I notice quite a few new names (and old ones!) newly posting on MorphZone, especially since the 3.x releases.

I'm of the opinion that new users are the most valuable resource for improving the 'out-of'the-box' experience of any OS - fresh eyes see flaws that experienced eyes accept as normal - so would appreciate if any of you could take the time to answer one or two of the following questions:

1) How did you hear about MorphOS?

2) When did you first try MorphOS (version, hardware), and what made you decide to give it a try?

3) What was/is your 'ususal OS' (ie one that you're most accustomed to) and what did you find most confusing / frustrating when first trying out MorphOS?

4) Were there any simple concepts that you just 'didn't get' until explained by a friend/asked in the forums (eg right-clicking for menus, finding system settings, etc)?

5) What limitation or annoyance frustrates you the most (Or is there anything you are expecting to work which doesn't work)?

Thanks for taking the time to answer

I'm still quite new at this, but until some 10 years ago I was an Amiga user. I wanna give some input in this, but I need to do that later. But I wanted to say that I plan to answer your questions

As a long-time amiga user, I've heard about MorphOS many years ago. I could try it only when it became available for dirt cheap macs.
The most annoying things at the beginning were: 1) the lack of Workbench, 2) the inability to play modules with HippoPlayer. Now I can live without these.
And without 3) draggable screens, and 4) ability to move a part of a window out of the monitor.

The hardest thing is the update process from an iso image (CD drive is faulty) - it always needs a recall on how to do it.

Besides, it is a very nice system with the spirit of Amiga.

@net-buster

1. Workbench is too limited and dated. Ambient is much better
2. Try uade instead. There is also a MUI-GUI for it, called ExciterPlayer.
3. Try the Dragon utility for screen dragging.
4. You can switch moving windows out of the screen off in Ambient/Settings/System/iControl/Screens and Desktop

[ Edited by Tom01 22.06.2013 - 15:55 ]

Quote:

1. The lack of workbench is rather a good thing. WB was always the weakest point of amigaos, too poor to display and manage files properly...

4. You can do it; just go to icontrol settings and select this option.

> ability to move a part of a window out of the monitor.

MorphOS has this ability since 1.x days or even longer.

It is annoying him.
But you can switch it off, as I said.

Quote:

I also find #4 an odd choice up until recent versions of MorphOS being able to drag windows
out of the screen was the default but now it has to be changed in
"IControl -> Screens&Desktop -> When dragging windows.../allow them to be placed out of screen"
I also hate the "menus will remain open when mouse button is released" setting that is now the
default in IControl prefs. At least these settings are easily changed so it's not a big deal.

[ Edited by realstar 22.06.2013 - 07:59 ]

Thanks, I'll turn that on.

I've tried UADE, use it sometimes, but got accustomed to MPlayer.

I forgot about one more 'annoying feature' - MyMorphOS icon, I immediately switched that off :)
I believe it can be useful for many users, though.

Quote:

I assume you have not used MorphOS on any of the supported laptops. This default setting makes a lot of sense for users of systems with built-in touchpads.

>>> ability to move a part of a window out of the monitor.

>> MorphOS has this ability since 1.x days or even longer.

> It is annoying him.

I understand it the other way round.

I've just allowed the windows to be put outside of the monitor. I'm resigning from Dragon, it takes too much graphics memory.

What I've mentioned were the first impressions. After the first touch, one begins to appreciate what's available. The question was only 'what was confusing', but one is also astonished with various stuff (like ShowGirls or OWB, or a simple fact that Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V works in many places).

Quote:

Same here, I like an uncluttered desktop - no drives, no 'left out' icons (except ones temporarily in use). I do use the 'double click on desktop to show My MorphOS' option though - such quick, easy access to the top-level of the filesystem is very useful.

net_buster,
Quote:

Exactly what I was after, a brainstorming session - it's more for gleaning ideas and impressions than for looking for answers to individual questions.
I don't think I could go back to workbench either to be fair, but it's useful to be aware that Ambient may not be quite what some people expect/remember.
If nothing else, these impressions might help form the basis of some FAQ-type-thingy in the morphzone library.

