First Impressions Morphos.

So I got myself an old Apple eMac on ebay for the princely sum of $10 (actually I got 2, a 1.25ghz that didn't power up and a 1ghz that did).
3 hours of tinkering with a Multimeter, and I discovered the power switch on the 1,25Ghz was dead, so off with the back cover of the 1ghz which I swapped over to the 1.25ghz. Presto a fully functional 1.25ghz G4 eMac with a 200Gb HDD and 2Gb RAM and an Airport card for $10.

SO why did I buy the eMac?

I bought it to try MorphOS.
As a well known retro hobbyist I have fond memories if the Classic Amiga, and feel that had Commodore USA not monumentally dropped the ball, that the Amiga would have gone onto greater strengths.
It is my opinion that the Amiga would have ended up being a PowerPC platform in the end, although I doubt it would have been called the Amiga by then, as Commodore would have had to have dropped backwards compatibility at some point.

It had been my original intention to test out Morphos on the eMac (the cheapest PowerPC G4 platform available), and if I liked it, then to purchase a Powermac G5 (these sell in Australia for about $90 for a model supported by Morphos). Yes I know I am going on about the prices of these machines, there is a point to that.

Installation of Morphos was relatively easy, although there does seem to be some issues when using Morphos on an eMac, the most obvious being that Morphos does not seem to be able to allow me to adjust the monitor. So now my Morphos screen is off-center and does not fill the entire CRT.
This is not the most annoying issue with Morphos though.

You guessed it, it's the 30 minute ransomware that's slipped in every copy courtesy of the developers.

So after a day of re-booting every 30 minutes, I decided to see how much it was going to cost me to make this bullcrap go away.

For an eMac it's going to cost me $111 Australian!!!
Are you sh1tting me?

So an OS written to support dead hardware, is going to cost me 10x the value of the hardware its running on?

To put this into perspective, my PC cost me $2,000 to build. This would equate to Windows 10 costing $20,000!!!!!!!!

So the whole pricing issue of Morphos is useless. It's too expensive and the whole ransom idea is badly thought out.

I would have been happier if Morphos had a Paypal nag screen at bootup and shutdown, and I would have happily paid $20 or even $30 as a donation. Such niche systems are only worth what the customer is willing to pay. Overcharging because the developer thinks his/her work is worth more than the millions of dollars that companies like Microsoft and Apple put into the development of Operating Systems is not only stupid, it's insulting.

So... Good luck with Morphos, another nail in the coffin for the PowerPC.

- no more nails in the PPC-coffin needed, that one has been glued shut a decade ago

- your math is a bit weird, if you had found an old VCR for 1$ and than need a cable to hook it up at 10$ would you start screaming too ?

- not the MorphOS-team's fault that your money has the value of used TP ;)

- at 79€ noone is getting rich, think about what one major gaming title (PC/XBOX/PS4/WiiU etc) costs and than remember that those are sold in the millions

- the key has no time or version limit, it would still be valid for a potential MorphOS 3.24 released in 2024

- even if your HW dies (does happen) you'd have a good chance of getting a replacement key (for the same type of HW)

So either see it as lump payment for lifetime support, or simple do as redrumloa would, skip one night out.

Quote:
That probably could be adjusted from the Monitors settings.

Quote:
I'd think it's more like a positive issue, that you can find that cheap hardware to run it. Makes the overall cost less. Would you be happy if your eMac would have costed 300e?

Quote:
I've never paid for any PC I've got, and still haven't got Windows for free, it has costed infinitely more :/

Quote:
I wonder how many would pay at all, if it just would be a nag requester at boot time. We don't have such masses that it'd do anything if for example 1% would register. Anyway 30mins test version is much better than no trial version at all, like some other systems don't have that possibility. Of course the suitable price can always be debated, but it's never good for everyone. I don't quite understand your valuation point though... the salary even with the current pricing isn't that big per developer...


[ Edited by jPV 10.04.2016 - 11:32 ]

I feel this should be a sticky link at the top of the forum.....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale

In Socialist Australia, we only pay lots of money for luxury items if everyone else does.

Oh - and it also takes three hours to find a broken power switch.

> the developer thinks his/her work is worth more than the millions of dollars that companies
> like Microsoft and Apple put into the development of Operating Systems

Huh?

> Morphos, another nail in the coffin for the PowerPC.

Rest assured that MorphOS is too obscure to have any influence on the fate of any processor ISA.

Quote:

Of course it may seem odd to pay more for the OS than for the hardware. But why does that seem so? Just out of habbit. If you happen to find a pc for $10 Windows will still cost the same as for a $1000 hardware.
It's easy: MorphOS costs (for most systems) 79 EUR.
With cheap hardware the total cost to run MorphOS stays pretty low.

Let's take it like that:
-> objective: I want to run MorphOS
-> solution: get a compatible hardware and the software. Software is offered for free, the key is offered fo 79 EUr by the MorphOS team, hardware must get obtained from elsewhere.

-> Total cost to cater the given objective: cost of hardware + cost of MorphOS key

-> If total cost is below your personal limit for the objective, then you have a go, if not you have a fail.

Simple, isn' t it?


And as others mentioned: The ppc coffin is not only nailed, it's buried and quite some grass has grown over it already.

