My review of Pegasos+MorphOS

[Spidey]

Hello all friends,

As I mentioned in one of my few posts I was waiting for my Pegasos to arrive, yesterday was the day for me the waiting was over! :-D

My configuration:
- Pegasos G3 600 MHZ (G4 1GHz on the way :-D)
- 40 GB 7200 rpm
- ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB
- Speakers with mini-subwoofer
- CD-Rewriter
- ICute tower (6 fans in it, no sound at all!! :-))
- Cordless keyboard and mouse (Cherry)

With these I also got the following:
- Paper explaining all connectors of the board
- Paper starting and installing MorphOS
- Paper with welcome message
- A t-shirt (now, don't go mad! I'm also waiting for everything I should get for my €50,- coupon)

Installation:
Installation was a piece of cake.
My dealer had already installed the drive.
So I only had to connect all wires.
Starting up is fast, from the moment you push the ON-button of the computer untill you can play with your mouse is only 23 seconds!!! :-D
All connections worked at once (great thanks to my dealer for that :-))

Later I installed a previously bought DVD-ROM in the case and started the machine and guess what: the drive was recognised and worked immediately in Ambient!!

Software:
There are 5 games with MorphOS to play with. Just check screenshots of MorphOS somewhere on the net.
I installed DirOpus 4.16 and it works. I'm doing all the stuff I want to do with it. It sees the drives and all.
As everybody knows, MorphOS isn't finished yet, so it is trial and error installing applications:
- DirOpus worked from first time
- Genesis (from OS3.9 cd) installs but won't start for now
- Miami3.2B works
- MakeCD works
- more to come after I've tried it... :-)

My general feeling is that MUI-oriented applications work "better" than other kind of applications.
I have to play more with it.
There is good support through mailinglists and FTP-server of MorphOS.

I partitioned my harddrive and could choose from various filesystems, incluiding SFS and PFS. I only checked SFS though.

If anybody wants to hear more...... :-)

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello KennyR,

Thank you for pointing out the negative side! :-)
I wanted to say something more about internet, but my first mail was long already so I was going to mention it later this day.

As you said, there isn't a TCP/IP stack yet, so you must do it yourself for now.
I tried Genesis and it will not run, because it can't find/open the resource.library. I put this lib everywhere, but still the same error-message.

Miami installed perfectely, but for now it doesn't recognises my built-in ethernetcard and the whole system freezes trying to negotiate with it.

About the 3D: I only looked  (and played) for a second QuakeII, it ran well, but I don't find this interesting. I've got my PS2 for games :-D
So I can't say much in this department :-)
I played a little bit Birdie Shoot, fun, and saw the intro of Software Tycoon. Sound works too.

Ambient is developing, and yes, it doesn't got all the functionalities of workbench.
Like I can't backdrop (Amiga) icons. The icon format is PNG, probably that's the problem. I didn't see the possibility to list in names rather than icons. CLI works. Also the usual commands like Avail, Info, Protect....
(very nice to see with Avail a Chip memory of 450 MB :-D)
But yesterday evening I saw there was a new boot iso with updates (dated 09 feb 2003) and I installed that (just a simple copying on the hd :-)) and presto! I have a lot more possibilites when I rightclick on an icon. So they seem busy enough updating the OS for me at this moment.

So far the system only malfunctioned (the picture of OS3.9 stayed on the screen and a few parse errors of NG) trying to install Genesis from OS3.9 with InstallerNG, after I replaced it with the installer of OS3.9 everything went alright.
The real freezing up I encountered until now only with Miami3.2B.
But ofcourse, I didn't try much so far :-D

I'll let you all know when I've tried more stuff, like Toolsdaemon and YAM.

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello DaveP,

What because they are MUI based or that MUI on MorphOS is a lot more stable than the other gadget toolkits also available on MorphOS?

I really don't know. While trying to run Genesis I had SnoopDos(?) running and Genesis tried to get the gadgets and images from everywhere on the hd. With workbench it is in Classes/Gadgets and Classes/Images.

