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MorphOS On Powerbook

Dronecatcher

Dronecatcher

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 17, 2014
5,254
7,896
Lincolnshire, UK
I've toyed with the new MorphOS on my Powerbook DLSD for about a week now and the main take on it is how blazingly fast and compact an operating system it is - even on a 1Gb Powerbook with an old 5400RPM HDD.
It's not really a contender as a daily driver unless you have limited needs but as a bridge to Amiga emulation and fully capable of running old Amiga software that doesn't make calls on the Amiga Custom Chipset, it is very satisfying.
In the video I show it playing Youtube, running Amiga apps (along with a full Workbench installation under emulation), playing 720P video and streaming audio amongst other things.
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I've always been intrigued by MorphOS. But, I can't justify the cost and licensing terms. I could handle paying for it if I could install on whatever I want. But the single device limit is ridiculous IMO. Myself, and probably most people in the PPC community have more than a couple of PPC macs laying around.
I've never used an Amiga either (I'm 25 years old; I guess Amiga is a bit before my time).

Also going over the hardware support page.. A few things are concerning there. For software I'm paying for I would except it to work with more devices and support more hardware. For example, It doesn't support the "Bundled USB hardware" for the G4 cube. C'mon, even Windows 10 works with those speakers (it does, I have them plugged into a KVM switch and a Windows 10 PC is one of the connected computers).
I can probably make more use out of a FreeBSD install to satisfy my need of alternative PPC operating systems.

If it wasn't for it's licensing terms and high price; I'd happily try it out on a Mac or two...

Nonetheless, I enjoy these posts by you. They're informative and it is cool to see MorphOS in action even if I'm not the one running it.
 
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Project Alice said:
I've always been intrigued by MorphOS. But, I can't justify the cost and licensing terms. I could handle paying for it if I could install on whatever I want. But the single device limit is ridiculous IMO. Myself, and probably most people in the PPC community have more than a couple of PPC macs laying around.
I've never used an Amiga either (I'm 25 years old; I guess Amiga is a bit before my time).

Also going over the hardware support page.. A few things are concerning there. For software I'm paying for I would except it to work with more devices and support more hardware. For example, It doesn't support the "Bundled USB hardware" for the G4 cube. C'mon, even Windows 10 works with those speakers (it does, I have them plugged into a KVM switch and a Windows 10 PC is one of the connected computers).
I can probably make more use out of a FreeBSD install to satisfy my need of alternative PPC operating systems.

If it wasn't for it's licensing terms and high price; I'd happily try it out on a Mac or two...

Nonetheless, I enjoy these posts by you. They're informative and it is cool to see MorphOS in action even if I'm not the one running it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes, the licensing is needlessly restrictive hence on this I'm still running the free version. Sadly I don't have a reliable/good condition PowerPC Mac at the moment worthy of the investment.
It's good that there are still alternatives out there but I've never tried as far with MorphOS before than I have with this new release and it does feel much more complete and advanced than previous releases.
Above all, within a limited set of applications, it's main selling point is efficiency - it's not just about the speed, it's the less CPU required to do certain tasks which is important certainly on older hardware.
There is a significant nostalgia factor too and being part of something that is resolutely niche computing.
 
Very cool and still too expensive for my blood. Considering we have a forum of hobbyists full of linux & BSD variant threads of hobbyist folks using said free software, I cant help but think the MorphOS folks are missing the bus and are unnecessarily culling users with their licensing strategy.

Then again perhaps its not about the money for them so much as it is creating a very niche group of users - one that keeps the 9 year old riff raff away. Anyhoo, still not going to fork over that sort of dough. Enjoyed the vid though and it was nice to see that your latest experience had notable improvements vs previous builds.
 
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RhianB said:
Enjoyed the vid though and it was nice to see that your latest experience had notable improvements vs previous builds.
Click to expand...

It really is the best yet but what prevents me buying a licence now is not having a nice, reliable Mac to run it on - the Powerbook in the demo is pretty beat up.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
It really is the best yet but what prevents me buying a licence now is not having a nice, reliable Mac to run it on - the Powerbook in the demo is pretty beat up.
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The fact that it only works on certain Radeon chipsets is a deterrent for me too. I only have a couple compatible systems. I might try out the free version on my Mac Mini G4, since it's the only system running OS X I don't have a use for. Doesn't it only last for 30min though?
 
The PowerBook is a better option as it has more vram. (Depending which chipset you got obviously) I don't think the hardware selection or seclusion is a deterrent, as it's only licenced for that particular system anyways. I really do like it a lot, prob my second (non mainstream) fave system after Haiku (beos).
 
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VanneDC said:
The PowerBook is a better option as it has more vram. (Depending which chipset you got obviously) I don't think the hardware selection or seclusion is a deterrent, as it's only licenced for that particular system anyways. I really do like it a lot, prob my second (non mainstream) fave system after Haiku (beos).
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I'd buy it for $20. Not $90 lol screw that. I meant that if I'm spending that much money (for a single machine at that) I should be able to use it on any machine, not just what they're willing to write drivers for IE no nvidia macs. 80 bucks a license means they can use that money to make it work on nvidia chips or whatever else they wanted.

