Switching to MorphOS

[Iggy]

Hi everyone!
In '90 I was using Amiga, then I switched to Windows, then to Mac OSX, then to Linux.
I'm going to try MorphOS as soon as I get some cheap G4 hardware.
I don't need wifi and I know that (some) HP printers are supported. But how about:

editing MS Office documents,
USB-MIDI devices support (in *tracker programs),
audio recording,
Flash videos in web browser,
writing to ntfs disks,
remote desktop (to login from MOS to Windows machine)

Thanks in advance for replies.
Recently I discovered  Aros and got excited but it's not stable yet and lacks drivers/software.
MorphOS on the other hand seems to be professional, mature and polished. Will you help me to make the switch?

Editing MS Office documents? Unless this can be done via Goggle docs, I don't know of a way to do this under MorphOS.

As to tracker programs, here's a link to a few available on MorphZone (there are others) you'd have to research for yourself to find out what devices are supported, but USB under MorphOS works very well.
http://downloads.morphzone.org/categories/music/tracker
As to audio recording, multiple sources for that type of software.

Flash support under web browser? Unfortunately no, the current implementation of this (in OWB) doesn't work well. There is html5 support and if you can download the flash animation it will run in Mplayer

Writing to NTFS disks? Not yet. FAT disks are supported.

Remote desktop? Again, multiple solutions. Here's a few.
http://downloads.morphzone.org/categories/network/remote

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Some of the things you're looking for aren't there (yet), other parts of your list have multiple possible solutions.

If you can obtain a supported G4 Mac, try it. Even with some of the above mentioned compromises, its a pretty neat OS.

[Iggy]

You might want to talk to Piru about the questions surrounding tracker software.
He's worked on one piece of tracker software and no  doubt has more experience with those packages then I do.

And I've learned to live w/o flash since adopting a G4 Powermac (it exists under OSX, but the performance isn't that great).

[Iggy]

That's why I need linux. And asfs would be useful too.

Yes, that reference Nicholas posted mentions asfs (under Linux) as well as ntfs (for MorphOS).

An Office-like package would be nice, but no competent programmer has stepped up to create such a suite.

[Iggy]

What tracker from piru?

Not a full tracker package. Here's the description from he MorphZone downloads section.

"DBProHelper          
A set of tools allowing for installation and  running DigiBooster Pro 2.x music tracker  on MorphOS. Fixes most  dangerous bugs like direct hardware poking. Written by Harry "Piru"  Sintonen."

What, you didn't know Piru knew how to code? He is on the development team after all.

[Iggy]

OK i was thinking on a new tracker with asio, usb midi support... fantasies heh...

Let me know when you've got that ready. I'm in.

[Iggy]

Abiword for good start? I think I read somewhere about porting to aros.

According to a recent post by Fab, actually a possibility (which up till now I wasn't aware of) for MorphOS.
We'll have to see if someone wants to act on it.
Abiword would definitely be an improvement (and in my opinion, more desirable than Open Office).

Oh, BTW, mt12345 - You chose a really good point to jump in. Things in the MorphOS community really seem to be moving.

[Iggy]

GIMP-like program for MOS?
What is partition size and file size limit? (SFS)

I don't think there's anything native that's quite as powerful as GIMP, although there are graphics manipulation programs available.
Originally I had thought that porting GIMP itself would be difficult because of the programs reliance on  the GTK-API.
But their is a wrapper that converts GTK-API calls into MUI calls http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk-mui/
So a GIMP port may be possible, but hasn't been done yet (why don't  you do it).

 SFS? 128gb limit on partitions, but other software can create larger partitions that can be used (I've played around with this) AND there are other file systems (like IceFileSystem 2.3 - no limits on partition size).

File Size limitations? This I'm none to sure of as I've got several monstrous 720p video files on my hard drive and have never run into a size limitation issue. That said, there probably is a limit under SFS, I just haven't found it yet (and, again, there are alternative filesystems)

[Iggy]

Actually I dont need all the features GIMP offers. Just basic image manipulations.

Well there are several of those. Basic viewer functions are built into MorphOS via a package called "Showgirls".