I didn't realise that windows couldn't be placed outside of the screen area by default, that seems a bit of an odd choice for standard settings (it's been a while since I reinstalled or booted my 'vanilla' partition).

[ Edited by boot_wb 22.06.2013 - 18:55 ]

Quote:
I also do not remember if that was default. It is possible that some time ago I have unconsciously messed with these settings and forgotten.

I have harddisks on the desktop, but have hidden that panel with shortcuts to applications. It is very nice that all these facilities are customizable.

By Workbench, I precisely meant the possibility of freely laying out the icons inside a drawer. Perhaps it is possible and I'm not aware of that?
Because the "Browser mode" can be turned off, so that's probably the only missing feature of OS3.0.

Quote:

This thread may be of interest:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=9&topic_id=7196&viewmode=flat&sortorder=0&start=25

Thank you!!! So the remark concerning Workbench can be crossed out.
The quoted post should be definitely added to the hypothetical "FAQ-type-thingy in the morphzone library". I would never guess which configuration file has to be modified and how, in order to achieve this behaviour.

1) How did you hear about MorphOS?

Tried to get back into Amiga because Windows had gone into the shitter.
Bought an efika.

2) When did you first try MorphOS (version, hardware), and what made you decide to give it a try?

I bought an efika because someone in the Amiga club (the club with no Amigas. Its all Windows nowadays) mentioned it and it was el cheapo.
I now have a Powerbook G4 5,9 and a Powermac 7,3 G5 on the way.

3) What was/is your 'ususal OS' (ie one that you're most accustomed to) and what did you find most confusing / frustrating when first trying out MorphOS?

a) I got into Amiga about 1997. Was a C64 software developer freak until then. Had a high end 2500/040 decked out tower.
I left Amiga about 2000 for Windows. No hope of new hardware.

b)Most confusing is the Ambient desktop. Not bad, but trying to do things that workbench used to do is rather frustrating and there is NO documentation.

4) Were there any simple concepts that you just 'didn't get' until explained by a friend/asked in the forums (eg right-clicking for menus, finding system settings, etc)?

Sure, like the fact that there is a new folder and assign for PPC called MOSSYS:
I kept putting 68k stuff in there. Hell, it had a libs folder too. I put 68k in both /libs and mossys/libs for good measure.

5) What limitation or annoyance frustrates you the most (Or is there anything you are expecting to work which doesn't work)?

In order to leave Windows I needed a replacement app for everything I did normally on Windows. Finding a P2P client was the biggest @#$@#% I have ever encountered. None of the clients worked except for MLDonkey and it was too slow. Finally figured out why (the interface has a DEEP learning curve) and got it to run just like windows. The latest patch even handles torrents well. Getting torrents to work leads to another issue in that SFS is insufficient. You need to learn to install and use IceFilesystem which SHOULD COME WITH THE OS BY DEFAULT. Period. Getting OWB to act like firefox and getting used to it was a bit of a bear also. I also did not know about Grunch (the MOS package manager) until recently and having to manually download all of those MUI classes will make you pull your hair out. I still don't have an email client that can handle html internally. I have tried simplemail and my personal favorite from days gone by known as YAM. I love new icons but it doesn't seem to install right. Didn't discover Ambient panels till recently. MAN, that would have been helpful to know about. Another bugger is the extensive hdconfig options. In os 3.1 you had hdtoolbox (i think that was the name), it was much simpler, but this goes back to needing docs. Not using the SFS filesystem has saved me a lot of headaches. I use IceFilesystem now for data drives only. I guess I could complain about Ambient all day long but there would be nothing to complain about if there was some docs somewhere. Noobs can read contrary to popular belief.





[ Edited by bash64 22.06.2013 - 17:01 ]

My answers:

1) How did you hear about MorphOS?

