Changing some keys

Posted on 2014-08-02 by Yasu

If you remember my post My MorphOS Systems, then you probably noted the almost Amiga-like keyboard that I have and doesn’t work. Well, as a matter of fact I have found a way to get that keyboard to work. It’s not a pretty solution, but it works.

The problem is that there is no driver for MorphOS, and although it does use the built in hidd system, there are several special keys that simply confuses the heck out of the system. When asked the developers of a solution, some told me that without a keyboard they can’t fix the problem. No one is prepared to both write a driver and pay for the keyboard. And they are also way busy with more pressing things. Maybe if they got a keyboard for free they could work on the problem, but they are expensive. I started to ask around for a solution. In the end, with the help of BSzili I did stumple upon a solution by accident.

Apparently the problem is the N-Key Rollover (NKRO): a windows thing for gamers but often the source of incompatability with MacOS and Linux. I plugged the keyboard in the USB at front, pressed right ALT-F12 and saw the F12 key light up. This means NKRO is on. Then I switched it off and saw that they keyboard suddenly worked! I was thrilled and immedietly plugged out my other keyboard and plugged in the new on in my hub. And now it wasn’t working again. I swithed NKRO on and … it worked. But only partially. Arrow keys and Num pad didn’t work, plus some other keys. Turning NKRO off killed the keyboard again. So I plugged in the old keyboard again in it’s old place and started to look for solutions. And when I plugged in the new keyboard again in the USB plug up front it worked again.

Heureka! The reason seems to be that my new keyboard simply mimics the hidd settings from my old one. So having both keyboard plugged at the same time did the trick. It’s not, like I stated first, a pretty solution but it works. And all I have to do is keeping the old keyboard plugged in and hide it.

However, there was one problem: the right ALT key (RALT) didn’t work at all. It works for switching on NKRO but nothing else. And the butterfly key was the HELP key. The last one I don’t need, but I need RALT. This is where things became a little complicated so without help from some MorphOS users I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out.

First I rearranged the keys so I only have to remap a minimum amount of keys. This is what the keyboard looks like now (not perfect, but close enough for my liking):

keyboard_rearranged

Now the butterfly key is a “dead” key (it works in Windows though) but RALT still works as a HELP button (it’s where the butterfly button used to be).

Then I go to Ambient, right click and choose Settings –> System Settings. This is what we will see (with some different icons though):

morphos_prefs

Press USB. Then this is what you will see:

morphos_usb_prefs

Click on devices:

morphos_prefs_usb_devices

Look for your keyboard. Mine is not visiable since it’s in the hub (you can see it above). But it actually works by clicking on my logiteck keyboard as well for some reason. So this is what we are going to do. However, if you can’t do what we are suppose to do by this solution, then unplug your keyboard and insert it into it’s own USB slot. Then it will work. Anyway, let’s click on the logiteck keyboard:

morphos_prefs_usd_devices_selected

Notice that all these buttons are no longer unselected. Let’s click on Settings:

hidd_general

Now you will see one or several windows that looks like this. Click on Keyboard:

hidd_keyboard

If you only have one window that looks like this it’s easy. If you have several similar windows like I do it means that the same USB plug has several USB devices (I do since I use a hub). So you need to check one by one which of the windows is your keyboard. The way is pretty simple: you click on Track incoming key events and starts typing stuff at random. The window that shows some keys being pressed is the right one. We don’t need to show that so let’s move on to Action:

hidd_action

This is what it will looks like, except that the Track incoming events will not be checked. Press it and then press the faulty key. Then uncheck Track incoming events. If you look at the bottom left you will see what kind of action you need to do to start a process, and to the right what process it shall be. Since I’ve already done this once to fix my HELP-RALT button problem, lets skip right to how my solution looks like:

hidd_qualifiers

First you need to mark the processes on the left and delete them. Then you need to click New. On the right I chose Qualifiers (which is the name of keys like ALT, Shift and Amiga) and Trigger: Down. This last one means what will happen when you press down that key. Below thatI chose Set and Right alt as seen on the picture. This of course means that pressing down this key will act as RALT. We are not done though. We also need to create an action of what happens when we unpress the button. So we click on New again, and we do as shown in the picture below:

hidd_clear

We still choose Qualifiers, but the Trigger is Up. Below we choose Clear and Right alt. This of course means that when we lift our finger from that button, MorphOS will register that as RALT being unpressed. Without it you will have RALT pressed the whole session when you have pressed it once.

