Updated. Thanks for the numbers (somehow I missed them).

It's a clear trend; a slow but steady growth that hasn't slowed down. Nice to see!

Yes, nice that it is slowly climbing, but I am surprised to see that there was not a sharper increase when support for the G4 PowerMac's was released with 2.6.

I am afraid that the actual number of users did not change much then, just more existing users adding 2nd, or 3rd licenses to their computer collection.

The release of 3.0 with PowerBook support should bring us many new users, as well as a sharp increase in license registrations for both new and existing MorphOS users that want to run MorphOS on a laptop.

Still trying to figure out ways to increase our user base, so if anyone else has ideas, please share them.

amigadave,
Quote:

If there was an office suite capable of at least open document format, I'd throw my Windows machines out of the same. And my wife would move over to MorphOS.

[ Edited by Megander 06.12.2011 - 20:39 ]

@Megander,

I agree that an Office Suite is sorely needed, but Google Docs does provide some functionality for us to get some work done. I used it to write my poorly presented demo at the AmiWest Show a couple of months back.

Not an ideal solution, but at least better than nothing. I am also still trying to get my registration number from the PageStream guys for the copy I won at a previous AmiWest show a few years back, so I can try to use it from MorphOS.

Anyone else using PageStream on MorphOS? Another thing I would really like to run from MorphOS is LightWave3D stand alone version, which I think Magnetic has running, but there are a few tweaks to get it set up correctly and I only have a hacked version of LightWave3D Stand Alone that does not need the dongle to run, so I don't know if that will work on my MorphOS computers. I bought the Stand Alone Lightwave3D version for my Amiga on eBay a long time ago, but it came without the dongle, so it was a waste of money that I never got resolved with the seller or eBay. I got a box and a book though.

> Anyone else using PageStream on MorphOS?

There're some users in those threads:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6843&forum=9
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7723&forum=9

> Updated.

Thanks. New numbers follow on the heels:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8151&forum=38&start=48
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8151&forum=38&start=50

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8266&forum=9

Thankyousir, updatedagainsir.

Another number is: 1325, kindly sponsored by MorphOS Team for our promotion of MorphOS in Poland. Thanks for you guyz.

@koszer

Three observations:

1) Stretching over time, the trend is straight and *steadily* pointing upwards.

Conclusion: MorphOS rules and is *constantly* gaining ground!


2) In addition to the "normal" growth, there was a visible bump when MorphOS 2.4 was released (Mac Mini), a slightly smaller bump after MorphOS 2.5 (eMac), and maybe a teeny-weeny bump after MorphOS 2.6 (Power Mac)

Conclusion: Introducing support for new computer models *does* pay off with *immediate* visible results in new licenses (for some models more than others). Of course the spec list of new features in the OS itself plays a part as well, but there wasn't any noticeable bump between MorphOS 2.6->2.7 when no new computer model was being introduced, despite MorphOS at version 2.7 is the most polished and best featured release ever.


3) The *tilt* of the curve (the growth speed) became *visibly steeper* after MorphOS 2.4 (Mac Mini/First Apple HW supported)

Conclusion: Supporting a mainstream HW platform like the Apple Mac *was* a *good decision*, despite the Mac's already being a bit aging and only available as second hand. Price *does* matter (hear that A-EON? ), so does the acknowledged quality and low risk of well tried, mainstream stuff, and so does the fact that it's easy to obtain. Of course it doesn't hurt that (mostly, except some Power Mac's perhaps) is much more powerful than what was previously supported. Before the Mac support, the growth rate was still steadily increasing, but after the Mac support, the growth rate increased visibly. Something to keep in mind for the future (when a new Architecture is to be chosen, post-PPC). Maybe one could also weight in the characteristics, price, performance etc of the various models as well? I think many people has appreciated the Mac Mini's small size, its cheap shipping cost, its high performance compared to its price, the ease to get it up and running, etc.


It will be exciting to see if/how MorphOS 3.0 / PowerBook will affect the curve!

Hi takemehomegrandma,

I'm also looking forward to seeing a significant bump when Powerbook support is released (hint-hint, no rush guys...).

#1344

At leat 2 more registrations waiting on my desk..

=_blank>

Again, I'm curious to know how many users are registered. Lots of morphos users have several licences.

I think a good guestimate is at about registrations /2 - i.e. ~700 users with registered machines.
Many users have two or three machines. But I think quite some users also sold their spare machines. And of course a good share of users has only one reg'ed machine.

No way of ever knowing exactly how many registered users of MorphOS2.x there are, but your guess of approximately half of the number of reported computer registrations is probably pretty close to being accurate.

