MorphOS 2.7 has been released, and it’s mostly a bug-fix release. The one thing that stood out to me is that some work has gone into fixing bugs for several PowerPC G4 chips – more specifically, models used in PowerBook G4s. MorphOS has been demonstrated on the PowerBook G4, but official support for it has not been released yet.
Powerbook support is likely for 2.9. 2.8 will introduce new 3d drivers (300% speed). The Powerbook support needs some not yet done things like a battery tool. If everything works better than expected 2.8 may introduce Powerbook support already. But development resources are limited.
Anyway, with 2.7 there is now plenty supported hardware: PowerMac G4, Mac mini G4, eMac G4 1.25GHz, Pegasos 1 & 2 and Efika 5200B.
I have to say that MorphOS, must be one of the best OS’es I’ve ever used. I use MacOSX, Android, Windows 7 and MorphOS daily and have to conclude that in the end of the day. MorphOS feels like an operating system should!
1. Its very fast on my 1.5GHz MacMini PPC machine!
2. Multitasking at its best
3. Switching between screens in MorphOS (AmigaOS) is so much better done than on other platforms!
4. So easy to configure. Can edit almost everything without beeing an scientist.
5. Programs starts instantly. There is no loading or delay as in other operating systems!…
6. Great shortcuts
7. Good surfing experience with OWB. With further development, even better!
8. Reboot takes seconds
9. Turning off machine can be done thru the menu and it happens instantly. No waiting for shutting down.
10. Best MPlayer (multimedia) player for any platform. Like it very much.
11. AmIRC runs on MorphOS! Best IRC client ever for me
I dont say that you have to get MorphOS, but if you are tired of other OS’s slowness.. MorphOS might give you the kick that changes your day.
So, if you have a PPC mac which is supported, goto http://www.morphos-team.net
Will it be in the best interest of MorpOS to only support PowerPC?
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against power-pc but Macs able to run it is becoming outdated and scarce.
It seems the only new ready assembled computer you can buy able to run Morp (other than old Macs) is from Genesi. The Genesi Open Desktop Workstation
http://www.genesi-usa.com/products/opendesktop
This product is not listed on it’s online store.
Some Linux distribution has also stopped supporting PowerPC officially. Fedora for one.
It’s much easier said than done, but would’nt it be in MorpOS best interest to port to other architectures as well?
With the developer resources available it makes sense to support commonly available PowerPC hardware. Those outdated Macs aren’t that scarce, certainly not compared to the Genesi Open Desktop Workstation which is no longer available and produced in comparatively miniscule numbers. You fail to mention any specific architecture and present an argument why resources would be better spent such an effort.
I’m not even going to elaborate on other architectures or reasons why. It’s self evident.
Yes, it is quite clear you are unaware of the Amiga legacy compatibility aspects of MorphOS. (Not an ideal situation, but all things considered the best option for now.)
Edited 2010-12-05 13:26 UTC
Your right, I am unaware.
Will porting it require an almost whole rewrite?
Here where I live second hand MACS is really scarce.
This is what caused me to scour info on alternatives.
I can see it either going two ways.
1. Morph shift their efforts to another platform. Maybe even just one with great promise. From what you said shifting platform is much much easier said than done. The Morph Team then might not have enough time/resources to maintain two platforms and loose a support base if it choose to go exclusively with one.
2. Morph go into some type of partnership with a hardware companie(s) and sell or make info available on it’s site where to buy these hardware.
For MorphOS keeping its backward compability it is necessary that the OS runs on the same endianess as the legacy apps were written for.
Different to, say OS X, the OS is not capsulated. Applications directly share structs with the OS. Hence the OS *must* have the same endianess as all apps running on it.
Changing the endianess of the host system would lead to a loss of integrated backward compability.
That is – in a nutshell – the most fundamental problem of all amigaoid OSes.
There are two levels of legacy compatability. Most important is support for 68K apps: this is done with a JIT emulation layer and probably could get ported to another platform like ARM or x86, given enough development resources. The second is compatability with programs written for various PPC acceleration boards that were available for classic Amigas. This would probably be harder to keep in a port to a non PPC platform, but is also probably a lot less useful.