MorphOS 2.5 Released, Supports More Old Macs

An anonymous reader writes "The MorphOS Team has released version 2.5 of its PPC computer-only operating system. The new version extends its support of the PPC Mac range to include the eMac, which was the 2002-2006 Mac model consisting of a CRT monitor and computer in a single housing. MorphOS previously and continues to support the PPC Mac mini, as well as the Pegasos and Efika niche computers (all discontinued but available second-hand). MorphOS includes a web browser and TCP/IP stack and a few traditional baseline OS-associated apps among its features. Further software is available from a range of online repositories. MorphOS 2.5 comes on a bootable 30-minute demo live CD ISO which may also be installed. The ISO is available for free download by anyone. The 30-minute limit is removed by online purchase of registration/key file which is available for a limited period for the sum of 111 euros to celebrate the launch of this version."

Comments

Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[assassinator42]

It's free and probably works with more programs.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[Ethanol-fueled]

Why not just use a Linux distribution?

People'd use this for the same reasons they'd use BeOS and ReactOS. You're right, though -- they'd probably be able to get actual work done with a Linux distribution.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[David Gerard]

And supports more hardware. Ubuntu PPC on a Mac G4 works just the same, is a better CD/DVD burner than Tiger and supports hardware that Mac OS X doesn't.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[flnca]

Well, MorphOS is one of the few Amiga-compatible OSes that remain that can run natively ... MorphOS has some interesting concepts by itself ... it does have some applications. I used it on Efika for a while ... the only thing about MorphOS I came to dislike was the lack of virtual memory and the fact that it was closed-source. But certainly, you're right ... Linux and even the BSDs are so good nowadays that there's barely a reason to use MorphOS (let alone AmigaOS 4) except for people who want (or need) to run an Amiga-like OS natively. The speed is certainly impressive. You'd get a lot of bang for the buck if everything related to it wasn't so expensive (the hardware, the OS, some of the software). There was an Intel-based clone of AmigaOS once but Amiga Inc. forced it off the market. Another aspect speaking for it is the simplicity of writing device drivers. So it can have some applications in the embedded area where time-to-market and speed are more important than price.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[chaoskitty]

Why not just use Windows?

The reasons some people might give for using GNU/Linux (Linux is just a kernel, after all) are probably similar to the reason that people might give for using MorphOS. Some people like the development environment (especially people who learned on AmigaOS), some people probably enjoy the efficiency of this OS on PowerPC hardware, and some people like to be different and not run the same software as everyone else.

There are no GUIs for GNU/Linux which are as efficient or as intuitive as AmigaOS, and MorphOS tries to continue that philosophy.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[Darkness404]

The thing is, why would you really need to run Amiga OS? Other than admiring the simplicity and the architecture and all that fun stuff, theres no real reason to run Amiga OS for day-to-day work that can't be done with a decent Linux distro.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[Bert64]

Cost has been the undoing of AmigaOS for many years...
When i first got an Amiga, it was because the machine was relatively cheap while still being pretty capable. It was capable of gaming with the simplicity of a console, while also having an OS allowing serious and/or educational work to be done... You could buy one for your kids and they would enjoy playing games on it, but could also hook up a printer and do their school work.

However, once i started trying to get the amiga online that all fell apart... Even simple things like a tcp stack, telnet client or web browser cost money and all these costs soon added up. After a while it simply wasn't worth keeping the Amiga anymore.

More recently, i tried MorphOS on a mac mini and found it fun to play with for a few minutes, but certainly not worth 111 euro.. Same goes for AmigaOS 4, it's certainly not worth the price of the OS plus having to buy low spec but relatively expensive hardware to run it on.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[larpon]

you could consider AROS to be intel-based although it runs on other architectures :)

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[PopeRatzo]

So David, let me ask you something: If you had a 17" G4 Macbook Pro, is there any advantage to using Ubuntu PPC in place of OS X? I've got such a machine and I don't use it much any more but I'd like to get some productivity out of it. So many of the programs that I use a Mac for now require Intel (Logic Studio, Netflix via browser, Eve Online) that unfortunately this beautiful machine is just not a go-to system for me any more. Considering it cost me 4 grand, I'd like to squeeze some more life out of it. It's got 2gig RAM.

Maybe I'll dual boot OSX and Ubuntu PPC.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[sznupi]

Hell, why one would bother with Linux distro for day-to-day work if it can be done with Windows that came preinstalled on a laptop...

