Finally purchased a Firebee!

[AtariSociety]

Been on the fence for years now asking questions while keeping an eye on the project.

I am an old Atarian from the late 70s into 80s and ended in mid 90s when Atari went belly-up.

Been out of the scene a very long time but have finally made the plunge and ordered my Firebee.

Looking forward to re-learning Atari all over again so I will have tons of questions as I get back into Atari.

Looking forward to my Firebee arriving in California USA.

TJ

[joska]

Congratulations Have you owned a clone before?

[AtariSociety]

Nope, only atari branded machines. 1st time with a clone .

TJ

[vido]

Great to see another one purchased the FireBee.
I hope you will get back into Atari stuff quick.

[Zogging Hell]

Well done, the first time you use netsurf or navigate Streetview with Wong's app are quite revelatory experience. Especially if you've been used to CAB on a Falcon or ST.

[lschafroth]

Has there been any progress on a IMAP client for email? I tried to use Aranym with the Firebee equivalent configuration and could never get any real web browsing done.

[joska]

Troll has support for IMAP.

[AtariSociety]

Troll has support for IMAP.

May I ask what is Troll.

TJ

[joska]

http://ptonthat.fr/troll/

Although "next generation" and "usenet" in the same sentence sounds weird... Now we're all wasting time on clunky web-based forums with no thread-support and hideous editors.

[Rajah Lone]

May I ask what is Troll.

http://ptonthat.fr/troll/

GEM client for NNTP, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4 since 1.6 version. I'm about to release a bugfix version for this early December.

EDIT: "next generation", compared to NEWSie. I used it for usenet, but got angry of it because it crashed, deleted some files, even its own .PRG file.

[Mathias]

Has there been any progress on a IMAP client for email? I tried to use Aranym with the Firebee equivalent configuration and could never get any real web browsing done.

Both questions are not connected to the Atari Coldfire Project. Of course we are trying to motivate developers, but if there is an Atari mailclient or not is not connected to the FireBee computer. As well it is not an issue of the FireBee if you get your Aranym network connection setup correctly.
Don´t get me wrong, we are trying our best, and of course we understand that a real day to day usage needs such software as well, but it cannot be that people are starting to make us responsible for browsers, mailclients and other stuff. Gladly people like Rajah or m0n0 saw the needs and work together with us, but please do not mix up the project and external user software. And finally it would also not be nice to gain all the gratitude and respect as project for a software that was done by external single developers!

[AtariSociety]

I was told my Firebee shipped. Cool! Should be 2 to 3 weeks they say. TJ

[lschafroth]

Has there been any progress on a IMAP client for email? I tried to use Aranym with the Firebee equivalent configuration and could never get any real web browsing done.

Both questions are not connected to the Atari Coldfire Project. Of course we are trying to motivate developers, but if there is an Atari mailclient or not is not connected to the FireBee computer. As well it is not an issue of the FireBee if you get your Aranym network connection setup correctly.
Don´t get me wrong, we are trying our best, and of course we understand that a real day to day usage needs such software as well, but it cannot be that people are starting to make us responsible for browsers, mailclients and other stuff. Gladly people like Rajah or m0n0 saw the needs and work together with us, but please do not mix up the project and external user software. And finally it would also not be nice to gain all the gratitude and respect as project for a software that was done by external single developers!

Dont get me wrong, I love the progress the Firebee has made. BUT, the project is not a viable one if there isnt any software for it. The hardware is fantastic but without software that can do even basic tasks like web browsing, email etc it will never get used. I was ready to purchase one but decided to wait on the software to catch up. I cant wait to get one....

I think the Firebee website should have a Software section. The best software and most up to date software should be listed by category. Maybe give your "best pick" and list the alternative choices after that. Let people know the software is coming along as well. Let them see what it is capable of. I had to seaarch all over the place to find packages and when I did, I wasnt sure which one was the most current. With the list of the most reliable software to go with the hardware the end result will be a more positive result and more word of mouth to go get a Firebee!

I think a mirrored Aranym setup that can run almost everything the firebee can will give users a test run and if they fall in love with it, they will order the hardware. The ones who would have never purchased one, might be pushed to get one if they downloaded the Aranym version and tried it and fell in love with the Atari all over again.

Just my 2 cents!! Have a great holiday!!

Lannie

[christos]

I think the Firebee website should have a Software section. The best software and most up to date software should be listed by category. Maybe give your "best pick" and list the alternative choices after that. Let people know the software is coming along as well. Let them see what it is capable of.

This is actually a great idea. Like the atari up to date list but more concentrated somewhat.
http://www.jaapan.de/en/uptodate.php

[AtariSociety]

I think the Firebee website should have a Software section. The best software and most up to date software should be listed by category. Maybe give your "best pick" and list the alternative choices after that. Let people know the software is coming along as well. Let them see what it is capable of.

This is actually a great idea. Like the atari up to date list but more concentrated somewhat.
http://www.jaapan.de/en/uptodate.php

Is this link here an official link to get some Firebee apps? I went to it and it has some apps like Netsurf, etc...

For someone like me, for sure, being new back to Atari and having not much of anything software and knowledgewise on the ways of Atari (been out of it too long), having a one stop shop for Firebee apps would be a blessing for sure.

Can't wait to get my Firebee and see what I can do with it.

Is there an official list someplace of known tested apps that work with the Firebee?

TJ

[joska]

Dont get me wrong, I love the progress the Firebee has made. BUT, the project is not a viable one if there isnt any software for it. The hardware is fantastic but without software that can do even basic tasks like web browsing, email etc it will never get used. I was ready to purchase one but decided to wait on the software to catch up. I cant wait to get one....

I guess it's time to buy one then. NetSurf and Troll is working very well on the Firebee.

I think the Firebee website should have a Software section. The best software and most up to date software should be listed by category.

Yes, I agree. Some sort of "app store" would be useful.

I think a mirrored Aranym setup that can run almost everything the firebee can will give users a test run and if they fall in love with it, they will order the hardware.

The problem with ARAnyM is that you have to be an actual wizard to get networking up and running. So creating an ARAnyM version of the Firebee's FreeMiNT/software setup is not trivial.

[joska]

Is this link here an official link to get some Firebee apps? I went to it and it has some apps like Netsurf, etc...

Basically you'll get everything that's ColdFire specific when you get your Firebee. If you want to have a look right now you can download the complete contents of your Firebee's CF-card here.

Is there an official list someplace of known tested apps that work with the Firebee?

Not that I'm aware of. It's pretty much trial and error, like on every non-standard Atari out there Generally speaking you can forget about games and demos, many GEM-apps will also fail for various reasons. Some of these because of the ColdFire CPU, most of them because of TOS/hardware incompatibilities.

[lschafroth]

The problem with ARAnyM is that you have to be an actual wizard to get networking up and running. So creating an ARAnyM version of the Firebee's FreeMiNT/software setup is not trivial.

The networking was pretty simple with the MAC version of Aranym. I got it to work on Windows 7 as well. Not too hard. I have never built a Linux based Aranym yet. I dont know enough about it to do it. I would like a linux system that boots directly to the Aranym desktop. That would be cool.

Lannie

[christos]

There is afros live cd which does exactly that. Unfortunately both the Atari and Linux software are quite old and out of date.

[lschafroth]

There is afros live cd which does exactly that. Unfortunately both the Atari and Linux software are quite old and out of date.

The afros is NOTHING like that. It is old and outdated and doesnt accomplish what I want.