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MorphOS 2.5 Released, Supports More Old Macs 177

Posted by timothy
from the raid-the-attic dept.
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."
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MorphOS 2.5 Released, Supports More Old Macs More

MorphOS 2.5 Released, Supports More Old Macs

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  • Re:Why not just use a Linux distribution? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by flnca (1022891) on Saturday June 05, 2010 @05:44PM (#32471152) Journal
    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.

  • 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? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by niteshifter (1252200) on Saturday June 05, 2010 @09:05PM (#32472270)

    ... 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

"It's in process": So wrapped up in red tape that the situation is almost hopeless.

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