CC3?
>> 2. Have we abandoned OS-9?
>>
>> I suppose if #1 is FALSE and  #2 is TRUE, then I'm in real trouble.  
>> I think it would take me months to convert to Nitros9, given the  
>> time I have available. I'm using three cocos at this time. One has  
>> a hard drive, the CNC coco is not just a CNC coco. The ports are  
>> versatile and I have numerous OS9 boot disks with special boot  
>> files, startups and software(B09) dedicated to the task at hand.  
>> Some use graphics. Converting all this stuff to Nitros9 would be a  
>> monumental task I think. The third coco is a 64K unit and does  
>> simple tasks for my house. I use OS9 on that one also. I have about  
>> a dozen special boot disks for that one.  The computer with the  
>> hard drive only has three. The CNC coco has now has fourteen boot  
>> disks. Only two operate the milling machine. The rest do suff like   
>> operate my darkroom/enlarger, monitoring the weather(looking for  
>> water), turning lights on and off... and more
>>
>>
>> Heck! It seems I"m being left in the dust behind the pack while  
>> using OS9 L2...... Dangit!
>>
>>
>>
>> George
>>
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>
>
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