Public Release of MorphOS 2.6 & Introduction of PowerMac Support

[Fab]

Try finding a decent office suite and a modern web browser for MOS.

The browser is rather modern (quite obvious since it's based on a very recent WebKit version). And there are native applications for most standard needs too (video, audio, net, emulators, opensource games, filesharing, ...)

You may be right it lacks an office suite. However, I'm not sure Office work is the 1st thing people expect from their "home OS" when they come back from work (but well, that's just me .

[ferrellsl]

@ Ferrellsl

Your points are all valid except for the fact that everyone interested in AmigaOS is here for nostalgia. The "nostalgia" user base is likely 10 times larger than anything else available for Amigoid systems.

Two cents.

Ed.

I strongly disagree with you.  There are quite a few people on this forum who are waiting for the X1000 and their primary interest isn't in paying $3000 US for the sake of nostalgia.  I didn't buy OS4 or MOS for the sake of nostalgia either.  I left the Amiga community in 1992.  I rejoined in 2005 and I believed the marketing crap from the MOS folks as well as Hyperion.  I thought I'd give both OSs a try, not because I wanted to drops lots of cash to run old pre-OS4 software.  I was looking for an alternative to Windows and Linux. What I found were very poor alternatives for the price.  OS4 has barely moved beyond OS3.9 in functionality.  MOS is slicker and faster but lacks any useful and modern, standards- compliant applications.  I'm not disputing the size of the "nostalgia" base.  I'm disputing all the crap being thrown around about how modern and useful OS4 and MOS are.

I bought MOS and a PegII in 2007.  I paid $700 for the hardware and $250 for MOS.  Three years later, there are still no useful applications that I can use to get any work done and no usable browser (OWB and Netsurf are still mostly broken).  Any native apps for MOS or OS4 are amateurish at best.  I paid over $200 for OS4.1 and it's the same story.  Even worse, printing support is almost non-existent and USB support is almost unusable.  I just believe that when I pay a "quality" price, I should get a "quality" product.  $1150 USD should have given me a lot more than just a Workbench or Ambient screen.

[Everblue]

I have a really annoying problem maybe someone can help. Even though Audio is set to max, audio volume on my PowerMac (MDD Model) is really, really low, both form internal speaker or if I use external speakers via audio jack. From OSX it played fine.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[ferrellsl]

The browser is rather modern (quite obvious since it's based on a very recent WebKit version). And there are native applications for most standard needs too (video, audio, net, emulators, opensource games, filesharing, ...)

You may be right it lacks an office suite. However, I'm not sure Office work is the 1st thing people expect from their "home OS" when they come back from work (but well, that's just me .

"Rather modern"  or "recent" is very subjective and relative.  Sure, it's based on web kit, an older version than the one in use on most systems today and there's no flash support, no download manager, no plug-ins, and CSS support is flaky.  And when I come home and need a real tool to get real work done, I switch on a PC running Linux or Windows.  If I want to play games or use a toy, well, there you go.  There's MOS or OS4....or a UAE variant.  Oh, but wait....no game development there anymore and no Media Center app that can play DVDs or BluRay/HD.

[nicholas]

You could just as easily have used WinUAE and saved a lot of money if you're looking for nostalgia.  Or buy a used classic Amiga.  MOS is marketed as an alternative to OS4 and is touted to be "modern".  It wasn't developed for the sake of nostalgia.  It was developed with some backward compatibility in mind, hence the ability to run some apps from OS3.9 and earlier.  MOS's strength is also its weakness.  It's strength lies in being able to run native MOS apps at blazing speed.  There just aren't very many native apps.  So sure, spend several hundred dollars for a dedicated MOS box and a copy of MOS to run pre-OS4 apps, but you can do it much cheaper and faster in WinUAE.  Until some developers make some useful applications for MOS, my PegII will continue to be an expensive boat anchor taking up space in my basement.

I'm also nostalgic for my pre-April Peg1, the new G4 ain't nothing but a big boys toy to play with.

