When I try to tell people about MorphOS, I usually get this question:

"Why should I use MorphOS instead of Windows/MacOS/Linux?"

I have to say, it's not an easy question to answer. So I thought we could make a list of the things that makes MorphOS good (and bad too just to be fair) as an operating system (and not just an OS for Amiga geeks).

I will fill in this first post as I get new info. I'll start:

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PROS:

It's small, light weight and very responsive.
It starts up and shuts down fast.
Well built file system (and it doesn't have to rebuild itself if the computer crashes).
Very costomizable, both the whole system as well as individual programs. Including look and functionality.
Very logically built and completely open to the user.
Anyone who likes computers can learn how MorphOS works and tweek it (unlike Linux that has a steap learning curve).
It's hack friendly.
Supports hundreds of types of archive and disk images.
A feature rich shell.
No need to install programs: you can just copy files from computer to computer, including the OS itself.
Very compatible with OS friendly Amiga applications, giving MorphOS a lot of extra software.
It's feature complete (unlike Haiku or ReactOS etc).
It's different from other main stream OS:es (it's not "just another Linux distro").
Active development = you don't have to wait that long before you see a bug fix.
The basic software needed for everyday usage (minus some bugs) are there.

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CONS:

Lack of software.
Few supported hardware.
Outdated memory protection.
Only supports one CPU.
Only a 32 bit system.

----------------------------------------------------

Other questions:

Q: Why use any other OS than the one(s) that already has "won" out?
A: Unlike mainstream OS:es the distance between developers and users are very small. Plus, if going for the "winning" side is a value in itself, then there wouldn't have been a Linux community today. We use this because we find this to be a better OS.

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[ Edited by Yasu 09.05.2014 - 12:10 ]

A: because those other "won out" (I think you meant mainstream?) OS development do not care about the end user. With MorphOS, there is open discussion forums, and interactive with the developers. If you make suggestion, they will consider it ... As long as it matches Moph Philosophy.

No OS can suit to all people on this little planete!
That's why so many exist...

All are theirs cons and pros, so it's not realistic to answer in few lines to such qestions.
Read documentation, then try: make our own opinion!

Quote:

Isn't it more of a con .. as in lack of support for plenty of devices/software and such

@Yomgui

Not a very helpful thing to say when you want to make people even the slightest interested in MorphOS.

@hooligan

Would plenty of supported hardware make MorphOS slower? I thought that was the difference between a monolithic kernel and a micro-kernel?

Pro - It can be shut down without delay, and if accidentally shut down it does not have to rebuild its file system.

Pros - fun & entertainment owb, mplayer, mame fpse, snes, genesisplus, e-uae, native games
cons - business, and productivity, streaming, speed, hardware.

Everyone has forums....and they all interact similarly some helpful, and some not so much.

I don't promote the MorphOS outside of a extremely small circle. It is what it is until it evolves more!

Quote:

Quite the opposite, if MorphOS had support for latest harddrives, graphicscards and other hardware in general it would be faster.. but that is never going to happen so point void :)

> Pros - [...] mplayer, mame fpse, snes, genesisplus, e-uae, native games

I think all mainstream operating systems have those as well.

> cons - [...] speed [...]

On the systems I've run MorphOS on, it was always way faster than any other operating system (MacOSX, Linux).

PROS:

- GUI: I just love MUI4 over any other GUI toolkit I've used. It's very customizable globally and per program.
- Overall configurability: You can get it to work just as you like by IControl, desktop/filemanagement settings etc.
- Easy and versatile user manageable hierarchial MIME settings with inheritance for filetypes.
- Almost all programs have standard ARexx port to control them with scripts and make them interact with each other.
- Best features from AmigaOS: screens concept, datatypes (add a datatype and almost all programs "magically" support new image, audio etc formats), commodities concept (you can easily make background programs active/inactive, show/hide their interfaces and remove them from use), multiselect on menus, logical directory structures, assigns, windows won't lock up unmovable in any situation, standard localization (most programs can be translated to any language without recompile) and lots of other small details.
- Screen titlebar modules concept (how you add, enable/disable and configure them).
- Supports over hundred types of archives and disk images, most are browsable without unpacking.
- Feature rich shell by MUICON.
- System independent installation and easy backuping: you can copy your OS installation to other computer and it will work there.
- Easy to manage: you can understand what happens in the system and you can install programs manually.
- It's quick!
- It comes with a quite good selection of fresh software, no need to go install that much 3rd party software at first.
- Many small details to fall in love ;)


CONS:
- No memory protection
- Not enough software for everyone's needs


[ Edited by jPV 08.05.2014 - 10:54 ]

Quote:

Although MorphOS's mplayer is better than mplayer on many other platforms, because of its nice MUI GUI and default configs :)

Same goes for some other software, which have nicer versions or equivalents on MorphOS than on other platforms. Even if we still admit that there's lack of certain software, there are some jewels in existing software which can make MorphOS better in software wise in some areas.

