MorphOS - YOU should try it too

[Clark Kent]

I have been an active Amiga user since 1987 and have quite a few Amigas that I use a lot from time to time. But I have also followed with interest and read about AmigaOS4 and MorphOS. Until now I haven't got into any of the two because of the rather pricy hardware that is needed, which is a rather bad excuse because classic Amigas are expensive too.

That was until a few weeks ago, when I bought a MacMini G4 1.5 Ghz on eBay for a reasonable price. I went the MorpOS route and became a registerated user, after wiping OSX off the hard drive. I would never have anything Apple inside my house. Never liked it and I think OSX is slow, user alienating and overrated. I guess I can live with having some Mac hardware as long as I'm only running an Amiga-like OS on it.  :-)

Now to my point: MorphOS is really a wonderful little OS (little because of its small foot print). I have never tried AOS4, I'm sure it's good too. But I have to say; I am really impressed with what a great product MorphOS has evolved into. It's fast, responsive, good-looking and really feels like an Amiga OS. I had never expected it to be as polished as it actually is. No tinkering – it just works. You are up and running after just a few minutes of installation. There are also quite a few good utilities, games and apps available for it.

Just to mention one: MPlayer. It plays any video you can through at it out of the box. Actually MorphOS could be THE OS to use with the living room computer connected to the TV. The MacMini is small and with MorphOS it boots fast, is responsive and can play quite a few games, even Amiga games through E-UAE. The only downside is that the G4 1.5 Ghz is not fast enough to handle HD1080p, but it seems to be just about able to handle some HD720p movies. Just think of the potential a small and cheap MorphOS box that handles 1080p could have.

So to every amigan out there: do yourself a favor and get a cheap MacMini G4 and download MorphOS. You will never regret it. And before you ask; no, I'm not paid anything for writing this. :-)

I'm just a very happy MorphOS user, whose only regret is that I waited too long before getting into MorphOS.

[giZmo350]

Nice! I too have a (actually 3) MacMini G4 1.5Ghz machines - the silent upgrade models. I have OSX and Morph OS dual boot but just havn't had time to fuss with it. I like when peeps say "No Tinkering" with this OS. You've inspired me - gotta get my license registerd (probably updated too). Thanks!

[XDelusion]

Exactly! It just works! Thankx for sharing your MorphOS joy!

[hooligan]

Agree fully, even if I have not tried the latest versions of MorphOS. It was a pleasure to use, the guys behind MorphOS are really talented, plus damn nice guys too. You can find them using irc, #morphos at Freenode.

[buzz]

Just to mention one: MPlayer. It plays any video you can through at it out of the box. Actually MorphOS could be THE OS to use with the living room computer connected to the TV. The MacMini is small and with MorphOS it boots fast, is responsive and can play quite a few games, even Amiga games through E-UAE. The only downside is that the G4 1.5 Ghz is not fast enough to handle HD1080p, but it seems to be just about able to handle some HD720p movies. Just think of the potential a small and cheap MorphOS box that handles 1080p could have

a £200 htpc with xbmc would be a better solution I think (cheaper and full hd support).

[klx300r]

... I would never have anything Apple inside my house. ..

+ 1  :pint:..wouldnt mind trying MOS on a PegII if I could have found one when I was looking

[kd7ota]

Glad you can find great joy out of MorphOS. I was impressed when I got the Mac Mini and installed MorphOS 2.6 at the time, and WOW, the speed was impressive. I did sell my Mac Mini to a fellow amigan here as well as the registered key that went with it, but I won't hesitate to give another $100+ to a great OS.  This time, I will wait for some kind of G5 support. Want to get a G5 desktop so I know the OS will fly.

[slobu]

Well, we can all agree it is FAST.  The Mac Mini option is the cheapest around too.

I found the apps to be basic and unpolished.  Web browsing was hit or miss and flash was, er, not so flashy.