I wish I could. In 2004 I got Powemac G3/233 and managed to install  OSX  10.3 but it was so sluggish so I tried linux on it. Then I got  frustrated because some packages were not ported to PPC linux so I  learnt  how to compile. But I was getting endless errors so I got even  more frustrated and eventually I gave up. I bought Pentium4 PC to run  linux and forget about compiling. But recently I was thinking about  porting some stuff (I mean learning how to port) as I noticed AROS lacks  software (its's MorphOS thread, I know). If you know some useful links  about porting and compiling (for beginners) please share.

There are bounties in place for programmers guides (like I mentioned, you picked a good time to adopt),  but I don't think anything is complete yet.

I' m going to install in my future MOS machine 2 disks: 40gb and 160gb  and install linux + morphos. How would you partition it? My plan: both  systems on first disk, 20gb for each one and second disk as fat32 160gb

I'm currently using a 300GB disk for a similar group of partitions (except their on one drive).
I'd use the larger drive for the MorphOS and Linux partitions and give each 80GB. I didn't think it would happen, but I'm already finding a 128GB partition to be a little small.

I read somewhere about 8GB limit just like fat32 but the thread might have been outdated.

That would probably be correct. The largest files I have a conversions of DVDs which would only vary rarely be larger than that.

[Iggy]

Hm... I would like to have one big shared partition (videos+music+samples) easy accessible by any OS. When I install linux, I usually create 20gb partition for system and rest (eg. 140gb) for documents/multimedia. Anyway, is MorphOS working well with fat32 partitions? I read somewhere about some issues but I think it was from Aros camp.

I can understand your argument about the partitioning. MorphOS and Linux are a little better about using other partitions (other than the boot partition) than OSX is (and virtually anything does this better than Windows), so your plan makes sense.

On fat32, I haven't discussed it with anyone else, but I also have seen no postings related to problems using a fat partition. So I would assume its trouble free. Someone would have posted a question on one of the forums (by now) if there was a problem.

[Iggy]

can morphos read (and write) ext3?

Not that I know of, but MorphOS can access ext2 partitions (which would allow file sharing between Linux and MOS).

[Iggy]

...using ext2fs I suppose.

How about:

first disk - 2 partitions: 39gb mac osx, 1GB linux swap.
second disk - 3 partitions: 20gb SFS for morphos, 20gb ext3 for linux, 120gb ext2 for linux /home, accessible from all 3 systems.

BTW: does morphos need swap ??

BTW: does morphos need swap ??

Not that I know of, but I haven't really examined MorphOS' disk structure that much (except for noting the use of an Amiga like RAM disk).

As to the partitioning scheme, I haven't tried a three OS system yet, so I'm not sure how that would work.
Although the idea of using a common ext2 partition (rather than a fat partition) is interesting.

[Iggy]

Is it safe to install MorphOS on CF card? I mean the write cycles issue.

I know people that are using CF>IDE adapters on the Efika. That works. I can't think of any other way you could boot from a CF card with currently supported hardware.

[Iggy]

Yes, I meant IDE adapter. But  I'm worried about wearing out the card.

Interesting, I'd never considered that. Heck, it hadn't even occurred to me that I could use a Compact Flash Card to IDE adapter.
Can you wear out a CF card? None of the memory cards I use for my cameras shows any signs of giving up, but you are discussing a much more active use for this device

[Iggy]

Flash memory card/pendrive should survive around 100 000 writes (older cards  10 000). So you can shoot 100 000 pictures using your camera. But if you boot windows or linux from it, especially with journaling file system, your card will die after year or two.  There were even cases when card died after few weeks. So I was wondering how morphos handles this.

Definitely a question that would be better suited to this site:

http://www.morphzone.org

You've made me both curious and cautious on this question.

[Iggy]

Definitely. Unfortunately I cannot post there as they don't register new users.

Really? I thought their move to a new server would only temporarily disable the registration of new users.
Let me double check for you...

...Nope, you're right, still no new registrations being taken. I posted an inquiry asking about when this would change.