Was just given a PowerMac G4 Cube...

[blakespot]

A co-worker asked me if I would take her PowerMac G4 cube that was in storage off her hands. I was happy to oblige. :-) I've not yet dug into it to determine its particular spec.

I recall hearing that AmigaOS 4 would run on the system. I have a SAM440ep-Flex with 4.1FE and recalled talk of the G4 Cube in forum browsing in connection with my Sam. I just looked into it and I see some version of 4.0 would run it, but without network, USB, etc. and 4.1 won't run on it. So that's out.

I never have been a big MorphOS guy, feeling that it splits the community unnecessarily, but I am aware that in a number of regards it is more capable than AmigaOS 4.1. If I were to install it on this Cube, how would the speed of the system feel as compared to my ~750MHz SAM440ep-Flex? The Cube is either a 450 or 500MHz G4 w/ 1MB L2 cache and a 100MHz FSB. It probably has a Rage 128 Pro but might have a GeForce 2MX. My feeling is that it would be dramatically more performant, given that the Sam's 440ep CPU is sub-G3 technology.

I believe I could take the entire contents of my A2000's WB3.1 volumes and mount and run them under MorphOS without issue, as far as I understand. I assume that no OS4.x programs will run under MorphOS. Are many recent AmigaOS 4 apps also available for MorphOS? Are there many MorphOS-exclusives?

I am not trying to start a debate between AmigaOS and MorphOS, but I am trying to figure out what to do with this machine.

I will certainly dual boot Mac OS 9 with whatever other OS I install on the thing. (I don't see a point to running OS X on it, given several modern macOS machines I use daily.)

Thanks for the info.


bp

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Never been a fan of anything Mac, but still always liked the design of those.  Have fun! 

[Matt_H]

The only computer to pop up ejected CDs like toast! That makes it worth a look as far as I'm concerned.

I can't speak to performance relative to the SAM, but in general MorphOS is quite zippy. The machine will definitely feel much faster under MorphOS than MacOS(X). Caveat is that if it does have the GeForce installed you're out of luck since MorphOS doesn't support it (or didn't last I checked, which admittedly was a while ago). Give the MorphOS demo/live CD a try and see what you think. At most, you'll be out the cost of a CD-R.

I find MorphOS's compatibility with system-friendly 68K software to be better (e.g., less crash-prone) than OS4's on my A1XE. It also supports classic WarpOS PPC software and (I think) PowerUp as well, so you'll be able to run a lot. For native software, there's of course Aminet, plus MorphOS-Storage, and developers hosting things on their own sites. I think MorphZone is still the main hub for announcements not found elsewhere and, as I discovered the other day, their Library/Documentation section is really quite good for learning nuances of the platform.

And yes, if you can get your A2000's drive connected to the machine (IDE-->USB?) it should mount right up.