Once Amiga bitten forever smitten

I have been reading as much as I can about MorphOS and very interested in getting one, I have a few questions!

MorphOS looks fantastic, Screen shots shows MorphOS running all sorts of old Amiga programs that I used to use.

(1) Does it run these programs natively or via JIT? if not with JIT, what is JIT used for?
(2) Does Morph emulate the old Amiga custom chipset, will it run old demos & games how compatible is it?
(3) How quick does MorphOS boot up>?
(4) How reliable & stable is the OS?
(5) Any security measures or memory protection?
(6) Is it possible to put MorphOs on a IDE Flash rom for protection and speed booting?

The Classic Amiga had so many clever innovative concepts it was light years ahead of its time.
I still use them as solutions as to how an OS should be, its hard to remember them all.
(7) How close is MorphOS to being like the old Amiga system Is it true plug and play?
(8) How big is MorphOS when installed? Is the file system layout the same?
(9) How many companies support MorphOS, are their Apps small and efficient ie. not bloatware, will they run on OS4?
(10) Are applications portable? are you able to move it and its entire directory encluding sub directory of Libs, C, etc,
and still allow it to execute from there without any problems?, and therefore deleteable with out any consequences to the OS
(11) what are the main differences or advantages between Morph & OS4?

Cheers!!! Keep up the good work

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1.
if it's an 68k app it runs with the JIT (or if you turn it off with static 68k emulation). With JIT you reach around 60-80% native PPC speed. Which means: it's the hell damn fast.

WarpUP programs have to go trought JIT too (for the 68k part) but PPC part runs native. PowerUP runs native too, like MorphOS PPC programs.

2. no. it does not emulate custom chips.

3. HELL FAST. maybe 12 seconds (incl. hardware start), depends on how fast your HDs spin up etc. :)

4. More stable than my linux installation. I'm not joking. Since MorphOS is a OS w/o Memory Protection (like AmigaOS too) it can crash really fast if you encounter the wrong app. But when you work with trustworth apps then it is really stable.

5. no mp. but a few workarounds for better protecting and avoiding crashes (in the ABOX, the underlying quarkkernel has full MP).

6. when OF supports that flashrom (i don't know that) then yes.

7. it replaced 100% my old a4k with AOS3.x and a lot xtras.

8. my system partition is 31.9 MB filled (morphos system files, a few small tools, fonts. etc.). My Work (Application) partition is filled with around 1,3GB (which includes uncountable many apps and tools, a full copy of Amiga Developer CD and a up-to-date IMDB installation)

9. MorphOS apps don't run on OS4 and the other way around.

10. Yes. (of course it also depends a little bit on users skills.

11. I am happy MorphOS user since 03-Apr-03 and it replaced since that day my loved a4k completly. There is absolutly no more to say here!

regards,
tokai

Tokai basicly covered it all, but let me say this. I was a die hard Amiga user from 1986. I never thought I would find a replacement for my A3000. It was towered, had a mediator in it, several PCI cards and a CSPPC accelerator. Basicly the best you cant get a classic Amiga computer. My Pegasos II has replaced it completly. All the apps I used still work. The games didnt work well in the first place because of the cyberstorm, but I was using UAE for them anyway on my Mac. MorphOS is much more stable then AmigaOS 3.9 ever was and its much faster. Even Amiga native apps run faster on it then the did on my A3000. Everything is mode promoted through cybergraphics too. Its a fantastic system.

Yes you can put an IDE flashrom (those little "dongle" which connect
directly on the mobo) it works, but believe me, it's slower than real
hard disko

Its pretty usable for users thats used to amiga.

A drawback is no native tcp stack, you have to run old amiga stacks emulated, gives poor transfer rates.
Another one is thats its difficult to buy a motherboard, as Genesi feels this marked is saturated and now looks elsewhere to sell their hardware.

If you maybe decide to get one and you have problems getting hold of one, i might be
interessted in selling mine, i need a computer
with TV-Out on radeon, and since morphos doesnt
support this and probably never will i need to
buy a pc or go crazy and get the expensive AmigaOne.

forgot, its a PegasosII with G3 (fanless, silent)
and 512mb ram.

If you want a real fast boot drive you can get IDE flash drives that are basicly hard disks with no moving parts. They have lots on ebay. Just search for IDE flash drive. They have them in lots of sizes and the prices are good.

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JIT turns on automatically when it detects repetition of the same code, and provides awesome computing power. In some cases it can even provide nearly the native PPC speed, which is more than awesome.

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No. There is UAE for that kind of task.

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The underlying kernel protects as much as is possible without breaking compatibility. Unfortunately the AmigaOS API leaves little place for memory protection: but for example the JIT buffers, the unused memory and a few other things are protected. MorphOS provides debug output about badly behaving apps (the ordinary user see nothing of it but it's there, you have to turn on the display of debug hits), and when an application locks itself up and MorphOS detects it, it offers to remove the application.