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[sznupi]

Security (c'mon...what malicious thing would run on MorpOS?), snappiness, plethora of Amiga and Amiga-style apps you love (and which work for you)...tons of reasons that make your day-to-day tasks much faster.

Even if you say these reason are all arguable, which they are, at least there are solid arguable reasons.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[niteshifter]

... do people really still use an OS that stopped being developed a decade ago?

Yep. Even older: The last DOS (MSDOS 4.01, running on a ancient Compaq) install I had to maintain was retired last July. This in a ~ 26bil (US) Fortune 500 company. It operated a testing apparatus. Lack of slow enough hardware (not kidding) to replace that Compaq was why it was retired.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[yuhong]

Yea, it was one of several OSes that was supposed to run on hardware confirming to the PReP/CHRP hardware standard that was created as part of the attempt to push PowerPC processor-based computers as an better alternative to IBM PC compatibles based on x86 processors. The Advanced Computing Environment's Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) standard was a similar standard created for a similar purpose, but for the MIPS processor instead of PowerPC.

Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution?

[hairyfeet]

I can top that! Last I heard my old gamer rig, which I had to dig out of my shed for a customer a few years back, a whopping Pentium 100Mhz with 32Mb of RAM, two PCI and 3 ISA slots, is STILL running DOS 3 in a lumber company down the road!

The owner of the mill left his kid in charge while he went on vacation, and wouldn't you know it that would be the time their ancient DOS 3 PC that ran the lathe that did custom columns would take a shit. The kid came into our shop practically having a heart attack, because the old lathe (which apparently was an 85k+ piece of hardware back in the 80s and the company that made it is long out of business) would only run on an ISA slot and only on DOS 3, and every shop said they didn't have anything that old. Naturally they had a big job requiring those custom columns due by the end of the week and the kid was ready to shit puppies. I thought that kid was gonna faint when I said "I think I got a couple of ISA PCs out in my shed that works". Luckily the board and not the whole 20Mb HDD was what died on their old one, so I was able to clone it onto my old gamer rigs and get it back to life.

So you'd be surprised what some folks are still using, and when you consider it would probably cost the 50k to replace that custom lathe you really can't blame 'em. I ended up making $400 for those two old junkers PLUS time and a half PLUS double my usual service call fee just to go set them up and show the kid how to keep the spare in running order. Last I heard my old DOOM box is still running that lathe, 5 days a week, just running that single program in DOS 3. They really don't make them like that anymore. Those beige boxes were fugly, but they were built like tanks.

Is this an ad?

[Chelmet]

This is quite clearly a sales pitch - am I the only reader left thinking, 'well so what'?

Its all well and good keeping old computers running (providing the OS is secure enough), but I for one feel that this is neither news for nerds, nor stuff that matters.

And I'm not even clicking the link to vindicate the posting, click-through-wise.

Re:Is this an ad?

[sznupi]

This OS is one of the ways Amiga zombie tries to stay undead; stuff quite a bit for nerds, I'd say.

Re:Is this an ad?

[DannyO152]

I looked at the summary, was wondering what's the advantage over TerraSoft's YDL, the os formerly known as Yellow Dog Linux.

When I saw the 30 minute limit thing, I realized clearly what was the disadvantage compared to YDL.

slashvertisement

[bcrowell]

This "story" is an ad, with promotional language in the slashdot summary like "available for a limited period." The OS isn't open source. Looks like someone knows how to game the firehose.

Re:slashvertisement

[Bert64]

Apple products are more open source than morphos, and they don't intentionally cripple themselves after 30 minutes (i think even microsoft is more generous than that with suspected pirate copies)...

Re:Is there a market for this?

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

111 Euros means about $2000 in US dollars because of the weak US currency.

111 Euro is $132.82, not anywhere near $2000. Right now, the Euro to US$ conversion is very good due to the general state of the European economy.

Buy a new computer for that price...

[Darkness404]

For $150-ish dollars the same price as the OS, you could easily buy a cheap, second-hand x86 computer and do more. Or heck, why not just get PPC versions of Linux?

Unless MorphOS has some killer feature like the ability to emulate Windows perfectly, or something that Linux doesn't have, I'm not seeing the point in wasting hundreds of dollars on software that nothing really runs on.