PowerBook G4 MorphOS sneak preview

[amigadave]

Hi there,
Please excuse the "noob" of this message lol, firstly is MorphOS like a not as such a replacement but an alternative to AmigaOS? Meaning can i run Amiga programs and games from MorphOS?
If so, I have a PowerBook G4 and i'd like to help in the beta testing, it would be a dream to turn my ol'mac into a hybrid Amiga..

My PowerBook G4 specs are (as read from the "About This Mac")

Machine Model: PowerBook 5.6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
CPU Speed: 1.67 Ghz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 167 Mhz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9lf1

I hope it helps.

Nicky..

As noted in the beginning of this thread, "no beta testers needed"

Check out MorphZone.org and morphos.de to find out more information about what MorphOS is.  Yes, it will run most 68k Amiga software, but if you want to run games and such that bang the Amiga's custom chipset, then you would have to run EUAE for MorphOS.

MorphOS is very fast and very Amiga-Like.  The developers that created it tried to negotiate with Amiga Inc. to do the work for AmigaOS4.x and from what little I have read about that time period, those first developers of MorphOS thought that they were going to succeed with those negotiations and were not happy when Hyperion won the right to create the next AmigaOS as partners of Amiga Inc. after the MorphOS developers had already completed a lot of work on what then became MorphOS.  This led to much of the early bad blood between the "RED" AmigaOS4.x camp and the "BLUE" MorphOS camp, but thankfully most of that animosity has calmed down, but it does not appear that either group of developers will ever be friends or work together on anything.

Now, over ten years later, both AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x have become efficient, fast, compact and very usable OSes that have more similarities than differences, but they are still very different in many ways.

If you like AmigaOS3.1 through 3.9, then you will very probably like MorphOS2.4 as well.  I have it running on my 1.5GHz MacMini G4 and love it.  It will likely be many more months, if not a year or more before there is an official MorphOS release for your PowerBook, but I would hold on to it and take good care of it, as there is a good chance that it will be supported by MorphOS at some time in the future, and when it is your 1.67GHz G4 will be the fastest MorphOS laptop that you can get.  I wish I had one of those.

[amigadave]

Although no new information on the G4 PowerBook release has been given, I am quite sure that they are making good progress and that it will not be too much longer before we all can enjoy portable computing with the best Amiga-Like OS available.

I think they might be very close to a release for the G4 PowerBook (but have no first hand knowledge of such release).

[amigadave]

I am under the impression they are making progress.  But they probably won't say much until it is done.  I mean they have already hinted at G5 and shown PowerBook at various events.  What more is to say, really, until it is done?

Yes, they probably will not make any more announcements about it until it is released, or within a few days of release.

[amigadave]

Yes, probably on release. Still, we know which models will be supported and it can't hurt to start shopping around. I look forward to having a mobile system.

Well, if you remember, I think that the MorphOS Dev. Team listed fewer G4 PowerMac models than they actually ended up supporting upon initial release of support for the G4 PowerMac models, so the same may be true for the G4 PowerBooks, when support is finally released.  Also, there is one last model of the G4 iBook that could be supported, as it has USB keyboard and trackpad, just like the G4 PowerBook models that are going to be supported.  Due to the differences in the G4 PowerBook models, there won't be as many different models supported, like the G4 PowerMacs, but there might be one or two more models than have already been announced by a few of the developers working on it.  Has there even been an "Official" announcement on the MorphOS website about G4 PowerBook support?  We know it is coming, but last time I looked at the official MorphOS Team site, I did not see anything about PowerBooks.

Given the speed of the last G4 PowerBooks (1.67GHz) and the better graphics cards than previously supported MorphOS2.x systems, they are going to be great, screaming fast MorphOS2.x systems and portability is just icing on the cake.