Well, it's been a while. Probably 1993-2003 I was a very dedicated Amiga user (Amiga 1200, expanded with a hard drive, ram expansion and a 28.8k which led me first into the world of BBSing (as a Sysop - MAX's bbs was wonderful, quirky software) and then the fledgling internet). Spent hundreds if not thousands on Amiga magazines, learnt a lot about computers in general and the whole Amiga experience instilled in me an appreciation that majority thinking can often lead people to miss out on the more exciting things in life!

After that, I became a fairly passionate RISC OS advocate (which is enjoying a small renaissance via the Raspberry Pi). However, my fondest computing memories are from those Amiga days - the range of software, the community, the wonderful multitasking OS.

I had a brief and ill-fated foray into the Amiga again with an A4000 (expanded with an 060 and Cybervision - quick but flaky - I just couldn't trust it for regular use and ended up selling it). That was many years ago. I've kept an occasional eye on Amiga.org which I think led me to read about MorphOS 3.2. I'd considered MorphOS previously but now, much reading later, I know it's time to return. It really looks like a terrific platform, and the price and smooth 68k integration are such plus points. It's going to be my reward after getting out of the way some major career-related projects I have in the next few weeks - during evenings and weekends though I'll be checking in here to keep my appetite whetted!

Just in case anyone's still reading - which hardware would you recommend out of a 1.42 ghz MacMini, or a 1.2 ghz iBook? I'd rather lose a bit of speed for a more solid, reliable piece of hardware. Then again, I'm attracted to the iBook's portability (an Amiga laptop...wonderful) and cheaper price.

Ginger1,
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Neither !!

For a MMini you should try to run down of the "silent upgrade" 1.5GHz units as these are the only ones with 64MB of VRAM (all others have 32). To add to the confusion, these were sold as 1.42GHz (hence "silent upgrade").
When used with modern high-res monitors and some eyecandy activated you'd really feel constraint by those 32MB.

A 1.2GHz iBook is either a 2nd to last 12" or 3rd to last 14", both only have the simpler ADB trackpad compared to the 2 fingers USB one found in the 1.33GHz 12" and 1.42GHz 14". You want on of those ..... well stop, you don't want the 14" as it ain't really smaller than a 15" PB while offering so much less.

All written above is void when you allready have the HW or can get a real bargain deal.

Still wouldn't recomend 32MB VRAM for use with a proper monitor (it's o.k. for the iBook 1024x768 screen).

Welcome back to the scene Ginger1! :)

I have a 1.67GHz 15" PowerBook G4 5,8 with 1GB RAM, 128MB Radeon 9700 Pro and a Crucial 64GB mSATA SSD via a 5v 44pin IDE to mSATA adapter and the machine flies! It's rock solid stable and MorphOS is an amazing product, you can see/feel the effort the MOS-Team have put into polishing the OS. It's very much worth the hundred quid licence fee.

I also have a 2.7GHz Dual Processor G5 with 4GB RAM and a 256MB Radeon 9650 Pro which is also an amazing machine but I haven't had much time to play with it since I bought it a couple of months ago and I probably won't use it much until I've saved up to buy a licence key for it.

Don't buy the Mac Mini unless it has 64MB of video RAM, the compositing engine apparently doesn't run very well on the 32MB models.

I checked everymac.com and it looks like the 1.33GHz iBook only has 32MB VRAM too, so if it were me spending the money I wouldn't get that either, but there are people on here with that model who say it works great so what do I know? lol

I think you should get yourself a PowerBook 5,8 if you can find one at a good price. I love mine and use it all day every day. My 2.6GHz Core2Duo 17" MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM running Linux just sits on my desk in my office room kind of relegated to a file server/torrent downloading machine these days. :)

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.67_15_hr.html

Thank you for your replies and the helpful info. It sounds like it's worth being patient and searching around for particular models.

Intuition: Do you dual-boot back to OS X ever (if that's possible)? I'm always intrigued and inspired when people are using alternative OSes as their main machines.

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I hate OSX lol

The PowerBook has only MorphOS on it but the G5 dual boots OSX 1.5.8 and MorphOS 3.2 it but I never boot it into OSX.

I have a much more powerful x86 MacBook Pro that is boted into Linux 99% of the time. The only time I ever boot it into OSX 10.8 is to use Logic Pro when I'm in a musical mood.

But yeah it's very simple to dual boot a Mac with OSX and MorphOS or triple boot with Linux or quad boot with NetBSD. You get the picture. :)

[ Edited by Intuition 25.08.2013 - 17:01 ]

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I don't know whether this will be of any help, but anyway:
List of 75 MorphOS supported systems

(Nvidia cards are not supported by MorphOS, so in case you'd buy such a system you'd have to get Mac Radeon card separately to replace it with)

And welcome BTW!

Welcome back! For a first step in our beloved MorphOS community, a Mac mini G4 1,5GHz or Powerbook 15" 1,67GHz is a good start. If you feel the need of some more speed and/or expandability, you can always get a Powermac G4 or G5 for small money.

[ Edited by analogkid 25.08.2013 - 18:01 ]

It sounds like you prefer portability, so I agree with others who say either 1.5Ghz Mac Mini, or 1.67Ghz PowerBook. While MorphOS is tiny and efficient, modern computing really requires as much horsepower as possible.

If you change your mind and don't care about footprint, a G4 or G5 PowerMac is the way to go. G5 is support is very new and has a few issues it seems, but G4 Power Mac is extremely polished and they can be had dirt cheap.

Overall I'd suggest start with a PowerMac G4. I'd say a 1.25Ghz or 1.47Ghz Power Mac FW800 or MDD. Either one usually will overclock easily to 1.5Ghz and sometimes 1.67Ghz. Ignore sellers who have unrealistic expectations on what their PPC Macs are worth. If you spend more than $100 for a top end G4 PowerMac MDD or FW800, you are paying a premium. If patient you can find them even cheaper than that.