[ Edited by jPV 08.05.2014 - 11:49 ]

Great! Gimme more

Quote:

It's difficult to encourage anyone to switch from their usual OS. Even if it's a Win > Linux/OSX jump, there's inevitably a steep initial learning curve. MS helps evey now and then by breaking their UI, but even when that happens people are more likely to stick with what they know.

MorphOS is a difficult option to justify to most people, largely since there are one or two apps covering most bases rather than hundreds of alternatives; IPC (inter program communication) whilst present, cannot be imported from VBA so would need to be rewritten; no native office suite (online apps work, but are limited in function); filesharing remains a PITA compared to other platforms; internet browsing is good, but has limited compatibility with many sites compared to other platforms - eg no DRM/flash, so no TV-on-demand websites will work.

We're a lot closer now than in the BO days (before Odyssey/OWB) when there was Sputnik (beta) or iBrowse, but it's not all 'works seamlessly out of the box' like many are used to, and for most people there will inevitably be some pain involved in getting things set up how they want them.

The filesystem is alien to most people; setting up default programs for filetypes (Ambient Mimes) is not quite as point-and-click as it is on other platforms; there's not much in the way of idiot-sheet help files like most people are used to; the initial default installation is a little unwelcoming (no initial panel giving direct access to web browser and other useful "first run" programs, no packet manager installed by default as a few examples).

Having said that, for geeky people who want an OS that, once configured, remains how they have set it (does what they want, how they want, when they want and doesn't break itself with unannounced/automatic background updates); doesn't have applications that flash up constant update reminders and pollute desktop & context menus with so much crap to render them unrecognisable; is manageable by a human being rather than a series of ineffective 'clean up' utilities; and see their OS/computer as a hobby rather than something that enbles them to post on Facebook, it can be of great interest.
Previous usage/enjoyment of Amiga whilst being a distinct advantage, is not a requirement for this position.

Few points of my own:
1)It runs on "cheap enough" hardware, AND there's a laptop option.

Talking about PPC Mac hardware here, obviously.

2)Modern "basic use" works.

I can watch videos on mplayer (as long as resolution isn't too high), mp3's play without problems on ANR and web browsing works nicely with Odyssey. I don't generally need any "office programs", and I like it that way. If I did, there would be working online versions anyway.

3)Working development environment.

Sure, it's not Eclipse, but I don't WANT it to be eclipse
As a "text editor with syntax highlight", Scribble definitely doesn't need to envy similar "not fully bloated IDE" choices available on other platforms. gcc (and Makefiles) work the exact same way as they do on linux. Also C64 development (another hobby of mine) works nicely with CC65.

4)"Extra" software.

Sure, many would prefer latest AAA games, but I'm not that interested in those. ScummVM, MAME, snes9x and other emulators provide lots of games to play. Of course there are also some more interesting "special" programs, such as SoundBankster.

Of course the OS itself also comes with useful, less often needed software for audio cd ripping, cd/dvd burning, ftp access etc.

5)It's simple enough to understand.

Add line to user-startup, and it will be executed on startup. Drop a program to wbstartup, and it will be launched on startup. Booting f.ex. linux is much more complex process, and I can't say I know what happens at which points, and why. Linux works for me, though, and I don't NEED to understand everything. Of course this extends to many other things aswell.

6)It's "different enough".

Often there's this new f.ex. linux distro that everyone hypes. I can't see why I should get excited about it. I use linux daily, it works for me. I can't see why "just another distro" would be so much different. If I use linux daily at work (I did while I was employed), if I want "something different" at home, "just another linux distro" isn't good enough.

7)Configurable UI.

