Thank you, Michele, for supporting AROS. Regarding the use of AROS on virtual machines, I would strongly recommend using VMware, as I believe it offers an experience closer to that of a native system.
VMware offers excellent compatibility with almost all types of PCs; I’m not sure if VMware Fusion does the same on Macs.
As QEmu is an emulator/virtualiser, I’m not sure how it behaves on Macs or whether it can be used as a virtual machine; otherwise, it won’t be able to take advantage of the native hardware performance offered by VMware and VirtualBox.
In this link, I asked why QEmu was slower than VMware:
I realized I joined the discussion without properly introducing myself, so here I am.
My name is Michele, I’m from Italy, and I’ve been involved with computers since I was a kid in the 1980s. My first experiences were with Commodore machines, starting from the C16/VIC-20/C64 era, where I learned BASIC and later became fascinated by low-level programming, 6502 assembly, and the idea that understanding the machine itself matters as much as writing code.
The Amiga has been one of the most important machines in my computing life. I used and loved the classic Amiga ecosystem, not only as a user but also as someone interested in how the whole system was designed: the responsiveness, the custom chipset philosophy, the elegance of the OS, the “small but powerful” mindset. That spirit is still something I value a lot.
Professionally, I work as a software developer and IT consultant, mostly around web applications, PHP, SQL, Linux servers, Moodle/e-learning platforms, and custom business systems. So my daily work is much more “modern web and infrastructure” than Amiga-like systems, but my roots are definitely in the 8/16-bit personal computer world.
I recently started looking seriously at AROS again because I think it represents something very interesting: not just nostalgia, but an attempt to keep the Amiga-like operating system philosophy alive in an open and portable form. I’m especially interested in using AROS as a real development target, not only as a curiosity.
My current goal is to experiment with porting useful software to AROS. I’m starting with smaller and more realistic targets, such as bebboSSH, and I’m also interested in exploring whether some Telegram-related tooling could eventually be made to work. I know this may involve a lot of missing dependencies, build system issues, POSIX assumptions, networking details, and debugging pain , but that is also part of the fun.
I’m currently setting up AROS x86 and x64 environments under QEMU so I can build, test, break things, inspect logs, and iterate quickly. I’m also experimenting with AI-assisted development workflows, not as a replacement for understanding the code, but as a way to speed up porting, scaffolding, debugging, and documentation. The recent discussion here about AI tools for AROS development was one of the reasons I decided to participate more actively.
My background is a mix of retrocomputing, practical software development, Linux/system administration, and curiosity about operating systems. I’m not an AROS expert yet, so I expect to ask some basic questions at first, but I hope I can also contribute useful testing, porting attempts, documentation, and eventually working software.
Outside of work, I’m still very much into retrocomputing. I use and collect machines like the VIC-20, C64, C16, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Atari 8-bit, Amiga 500/1200/CD32, and other systems. For me these machines are not just museum pieces: they represent a more direct relationship with computing, where limits were visible and understanding the hardware/software stack was part of the experience.
So, in short: long-time Commodore/Amiga enthusiast, professional PHP/Linux developer, retrocomputing addict, and now hopefully a useful new AROS contributor.
Happy to be here, and thanks for keeping this community alive.
Edited by kaffeine on 13-05-2026 05:11, 8 days ago
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