Now I recommend you to press Use. Because if something is wrong you only need to reboot to make the system work like before. Once you have confirmed that everything work like you want to, start Prefs again and look for the above window and press Save. Now your erronous button will work as RALT (or whatever other button you want it to represent).

If you have some special keys on your keyboard that you want to use, I can recommend the program MMKeyboard (you can also download it with Grunch). Here are the programs:

mmkeyboard_drawer

The first program you can use if you want to change something temporary. The last file, ending with WBStartup, you can place in your System:WBStartup drawer if you want the changes to work every time you start MorphOS. If you use the WBStartup version, you have to click on that file in that drawer to do some changes. Lets start the program:

mmkeyboard_main_setup

Global Setup… lets you change what kind of keyboard you are using, in case MorphOS got it wrong. And some other stuff I’ve never tried out. System Setup… lets you choose if you want to have CapsLock function be on or off and if you want the ALT and Amiga keys switch places with each other. But let’s turn our attention to MMKeyboard Setup. You can click on New… but since I’ve already played around with this program a little we will click on the existing task (already purpled out) and press Edit… instead:

mmkeyboard_setup

If you press on Hokey you will be able to press the key you want to use. Below Command Setup you can choose Command Type (WB starts the program like you would double click on it) and below it you choose the path of the program you want started. Press Use –> Use or Use –> Save and if everything works, you should be able to start a program with that button now. In my case I’ve changed the Calculator button so it starts OWB (before it did nothing). But because of the above mentioned keyboard problem I can’t get this to work with my current setting. But it does work with my old keyboard and it’s different set of special keys.

Remember that it’s better to use a program like MMKeyboard first instead of making changes in the system. If something goes wrong with a program it’s usually enough to just delete it. But if something goes wrong in the system, you may have to reinstall the entire OS. Just a fair warning.

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Fundraising to support our software developers

Posted on 2014-07-28 by Yasu

We all want more software, but with so few users there is simply no market to make them. Since the software developers can’t make any real money out of it, they have to sacrifice their own free time to make us the stuff we want.

Papisaur at WArMUp (World Association of MorphOS Users) have started a fundraising/bounty in order to collect whatever you can spare and donate it to these developers:

  • Fab (MPlayer, MAME, ScummVM, etc …)
  • Yomgui (Blender, Squiggles, etc …)
  • Offset (ACE)
  • Carsten Siegner (Scriba, Spreedy, InstantZip, InstantUnpack, etc …)
  • NaTmeg (rhLaunch, etc …)
  • Thomas Igracki (gTranslator, yWeather, CRABUM, etc …
  • Templario (Los Chinos, VAMP, etc …)
  • BSzili (OpenJK, SpeedDream etc …)
  • Geit (Grunch, SimpleCat, MagicBeacon, etc …)
  • Tcheko (SoundBankster, HotBorder, HotCorner, etc. ..)
  • Realstar (GenesisPlus, etc …)
  • Widelec (kwakwa, jabber.module, etc …)
  • James Jacobs (AmiArcadia, ReportPlus, WormWars, etc …)

I have donated a little, and I hope you will do the same. See of it as a simpler version of buying these guys a beer after a hard days work.

Go to WArMUp‘s homepage and look for the “bounty for dev“. There you will find a Paypal donation button. The fundraise will contiue until the end of August.

While we are on the subject of software development, I saw something interesting at osnews.com, linking to this article:

According to a research survey from market research firm VisionMobile, there are 2.9 million app developers in the world who have built about two million apps. Most of those app developers are making next to nothing in revenue while the very top of the market make nearly all the profits. Essentially, the app economy has become a mirror of Wall Street.

