@bbrv

Will they still be $99?

Well, they have never been in $99 in EU.

I am wondering... is the Efika powerful enough to run MorphOS and some powerful applications on it?

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BBRV can't answer you about this, it's up to the MorphOS team. See the other thread.

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PUP PPC amigas do it already, so the Efika is ok. Just don't expect to run Blender or other memory hungry apps, the Efika has *only* 128mb of RAM.

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That would be the right thing to do. Good move!

"BBRV can't answer you about this, it's up to the MorphOS team. See the other thread. "

I presume there is some sort of arrangement betwewen Genesi and MOS Team. And such arrangement, I'm sure it include timeframes ;)

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not at all, AFAIK

That would be strange.

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why ?
the MOS team is independant. Genesi still supports MorphOS and sent some money/boards to the team to help them and support them. But the MOS team, as it was said many times, works on MorphOS on spare time and can't define or follow a deadline. Please refer to this thread (read it from the beginning) for more information :

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5617&forum=2

Yup I read that thread.

klesterjr wrote:
Will they still be $99?

If you want an Efika then I'd say to get one now. This is the lowest price I've seen on them and not likely to go for any less.

When MorphOS 2 comes out and they rerelease the Efika. It probably will be priced for $199+. Just my guess.

What I'm wondering is if they'll make the newly released Efika1 with more RAM ( like 256MB ). Because 128MB is too little to do anything intensive with ( or to run multiple programs ).

For instance, on x86, booting into BeOS uses 100MB and Linux uses 90MB.

I'd imagine MorphOS using somewhere around 90MB. That would Leave around 38MB for programs/applications. Which is way too little.

Hi,
I do not know how much RAM Morphos takes (I have PegII with MOS1.4.5 and Efika without any OS), but I know comparing MOS to other OS (or to MOS on Pegasos) is not accurate - Amiga-like OSes are not much resources hungry (and on Pegasos with MOS 1.4 part of RAM is used as cache for debug information). I can not tell how much RAM remains just after booting MOS 2.0, but I saw standard Efika with 128 MB RAM working under MOS2.0 (during our Polish parties Amimajowka and Amizaduszki) and there was absolutely no problem. MOS working fast with running Sputnik and some opened web pages. Also special effects of GUI accelerated by OpenGL (new feature of MOS2.0) worked nice. During last Amizaduszki (november 2007) Efika with 128 MB and MOS2.0 worked as jukebox playing MP3's for several hours.
I agree with you, that having 256 MB on Efika board would be nice... but 128 MB is not as bad as it seems to be ;)

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I did run MOS 1.4.5 on the PuP hardware with 64 MB RAM. After
booting there were (IIRC) >40 MB available which is enough for many
things. it was a nice setup which was quite usable and if
I hadn't had a Pegasos already I had used it as my primary maschine.

wali7 wrote:
...comparing MOS to other OS (or to MOS on Pegasos) is not accurate - Amiga-like OSes are not much resources hungry

You're right. It wasn't fair to make that assumption. Don't have MOS to verify what it uses and so I guessed.

Back in the day, I used Macs at University ( m68K & PowerMacs ). They ran MacOS 8 ( or 9 ). And they also used very little memory if I recall correct ( 24-48 MB? ) - a little too long ago.

That is very impressive if MOS is under 50 MB RAM.

Any OS can play mp3s for several hours. Not memory intensive. The big memory hogs tend to be IE, Firefox ( Main "bloated" Web Browsers ) - normally I have 10+ pages/tabs loaded for browsing. Sputnik would be lightweight compared to these. 3d games & design/rendering also use lots of memory. Only thing that comes to mind on MOS is Warzone 2100 port.

Playing mp3s, watching movies & videos, using word processor, etc. use very little RAM. So, 128 would be enough for any OS to do that stuff.

Now, putting Linux on the Efika would probably use up 80-90MB right off the bat; just guessing but confident this to be right. So, anyone that wanted a dual boot Efika would have a Linux machine that was memory starved.

About 1 month ago I went & bought 384 MB PC-100 ECC to upgrade an old dual x86 system I have. Cost was less than $5. My point, I'd rather have a greater amount of lower cost ( slower speed ) RAM than a lesser amount of higher cost RAM.

[ Edited by Omen on 2008/1/4 14:41 ]

I have checked the amount of used RAM just after reboot my Peg with MOS1.4.5 - it allocated 60 MB for its own. It is no "bare system", I have nice analog clock (Clonck), calendar (April) and resource monitor (ExecMonitor) started automatically.
I have 512 MB installed, for MOS (and Open Suse Linux too) is good enough, very rare there is situation of half memory used... so I have a comfort, programs have enough memory and I have big ram disk ;) (in fact 512 MB RAM is most preferred configuration for Peg)
Half of 512 MB means 256 MB used, but I think 128 MB is good for most apps, sometimes you have to switch some programs instead of using it paralelly.
The last thing is that Efika has empty soldering points for extra RAM (motherboard supports 512 MB), may it need to solder other 128 MB to have 256 MB Efika without any other complications? Could producer explain it?

I know playing MP3 is not very impressive, but I wanted to point, that jukebox can be one of the basic role in the home (it consumes only 10 W of energy).
Efika could be used for www browsing, MP3 playing (and collecting), for text writing, for some games... nearly the same as Pegasos can be used for (for emulating Amiga on e-uae and playing DiVXs Efika is too slow). But Efika is lesser, energy efficient and cheaper than Peg.
Of course we should not think about Efika like about fully featured computer, but it could have some good place on the market. (but, in fact, Efika is faster than every classic amiga, even with PPC turbo board)

[ Edited by wali7 on 2008/1/4 23:47 ]

Thanks for your comparative explanation and input.

Enough said on this thread because it is getting off topic.