[itix]

I bought MOS and a PegII in 2007.  I paid $700 for the hardware and $250 for MOS.

At least HW is now inexpensive thanks to Apple... :-P

MorphOS lacks on the software side but OWB is pretty good. It lacks Java and Flash support is what it is but what can be done? There arent much to do about it.

[Fab]

At least HW is now inexpensive thanks to Apple... :-P

MorphOS lacks on the software side but OWB is pretty good. It lacks Java and Flash support is what it is but what can be done? There arent much to do about it.

There *is* Flash support (up to Flash , when you install the plugin.

[Fab]

"Rather modern"  or "recent" is very subjective and relative.  Sure, it's based on web kit, an older version than the one in use on most systems today and there's no flash support, no download manager, no plug-ins, and CSS support is flaky.  And when I come home and need a real tool to get real work done, I switch on a PC running Linux or Windows.  If I want to play games or use a toy, well, there you go.  There's MOS or OS4....or a UAE variant.  Oh, but wait....no game development there anymore and no Media Center app that can play DVDs or BluRay/HD.

Err, i think you're greatly mistaken here:
First, the webkit revision in OWB 1.10 is likely more recent than yours, since i use nightly revisions. OWB 1.10 is based on 2nd september 2010 WebKit SVN state. Isn't that recent enough?
Besides, it has a full download manager with resume support and remembers downloads across sessions, it has plugin support (swfdec for Flash), it supports HTML5 video (Theora, H264, WebM), it has a very conform Javascript/CSS/Whatever support (it scores 100/100 at Acid3 and 198/300 at html5test.com... try the same with browsers like firefox or IE .

MPlayer is perfectly able to play all kind of media (DVD, streaming, audio and even HD H264 files where OSX crawls miserably), ...

Are you sure you don't confuse OS4 with MorphOS too much here?

[takemehomegrandma]

In comparison to say AOS or Mac OS Leopard the price is pretty much comparable - or at least it was back in 2005 when I purchased Leopard although I suspect the price have changed since.  £100 may seem a bit expensive for a pair of OSes that many would deem as under-developed, but at the end of the day someone has to pay for and fund future development.  Butterflies and Boing balls don't grow on trees ya know.

Snow Leopard is £20.

AFAIK, the price/cost for Mac OS is included into the HW price. AFAIK, Mac OS is included in every Mac sold. I'd say that the £20 (assuming this is correct) you mention is more like a nominal upgrade fee for people who already paid once for a HW+OS combo. Right?

But comparisons between MorphOS and Mac OS is kind of irrelevant anyway...

[redrumloa]

Sure. Compare away. The only system of the 3 that you can do any real work with is OSX. Peopled don't buy MOS for nostalgia. Nor do people buy OSX for nostalgia. They buy it to get things done. That's the point. You're trying to justify the expense of MOS like it's some sort of antique to be collected. MOS is still being produced. It's not an antique.

MorphOS cannot do any serious work, it is a retro user hobby. If you want to do serious work you get a Windows based PC, a Linux based PC or a Mac with OSX.

[takemehomegrandma]

Sure.  Compare away.  The only system of the 3 that you can do any real work with is OSX.  Peopled don't buy MOS for nostalgia.

I kind of agree with that. MorphOS is about Amiga evolution. I don't claim it to be comparable to Mac OS, but in an *Amiga* context (which is what matters here), it's the furthest evolved option available in 2010. This is why people are interested in MorphOS.

Even if Amiga backwards compatibility has been central in MorphOS development since day one (MorphOS is the role model here), it's not like the point with MorphOS is to play old A500 games and apps (even if some *may* work). People wanting that would be better off with Amiga Forever, which is purely about nostalgia (which is even suggested by its name).

[takemehomegrandma]

Err, i think you're greatly mistaken here:

Are you sure you don't confuse OS4 with MorphOS too much here?

Well, isn't that obvious?

This is a problem with your browser still using the "OWB" name, it makes people think that "Oh, but I've seen that on OS4, *not* so good..."