According to the survey: “The revenue distribution is so heavily skewed towards the top that just 1.6% of developers make multiples of the other 98.4% combined.”

This make a lot of sense, since the app stores are filled with so much stuff that it makes your head spin. How is an independent developer supposed to make themselves heard? Just like the articles highlight, it’s next to impossible and only the big players have enough money for advertisement and product placements. In Sweden, you can see TV commercials from King, who had a huge sucess with their Candy Crush Saga (and pissed off a large chuck of the Internet by trying to copyright the word “saga” after making all that cash).

For me it’s ironic that so many software developers who works on popular OS’es makes just as little as MorphOS software developers. But with the Amiga community, being so few means that you have no problem making some noise. I’ve talked to Daniel Müßener, a programmer at Cherry Darling (Ace of Hearts, Voxel Bird Saga) and he confirmed that even though their games are sold for both Windows, MacOS and smartphones they made the most of their money by selling to AmigaOS 4 or MorphOS users (not a whole lot though). But he is not displeased it seems. I will let his words end this post, taken from the editorial of Amiga Future issue 107:

The real reason [for developing for the Amiga] is the Amiga community. As a small developer you get lost in the ‘shuffle’ on the other Operating Systems. But here you can still experience how it feels to actually generate some impact, even with the release of a small ‘indie’ game. In the Amiga community you still get that which an artist also needs, besides bread and water, applause.

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5 different word processors

Posted on 2014-07-25 by Yasu

[Edit] 140726: Fixed one wrongly placed picture.

There are some things that are essential for an OS if you want to turn it into your main system. One is a reliable and fast web browser. With MorhOS 3.3 it did happen, and the OS went from a fun little past time to my main OS of every day use.

The other is a good, working image editing tool. And here MorphOS have several (Showgirls, Art Effect 4 etc).

But one thing that has been missing is a good word processor. The Linux camp solved it by “simply” making one themselves: Open Office and Libre Office. For various reasons these excellent office packages are hard to port for MorphOS, which is why we don’t have them.

So what are our alternatives? Let’s take a look at 5 different ones.

AMIGA WRITER 2.0

This is one of the last (maybe the last) word processor made for the Classic Amiga. And it’s also the only one that is still for sale. It’s cheap, so I bought myself a copy.

Installing it was troublesome. No matter what I did, I could not get the installer to work. The solution was to install it in UAE in Windows, and then just copy the files to a USB, and then to MorphOS. After assigning AmigaWriter: (Start shell –> ed s:user-startup –> write Assign AmigaWriter: volyme name:place/AmigaWriter), everything works. Here is what the program looks like, after writing some random text:

Amiga Writer

There are some bugs and random crashes, and some features like bullet listings are missing, but this is still a pretty neat word processor. The problem is that because it’s so old, there is no support for PDF. The best thing you can do is saving it as RTF, which means that most of settings seen in the above picture will be lost. So unless you have a working printer with MorphOS (I don’t), you will not be able to do much beyond what you can do with a simple text editor. Like copying between different computers. Not having PDF support is a deal breaker for me, so I can not recommend this word processor for that reason.

CINNAMON WRITER 0.90

This is a simple word processor made for all the different NG Amigas. You can download it here. It really is a simple, and also unfinished program. There are plenty of bugs that needs to be ironed out before this can be called anything but alpha/beta. I have been in contact with the author, and he assured me that despite the program havn’t been updated in a year, it’s still being worked on. Here is what it looks like:

Cinnamon Writer

As you can see, there are some features missing (bullet listing is there (sort of), but not alignment) but for simpler stuff it’s good enough. Like Amiga Writer it doesn’t have PDF support (it’s planned though), but it can save in Microsoft DocX format, which is at least pretty useful (see below). Which is important since there is no printer support either.

