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Operating System Specific Discussions => MorphOS => MorphOS -- Hardware requirements and availability discussion => Topic started by: Boot_WB on June 16, 2014, 06:12:10 PM

Title: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Boot_WB on June 16, 2014, 06:12:10 PM
Macworld article published today covering MorphOS for Mac PowerPC hardware.

The article introduces MorphOS for PPC Apple hardware, gives a brief intallation guide and introduces some of the included applications.

Read more at Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/2363177/turn-your-g4-era-mac-into-a-next-gen-amiga.html)

Quote
Macworld is a web site and monthly computer magazine dedicated to products and software of Apple inc. It is published by Mac Publishing, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Published since 1984, the magazine has the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macintosh-focused magazines in North America, more than double its nearest competitor, MacLife (formerly MacAddict). Macworld was founded by David Bunnell (publisher) and Andrew Fluegelman (editor). It is the oldest Macintosh magazine still in publication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macworld

Good exposure for MorphOS, targeted to a broad, compatible-hardware-owning audience, which will hopefully inspire many PPC mac owners to dig out their G4/G5s and download the ISO.

Thanks to Kimmok & foobar for the link.
Title: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: takemehomegrandma on June 16, 2014, 08:02:18 PM
MacWorld.com has published a cool article about MorphOS online: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"

http://www.macworld.com/article/2363177/turn-your-g4-era-mac-into-a-next-gen-amiga.html

:)
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: XDelusion on June 16, 2014, 08:11:35 PM
Ha ha, awesome!
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: amigadave on June 16, 2014, 08:25:47 PM
Could have been just a bit more accurate at a couple of points, but over all, not a bad article and good exposure for the MorphOS users in a larger Mac user market.

Maybe we will see a few curious Mac users buying MorphOS licenses and showing up on this site, or forum sites set up for MorphOS only, soon.
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: eliyahu on June 16, 2014, 08:34:01 PM
Quote from: amigadave;766901
Maybe we will see a few curious Mac users buying MorphOS licenses and showing up on this site, or forum sites set up for MorphOS only, soon.
let's hope so! :)

-- eliyahu
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: wawrzon on June 16, 2014, 08:45:59 PM
"...Macs and Amigas can walk together, hand-in-hand, along the sandy shores"???? wtf???
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: kickstart on June 16, 2014, 09:04:23 PM
@wawrzon

Maybe this writer from macworld bite an hallucinogen apple.
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: Duce on June 16, 2014, 09:36:00 PM
Good to see MOS getting some exposure, but man - what an awfully written article, IMO.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: klx300r on June 16, 2014, 11:40:06 PM
Cool I sent emails to my Mac head friends telling them to finally redeem that Apple hardware from misery by installing MorphOS so they can finally get the Amiga feeling:)

Next step is to convince them to cover that half bitten apple with a checkmark or boing ball logo to fully complete the redemption lol
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Jeff on June 17, 2014, 01:41:26 AM
Thank you for this! My basement already contains all of the ingredients :)
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: persia on June 17, 2014, 03:25:42 AM
Good article, don't worry about the errors.
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: XDelusion on June 17, 2014, 03:31:33 AM
It's more than I'd expect from an article written by someone from the Mac camp.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: klx300r on June 17, 2014, 03:39:45 AM
mods please merge these two identical threads http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67540
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: Matt_H on June 17, 2014, 04:08:55 AM
Mac Format (UK) did an article a few years ago about what to do with an old G4 Mac, and completely failed to mention MorphOS. I expected better of the sister publication of the late Amiga Format.

Glad Macworld picked it up, though - hopefully it makes it into print, too. Either way, this is *huge* exposure. And I think it's important that one of the early comments correctly reports that MorphOS can handle video files that OSX chokes on using the same hardware.
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: Iggy on June 17, 2014, 06:13:02 AM
"They like us, they really like us".

Hey, any Amiga related coverage these days is good.
I wonder how many Mac users even remember the Amiga?

BTW - Did any of you read the comments?
I just sent Johannes (Yasu on MorphZone) a hi-res PowerBook with MorphOS 3.5.1 installed on it.

And I have a second one here that is getting shipped to Pampers (Wiktor Glowacki) in Poland.