Have you thought about giving it a name of its own (like I suggested on MorphZone some time ago)? Would eliminate the confusion!

[Boot_WB]

Originally Posted by ferrellsl  View Post
Sure. Compare away. The only system of the 3 that you can do any real work with is OSX. Peopled don't buy MOS for nostalgia. Nor do people buy OSX for nostalgia. They buy it to get things done. That's the point. You're trying to justify the expense of MOS like it's some sort of antique to be collected. MOS is still being produced. It's not an antique.

MorphOS cannot do any serious work, it is a retro user hobby. If you want to do serious work you get a Windows based PC, a Linux based PC or a Mac with OSX.

Well, it depends what you mean by serious work. I have all the tools at my disposal under MorphOS to set up my accounts, balance sheet, and do my tax returns as a self-employed person (I start trading next month), read pdfs (mostly), have full office capabilities (via google docs), comprehensive multimedia support/editing, etc.

@Ferrelsl

Whatever floats your boat.

The only reason I now use Windows at all is to have a laptop, and only that because Linux power management sucks on my particular model.

MorphOS provides my media centre, internet portal, productivity both native and remote (googledocs), and pretty much everything else I need on a daily basis. Plus (the big winner) there's almost nothing extra running in the background that I _don't_ need. Plus, in 6-months time the system won't start slowing to a crawl requiring me to upgrade my hardware/reinstall (a la Windows).

There's also the annoyance factor: personally (ie this is my perception only, I do not expect you to share it) if I run up against a limitation under Windows I find it an annoyance to solve. If I run up against a limitation under MorphOS I find it interesting to figure out how to solve it. It appeals to the geek in me at about the right level.

Sure there are things I would like (usb iso mode to allow audio devices to function for one), but there are generally developments on the horizon (eg OWB, AMC, Helios to pull 3 out of the air), and it's genuinely rewarding to see it happen - there is a personal touch in knowing someone (usually a very small dedicated group who will never earn anything from it beyond pizza money) has succeeded at a difficult development challenge.

[ferrellsl]

I agree 100%.  And MOS would kick ass if it had some native productivity apps.  My friends get all excited when they see MOS but then they ask, "What kind of apps are out there for MOS?", and I have to tell them, "Well, not much really."  MOS would grow by leaps and bounds if it ran OpenOffice or if it had a decent word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program.  I don't even think they'd have to be integrated into a suite. There has to be some bait for these fish to get hooked!  But once they realize there's nothing on the hook, they swim off looking for a tastier lure.

OWB or Netsurf won't do it.  A Media Player won't do it.  MOS has to have an office suite for work, a decent browser for the web, and a decent media player for recreation to be successful.  That's why I get so frustrated when I see a post about how a new Firewire stack or some such is being developed for MOS.  Why can't devs work on something that's in more demand? Sure, a Firewire stack is great but that won't sell any more copies of MOS to the skeptics.

@Boot WB

Sorry to be ranting.  We're actually in violent agreement!  LOL  It's just that I have this great OS on an expensive piece of hardware down in my basement and I'd REALLY like to use it for some productive work!  I hate to see it just acting as a dust collector.

[takemehomegrandma]

MorphOS cannot do any serious work, it is a retro user hobby. If you want to do serious work you get a Windows based PC, a Linux based PC or a Mac with OSX.

Hmm, although MorphOS lacks some major features of today's desktop OS's, it sure *can* do work (at least most the Internet and entertainment stuff that 90% of the people spends 90% of their free time doing in front of their computers). Sure, MorphOS is a hobby, an enthusiast thing. And while it has its roots in Amiga (which by all means could be considered a retro thing in 2010), it's not for retro reasons the developers has spent all this time making it as useful and modern as it actually is today. MorphOS is "Amiga NG". And while this (as you say) by all means isn't comparable to Windows or Mac OS, it's still ahelluvalot more than Amiga Forever.

[Golem!dk]

my PegII will continue to be an expensive boat anchor taking up space in my basement.

So when did you last use it?