SCRIBA 1.9.9

Next we have Scriba, which is also a light weight word processor like Cinnamon Writer. The difference is mostly that this has more working funtions:

Scriba

Most important function though can’t be seen on the screen. It’s the PDF support! Here is what the text look like when saved as PDF:

Snap-1 - 1468x1034x24

Other functions are saving as ODT, a HTML exporter, printer support, dictionaries (that I can’t get to work sadly), an almost working image placer, background picture, business card maker, bar code creator and much more.

Business card

Here is the business card making tool.

Bar code

And here is the bar code generation tool.

QR bar code

And the QR code generation tool.

It even starts a little faster than Cinnamon Writer. Sadly, there hasn’t been a new version since last November. I do hope it doesn’t mean work has stagnated. But even as of now, this is a pretty useful program for simpler stuff, but beware of bugs. You can download it here.

GOOGLE DOCS

Thanks to OWB and it’s pretty good HTML5 support, there are now several ways to write documents online. The one I’ve been using is Google Docs. It does require that you have an account at Google (Gmail etc), which is free so it’s not such a big deal. Unless you are afraid of potential lack of security or invasion of privacy. I for one havn’t noticed anything though.

One good thing about Google Docs is that you get access to a lot more than just a word processor. It got spread sheets for example, and there are plenty of free apps you can add. But we will be looking at the word processor.

Remember the DocX file you could save in Cinnamon Writer? Google Docs can of course load that and this is what it looks like (note that the “wierd inlining” part was visiable in Cinnamon Writer, but it’s not present here):

Google Docs DocX

This actually looks perfectly like a DocX should look like, which becomes a big plus for Cinnamon Writer. Let’s try doing the same thing with Scriba, but with an ODT file instead:

140725-Snap-6 - 1482x1149x24

Just like with Cinnamon Writer, this looks perfect and gives Scriba once again the edge over Cinnamon Writer. This means that you can use any of those programs to write something simple and then use Google Docs to convert it and save as PDF. It’s not a pretty solution, but it works.

Now lets try writing something in Google Docs:

Google Docs

And this is what it looks as a PDF:

Google Docs PDF

As you can see, this is pretty much everything you want with a word processor. There are three big problems with this solution though:

  1. It requires that you are online.
  2. Due to memory leakage in OWB, you run the risk of running out of RAM while working on a file if you don’t have 1.5 GB available (1 is usually enough). Luckily there is an autosave function so even if OWB goes down you have probably not lost much.
  3. It’s a lot slower than using a real program.

Don’t forget the auto correction function.

But beggers can’t be choosers so this is a really good solution for most MorphOS users. Or a combination of using Scriba or Cinnamon Writer, saving in DocX/ODT and let Google Docs do the conversion to PDF. At least Scriba has printer support if you got a working printer.

MICROSOFT OFFICE ONLINE

I thought we also should take a look at Microsoft Office Online. There really isn’t much to say here since it’s pretty much the same as Google Docs. Maybe it got a few more functions though. Just like with Google Docs, it requires an Microsoft account (Hotmail). Everything said about Google Docs is just as true with Microsoft Office Online, both good and bad. And it also got auto correction. So which one you want to use is mostly a matter of taste.

This is how a text in Microsoft Office Online looks like:

Microsoft Office Online

And this is how a saved PDF looks like:

Microsoft Office Online PDF

Even though MorphOS doesn’t have an Libre Office, there is still thankfully ways to make your computer useful as we have seen. No solution isn’t ideal, and one might argue that they are all bad solutions, but better bad solutions than no solutions at all.

Happy writing!

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Grunch, Crabum and GenesisPlus 1.7

Posted on 2014-07-21 by Yasu

[Edit] 140721: Some minor corrections. 140724: Added a download link to CRABUM. Put the “edits” at the top.

So, you have installed MorphOS and want to start using software. There are several ways to do this. One is to go to Aminet or MorphOS Files and start downloading stuff. Another is to download Pack Chrysalis, which is a pre-configured software packade that you install directly after MorphOS. This last solution is a good start for those who just want everything they need from the start without having to give it much thought. Then we have the program we are going to talk about.