Quote:

The world's so different downunder... And all Australians throw some pathetic trollbaits in their first posts on MorphZone? :)

So the total investment would have been $131 Aus?
Highway robbery. ;)

I think that's about three pounds fifty in real money Jim. ;)

So... You really want to pay a lot more for PPC hardware and less for the OS? Check out A-Eonkit or Acube's offerings. You can drop $3K on hardware at A-Eonkit or $1K at Acube, then only pay ~$35AU on the OS. I guess that will make you feel better.

Enjoy!

> pay ~$35AU on the OS

More like ~45 :-)

@HartOz

Remember that they sell about 1 licence a day, while Windows sells, I don't know, hundreds of thousands? All expenses has to be paid by these few licences, which is why it cost the way it does.

Of course one might think 79€ is expensive regardless, but this is a hobby so you pay if you think it's worth it. Plain and simple. Too bad you don't think it's worth it but keep playing around with the OS and you might change your mind later. I know I did

well those 30 minutes have always been a bit tight.

But because you got a bargain on the hardware or bought the cheapest you could find, Morphos has to be a bargain also ? Well start saving for an x5000 and by your logic the price of Morphos is going to be totally worth it.

Quote:

That doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe you aren't removing VAT from your calculations?

Per currency conversion $25.66US translates to about $32.91AU. Checkout through Paypal gives worse conversion rates but that would only push it to about $35AU.



[ Edited by redrumloa 11.04.2016 - 15:14 ]

>>> pay ~$35AU on the OS

>> More like ~45 :-)

> Maybe you aren't removing VAT from your calculations?

Indeed, I didn't.

> Per currency conversion $25.66US translates to about $32.91AU.

It says 33.78 AUD here. Isn't there a 10% import sales tax in Australia? But admittedly, even then it would only amount to 37.16 AUD, so your 35 is much closer than my 45. Thanks for correcting.

Quote:

Probably some of us spends much more monthly on drinks or smokes..

Here's a protip for the Entitlement generation: If you want people to give their work away for nothing, be one of those generous souls - create something and give it away.

Quote:

Never heard of you. You sound like another fucking person wanting something for free.


The people who appreciate hard work end up registering like I did. I think I registered like 3 or 4 machines. There should be a "THANK YOU MorphOS Devs" thread for them working as cheap labor instead of this nonsense drivel posted by the OP.



[ Edited by TheMagicM 12.04.2016 - 06:31 ]

Quote:

Nope, had commodore not died the Amiga would have become a PA-RISC based machine probably running NT.

Poor guy.
He was on a wrong place at wrong time... :)

Quote:
I find this choice of wording rather inappropriate. Nobody is holding a gun to your head or threatening to reveal your name and Odyssey browser history if you do not pay up.

In fact, the demo allows you to freely test the software as many times as you like before you may decide to purchase it. There are alternatives where you have to pay first before you can try them (due to a lack of local resellers, computer clubs, etc.), so the barrier of entry to become a new user is clearly higher compared to MorphOS.

Quote:
Actually, that is entirely your choice. You are free to purchase brand new hardware that costs substantially more than a MorphOS license and use that to run the OS.

If you manage to find hardware at extremely low prices, you should be happy that your total cost of ownership for becoming a MorphOS user has gone down substantially. Getting upset that software does not magically get cheaper because you managed to get a deal on your hardware seems misguided.

Quote:
I am afraid this is an extremely poor analogy.

Your complaint is very similar to this scenario: Someone buys a 10 years old PC for 5 USD. This person then downloads Windows 10 from Microsoft's website and installs it. After the evaluation period runs out, this person is asked to purchase and enter a valid key code or be refused to log in to the OS. The person then proceeds to post on Microsoft's forums that being asked to register the copy of Windows means that the software is ransomware. Furthermore, the person also requests that Microsoft lower the price of Windows 10 from 119 USD to something below the cost of his old computer since charging 120 USD for an OS that runs on a 5 USD machine equates to charging 48.000 USD for a copy of Windows for a 2.000 USD computer...

Quote:
See above.

Whether the software is too expensive or worth the cost is for everyone to decide for themselves. That is why there is a free demo version to try.

Personally, I know plenty of software aimed at hobbyists that is much, much more expensive or far simpler, yet sold at a similar price point.

> had commodore not died the Amiga would have become a PA-RISC based machine

There are conflicting information as to whether Hombre's PA-RISC core would have acted as CPU of new Amiga desktop class computers (as opposed to lower-end devices such as gaming consoles).

Haynie and Hepler say it wouldn't (but would have been just the GPU):
http://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=396&forum=3&start=2

The 'Commodore planning document' says it would:
http://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=396&forum=3&start=6

> probably running NT

I've read this often but never from a reliable source, at least as far as the main operating system to be used is concerned.

http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/winnt.html

The OP of this thread seems to have written this and 'not looked back' so why are so many offering advice to a person who doesn't seem to be genuinely interested in MorphOS, but just wants to 'stir things up' and/or wants to get 'something for nothing'?

Quote:

I'm glad someone has realized odour currency is bogus.
We still get a great exchange rate for the Euro.
But one day someone is going to realize we are just kiting paper.

Anyway, the whole world (Aussies included) seems to think that operating systems should be free.