MagicWB is a full replacement for the Graphic User Interface of the Workbench and has become the standard visual interface on the Amiga. Over the last years MagicWB has received various merits and an overwhelming response from Amiga magazines and users worldwide proclaiming it 'a must for all Amiga users' (see the extras section below for.
Workbench 1.2
- Workbench 1.0 was released for the first time in October 1985. 5 The 1.x series of Workbench defaults to a distinctive blue and orange color scheme, designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television screens (the colors can be changed by the user). Version 1.1 consists mostly of bug fixes and, like version 1.0, was distributed only for the Amiga 1000.
- Workbench 1.2 came with the Amiga 1000 from September 1986 onwards, accompanied by Kickstart 1.2 on disk, and was the initial version shipped with early Amiga 2000-A, Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000-B machines. Visually, Workbench 1.2 looks much like Workbench 1.1, although there are some visual differences, such as the icon for the Trashcan having a.
- Workbench 2.1 ran on all Kickstart ROMs of the 2.0x family. Later releases of AmigaOS (3.5 and 3.9) were also software only and did not include matching ROM upgrades instead requiring Kickstart 3.1, with ROM-file based Kickstart components replacing those in ROM.
Workbench 1.2 came with the Amiga 1000 from September 1986 onwards, accompanied by Kickstart 1.2 on disk, and was the initial version shipped with early Amiga 2000-A, Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000-B machines.
Visually, Workbench 1.2 looks much like Workbench 1.1, although there are some visual differences, such as the icon for the Trashcan having a little more detail, same goes for the Clock icon (more about this in the next paragraph), and the icon for the Preferences tool has been improved to give more contrast around the question mark.
Workbench 1.2 Disk contents, no icons selected |
You may have noticed that the time on the icon for the clock has changed, as well as it now having points for the hours. The time on the clock may be familiar to those who remember, or are familiar with, the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. The person who created the icon, Eric Cotton, recently shared in the Commodore International Historical Society Facebook group, the following:
“Little known fact: As a memorial to Challenger, I positioned the hands on the Amiga Clock icon to the time of the explosion, 11:38EST (though it looks on the icon like 11:37 cause of the resolution I was working with).”
The Workbench 1.2 Disk gained a new drawer, called Expansion, which is where you would install any software that may be needed by any hardware expansions that you may add to the system.
As is visible by the disk usage gauge at the side of the Workbench disk window, the Workbench 1.2 Disk was almost entirely full, while the Workbench 1.1 Disk still had a fair amount of space still free.
Workbench 1.2 was the first version of Workbench to feature the use of a RAM disk as standard. This works like any other storage, although it is lightning fast when compared to Floppy Disks, or even compared to Hard Disk Drives. However, the two main downsides are that the more storage needed for the files stored in the RAM Disk, the less RAM is available for programs to run in, and anything that is stored there is lost if the machine crashes, is rebooted or turned off.
Extras 1.1 Disk contents. |
As with Workbench 1.1, Workbench 1.2 came with a Workbench Extras 1.2 Disk, which had changed quite a bit since the Extras 1.1 Disk. It still included AmigaBASIC by Microsoft, but it no longer included Amiga Tutor. Instead, there was a new tool, called Say, which provided a text-to=speech, enabling the user to type what they wanted the Amiga to ‘say’ out loud, and the Amiga would say it. It could speak in a male, female or robot voice, and the speed and tone could also be altered. There was also a calculator, and a folder with several tools for working with IBM-Compatible 5.25″ Double-Density disks, when used with a A1020 5.25″ disk drive.
Workbench 1.2 should work on any version of Kickstart from Kickstart 1.2 onwards (Kickstart 1.3, Kickstart 1.4beta, Kickstart 2.0, Kickstart 3.0, Kickstart 3.1), although on Kickstart 2 onwards things will look a bit odd and some menu functions will be different or gone altogether. The Amiga Museum has tested and verified that Workbench 1.2 does in fact work on Kickstart 3.0.
Workbench 1.2 starting
Amiga Workbench 3.1 Adf Download
The Workbench 1.2 Disk contents
The Workbench 1.2 Disk with the System and Utilities drawers opened.
Amiga Workbench 2.1 Adf Download
| <- Back to Workbench 1.1 | On to Workbench 1.3 -> |
Workbench 3.1 Adf Download
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