GRUNCH

This is a package manager that not only let you download a whole lot of useful programs, but it will also update the ones you have installed automatically. And it can also uninstall programs for you. It also installs system software. So this is more of a software center rather than a packet manager in fact. Grunch is made and maintained by Geit, who is also a MorphOS developer. You can download it here.

Download and install it. Then start it. After the checking and loading of files you should be seeing something like this:

Grunch

As you can see, all my software is already updated. If you have something that needs updated, just mark the file by clicking on it and press “update“. Or if you want to install a new file you mark that one and press “install“. Really simple. And if you mark something you have already installed and click “uninstall” you will … yep, you guessed right.

But before you do that you should right click to get to the menu –> Settings –> Grunch… Then you should see this:

Grunch Settings

Click on Path as you see in the picture above. Here you can choose where the different software will be installed. There are plenty of more settings, but if you have come this far Grunch will do what it’s supposed to. It’s an essential program for any MorphOS user so if you don’t have it I strongly recommend that you download it today.

CRABUM

I have never been a fan of bars, like they have in MacOS. I think they take up space, makes the screen look cramped and you have to keep going up and down with your mouse to start the program you want to run. MorphOS comes with a bar function as standard (right click in Ambient –> Settings –> Ambient settings –> Panels) if you do prefer that.

In my Amiga days, I used the program MagicMenu. It was a nifty little program to create your own submenus. I missed something like this on MorphOS until I found the program CRABUM (download it with Grunch, or here). What it does is to create a rexx script that adds as manu sub menus as you want. This is what the program looks like:

Crabum

Since I want my menus to start every time I start MorphOS I have placed my menu script in Sys:WBStartup (it doesn’t matter what you call it). Let’s load it:

Crabum loaded

But you might have problems starting it if you have the wrong version of rexxsyslib.library installed. MorphOS own version does not execute rexx scripts, so you need the original Amiga one. This you can most easily install through Grunch (see above). You might have to rename the MorphOS one as well (but Grunch probably makes it all work for you automatically). Go to Ambient screen, right click and go to Ambient –> New shell … Then type: rename mossys:rexxsyslib.library rexxsyslib.library_disabled. Now the scripts should work.

Right, now lets take a look at the program. Look at the right part. There you have 4 buttons:

  1. Menu = here you create a menu
  2. Submenu = here you create a submenu. As far as I know you can not go deeper than three steps. That is menu –> submenu –> submenu.
  3. Item = This is the program you want to start. It can also be a drawer you want opened.
  4. Seperator = This is a small line that helps seperating the different items or menus.

Just take a look at Title. I have one main menu with 2 submenus plus a bunch of programs. Then take a look at Shortcut. Here I choosen several combinations of Left Amiga (or Windows) button + letter to quickly start programs. As long as the letter isn’t already taken, anything goes. You can choose letter at the Shortcut part at the bottom. Comtype lets me decide what kind of program this is. I’ve choosed Internal because it’s the easiest to cut-n-paste. But there are two exceptions. Showgirls require for some reason that I choose “Workbench” to work. And Kill MLDonkey is not a program but a shell command and must thus runned as one: which is why AmigaDOS is choosen. Command is where you write what you want to do. If you just copy what I’ve written here you should get the menu to work. When you are done, click on “Test” to give it a try. It took me some trial and error to get everything running so don’t give up.

This is what my menu looks like (sorry about the crappy picture):

My menu

This way I can access my most used program anywhere in Ambient, and I don’t have to go up and down to click on some bar or icon. And you only see it when you need it. A solution I like a lot. If you also want a popup menu, right click in Ambient –> Settings –> Ambient MUI Settings or Global MUI Settings (the latter will affect all programs, and not just Ambient) –> Menus –> Click on “Like popup menus“.