And my Mini is the famed 1.5Ghz model, so it's got 64MB of vram. Which is honestly the only reason I wanted that model. 32MB is atrocious for when the Mini G4 was made.
 
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Dronecatcher,

Do you find Amiga emulation of old games faster on your powerbook under MorphOS or under Mac OS X? I have the last fastest 17” PPC powerbook and am very interested in changing it to morphOS.

Thanks!!!
 
DouglasCarroll said:
Dronecatcher,

Do you find Amiga emulation of old games faster on your powerbook under MorphOS or under Mac OS X? I have the last fastest 17” PPC powerbook and am very interested in changing it to morphOS.

Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

I'm probably the only person on Earth who doesn't use Amiga for games ;) However, the music apps I run under emulation are every bit as demanding, so there's certainly no case of MorphOS being lacking in terms of emulated horsepower. I was only emulating an Amiga 1200 but in terms of loading and Workbench operations it was at least 5 times faster than a real 1200.
If gaming is your only interest you might be better off sticking to the Big E-UAE JIT emulaton under OSX which works amazingly well - the advantage in MorphOS is that it can run some Amiga software natively ie not through an emulator too.
 
Thanks for the reply,

It's difficult to know WHAT to do with MorphOS if I switch my PPC over to it. I don't only play games, but there is certainly that appeal. I'm kind of more interested in having a computer again that reminds me of when I had my C64 long ago...something unique where programmers overcome challenges and extend the life of the platform with creativity versus relying on you to constantly just "buy something faster". I don't currently get that with my powerbook because I have a newer MacBook Pro running Mojave that does everything modern I need it to do. I was wondering if I instead turned my powerbook into a MorphOS book then it would be a completely unique machine from my MacBook, not just a slower version of the same thing. That's why I was wondering how the JIT on Mac OS X compared with the MorphOS version. From what you replied it seems that I wouldn't be loosing anything moving my Amiga emulated gaming to MorphOS, in fact the Amiga emulation updates are probably more often on the MorphOS machine versus the older PPC JIT Amiga Emulator code.

Thanks again!!
 
Project Alice said:
I should be able to use it on any machine, not just what they're willing to write drivers for IE no nvidia macs. 80 bucks a license means they can use that money to make it work on nvidia chips or whatever else they wanted.
Click to expand...

a) it's not a multi-billion dollar business, money collected is used for stuff like website upkeep traveling to shows and buying odd pieces of HW

b) GFX driver is essential just 2 guys and they are busy with other stuff (one of them just having demoed a tech demo running on AMD64)

c) neither of these 2 has any experience with anything NVidia

d) they cover at least 1 model of Mac for every purpose (want a 12" laptop buy an iBook G4)

e) other costumers may have other wishes on what should come next (like "HD" Radeons for PCIe enabled HW)

f) everybody still has a day job
 
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g) "it's about as expensive as one night out" .... a friend of mine from Florida when he was suckered out 50$ in an obvious scam in 2001 . (make up your own mind how much that is in today's money)
 
Bug-Creator said:
a) it's not a multi-billion dollar business, money collected is used for stuff like website upkeep traveling to shows and buying odd pieces of HW

b) GFX driver is essential just 2 guys and they are busy with other stuff (one of them just having demoed a tech demo running on AMD64)

c) neither of these 2 has any experience with anything NVidia

d) they cover at least 1 model of Mac for every purpose (want a 12" laptop buy an iBook G4)

e) other costumers may have other wishes on what should come next (like "HD" Radeons for PCIe enabled HW)

f) everybody still has a day job
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None of that is going to matter to most of us. $90 (approx 79EUR) is an absurd price, that's it. Disagree, or come up with as many excuses as you want. But it's too expensive.

I'm not saying I wouldn't support the devs, I would. I've donated to free software, I've donated to people's work like dosdude1 with the unsupported mac patches. I'm not one of those guys who's complaining it's not free like linux is. I'm saying it's way too expensive. I would maybe even be willing to shell out 90 bucks if it meant I could install it on as many machines as I wanted. But not one computer. That's just absurd.
 
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I remember paying more than $90 for versions of Mac OSX as well as Windows so I’m not sure where the “it’s absurd” argument is coming from....
 
Project Alice said:
Disagree, or come up with as many excuses as you want.
Click to expand...

It's not about excuses or you wether you think it's (not) worth the money it's about your idea that not buying it somehow entitles you to command them to write NVidia drivers.


Just the same as some people that comment on every piece of Apple HW that it should cost half, has to come with some highend HW feature or this that free beer .......

-> old men yelling at clouds
 
Bug-Creator said:
It's not about excuses or you wether you think it's (not) worth the money it's about your idea that not buying it somehow entitles you to command them to write NVidia drivers.