On many linux desktops, I hate it when something seemingly simple cannot be configured (especially gnome is getting worse and worse in this, on purpose...). With MUI many things can be (re)configured, but none has to be.

8)Familiar enough.

Being (mostly ex) Amiga user, many things just seem familiar.

9)Usable command line interface.

I'll be honest, I think linux is here more powerful. On the other hand, I feel like CLI is kept "crippled on purpose" on Microsoft Windows, so that most people would just use graphical user interface instead. Being better than windows and somewhat worse than linux is a nice achievement.

10)Regular enough updates.

Of course they could happen more often, but can't demand too much considering the size of development team & the fact most have jobs aswell. It's much easier to start yet another hobby operating system project than keep updating it.

11)Communication with development team members.

It's actually possible to ask questions & get replies.

> 1)It runs on "cheap enough" hardware, AND there's a laptop option.
> 2)Modern "basic use" works. I can watch videos on mplayer (as long as resolution isn't too
> high), mp3's play without problems on ANR and web browsing works nicely with Odyssey. [...]
> 3)Working development environment. [...] As a "text editor with syntax highlight", Scribble
> definitely doesn't need to envy similar "not fully bloated IDE" choices available on other
> platforms. gcc (and Makefiles) work the exact same way as they do on linux. Also C64
> development (another hobby of mine) works nicely with CC65.
> 4)"Extra" software. [...] ScummVM, MAME, snes9x and other emulators provide lots of games
> to play. [...]
> 10)Regular enough updates. [...]

I think all mainstream operating systems have those as well.

> 8)Familiar enough. Being (mostly ex) Amiga user, many things just seem familiar.

The thread opener wants to build "a list of the things that makes MorphOS good (and bad too just to be fair) as an operating system (and not just an OS for Amiga geeks) :-)

I think all mainstream OS have those as well.

So does this mean you prefer MorphOS should NOT have these features?!

It's hack friendly.

This should be a con, not pro.

You can just copy files from computer to computer, including the OS itself.

Really?

[ Edited by In_Correct 08.05.2014 - 21:50 ]

Quote:

Yep, of course you may need to tune network prefs or if you have saved some custom screen modes, and possibly copy correct MorphOS keyfile in use, but basically it just works. Just like you can boot from the same installation CD on all machines.

I for example have had two machines synced over network by just cloning one to other, but skipping copying few network prefs files, MUI screens database and morphos.key.

>> I think all mainstream OS have those as well.

> So does this mean you prefer MorphOS should NOT have these features?!

Huh? No, this means that those points are no answer to the question the thread opener said he wished to have answered ("Why should I use MorphOS instead of Windows/MacOS/Linux?"). Answers to this question should obviously be restricted to features where MorphOS excels the other mentioned operating systems and should not contain features where it only comes out even.

Quote:

Unless we expand the thinking to "These do work on MorphOS too, so that's not a reason to stick with other OS'es" :)

I really like the easy use and administration of data storages. It's really a joy to create a volume with the filesystem and partition layout you like.

Quote:
Yes, and any OS that doesn't have them, well, would find it harder to use even as "hobby os"...

I tried to install Lubuntu 14.04 on a 5.8 Powerbook and it's a nightmare. I gave up cause I cannot have HW acceleration working. First install is a black screen with a white pointer. I don't even started to look for WiFI. I just wanted this so my son would be able to play Minecraft on it.
So much times wasted I don't even speak about frustration...

Kamelito

>> I think all mainstream operating systems have those as well.

> Yes, and any OS that doesn't have them, well, would find it harder to use even as "hobby os"

Indeed. This is one reason more that they should not be listed as pro points for MorphOS compared to the mainstream operating systems.

Quote:

Having OWB and MPlayer and such stuff is probably not particularly a point pro MorphOS, but one possible point less against MorphOS. Mentioning that is kind of preventive vindication.


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I think MUI is just great, default settings slook very nice.
MorphOS is pretty easy to understand and control (nothing is hidden).
The quick responsiveness of the GUI makes using MorphOS pretty pleasant. It's rather safe (well, at least by obscurity).
The shell is powerful but not too hard to use.
Being a single user system avoids some overhead.
The community is nice and helpful.
It's different: It's neither Windows nor *nix.

> nothing is hidden

Except for the easter eggs, of course ;-)
SYS:Prefs/Ambient/Advanced.conf is probably also not that obvious to everybody.