GENESISPLUS 1.7

Lastly we are going to take a look at the latest version of the SEGA game console emulator GenesisPlus 1.7 that was recently released. You can download it here and unpack it everywhere you want. You will need some games of course (google, nutch nutch …) and the SEGA CD needs a BIOS file I don’t have so I’m going to skip it. For the remaining 3 systems: Genesis/Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear I’m gonna try the classic Aladdin.

GenesisPlus 1.7

This is what it looks like when you start it. I have disabled Scanlines to make it look better and I’ve choosen Window mode so I can screen grab for you (which for some reason didn’t work. I used my cell phone’s camera instead). In configure you can choose your game controller (player one and two): generic USB gamepad, Xbox 360 game pad and keyboard. I actually have an Xbox 360 controller so I’m testing the last two controller types. Let’s play Aladdin on Genesis/Mega Drive. I load the ROM and press Start on the right.

Aladdin on Genesis/Megadrive

The game runs just fine with almost no flicker (sorry, the screen grabber didn’t work for some reason). The Xbox Controller is really nice to use, and the keyboard works fine too. Next we try the same game on the Master System.

Aladdin on the Master System

It’s basically the same game, with some very minor differences. No problems here. Lastly we try it on the Game Gear.

Aladdin on the Game Gear

As expected, this game doesn’t look as well but it plays as well as the above. Although I still think the Amiga AGA version was the best version (tied with the SNES version). I never owned a SEGA game system of any kind but if you did, or just want to be able to play more games on MorphOS I think this is a good download. It works flawlessly and I have not had any crashes or bugs even after an hour of testing.

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OT: Amiga Forum mentioned in Trevor’s blog

Posted on 2014-07-20 by Yasu

Trevor Dickinson is the co-founder of A-EON Technologies and a true Amiga enthousiast, regardless of flavour. In his latest blog post, he mentions another project of mine: the Swedish printed Amiga magazine AMIGA FORUM. I have been doing this magazine for 2 years now because I think every country should have a Amiga magazine in it’s native language. It’s my small contribution to the Amiga community. If you are interested in the magazine, you can download every issue (except the two newest ones) as PDF for free at our homepage. If you don’t know the fine language of the Swedes you can always use Google translate.

Amiga Forum @ Trevor's blog

[Edit] 140721: Changed the order of text and picture.

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My MorphOS Systems

Posted on 2014-07-20 by Yasu

My workspace (140720)

Today we are going to take a quick look at my MorphOS systems. The picture above shows my computer space. It’s cramped, but very functional. I currently have 5 MorphOS compatible systems (3 are registered):

  1. A PowerMac dual core 2.7 GHz G5 (My main system)
  2. An 12″ Ibook single core 1.33 GHz G4 (My main portable system)
  3. A PowerMac Dual core 2.0 GHz G5 (Spare system. I lent it to SUGA)
  4. A 17″ Powerbook single core 1.67 GHz G4 (Unregistered. I bought it to be a future semi-portable system)
  5. An Genesi Efika 5200b (Unregistered and unused. I have no idea what to do with it)

It’s my G5 MorphOS system on the computer screen. On top of the picture you can see my Windows/AROS computer (and yes, it’s a Watch_Dogs figure on the computer and yes, that game wasn’t nearly as good as I thought it would be). Below it you can see a glimpse of my Ibook and beside the CD/DVD covers is my Efika (barely noticeable). Behind the chair is my huge 20 kilo heavy G5:

PowerMac G5 2.7 GHz

Currently, the 2.7 GHz PowerMac is the most powerful system out there that runs MorphOS. It’s fast enough to run full HD movies even on a single core (!). Pretty impressive for an almost 10 year old computer. However, it gobbles power and gets crazy hot which is why it’s water cooled.

If we return to the top picture and look at the printer you will see a keyboard. It’s not just any keyboard, but a custom made Ducky Zero mechanical keyboard made by Loriagno Pagni. It’s a really cool piece of hardware:

Custom made keyboard

It’s made to look like a typical Amiga Keyboard from the good old days (except the black base plate which didn’t come in white). However, there was a very sad surprise when I finally got it: it doesn’t work with MorphOS! I do hope the MorphOS Team will hear my plea and fix it in the near future. Apparently, this keyboard works fine with AmigaOS 4.1 so there is still hope.

