About

AspireOS is an open source operating system for personal computers. We focus on a system where computing is fun.

Look at it as a multimedia operating system.

AspireOS continues the spirit of AmigaOS. You might ask why someone would want Amiga like OS in 20xx. The fact is that even today there are many things this OS made different and to many favorable to other operative systems.

This OS does as AmigaOS did in the past, target multimedia applications and games. Look at it as a creative platform in a kind of retro way. We love the retro stuff like pixel gfx and modules, but we still have mothern web-browser, media player and other software to support todays standards.

This OS is not emulated in any way and does not use Linux kernel or simlar.

AspireOS (AROS) is a clone of AmigaOS in the sence of being compatible with Workbench 3.1, but at the same time being much more advanced.

Amiga is most known as a home gaming computer from the 90s. What many don't know is that Amiga where the first real multimedia computer.

Everything from Sound, TV production to movie making, Amiga where the best around.

With bad management Commodore/Amiga went bankrupt in 1994.

Summer 2011 I decided to do my own AROS distribution.

My target was the ACER aspire one 110, 150 or zg5.

This netbook is fully supported with by AROS. I therefore tought it would be nice with a OS distribution that would be configured to target this hardware. The name AspireOS come from that computer.

AspireOS runs on most x86 hardware, but it's far from all hardware that is supported.

Have a look at the hardware page for more info.

About me

My name is Nikos Tomatsidis. I'm born 1972. My fatner is Greek and mother Norwegian. I live in Norway and have 2 kids. In the company I work I do sales, accounting and many other things. My day is most in front of the computer. I been playing guitar since I was 12 and play in a band. My hobby is music, Amiga, AROS, AspireOS. Sometimes girls too ;)

My computing history

My first experience with personal computers where the Spectrum 48k. Competition from commodore where hard, and that resulted in selling the spectrum and buying commodore-64. I had a break from computers some years, but from around 1991 I got my hands on a used Amiga 500. After that I had Amiga 1200, CD32 and Amiga 4000. My Amiga 4000 with powerstorm and cybervision died many years ago. When that happened Amiga where in a very bad situation, and I sold what was left of my Amiga hardware. Maybe 1 year after that I discovered the AROS project. That was pretty interesting since it would allow me to run Amiga like OS on x86 hardware, and it was free (open source). The huge disappointment I felt from who ever took over the Amiga, also made me believe it was time the users took over the Amiga development (after all it's the users who kept the dream alive). I been following the AROS project since around 2003. I been most active since around 2007. I'm not a developer, but supported the project in many ways. Bug testing, donating, some small gfx work, made Audio Evolution port to AROS a reality, helping new users, and now my most ambitious project, AspireOS (AROS distribution) and this web-site.

Why AspireOS

AspireOS is very configurable. Not limited like MacOS or most of todays Operative Systems.

We don't like to lock the user. Everything has to be in this path etc. to work. Sudo this and that.

Not possible unless you are an administrator. Password protection etc. etc.

Linux is the major open source operative system today but we are not happy about how this OS behave. It is very restricted, and with toolkits like GTK+ and Qt it does not necessarily share the same guidelines or even goals. Linux is very complex, insufficent and inefficient. It is way to complicated for most.

AspireOS is very fast and responsive

You can do most normal tasks like playing media files, and surf the internet.

When you want to turn off AspireOS use the power button. No log inn, log out.

AspireOS don't require much disk space or memory. The system files are around 30MB.

Windows Vista or 7 require at least 10GB of disk space, and 1G ram to be installed. A netbook like ACER aspire one 110 SSD 8G does not meet those requirements, but AspireOS does.

AspireOS is free, open source system, just like in the world of Linux.

If you are an existing or old Amiga user, you will feel home at once.

You can even use old Amiga apps. and run them inside AspireOS.

AspireOS is easy to understand. The OS structure is by far the most understandable I ever seen.

AspireOS is lots of fun to use. We have some great programs and games that you will like.

Any questions it is possible to contact me.

nikos@aspireos.com