And I'm one of the few US users too.
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: Yasu on June 17, 2014, 11:37:42 AM
@Iggy

Yep, that was me. Can't stay away from those things :)
Title: Re: MacWorld: "Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga"
Post by: eliyahu on June 17, 2014, 01:44:31 PM
@thread

i've merged the two threads on this topic to this one as requested by klx300; apologies if the flow is slightly off after the merge. :)

-- eliyahu
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: itix on June 17, 2014, 11:42:18 PM
Was the article slightly updated or is it just me?
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: zylesea on June 18, 2014, 08:32:51 PM
Nice coverage. Would be cool to know whether such an article has an actual impact. I.e. if it yields new users
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Matt_H on June 19, 2014, 12:24:07 AM
amiga-news.de is reporting (http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2014-06-00037-DE.html) that a German tech site has also picked up on G4 Macs for MorphOS. Seems to be pretty a pretty lively discussion going on over there, but I can't understand much of it :)
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: itix on June 20, 2014, 09:17:37 AM
Quote from: Matt_H;767091
amiga-news.de is reporting (http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2014-06-00037-DE.html) that a German tech site has also picked up on G4 Macs for MorphOS. Seems to be pretty a pretty lively discussion going on over there, but I can't understand much of it :)


I read it with translator (my German is not good enough) and it seems it sparkled quite some interest there. It is good to have an outsider reviews. Those written by Amiga users are often very forgiving...
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Borut on June 20, 2014, 01:20:24 PM
Some people are complaining as usual:
- some think it looks too colorfull on the screenshot which was posted there
- some dont´t like the font
- for some it is too expensiv or the demo-time is too short
- for some it looks too much like linux
- for some it looks too less like linux
- some say it is not enough compatible with 68k software (games mostly)
- some want x86 HW to run it on

And then as usual the "dead horse riding"-bull%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! comments ;-)

To be fair I read mainly the negative comments because it is more amusing ;-)
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Iggy on June 20, 2014, 02:17:16 PM
Quote from: Borut;767196
Some people are complaining as usual:
- some think it looks too colorfull on the screenshot which was posted there
- some dont´t like the font
- for some it is too expensiv or the demo-time is too short
- for some it looks too much like linux
- for some it looks too less like linux
- some say it is not enough compatible with 68k software (games mostly)
- some want x86 HW to run it on

And then as usual the "dead horse riding"-bull%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! comments ;-)

To be fair I read mainly the negative comments because it is more amusing ;-)

Yeah, it CAN get amuzing hearing people complain about what MorphOS isn't, while ignoring how far its come in its development.
Luckily, the development team has a had the integrity to rise above these common demands and focus on what THEY think the OS ought to be.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Boot_WB on June 20, 2014, 08:14:37 PM
Quote from: Borut;767196
Some people are complaining as usual:
- some think it looks too colorfull on the screenshot which was posted there
- some dont´t like the font
- for some it is too expensiv or the demo-time is too short
- for some it looks too much like linux
- for some it looks too less like linux
- some say it is not enough compatible with 68k software (games mostly)
- some want x86 HW to run it on

And then as usual the "dead horse riding"-bull%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@!%&$#?@! comments ;-)

To be fair I read mainly the negative comments because it is more amusing ;-)


Is that a general comment about the NG Amiga forums? :lol:
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: nicholas on June 21, 2014, 10:35:38 AM
Quote from: zylesea;767079
Nice coverage. Would be cool to know whether such an article has an actual impact. I.e. if it yields new users

Perhaps the registration tool could be modified to have a "Where did you hear about MorphOS?" type thing for the next release?
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: wawrzon on June 21, 2014, 05:43:56 PM
Quote from: nicholas;767248
Perhaps the registration tool could be modified to have a "Where did you hear about MorphOS?" type thing for the next release?


just to have another thing people would complain about?

btw, have briefly checked the thread and see a lot of criticism. looks like 90% of general public doesnt exactly see the point in morphos, for reasons that could be applied to other amiga ng solutions as well, perhaps with some exceptions in favour of aros. points being, quite expectably like:
1. high cost of the system (i mean 50-100eur is already consdered high entry fee as you can check for yourself). many consider that it should be free and open source to be worth attention.
2. lack of software to justify usage, especially in comparison to unlimited alternatives especially from the linux world.
3. in comparison to genuine amiga its better to get  the real thing
and so on..

it looks like in the outside world no ng solution can beat the genuine amiga till this day, no matter how much you would argue with people. vox populi vox dei. guess, it is some food for thought, especially for those who want to reach the wider audience with their solution of choice.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: itix on June 21, 2014, 05:57:28 PM
Quote from: wawrzon;767258

it looks like in the outside world no ng solution can beat the genuine amiga till this day, no matter how much you would argue with people. vox populi vox dei. guess, it is some food for thought, especially for those who want to reach the wider audience with their solution of choice.