While my G5 and my Ibook is used a lot, the other 3 systems mostly collects dust at the moment. If you look at the picture below, this is what they basically look like (note: not from my systems):

Fresh install of MorphOS

I installed the OS and then let it mostly be, until I find a use for them. I have given a whole lot of more love to my PowerMac G5 (2.7 GHz):

My MorphOS system (140720)

For my Ibook I simply copied everything from my G5 and changed some minor settings (yes, you can do that!). As you can see, I have made a lot of changes. The icons are based on BUUF/Gant icons by Mattahan (some HDD icons and Game folders icons are made/modified by me). At the top you can see all the different monitors like CPU, heat, uptime, available RAM and VRAM etc. I’ve also changed the color theme go from blue to gray and made a whole lot of tweaks in MUI (where you can change the look in most about everything). I also let the MP3 player Aminet Radio play at the bottom. I’ve also changed the setting so that every important program I use gets its own screen. Like the pretty well made web browser OWB:

OWB

Tweaking the system to do what you want and look like you want it to look is one of the things I enjoy most with any Amiga system. I have never paid so much attention to details on any other system. Mostly because you can’t do half the things you want in Windows or MacOS so why bother? But with MorphOS it’s part of the system, and thus part of the fun.

Now you have seen what my setup looks like. Next time we will start getting dirty and show something useful.

[Edit] 140720: Small corrections.

[Edit ] 140722: Changed the part where I talk about opening own screens. I wrote “window” by mistake.

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What is the appeal of MorphOS?

Posted on 2014-07-12 by Yasu

MorphOS Ambient

If you come from an Amiga background and want to know about the similarities and differences between AmigaOS 3.1 and MorphOS, I recommend you to read the guide: MorphOS in 5 minutes – a brief introduction for users familiar with the Commodore Amiga by Ulrich Beckers. It explains it better than I ever could.

It’s a much more difficult task to explain to someone who has never used an Amiga at all of what makes MorphOS appealing to some. I myself comes from an Amiga background so for me it’s “obvious”. But after thinking about it a little, one have to realise that there was something appealing in the original AmigaOS that made people switch to it from other existing OS’s. So I made a little list of what I think, in a nutshell, makes MorphOS my choice of OS (though I use Windows for all the tasks MorphOS can’t do). But it’s also the same things that made me choose Amiga in the first place too:

  • The Amiga philosophy is all about simplicity, economy and a perfect integration between soft- and hardware. This last part is not true for MorphOS since closed hardware has been out of fashion for 20 years, but the two first parts are true, and more important anyway.
  • Amiga is an open, single-user system. You as the user has full control and can do whatever you want with it, even break it. AmigaOS and MorphOS trusts the user to know what she/he is doing. If you are not an complete idiot, you will not (voluntarily) break anything, but you will be able to change the entire look and feel of the OS so it suits you and your needs. The same can be said about GNU/Linux as well but ….
  • It’s not complicated. Unlike any Linux distro out there it doesn’t take much study to understand how the OS is built and works. That is also true with Windows and MacOS, but these two make sure that the user can’t break anything by blocking access to the system. Amiga/MorphOS has openness without the hassle.
  • Amiga is responsive. If you have ever tried out a newer GNU/Linux, Windows or MacOS on a slower computer you know what the opposite feels like. Starting the computer takes forever, and then starting a single program too. Not to mention what happens when you try to use several programs at the same time. An Amiga/MorphOS system starts in seconds (my fastest machine starts in about 8 seconds, my slowest in about 20 due to slow firmware) and most software is up and running the second after starting it. The slowest program, the web browser OWB in MorphOS, starts in 3. And this is on 10 year old hardware.
  • The RAM disk. This is a fetish of all Amiga users. By using the RAM disk as a temporary hard drive you can use it to test new programs or unpack new files. And if you don’t want to keep it, you simply reboot and it’s gone (Amiga/MorphOS reboots fast remember). This is extremely useful and something you get use to having fast.
  • The Shell. If you come from Linux you know what I mean. If you have used MSDOS before Windows you know what I mean (sort of). It’s the text based command prompt, and the Amiga had an excellent one. MorphOS’s one however is even better. While I do prefer to use the GUI, there are times when Shell is pretty darn useful (see above picture).
  • Amiga has a culture and a rich history. This is probably not as interesting to outsiders as to those who has owned an Amiga before. But it really counts for a lot when using Amiga/MorphOS. Basically, because Commodore and the owners after it misused the Amiga and it’s users as they did (see my historical overview), the Amiga got a deep rooted DIY spirit. Commodore was not Apple, and didn’t really do much to help users nor respond to feedback. Since no one is going to help you with you troubles or listen to your ideas you simply have to do it yourself. By hanging around in Amiga/MorphOS forums you get a nice dose of socializing on the side.
  • Amiga is nerd rebellion! Some people like really really unusual things, things that other people just don’t appreciate. We can’t really explain it nor help it. We always find ourself among the outsiders, playing with toys no one else cares about. And we love to fight an uphill battle, even when it’s borderline masochistic. I’m such a person, and I’m having a blast here!