Unfortunately, some crashes are unavoidable due to the AmigaOS API compatibility, and it's not always easy to detect a self locked app - but MorphOS does what can be done.

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I've recently purchased an USB game pad. It came with an install CD for Windows, with drivers and whatnot, and it was full of warnings, that a Windows is recommended. I simply connected it and it worked, without any further hassle. So it's kind of plug and play

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You mean movable? Yes, it's still the same as under AmigaOS, and even better: the system update is much more clever than on AmigaOS. Every setting of yours remains preserved. I was really impressed.

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MorphOS is ahead. And it seems it will remain so for the coming years. It had native PPC Gfx system, Radeon drivers years ago it's competition. It has integrated JIT, 24 bit gfx from ground up, it has 3D support, WarpOS and PowerUP support, native apps - to cut it short, for a considerable time it will have what OS4 users will wait for always a year or two before.

MorphOS provides, and with the next update it will be even more so countless things never seen on Amiga before.

I've never felt that I've "switched platform" or something, if it tells anything about how Amiga like it is

[ Edited by warface on 2004/7/10 17:51 ]

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Never? How can you be so sure about that?

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I have an A1 with OS4 pre-release here, and trust me on this, if you are used to using MorphOS on a Pegasos you will find that the current OS4 release on the A1 is a *MAJOR* downtrade.

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well, its not even supported in linux, so the chances of this ever working in morphos is small.

pegasos is a perfect home media center, fanless, silent, small, so with a working TV-out
system would be complete.

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I know, but the prerelease are probably months old, i guess if you apply the latest updates it
should be pretty near current morphos, plus it have a native tcp stack

With the snap drivers on OS4 tv-out should work, and the linux ppc snap drivers are being prepared for public beta, so its shouldnt be far off before they appear on OS4.

edited

[ Edited by itix on 2004/7/11 1:24 ]

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The file layout is same but OS components are in the MorphOS subdirectory (thus old installers can't overwrite PPC native components or mess with system).

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MorphOS runs more software.

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Supported TV Out Graphics Chips
-------------------------------
. ATI 3D Rage II+, 3D Rage IIC, 3D Rage Pro, 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility
. ATI Rage 128, Radeon, Radeon VE, Mobility Radeon, Mobility Radeon 7500
. ATI Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500, Radeon 8500DV, Mobility Radeon 9000
. ATI Radeon 9000 Series, Radeon 9100, Radeon 9200 Series, Radeon 9500
. ATI Radeon 9500 Pro, Radeon 9600 Series, Radeon 9700 Pro, Radeon 9800
. ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, Radeon 9800 XT
. Matrox MGA-G200, MGA-G400
. VESA VBE 2.0, VBE 3.0

@ catohagen

Regarding SNAP (and to "even things out", posts like this (link)):

... you shouldn't try to bank anything until you have the cash in your hand. Misunderstand me right now. There are nice and applaudable *ambitions* on "both sides" here, but from a users POV, we only have what we currently can see and touch, and no-one should count too much on anything else.

In the past I have seen "deals concluded" by Ben Hermans, like with GPSoftware about the DOpus Magellan software, with Grashopper LLC about the Pagestream software, and about these SNAP drivers and so on.

But then I have seen Amiga Inc go out of the picture, and OS4 has actually *shifted owners*(!) since then (I also *believe* that there might be some split views by now about who is actually owning what among all the independent players in that field, but let's not go there). I have also read that Ben Hermans has now stepped out in the periphery, only hanging around to give some "legal consultations" now (probably from "personal interest"). I have also read that the DOpus deal blew due to none payments. And suddenly the status of the OS4 Pagestream release shifted quite dramatic ("The AmigaOS4 version schedule will depend on new developments, with Amiga Inc now out of the picture"). The point with all this babbleing of mine was only to raise some questions:

1) Who are KMOS?
2) Is that even a real company?
3) What do they own?
4) What are their ambitions?
5) What are their obligations?
6) Since it seems to have been some kind of paradigm shift here, do they (KMOS) share the previous "managements" views about the "concluded deals" and such, and the importance of paying for these?
7) If so, what kind of resources do they have to fulfill the above?

My point is that since there are so much uncertainty about this whole thing, and the SNAP is a commercial product that probably will cost some money, no-one should try to "bank" the SNAP drivers until they are actually a reality (that is: they are *released to general users* as *a part of the commercial OS4 product*).

Please also note that I have not even touched the technical aspects (like what are the tech pros/cons about SNAP) nor the strategical aspects (how desirable is it to be forever tied to another companys IP for such key components such as graphic drivers). Who knows, perhaps there would be a better thing to achieve some kind of "black box" layer/API mentioned by BBRV in the linked post above, giving the possibility to use all the aspects of the hardware (through native drivers, that is natively owned), but without necessarily having to know the detailed tech secrets of the GPU? However, I would not try to "bank" that either right now, but perhaps if a big enough customer helps by stating their case to ATI?

Anyway, even if "wonders" like 3D on Radeon seems to actually happen (), I am not holding my breath for TV-out anytime soon!