Miami worked rightaway, but unfortunately the negotion-error stands in my way with internet-connection :-(

I guess Genesis has something to do with Reaction of OS3.9??? I heard that there is a MUI-version too of Genesis? I'll know enough if that version works on my new system (for the MUI-theory :-)).

Spidey

[Spidey]

I am sorry Mr_Capehill,

But in the welcome message is written that the makers want to publish pictures of the Ambient screen.

But I can say to you that the few screens you can see on www.morphos.de (rightside for links) are exactly what I have on my computer, oh, direct link to one of them:

http://apollo.rsn.bth.se/~osnews/img/2337/morphos1.jpg

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello Dagon,

The main part of these 23 seconds are the initialising part of the hardware itself. The actual loading of the software (MorphOS) is just a few seconds. I'll clock it this evening for you :-)

Resetting is pretty long too, I clocked 25.53 seconds until I could play again with the mouse.

The second state for icons right now is a transparant different color. I guess you can change this with MUI preferences? (I'm not a expert with  MUI)

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hoi Coder,

Yes, I'm happy to have at last something new as replacement for my dear A1200. I bought this in 1993 (the birth of my son bytheway :-)) and over the years I only bought a Blizzard40/40 with SCSI2 for speed and ofcourse a fix for connecting pc-monitors.
(and no, I still don't have any pc's at home)

And now I have something with great graphical possibilities, and most important, speed!
(oh, sound's nice too)

I just heard that MiamiDX works fine, so I'll try that later when I'm at home :-)

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello DDJPPC ,

I've got a ATI Radeaon 9000 64 MB and to be honest, I don't know how to check 3D stuff with and without 3D acceleration.
I just clicked QuakeII, played it a bit and stopped.
Oh, I played it on a 1024x768 screen and it looked nice.

The time I waited for my board?
Hard question, until beginning of this year I was going for AmigaOne G4 800 MHz, but after hearing of again a delay, I ordered a Pegasos. So I guess I waited a month for it.

I bought it in the Netherlands :-)

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello mahen,

In the list of drivers updated was also ATI Radeon (till the 9000). ;-)

I installed the update but now saving the preferences crashes randomly!
I mentioned this in the mailinglist.

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello Senex,

Unfortunately the system of backdrops on Ambient is a bit different than on workbench.

You're absolutely right that on workbench you can edit a file in which you note the path of the file.

I saw on Ambient a directory as ".backdrop" and in it you see all these PNG images! This is totally different than workbench.

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello Frodon,

Thanks for this info.

I only saw this dir (.backdrop) when backdropping my DirOpus didn't work on Ambient.
I didn't had the time to dig deeper and today, unfortunately, I only have time to reply :-)

I'll get into it tomorrow!



@Senex:

Sorry for the misinformation :-(
I only saw that and assumed this was the only way to backdrop in Ambient.


@Sexton:

As mentioned before you can see pictures on www.morphos.de :-)



@Everyone:

Thanks for all replies friends!
Tomorrow I'll try more programs to run, but for now I'm off to bed :-D

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello uncharted,

I'll try to do that this evening :-D

I showed the computer to a friend of mine, who knows only about pc's and Windows.
He was impressed by the startup of the system.
I clocked it again, but it takes 25 seconds in total.
Resetting the computer takes the same amount of time. I forgot to clock only the loading of the software.
I'll do that this evening.
Further on I showed him the games and just simple clicking on the desktop was impressing enough for him to think about buying such a system! :-D

To be honest I told him to other wait until this platform has a real future in software (both OS4 and MorphOS) or to buy a pc now.
It is true you get a whole lot of programs already installed with Windows and for now it's more "user-friendly" for beginners.

I managed to find and download MiamiDX. So this evening I'll try that too.
It will a busy evening for me :-D :-D

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello B00tDisk ,

Or else what? Bill Buck will post a public message about how he's going to sue you for doing it?

I don't think Bill Buck will do all these tiresome actions of starting a webbrowser, going to Amiga.org, logging in and then writing his message, and ofcourse previewing it, correcting it and at last submitting it.
And for what?
Just because some guy posted a picture of the same Ambient screen as is to be seen on his site?
:-D :-D

Seriously, if I had bought a AmigaOne with a beta OS4 on it and in the welcoming message was the same question, I would do it just the same as I'm doing now.