Although there is some TrueCrypt integration no real user based security is in place.  I don't think full disk encryption was available (though it might be now)

The activation process hopefully has improved as well.  I heard it involves some miscellaneous tools and email and BY HAND creation of an activation key.  I don't mind paying for MorphOS but don't tell me how and when and on what machine I use it on.  That key is for that old, used G4 Mac Mini.  When it breaks you just lost your MorphOS.

When security, full disk encryption and a better licensing solution happens I'll jump on it.

[krashan]

I heard it involves some miscellaneous tools and email and BY HAND creation of an activation key. I don't mind paying for MorphOS but don't tell me how and when and on what machine I use it on.  That key is for that old, used G4 Mac Mini.  When it breaks you just lost your MorphOS.

You've heard it wrong.
1. MorphOS registeration is a straightforward process.
2. If you give proofs your machine is broken, you may get a new keyfile for free.

[pVC]

Now to my point: MorphOS is really a wonderful little OS (little because of its small foot print). I have never tried AOS4, I'm sure it's good too. But I have to say; I am really impressed with what a great product MorphOS has evolved into. It's fast, responsive, good-looking and really feels like an Amiga OS. I had never expected it to be as polished as it actually is. No tinkering - it just works. You are up and running after just a few minutes of installation. There are also quite a few good utilities, games and apps available for it.

Yeah, even though I've been using MorphOS since 1.4 times and registered the 2.0 immediately when it was released, I'm still impressed and keep smiling every time I install/update the 2.x versions It's ease and polishing you haven't used to see with Amigas before. Not that I wouldn't love to tune amigaish systems, but it's lovely to get started with basic needed things that easily.

Just to mention one: MPlayer. It plays any video you can through at it out of the box. Actually MorphOS could be THE OS to use with the living room computer connected to the TV. The MacMini is small and with MorphOS it boots fast, is responsive and can play quite a few games, even Amiga games through E-UAE. The only downside is that the G4 1.5 Ghz is not fast enough to handle HD1080p, but it seems to be just about able to handle some HD720p movies. Just think of the potential a small and cheap MorphOS box that handles 1080p could have.

I don't have any HD material to play anyway, so Mini is perfect media box for me. I watch all movies, listen music etc with it. It's easy to take with too. I can grab my mini and USB remote control with me and don't need even carry any keyboard/mouse. I've setted up remote control with MMKeyboard software on MorphOS and I can browse&play movies, play music, view/browse/rotate digital photos, navigate through dirs, control volume, seeking and playlists on all players etc with that.

I'm just a very happy MorphOS user, whose only regret is that I waited too long before getting into MorphOS.

Good you did it afterall anyway and welcome to the great community of happy MorphOS users

[pVC]

The Mac Mini option is the cheapest around too.

Actually you can get Power Macs even cheaper. They can be found for almost nothing. But mini is really nice because of its size

I found the apps to be basic and unpolished.  Web browsing was hit or miss and flash was, er, not so flashy.

Of course there's lack of certain apps, but if you compare to other amigaish systems, you can't complain. There are some really great apps which can be even better than similar apps on mainstream systems too. Like ShowGirls, MorphOS version of mplayer etc. Latest OWB is also very compatible with current web, it's very rare to get any "miss" pages, unless they lean too much on more complex flash things. Luckily HTML5 is coming nicely and that is well supported.

Although there is some TrueCrypt integration no real user based security is in place.  I don't think full disk encryption was available (though it might be now)

I haven't tried myself, but from Kryptos readme:
* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.

That key is for that old, used G4 Mac Mini.  When it breaks you just lost your MorphOS.

It's been said many times, if your machine breaks and you can prove it, you get a new keyfile for the new machine. And AFAIK, you can get it for any supported platform. Try breaking your HW with some other operating systems with different kind of licensing scheme and you won't get new version of OS for other platform, if you can't find similar HW anymore of if you'd want to upgrade at the same time.

BTW. has anyone's Mac mini got broken yet? I don't think it's that big probability to break your computers in the time you would be using it before updating to faster/newer system anyway. On average, how many of you switch computer because it gets broken or you just want to get new one?-) Heck, my 80's/90's classic Amigas still work, as well as Pegasos1 which is years older than my current Mac minis.

