Contiki

Adam Dunkels 2003
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: C64
Views: 8768
Review by std (2004-03-21)

Sure, I want to surf the net, too. Surfing the net from a Commodore64 is now a true paradigm, since you'll hardly ever find a web site you can use. I remember when I got a modem for my C64 (it was an 800 bps modem)' omg that was incredible! I knew a telnetable BBS and I used to spend hours there, chating with the sysadmin. That's how I got into security' great stuff indeed.

What we don't have is an operating system with TCP/IP support. Sure, there's [application]LUnix[/application] (see review), but that's hard to learn and the web-browser is' well, we can't even call that a web browser. If I remember, geOS had an add-on that enabled it to do TCP/IP, but it's just so awfully slow that I can't imagine surfing the net from geOS. There is, of course, terminal software for BASIC (I promise a review, very very soon!), but it's not really a way of surfing.

Surprise-surprise then: Contiki! Yep, this is what Contiki does: it lets you use the Internet, using a GUI. More user-friendly than geOS, yes, that is arguable. But it is much faster and the TCP/IP works. And darn well that is.

The environment is pretty similar to geOS (in fact, it resembles the early versions of Amiga Workbench) but it's less 'crowded' and the background doesn't kill your eyes. In fact, Contiki comes with three theme sets: wo of them are colourfull, with icons and stuff, the other one keeps the GUI but everything is text.

Configuring Contiki for usage with TCP/IP is very, very simple. You just have to enter the IP address and the DNS, and you're ready to use.

Contiki comes with a pretty good web-browser, although again you will hardly find a web site you can use, which I have tested using some simple html pages. It is very easy to use, BUT there is a problem. Contiki' god this is so embarassing' err, Contiki does not have mouse support. Surfing the net from the Amiga is now difficult for me because I have no mouse wheel. But surfing the net without mouse support is just unbearable.

What works very, very well is the telnet. While not exactly the kind of telnet we know, you can actually chat on your C64. If you can get a server with good support, you can gather actual discussion groups. It's something I never thought I would see on a C64 but yeah, this is interesting.

Unfortunately, this OS's author doesn't seem eager to create special software for this. Contiki is still in-dev and you can find the current version on http://dunkels.com/adam/contiki. This Adam Dunkels character seems to be a nice guy, give him a hand if you can, because Contiki is a masterpiece in terms of speed, much, much faster than geOS. Anyway, trying something doesn't hurt, so get your hands on this, and quickly! Oh, and happy net-ing!

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