Just the same as some people that comment on every piece of Apple HW that it should cost half, has to come with some highend HW feature or this that free beer .......

-> old men yelling at clouds
Click to expand...
That's not even close to what I said though. Nor did I demand they write nvidia drivers. I was simply stating for the price that they're asking not having nvidia support is just another reason for me to argue that the cost is not worth it. I even stated that I would most likely buy it if the they allowed installation on more than one machine.

This isn't a news room. Other people can see my entire comment. Trying to use a single sentence out of context is pointless.
DouglasCarroll said:
I remember paying more than $90 for versions of Mac OSX as well as Windows so I’m not sure where the “it’s absurd” argument is coming from....
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At least with Windows you can move your install to a new computer if you wanted to.
This is an operating system for enthusiasts only. A very small user-base, smaller than that of Linux and BSD. For computers that are reaching 15 to 20 years old. That's like saying "I paid $30,000 for my brand-new 1993 Toyota so I must be able to sell it for that price too!".
Most of us didn't imminently shell out the full price for the full Windows or OS X license right away either.

And I haven't paid for Windows in years, 10 activates legitimately on literally any valid Windows 7 install. The free upgrade never ended. You can install 10 with your 7 or 8.x product key. Effectively ending paid OS upgrades.

Your argument actually helps mine. Why would one pay the price of an enthusiast's, minimal support, single license OS for the cost of (to be era correct) a Windows XP Pro upgrade or Mac OS X 10.3?
Every other OS for a PPC mac is now considered abandon-ware, and is free for us to get now. Linux with much more support is free anyways. It just doesn't make sense.
I'd be hard pressed to spend even $30 bucks on a single install OS though it would be more fair.
 
Project Alice said:
Why would one pay the price of an enthusiast's, minimal support, single license OS for the cost of (to be era correct) a Windows XP Pro upgrade or Mac OS X 10.3?
Click to expand...

I totally disagree with the minimal support statement. On my recent install I got lots of advice and practical help on the MorphOS forum - unlike my times with Linux where I was met with rolling eyes at my lack of hardcore knowledge.

Whilst I agree that the licence shouldn't be as restrictive and should be a one shot payment for a CD or ISO to use as you like, what rankles here is that buying MorphOS is attacked whereas as every other costly PPC endeavour is free from criticism, immune under the cover of, "we're enthusiasts - it doesn't have to make sense."
For example, paying for the swapping out a G3 for a G4 CPU on an iBook has an eye watering (but realistic for the work) price attached, to result in the performance of a machine a tenth of the price. No one gets on their high horse about that.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Whilst I agree that the licence shouldn't be as restrictive and should be a one shot payment for a CD or ISO to use as you like, what rankles here is that buying MorphOS is attacked whereas as every other costly PPC endeavour is free from criticism, immune under the cover of, "we're enthusiasts - it doesn't have to make sense."
For example, paying for the swapping out a G3 for a G4 CPU on an iBook has an eye watering (but realistic for the work) price attached, to result in the performance of a machine a tenth of the price. No one gets on their high horse about that.
Click to expand...
I don't condone this at all either. I refuse to pay the absurd amounts people charge for that stuff, and I try to politely educate those that ask too much. Most of the time they end up changing the price a little bit but I let the ad sit there for months until it decreases to what I told them it was worth.
All of the Macs and accessories I have; have all been purchased at a cheap price, or what they genuinely worth. I shop at recycle centers (ewaste) mainly, and the only times I humor a CL or FB marketplace ad is when they are asking for a fair amount. The most costly thing I've bought was a G4 upgrade for my B&W, and it was still cheaper than that stuff goes for. It was an eBay auction that was almost ended and had nothing but the "starting bid".
I even got my dual CPU 4,1 (The upgraded 5,1 in my sig) for $50. The upgrades to that system only set me back about $300.

This over-pricing problem reaches further than PPC macs though. I see it with vintage PC stuff, and cars too. It's an epidemic. Which is why instead of fueling these people's quick cash crabbing stunts for the unwitting, I buy their "trash" at recycle centers or thrift shops.
Dronecatcher said:
I totally disagree with the minimal support statement. On my recent install I got lots of advice and practical help on the MorphOS forum - unlike my times with Linux where I was met with rolling eyes at my lack of hardcore knowledge.
Click to expand...
I'll stand corrected here, I don't actually have experience with their support site. I assumed that the lack of threads on here, and the various other vintage mac forums that there probably wasn't a whole lot.

The linux community can be somewhat toxic in that sense. I don't have a lot of hardcore knowledge either. Luckily almost every question can be answered with a google. I don't bother posting in any of their forums about a PPC computer, because to them it's a waste of time.

This MorphOS thing really just boils down to the high price. I can't justify it for the licensing terms. I also don't know how I can trust it to still exist a year from now or 5 years from now. Paying that much for something that, for all I know could become abandon-ware tomorrow.
 
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