MorphOS 2.0 Released

[amigadave]

Yes, a big congrats to the team for completing the next step in the development of MorphOS.

Does anyone know how and where to get the memory on an Efika mobo expanded to 512mb RAM?

Also, for comparison's sake, what is the speed difference between an Efika and the fastest PegasosII ever produced?

[amigadave]

Matt_H wrote:

Also, for comparison's sake, what is the speed difference between an Efika and the fastest PegasosII ever produced?

600MHz, maybe?

In practical terms that's hard to say. MorphOS 1.4.5 is perfectly tolerable on a CSPPC and an Efika is twice the clockspeed and lacks other old hardware bottlenecks. Like all Amiga stuff, I'm sure it's responsive, but lacks raw crunching power for heavy duty stuff.

Yeah, I guessed that it would be hard to measure the user's experience of any speed difference.  Like if the screen updates would be twice as fast, or if the only real noticeable difference would be running a ray tracing program, or crunching lots of numbers managing a large database.

I don't suppose there are too many demanding programs written for MorphOS2.0 yet.

I wonder how demanding the "Classic" Amiga 68k emulation will be on an Efika?  Will it be able to run the old programs at a speed equal or greater than an actual A4000 040, or 060?  Probably not, but then I imagine that the Efika was not intended for that purpose.  As long as it can still run some of the older programs and games at the speed of a stock A1200, the buyers will probably be satisfied.

[amigadave]

Methuselas wrote:
I just don't like the 128MB of ram and no room for expansion... :inquisitive:  

The specs for the Efika say that it can access up to 512mb RAM, but to do that would the Efika buyer have to remove the SMD 128mb RAM and replace it with two 256mb RAM modules?

Not something I would want to do to a brand new Efika board.  Too bad the manufacturer is not offering a 512mb RAM version, or are they?

[amigadave]

Matt_H wrote:
@ pkillo

A little heads up if you buy from Directron: their complete systems seem to come with XGI graphics cards, which I don't believe are supported in MOS. Just go for the board and case and grab a $20 (low-profile) Radeon from eBay or an Amazon third party.

Not that I have any extra cash to buy an Efika right now, or that I have decided that it is a must have item for me, but thanks for the heads up Matt.  It may save several potential Efika buyers from making a mistake in buying that graphics card only to find out later that it won't work for MorphOS, which if they are reading about the Efika from here, the buyers are most likely going to want to run.

[amigadave]

pkillo wrote:
I think the price tag on morphos is completely reasonable.

I agree, it is not cheap, but their hard work and persistence to complete version 2.0 deserves to be repaid and the price is not unreasonable.

If those of us who can code put in some time in making free software for morphos, then we might just see that Mac port after all.

Personally, I don't think that they'll ever make enough selling copies to efika and pegasos owners to recoup their investment. However, if the technological hurdles can be overcome to make a Mac version, and the time between now and its release can be used to create a strong software base for morphos, that would improve the chance for the success of the platform.

That is what a lot of us have saying for months now.  A port to PPC Mac hardware will allow many times more sales of MorphOS2.0 and/or AOS4.0.  Which ever completes that port first will likely be the AmigaOS of the next 5 years. (Assuming that they can get it done in the next year or 18 months)

I don't understand the statements from the AOS4 developers that Moana is dead and they have no intentions or desire to finish what they started.  I personally prefer to think that they are working on it in secret and will release it only if/when they win the pending court case with AInc.  In fact, maybe they will release it to spite AInc. if Hyperion loses the case.

I just wish the case was over, one way or the other.  This waiting is getting old (like me). :madashell:

[amigadave]

itix wrote:
@stefcep2

I have to say I would have expected that every Amiga user knows that MorphOS can run system friendly (RTG/RTA) Amiga software starting from Kickstart 1.0... maybe we should be more verbose about it.

I guess there are some people unfamiliar with MorphOS and AmigaOS4.0 and their similar goals to be the next generation AmigaOS with backward compatibility with older Amiga software.

I have not been successful in getting MorphOS 1.4 for PowerUP Classic Amigas installed and running on my A4000/CSPPC, so I cannot attest personally how much, or how well MorphOS can run the older software, but I am anxious to finally get my install working and test it out.

I wonder if there are any plans to get version 2 of MorphOS running on Classic Amigas with CSPPC, or Blizzard A1200 PPC boards?

It would be helpful if the official MorphOS website had an easy to find and use list of software tested with MorphOS.

[amigadave]

bloodline wrote:

TheMagicM wrote:
@bloodline:

My post wasnt intended as a "stay out and stfu" either.  Dont want you to take it the wrong way.

No, but I am unnecessarily and unintentionally winding people up... No one here is really give good answers (probably because the purchase of such  a system is irrational) it is probably best for me to quieten down.

Just because you do not agree with the answers does not mean that they are not valid for the people offering them to you, and I might add for the majority of the Amiga addicts here.  One could argue that any Amiga or Amiga like purchase or development is irrational, but that is not going to stop us from enjoying the many different choices.

Some people have valid points when it comes to MOS price.  I'm going to pay the $250 price because I'm putting my race car back together, getting married Aug 2nd, honeymoon 2 weeks later, have kids..so registering MOS will happen in August for me.


But the argument of this is faster than that, why run this? Comparing a full featured OS like OSX, Windows, Linux, just isn't fair.  The Amiga world turns slow..it takes a while for things to happen.  :-)
 

Well, In the past I criticized AOS4.0 because unlike MOS (which came with the PEG or could be DL for free for PowerUP boards) and AROS, one had to pay for it... which I felt was stupid and fleecing Amiga users... I would be a hypocrite if I didn't offer similar objection to this news.

If the MOS team were to release some amazing Music or Video editing program tomorrow which was a totally radical approach to such work... and they tied it to MOS... in an instant the price becomes justified, for example.[/quote]

There are many that think because the Amiga and MOS userbase is so small everything should now be free.  That makes no sense to me.  The developers have never said that they were doing all this work just for their own enjoyment with no plans to try to recoup some/all of their investment in time and equipment.

What the developers have done is provide a more modern OS that is "Amiga-like", can run much of the legacy Amiga programs and gives the rest of the few remaining Amiga developers something to build new applications on that will run many times faster than the aging Classic Amiga hardware.

So now maybe some good applications will show up in time.  There is also hope that MOS2.0 will be ported to faster hardware that is easily available at a reasonable price, like used PPC Macs.  I would love to see MorphOS2.0 optimized to run on the G5 Mac hardware.  Given that MOS2.0 is tiny and lightning fast compared to any Mac OS and the fact that Amiga developers have always been able to create small fast code for applications, we could see some great advances in the areas of application development over the next few years while the OS is moved to the next level and ported to something exciting like Cell or what ever is next in CPU development.

In short, MorphOS2.0 is a step in the right direction, and NO, I am not talking about the Amiga or MorphOS overtaking Windows or MacOS in the next ten years.  I am talking about survival and actually some kind of growth after years of decline.