But it is funny to see that when I tell that the screen I see is exactly the same as the screenshots on morphos.de, people still wants screenshots.

Ofcourse I know why. That is why I started this thread. To simply tell you all what comes with this package.
I've read all replies and it is clear to me that some people are already very advanced with trying out (installed Toolmanager, have large user-startups and all). It's unfortunate that they didn't say that in some threads (or I've missed them :-)).

But for now for the interested I'll report my experience with this system, so stay tuned...:-D

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello B00tDisk and uncharted,

....nice to see that many people are enjoying thier new systems

To be honest friends, I'm already happy to have a new computer that has the same workbench-feeling as my beloved A1200! I just mean with this that I have a new computer which isn't a Apple or a pc with Windows or Linux running on it. No it's a computer which resembles more like my A1200, so I can do stuff with it  which I'm already familiar with. :-)

Allright,

Yesterday evening was a major panically disastrous evening for me!! :-x  :-x

To get internet working I have to switch to my A1200 and the Pegasos (long story about lack of multiple monitors and all :-)). In this process my A1200 just died on me :-( :-(
Fortunately I bought a A1200 motherboard last year when the messages told us all about the PCI bridge between the AOne and the A1200 (as you know I was going for a AOne until a while ago). So I had a spare motherboard and a major part of the evening I was busy with my A1200.

I clocked the startup of MorphOS though:

00:02:05 seconds! Incluiding a startup picture that takes also a second. :-D

As told before I upgraded with the boot image of 09 feb 2003, but I simply copied it on top of MorphOS.
Yesterday I saw the original User-Startup was also replaced with an empty one!
In the original User-Startup is the startup of the Amiga emulation and this startup was gone too.
BUT, my DirOpus is working correctly even without it?!!? How is this possible! :-)

There is one nice feature with the right mouseclick:
If you click it on an icon, you'll get options concerning that icon. Do it in a window and you'll get more options in that optionmenu for the window.
And If you right click it once (quick), the menu stays on screen, when you right click it and hold it, you can navigate through that menu and when you release the right click, the menu disappears too :-)
(ok, two nice features :-D)

(Until now I only was used to Magicmenu showing you the menu of the program or workbench you were in)

I didn't have the chance to install MiamiDX correctly on the Pegasos (see above for the reason). This weekend I'm gone, I heard I've got family and friends beside my computer :-D
So my experiment is delayed for now.


Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello lempkee ,

kinda weird this , but very honest post ...

It's true I'm a bit weird and crazy as my friends say this too to me :-D :-D

...also tell me more about the games u got with the pegasos and how they run, need to know more

names and how they act, if they crash etc (i know many of em crash allready but it would be nice if u posted it so we know if its ok or not.... )

With this computer I got 5 games:

1. HereticII demo
This I tried yesterday with a 1024x768 screen.
It was a bit slow but everything worked fine.

2. Quake I
This one goes too quick on a 1024x768 screen and on a 1280x1024 screen the speed is about the same as with the HereticII demo.

3. Quake II
This is a bit slower than Quake I.

4. Software Tycoon
I only saw the intro screen and didn't do more with it.

5. Birdie Shoot
This takes more time to load. It works nicely with the mouse and everything. Sometimes you don't hear all sounds together, but that is a minor thing.

With all these games I could just close it and return to the Ambien screen without problems.
I didn't have any crashes while trying.

I'm curious how I can give you framerates, is there an option in Quake to see it?

I'll try some other games this evening :-)

Spidey

[Spidey]

Hello Targhan,

I tried the net to find a MUI version of Genesis, but in the end I just tried MiamiDX again.

It works now and I discovered the problem I had.
It has to do with my ethernet connection or ethernetcard itself. MiamiDX sometimes can't see the MAC adress of the card. So that is why I have troubles getting connected.

Thank you for your advice :-)

I've installed IBrowse2.3 (fully registered ofcourse) and the speed is skyrocketing :-D
YAM works too.

My next step is installing MakeCD3.2C

Spidey