But there is no solution to this problem. Those who are complaining high price and lack of software are right. You can get Linux for free and it has all imaginable software. And it is not Amiga 500 compatible so no win there either. Amig 500 is always Amiga 500 and no amount of development to new Amigas can change that.

We just have to give up unrealistic dreams for Amiga (in any form) making it big. Not even small.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: XDelusion on June 21, 2014, 06:13:21 PM
Ya... it sucks, they should have went with the Deskmate look instead.

(http://toastytech.com/guis/deskmateabout.png)
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: wawrzon on June 21, 2014, 06:19:49 PM
Quote
But there is no solution to this problem.

probably not. and im not saying morphos is in vain or should now reconsider the course. still reding the comments directed towards morphos i accidentaly kind of got reassured that anything closer aligned with the genuine system (be it some new software or fpga hardware) would probably gain a warmer welcome, less bait and less doubt.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: wawrzon on June 21, 2014, 06:28:58 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;767262
Ya... it sucks, they should have went with the Deskmate look instead.

(http://toastytech.com/guis/deskmateabout.png)


im also not so sure why does the morphos screenshot get so much flak. but then its a little a question of fashion, and when it comes to fashion its easy (and cruel) to fall behind. at least excessive use of gradients isnt probably what is considered up to date, and i must say win8 with its lack of all that questionable eye candy has met my approval.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: XDelusion on June 21, 2014, 06:39:09 PM
Personally I think MorphOS is the most beautiful OS I have ever laid eyes upon. Next to it I always liked the look (and behavoir, most certainly the behavior) of BeOS/Haiku.

 Windows 8 actually reminds me of DeskMate ironically enough, but with more color and sharper images.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: itix on June 21, 2014, 06:58:01 PM
Quote from: wawrzon;767264
probably not. and im not saying morphos is in vain or should now reconsider the course. still reding the comments directed towards morphos i accidentaly kind of got reassured that anything closer aligned with the genuine system (be it some new software or fpga hardware) would probably gain a warmer welcome, less bait and less doubt.


What you mean is some kind of Amiga 3200. 68k compatible, OCS/AGA compatible system with modernized operating system.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: wawrzon on June 21, 2014, 07:01:12 PM
Quote from: itix;767270
What you mean is some kind of Amiga 3200. 68k compatible, OCS/AGA compatible system with modernized operating system.


sort of.. ;) i must admit i just started to work on aro68k 8 color planar icon theme bound to magicwb palette. and i enjoy the limitations!
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: XDelusion on June 21, 2014, 07:07:36 PM
I always felt that having something like Puh Der Baer or Nalle Puh for MorphOS would have gone a long way. Mind you I was told about a month ago by one of the developers (I forget which one) that he planned on starting work on it just as soon as he finished his other pile of work.  He said it shouldn't be too hard.

 On the one hand, we still lage ECS/AGA compatability, but for the most part, many of our desktop apps work, all except those needing Paula, which again is where Nalle Puh would come in. Like with Amithlon, all audio would go through AHI, thus leaving us with an even better Amiga clone...

...though I wonder why this wasn't done in the VERY beginning, seeing as MorphOS was supposed to be the future of Amiga OS/Work Bench back in the day.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Iggy on June 21, 2014, 08:24:10 PM
Quote from: wawrzon;767258
...
3. in comparison to genuine amiga its better to get  the real thing
and so on..

it looks like in the outside world no ng solution can beat the genuine amiga till this day, no matter how much you would argue with people. vox populi vox dei. guess, it is some food for thought, especially for those who want to reach the wider audience with their solution of choice.

Well, some people don't get it.
But "better to get the real thing"?
Only if games are your focus.

I use a MorphOS system every day and rarely fire up my real Amiga.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: XDelusion on June 21, 2014, 08:26:00 PM
Quote from: Iggy;767275
Well, some people don't get it.
But "better to get the real thing"?
Only if games are your focus.

I use a MorphOS system every day and rarely fire up my real Amiga.



Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: Iggy on June 21, 2014, 09:36:58 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;767276
Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Right! A real camp classic. I was waiting for someone to recognize that.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: zylesea on June 21, 2014, 10:13:35 PM
I think most ppl have the wrong perspective of what MorphOS is. Their thinking is too much trapped in benchmarks and higher, better, #?.
No, MorphOS is just an alternative offer. It doesn't need to be better for all. It's not there to conquer Windows or OS X. It's an alternative. It does things different. And you can actuylly use it productively. Some ppl really like that approach (e.g. me), most ppl probably not. Fine with that. But I guess more ppl _could_ get the appeal of MorphOS if they only knew about it or - even better - actually tried it out.  If only 0.001% (1 in 100.000) instead of current 0.0001% (1 in a million) of all computers would run MorphOS (given there are about 2*10^9 computers out there) it would be a great success.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: wawrzon on June 21, 2014, 10:36:33 PM
remembering that it was piru who posted benchmarks a lot i would assume being interested in benchmarks also apply to morphos people, at least as long as benchmarks suit the purpose.

still im not talking about benchmarks here, just about the reaction and the expectations of wider audience. thanks to the articles in question morphos is currently experiencing some for amiga-like systems considerable and exceptional media coverage. i think it is worth to take the oportunity and validate the feedback, and take it seriously, because however misleading and uninformed the articles themselves may be, this is what might be potential target audience and this might be indications where the yet open opportunities are. if not for morphos then maybe for others.
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: XDelusion on June 21, 2014, 10:56:49 PM
Quote from: Iggy;767280
Right! A real camp classic. I was waiting for someone to recognize that.


 I don't imagine a movie as great as that will ever hit theaters again. :/
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: zylesea on June 22, 2014, 12:30:59 AM
Quote from: wawrzon;767285
remembering that it was piru who posted benchmarks a lot i would assume being interested in benchmarks also apply to morphos people, at least as long as benchmarks suit the purpose.


Indeed (kind of). Benchmarks usually carry some (intended or uninteded) agenda.
but they can be helpful though. It's nice to get some basic numbers and to see what a system actually does. It's cool that MorphOS can replay hd videos on hardware where OS X struggles on them. But then again, computing is not only watching videos and an i7 is way, way faster anyway. But a benchmark can reveal a few things.

The only way to get a real impression though it to actually use and test the system. Dunno why exactly, but I just feel home on MorphOS (probably it's because I am used to it). That feeling compensates for other shortcomings.

For example one of the things I especially like about MorphOS (AOS, AROS) is the default window management/behaviour. Particularly that active windows don't jump to front automatically but only on a double click (default on MorphOS, click2front on 68k). For me it makes the workflow pretty different and more controlable.

IMHO things like that make the difference to other mainstream OSes. Having Mplayer or a good browser are no pro arguments, but neccessarities (unfortunately a few neccessarities are still lacking).
Title: Re: Macworld: Turn your G4-era Mac into a next-gen Amiga
Post by: amigadave on June 22, 2014, 08:25:33 AM
Quote from: wawrzon;767285
remembering that it was piru who posted benchmarks a lot i would assume being interested in benchmarks also apply to morphos people, at least as long as benchmarks suit the purpose.

still im not talking about benchmarks here, just about the reaction and the expectations of wider audience. thanks to the articles in question morphos is currently experiencing some for amiga-like systems considerable and exceptional media coverage. i think it is worth to take the oportunity and validate the feedback, and take it seriously, because however misleading and uninformed the articles themselves may be, this is what might be potential target audience and this might be indications where the yet open opportunities are. if not for morphos then maybe for others.

Any new opportunities to expand the awareness of Amiga & NG systems is always a good thing and should be taken advantage of in any way possible.  Most MorphOS users and Developers have refrained from promoting MorphOS to the Mac community in past years, because they realized that there were still too many things missing, or too many applications that were too far behind the Mac alternatives.  They did not want too much negative publicity, even though some people think that any publicity is better than nothing.

I think the progress on the OWB/Odyssey web browser over the last year or two has been one of the most important improvements in changing some users minds about promoting MorphOS to owners of old PPC Mac models.

As for Piru's benchmarks, most of the time I saw them presented as rebuttals to other people posting inaccurate information or claims about MorphOS, specially when comparing it to other platforms.  But then my perception of Piru's posts are most likely skewed by my preference for using MorphOS as my favorite AmigaNG platform (even though I also own, use and like my X1000 running AmigaOS4.1.6).:)