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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Mon Mar 26, 2018 6:27 am

After two and a half years since the release of MorphOS 3.9, the team has finally freed the butterfly into the world: MorphOS 3.10 was released yesterday!
Blue-butterflies-Wallpaper-Hd-1920x1080.jpg
Beautiful and serene, like an Amiga should be...

This is an exciting new release for NG Amiga users! The sheer amount of new changes between releases is so high that I can't list them all here; instead I will direct everyone to the release notes to see just how many changes have gone into the new version of MorphOS!

As for myself, I'm using my iBook G4 as my current test bed, with plans to update my Mac Mini soon enough. Here's what I've noticed so far about running 3.10:
  • I've performed an upgrade from 3.9 to 3.10. Everything from 3.9 was neatly backed up and set aside for me, in case I need to roll back to 3.9. Very handy!
  • WiFi on MOS 3.9 was rather spotty on my iBook. In 3.10, it's become much more rock solid.
  • OWB has been given new SSL certs and now spoofs Safari for iOS. More sites work now (provided you use the mobile versions!)
  • Hardware acceleration for 3D has been improved as well.
This is just the surface I'm scratching, but I'm very pleased so far with the new release! If you're an NG Amiga user and want to give MorphOS a try, this is now a better time than ever to do so! For those who also use AmigaOne X5000 systems or A-EON X5000 boards, you're in luck now: MOS 3.10 supports both systems; a full hardware compatibility list is here.

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:58 am

Could have sworn I read somewhere (I think?) that the x5000's default video cards wasn't supported by MorphoOS 3.10.

In your opinion, though, is there much difference between OS4.1 and MorphOS 3.10, assuming MorphOS can run on the x5000 out of the box? Which one would you use if you had the choice?

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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Mon Mar 26, 2018 1:30 pm

intric8 wrote:Could have sworn I read somewhere (I think?) that the x5000's default video cards wasn't supported by MorphoOS 3.10.
Yes, according to the announcement article on Amitopia, it's recommended to switch cards to a supported one.
In your opinion, though, is there much difference between OS4.1 and MorphOS 3.10, assuming MorphOS can run on the x5000 out of the box? Which one would you use if you had the choice?
I have no experience with AmigaOS 4.1, so I can't really comment on it. However, seeing as how MorphOS works on the X5000 now (provided it's got a video card that's supported!), I would run MorphOS 3.10 on one for sure, mostly given my familiarity with it. Or hell, I'd dual-boot both AmigaOS 4.1 and MorphOS, which will allow me to get familiar with the former while having my comfort with the latter! :)

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:27 pm

There's a really good post by Jeremy Reimer - the guy who has been posting Amiga history articles on Arstechnica for years. This is the 12th and final installment, and focuses on the really messy final days and emergence of the multitude of Amiga off-shoot OSes like MorphOS, etc.

It's convoluted, which is based on the reality of how things have evolved. Interesting read.

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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Tue Apr 03, 2018 8:24 am

Very insightful article. It's truly a shame that the companies involved all got screwed up along the way, but the community became much of the real driving force behind keeping the Amiga spirit alive.

I know that the NG Amiga slope is a very slippery one with many community members out there, and there's always fighting between which is the better pick. While my personal choice is MorphOS, which I feel to be the closest to the true spirit of the original Amiga system, I won't go out to say something like "Oh, AmigaOS 4 sucks" or "Screw AROS; it's crap". AmigaOS 4 is also a very well thought out and well designed NG Amiga operating system, and out of the "Big Three" NG OSes, it's the one that has the most community support, since, after all, it's being sold with the new Amiga X systems, and it runs well in UAE to boot!

However, MorphOS is right alongside it, since MorphOS has the advantage of being able to run on older PowerPC Mac hardware, which means that Mac users who still have old PPC systems (side note: wanna see my collection? ;) ) can easily pick up one of those old Macs, dust it off, and install MorphOS on it! You don't need to buy an expensive setup for it; just grab a cheap PPC G4 Mac and go to town! Yes, you do need to still register the OS in order to use it for extended periods, but MorphOS 3.10 is worth every penny to register!

And as for AROS, while it's great to have an x86-based Amiga-like OS (despite detractors like Hyperion's own chairman, Ben Hermans, who hated the idea), it's still gotta play some crazy catch-up to get to the level of AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS in terms of support and also emulation; MorphOS and AmigaOS 4 both can run system-friendly AmigaOS 3.x programs (nothing that bangs on the custom hardware of Amigas) seamlessly, using JIT compatibility layers. AmigaOS 4 uses a RunsInUAE layer to run stuff that does need the custom chipset emulated, and while AROS can do similar, it's not nearly as seamless as on its brethren, requiring a layer called JanusUAE to be activated to run (you can set this on startup in AROS). But even with JanusUAE, I've found compatibility to be rather spotty, and native AROS software is rather sparse on Aminet.

Regardless of all this, I still believe that the community is the true driving force behind the Amiga, and these companies writing NG Amiga OSes and creating new hardware and/or software for us do get affected by the ebb and flow of the community. I don't want to see in-fighting between the camps; pick your system and support it, but don't be shitting on others who choose one of the others. I love MorphOS, but I don't see the point of hating on AmigaOS 4 users. Same with even classic systems: I use and enjoy having AmigaOS 3.9, but if someone says that they want to stick with Workbench 3.1, or 1.3, or 2.1, or whatever... that's fine, too! Like I mentioned once before, the Amiga isn't what some haters or snobs make of it; it's what you, the user, make of it. There are no gatekeepers; there shouldn't be! So whether you use Amiga OS 4, MorphOS, AROS, Amithlon, or keep it classic, you're still an Amiga user in my eyes!

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BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:28 am

I finally got my mac mini upgraded. Its been so long since I had to get into the mini's open firmware I forgot that with my KVM, its not fast enough to catch that initial keystroke on bootup. once I plugged keyboard directly in, I was good to get into the OF and boot from the cdrom and do the upgrade.

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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:46 pm

Here's a shot of MorphOS 3.10 on my iBook G4 (which is going to be registered soon!)

I kept the Amiga 2.5-ish skin on because I do like it, but I've been customizing the crap out of everything else!
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(This post is being made from my iBook G4 as well! ;) )





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