MagicWBv2.0 --------------
Official review of the latest registered version



MagicWB Snapshot

"A graphical working environment of which users can be justly proud"

(by Nick Ridley)


When Edge Magazine published two pictures comparing the Amiga Workbench to the Apple Mac Desktop it made me feel quite ill. Why was that? The Amiga shot they showed was a beautiful black and white picture of the default Workbench being run on a high-resolution screen, and so it looked horrible. Many Amiga owners know that they do not have to put up with an environment like that since MagicWB has been available for quite some time. It has steadily become accepted throughout the Amiga community, it seems, as THE replacement icon scheme, as more and more shareware and Public Domain software comes with MagicWB style icons. (..)

One of the first things that strikes you about the MagicWB2 package is the standard of presentation. The disk icon for the install floppy is very striking and introduces the MagicWB logo. Having unarchived the disk, you should have a directory on your hard disk which contains the package. On opening this drawer you will immediately notice how carefully all the icons and windows have been arranged - real care has been taken here.

The real test of the package is how well the install routine works, though. Previous versions had an odd quirk or two, though it is no wonder - no two people have their Workbench partitions set up identically, so any install program has to be moderately intelligent. It is on this point that I can forgive the author for not using the Commodore Installer utility, as perhaps it was not flexible enough for his purposes. (..)

The installer program does its job very well, and I uncovered no problems at all. In theory, I was updating my installation from version 1.2, but I can not see that there would be any problems. Those curious to know precisely what the program is doing can find rough details of what is going on in the documentation.

DocksSummary

MagicWB2 is very much a major upgrade to previous releases, and the list of changes in the documentation makes interesting reading - many things have been adjusted, and it is by no means just a case of a few newly designed icons being added here and there. (..)

Magic Workbench is beautiful - it will transform your Workbench environment totally. For those who concentrate more on working from within shells, it is probably a waste of disk space, but for anyone who takes pride in snapshotting their windows neatly, this is an essential purchase. Perhaps the most exciting thing about MagicWB is that it has already been accepted as a standard, and so there are loads of MagicWB style icon and background sets available in the Public Domain. (..)

System WindowComparison to similar products

There are other icon collections available for Workbench, though none of them are to my knowledge as comprehensive or as good-looking as MagicWB. If you are looking for a way to standardise the entire look of all your icons, MagicWB is the perfect option. (..) I have no doubt that soon the MagicWB look will be synonymous with the Amiga Workbench.

Vendor support

Martin Huttenloher responded quickly and professionally to all of my enquiries about Magic Workbench (email used). He is dedicated to supporting and developing MagicWB further, and will gladly help design the odd icon for spurious programs. If MagicWB2 sells well he promises to look into extending MagicWB from 8 to 16 colours (only required at present by Magic Copper).

DocksConclusions

For anyone who uses the Amiga Workbench seriously, a decent icon collection is going to be an important purchase. They do not come any better than this one (..) For anyone who has been using a previous version of MagicWB, I strongly recommend that you purchase this upgrade, especially if you are an AGA user.

My advice is that you go and download the demo of this package off Aminet immediately, if only to get your hands on the SASG registration program. And while you're at it, register Magic User Interface as well. MUI and MagicWB used together give Amiga users a graphical working environment of which they can be justly proud, and which outshines those of any other home computer on the market.

This was an extract of the official internet review about the current MagicWB 2.0. It has been slightly adjusted to achieve a better HTML layout.

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Copyright 1997, SASG HomeHelpFeedbackOrderAbout Updated: 16-Feb-97