Paladin of the Pegasos
Posts: 1513 from 2012/11/10
From: Manchester, UK/GB
@
Kidon - If you've never used an Amiga previously then you might have a bit of a learning curve to get the best out of it, and understand it's more intimate workings.
The screenbar is an unusual feature of MorphOS that can add more features and utilities to MorphOS with easy access to enable/disable them. MUI will probably need a bit of time to become familiar with, as there are so many features to customise the GUI in it, and that is for each screen that you create (and can be for each program).
There are many keyboard shortcuts as standard and many you can modify and add to, both in the Ambient settings, as well as the System and MUI Settings. It is nothing like Windows or Macintosh from that aspect, and probably nothing like Linux either!
It's a great OS, and nice if you like to be able to customise the look of your system. You may also want to add features to it that are the basis of the Chrysalis DVD Add-on (currenlty not available on MorphOS-Storage) that updates and adds features to the more basic look and feel of MorphOS. Papiosaur who authored that disc now has created a program that works like a packet manager called
Easy2Install_ v1.0b55.lha that will allow you to add many features to your MorphOS system very easily . . . as long as you have an internet connection, which is no problem it seems.
I don't know why the Chrysalis Pack is currently not available, but it is a lot of work to maintain, and maybe Papiosaur feels that users should use Easy2Install to add the many features as individual programs and utilities, a sort of pick & choose what you prefer rather than have it all en-masse put onto your system.
Crabum is a worthy addition - which can add additional menus to your right mouse click, but you need to add the original (68k) Amiga rexxsyslib.library into the root Libs directory - via Easy2Install, just search for
ARexx.lha.
Remember NEVER change anything in the MOSSYS (MorphOS's main sectiion of the OS) . . . UNLESS it has been specifically OK'd, or you could be back with a non-functional system. That said, you need to change (Rename) the rexxsyslib.library in the MOSSYS Libs directory to read as rexxsyslib.lbrary.dummy so that the one you add from the ARexx.lha download that you place in the separate main System: (root) > Libs directory is used.
Adding features that were part of the Chrysalis Pack will allow you to get more options for different icons and drawers, that you can personalise. Remember you can change desktop icons, skins, patterns in windows to suit with images (PNGs and SVG) that you can find on the internet, usually handled via the Icon's Information window (Cmd + i), or you can swap out your current default icon set for another set.
If you compare MorphOS to Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.11 then it is really efficient, almost instant reactions to everyday programs, but it is noticeably slower compared to internet browsers on modern current hardware. However, what it does compared to the sluggish nature of Mac OSX on the same hardware is quite amazing. You can read Mac OSX formatted HDDs from the PPC era, but you can't write to them. You sadly cannot read Mac OS CDs or DVDs as MorphOS has no handling built-in for the HFS format for such discs (Amiga OS used to support this feature, but that was an older version of HFS for such discs).
You can always swap back to programs on a Dual-Boot, or Triple-Boot (MorphOS/Mac/Linux) system to use programs you prefer when you don't want to use MorphOS for a while, especially while you're learning the differences between what is available and how it all works in MorphOS.
When you update
Wayfarer v8.11 (currently the latest) make sure you enable the Setting > Media Playback, and MedialSource Playback as well as make sure the other video features are enabled,
but NOT HPV or VP9 Codecs as they are unnecessary for almost any purpose and will
slow down your system unnecessarily.
Hope this helps, and welcome on-board to this great alternative OS.
MacMini 1.5GHz,64MB VRAM, PowerBooks A1138/9 (Model 5,8/9),PowerMac G5 2.3GHz(DP), iMac A1145 2.1GHz 20", all with MorphOS v3.18+,Airport,Bluetooth,A1016 Keyboard,T-RB22 Mouse,DVD-RW-DL,MiniMax,Firewire/USB2 & MacOSX 10.4/5