650 to 700 users of MorphOS2.7 and who knows how many users are still using MorphOS1.4.5 and don't want to buy a keyfile for 2.x yet. If I understand what has been stated previously, there were 2,000 to 3,000 registered MorphOS1.4.5 users at it's height.

A drop from 2k, or 3k down to 650, or 700 registered users is very bad in my opinion, but maybe the 2k to 3k number is not correct and if it is/was correct, maybe most of those users were only slightly curious and were not really that active in using MorphOS1.4.5 in the past? What bothers me more, is that not very much seems to be happening by anyone to try to increase the number of registered MorphOS2.x users and developers. Maybe that is just my perception and more is being done by several users and developers to increase the number of MorphOS users and developers, and I just don't see most of those efforts? Maybe my expectations of how many MorphOS2.x users and developers we could have in the next year is unrealistic and too optimistic? I know the MorphOS Development Team has improved the SDK within the last year, which is an important step in making it easier for third party developers to create native software for MorphOS2.x, and I know that they don't really have much free time to promote MorphOS more than they are already doing, since they all have other jobs and private lives that take up their time.

Maybe the release of MorphOS3.0 will provide the needed spark that will jump start some new development on/for MorphOS and give many of the MorphOS1.4.5 users a reason to register a MorphOS3.0 computer and get involved again.

AFAIR there were about 3000 Peg2s build (based on collected serial numbers), but a great deal of those went through the Genesi/Freescale developer program into the hands of people outside anything Amiga.

I also don't think 700 users is really that bad when you take into account the quality of those users. Relativly many developers for such a tiny community and aslong as you don't expect Win/OSX/*nix levels a pretty decent amount of SW catering most of the everyday need (either native or by legacy 68k apps).

2000...3000 users sound wrong. MorphOS community has been always about in par with OS4 community. Give or take few hundred users depending on sun spots and community or company situation but probably there never was more than 500-750 users.

Problem in community growth is that it is very difficult to find anyone interested in Amiga. In fact it is not problem of Amiga platform alone but other non-mainstream operating systems are struggling.

700 users isn't bad. I agree that the "quality" of the users is higher (ratio, not actual numbers) than probably any other group of users on any other platform.

But I also think that getting more users (and developers) is important and something that will benefit all of the existing users/developers of MorphOS2.x. More is better, and if enough good software can be written, or ported to MorphOS2.x, it can create a "Snowball" effect that causes the increase in numbers of MorphOS2.x users and developers to accelerate. Not by a large amount, but maybe by a little bit faster.

Then in a while instead of having 700 users with a high number of them also being developers, we have 1,200 users with a lower percentage of them being "High Quality", or developers, but still a higher ratio than any other platforms. More good software brings even more users and a few more developers and maybe we then have 2,000 users, and the ball keeps rolling a little bit faster.

MorphOS is never going to be a competitor with Windows, or MacOSX, or even Linux, but it certainly can be a larger and more active group of users and developers than it is now.

I just want to see it grow, not shrink and die out after a few more years because of lack of interest. It is an excellent operating system that is patterned after another excellent operating system that we all share a common history and interest in.

[ Edited by amigadave 14.02.2012 - 11:04 ]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the number of registered MorphOS users exceeded the amount of Windows users a long time ago. Is this not correct?

If I was you, I would refrain from a carreer as a stand-up comedian.

amigadave,
Quote:

Having thought about it a while longer, 700 registered users of MorphOS2.x after 10+ years of development is bad.

It makes me wonder what is wrong with the MorphOS community, or the (lack of) promotion of MorphOS to get more users and developers from the at least several thousands of remaining Amiga users and few tens of thousands of former Amiga users?

I have tried in my small way to promote MorphOS at my own personal expense and I know that there are a few events in Europe each year where MorphOS users get together, or take their MorphOS computers to these events to show them to other MorphOS users, OS4.x users and current and former AmigaOS3.x users.

Why aren't there 2,000 to 3,500 MorphOS users today? That seems like a very feasible number to expect after the improvements of the last 10+ years and the current excellent state of MorphOS.

Why isn't there more promotion of MorphOS everywhere and why isn't the small amount of MorphOS promotion more effective?

The missing element here is marketing! No one knows what MorphOS is. At least millions of people know what an Amiga is/was. What happened to the John C Dvorak connection? He could help MorphOS sell tons more and should be contacted.

Dvorak the Andy Rooney of the computer world?
He moved on. Just another individual disappointed by the apparent failure of the amiga.