Even after I stopped using Amiga altogether in around the year 2000 I was a frequent visitor to the Swedish User Group of Amiga's weekly meetings. There I saw the Pegasus I with an old version of MorphOS. I wasn't too impressed back then. Later, in the beginning of the last year I was wondering what had happened with Amiga lately and heard about a "user friendly, first time users choice NG Amiga". That was the AmigaOne 500. I was sold on the idea of having a modern Amiga that could do the everyday things I was using computers for. So I bought one. And it was the buggiest things I've seen. It couldn't be on for more than 15 minutes before crashing. And the boot up time was even slower than my old windows laptop, and I was using an SSD (!). It turned out that the memory connectors was faulty and I had it replaces. It helped, but not a whole lot. The system was still slow, buggy and crashed all the time. But the thing that annoyed me the most was the OS4-users kept telling me that this was expected and something I had to live with. I became so disappointed that I sold it for almost half price so I could just get rid of it. To this day, I have a hard time forgiving being fooled into buying that piece of crap and that so many people just told me to "suck it up".

Instead, I turned to AROS that I've read some about before buying my AOne 500. I bought an Acer Aspire One ZG5 and installed AspireOS on it. I was very happy with this for about a year. I of course had heard about MorphOS too, but wasn't really that interested yet into checking it out (remembering the old Pegasos version). But before last Christmas I saw a youtube video about NG Amigas and became interested when the person started to explain why he liked MorphOS the most. I decided to try it out and bought an Mac Mini. I played with it for a while, but wasn't hooked so I stopped. Then, some time at the beginning of March, I felt a little disillusioned about AROS after some nasty flame wars at a forum. And when the guy who made AspireOS told the community he was going to quit I wanted to take a break from AROS (he later returned to AROS, when I started to feel a little interested again). I started to try out MorphOS again and this time when I tried it out more thoroughly I started to really like it.

Since then, I've bought an Powerbook (a little disappointed of all the things I can't do with it (yet)) and a Powermac G5 (that I haven't had time to play around with).

My personal opinion is that I prefer AROS for what it can become, but I like MorphOS better for what it actually is.

2) When did you first try MorphOS (version, hardware), and what made you decide to give it a try?

See 1.

3) What was/is your 'ususal OS' (ie one that you're most accustomed to) and what did you find most confusing / frustrating when first trying out MorphOS?

Windows. First XP, then Vista and then 7.
There are a lot of small tweaks that is often refereed to, but almost never explain how to. The most confusing part must be that a lot is taken for granted that people understand, but if you haven't used an Amiga for 10 years you do forget a lot. The most frustrating thing must be to pass that first step so you can actually start being able to do things on your own.

4) Were there any simple concepts that you just 'didn't get' until explained by a friend/asked in the forums (eg right-clicking for menus, finding system settings, etc)?

A whole lot. Like how to change the top bar's small programs. It's not self explained that you do it by going to the far right and right click. Especially since so many other things are changed in settings. But sooner or later, you do get the hang of it.

5) What limitation or annoyance frustrates you the most (Or is there anything you are expecting to work which doesn't work)?

I think my Mac Mini works the best as of now since most things works well there. There are still things I want that doesn't work on PB and PM G5. Like screen resolution on PB and louder sound on PM. But I guess these problems will be taken care of sooner or later. I just want the things that are supposed to work better to work better

[ Edited by Yasu 22.06.2013 - 23:02 ]

I miss icons bigger than your head.

@Bash64 & Yasu

Thankyou, that's pure gold. Will take some time to digest these before attempting to compose some FAQ-thingys.

(Interesting that you both got 'into it' through retaining links with Amiga groups - I love the idea of an Amiga group with no Amiga users!) Youtube videos are also an easy one to do for promotion of MorphOS strengths.

Quote:

Lol - That sums up classic Amiga workbench nicely!

>> Were there any simple concepts that you just 'didn't get' until explained by a friend/
>> asked in the forums (eg right-clicking for menus, finding system settings, etc)?

> Sure, like the fact that there is a new folder and assign for PPC called MOSSYS:
> I kept putting 68k stuff in there. [...] I put 68k in both /libs and mossys/libs for good measure.

It's a misunderstanding that MOSSYS: would be for PPC and SYS: for m68k. It's rather that MOSSYS: is for components that come with the official ISO (so does also contain m68k stuff like gtlayout.library), and SYS: is for 3rd party software, no matter if m68k or PPC. So it's not only unwise to put m68k stuff into MOSSYS: but also to put 3rd party PPC software in there.

ok, that explains it.

Now I miss a good torrent/magnet program. I can't get the ones I've found to work ...