[Fab]

I found the apps to be basic and unpolished. Web browsing was hit or miss and flash was, er, not so flashy.

What was basic and unpolished?
What failed with the browser?

And about Flash, well, it's based on an opensource implementation of Flash (swfdec). The situation is no better on Linux if you don't use the official Flash plugin...

[slobu]

These are just my impressions.  I'm glad that there are so many fans of a new alternative operating systems!

MorphOS is asking for a serious sum of money so I expected more.  At the time I installed everything was not as polished as other operating systems such as BeOS.  The user interface and stability all looked hobby OS to me.  Again, this may have been before the 2.xx series really took off so the situation may have improved.  

Partition encryption does not equal encrypting your boot drive.  If the spooks or other criminals can log in it's game over.

The OWB failed to deliver a good enough experience loading and displaying web pages.  Again, this may have been an earlier version.  Also, we're talking about user experience so I don't care if it's flash performance is the same on Linux - it sucked.

Finally, with Mac OS or Windows I can stick in my OS CD and install the OS on any machine I have.  I don't need to prove to ANYONE my machine is broken.  I don't care if Mac Minis don't break that often.  It's MY choice when and where to install Mac OS.  With MorphOS I need to "prove" it's broken.  Not good.

..and to make it clear I object to ANY form of activation on any other platform.  Activation is wrong by principle.  I bought a piece of property not a license.

Despite my less optimistic review than the OP I would QUICKY snatch up MorphOS if it had:

* No activation.  I own the software.
* User/Password security.  No one should access my files but ME.
* Full boot disk encryption.  Same deal.

Again, this is just my experience with an early 2.xx revision.  I didn't mean to get into a point-by-point debate.  just thought I'd clarify a bit!

Carry on

[LoadWB]

Finally, with Mac OS or Windows I can stick in my OS CD and install the OS on any machine I have.

I cannot speak for MacOS, but I can for Windows.  This case is only partly true with Windows, provided that you did not purchase an OEM copy of Windows -- the kind that comes with computers purchased from Big Box or a system builder.

While you may have the technical ability to install your OEM on any other machine, your licensing does not legitimately allow doing so.  When your OEM computer dies, your OEM license of Windows dies with it.

Purchase a retail copy of Windows and you can move from machine-to-machine, you just have to jump through the activation phone call at times if using XP or later.  XP Home Edition used to run between $169 and $199 retail, so you pay about the same as MorphOS for about the same situation, relatively speaking.

Windows 3.x, 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, and ME do not suffer the WGA activation, so you can plug away on those all you want.  Hell, for that matter even XP is loosely controlled these days (only loosely since it is still a viable alternative to 7 if you can get drivers.  I have had to re-activate my XP x64 once or twice due to hardware changes.)

[slobu]

I cannot speak for MacOS, but I can for Windows.  This case is only partly true with Windows, provided that you did not purchase an OEM copy of Windows -- the kind that comes with computers purchased from Big Box or a system builder.

While you may have the technical ability to install your OEM on any other machine, your licensing does not legitimately allow doing so.  When your OEM computer dies, your OEM license of Windows dies with it.

Purchase a retail copy of Windows and you can move from machine-to-machine, you just have to jump through the activation phone call at times if using XP or later.  XP Home Edition used to run between $169 and $199 retail, so you pay about the same as MorphOS for about the same situation, relatively speaking.

Windows 3.x, 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, and ME do not suffer the WGA activation, so you can plug away on those all you want.  Hell, for that matter even XP is loosely controlled these days (only loosely since it is still a viable alternative to 7 if you can get drivers.  I have had to re-activate my XP x64 once or twice due to hardware changes.)

Hey LoadWB!  Hope your weekend is starting off awesome

The key file is far worse.  I don't need to prove anything.  I'm a paying customer.  The harder you make it for me to use and reinstall my OS the less I'm willing to purchase your product.

I stopped buying Windows at XP Home due to experiences with activation.  Are you listening MorphOS devs?