There are downsides as well.

  • There are no new hardware. The last new hardware that you could buy for MorphOS was the underpowered, super cheap server Genesi Efika 5200b. It hasn’t been produced in 10 or so years. After that, your only option is used computers. This is somewhat annoying, but thankfully there are still plenty of cheap, well working PPC macs out there that will ensure a good supply of hardware and spare parts. It is a stop gap measure and eventually MorphOS will be ported to a new computer architecture. But when that happens, only the developers know and they ain’t telling. However, there is one new computer being ported to as I write this and that is the Acube SAM460ex motherboard. But it’s not nearly as cheap as a similar x86 or ARM motherboard.
  • There is a huge lack of software. The number of active users is pretty low (between 500 and 1500 or so) and even though a lot of these users are also developers and programmers there is only so much they can do making software. There are a lot of useful Amiga programs out there that works with MorphOS but most of it is old by now. But there are software out there worth a look, and thanks to the reasonably well made web browser OWB you can use MorphOS for most simpler tasks. Plus some more advanced stuff thanks to some excellent applications.
  • MorphOS is PPC based. That processor went out of fashion as a desktop computer processor a decade ago. This means that even when new hardware appears, it will cost a lot more than Intel’s x86/x64 or ARM based computers.
  • MorphOS runs only on a single processor. This significantly lower the processing power available. A G4 processor will not run full HD movies for example. A G5 will do that, but it gets very hot and demands a lot of electricity. Luckily, if you ignore power demanding applications MorphOS will run just fine even on a low end G3/G4 processor.
  • MorphOS is 32 bit. Going 64 bit is difficult so it hasn’t been done yet. This means there is a limitation in what the hardware can do. Most notably when it comes to available RAM. No MorphOS machine can handle more than 2 GIG of RAM, and some can only use one. This is because the rest of the RAM is being use to handle certain hardware. This is rarely a problem though since MorphOS only needs 50 MB or so to run.
  • No modern memory protection. In order to keep the original Amiga programs working MorphOS must use the same memory handling like the original Amiga did (with some improvements though). This means that when a program crashes, it can take the whole system with it. The only option then is to save all the stuff you are working on (if you can) and reboot. Thankfully MorphOS is a pretty stable system so this is not an occurring issue. Just very damn annoying when it happens.
  • MorphOS is not free. A single computer licence costs up to 111 Euro. This is because the developers need the money to buy new hardware to test and port to, and also to keep the various web pages running. The developers have stated that they don’t get any salary (would it matter if they did?) but use the money so they don’t have to pay for stuff with their own pockets.
  • MorphOS is not without bugs and issues. Because the developers have ported MorphOS to a lot of machines and hardware, bugs tend to appear, big and small. There is a bug report built in the system (right click on your mouse –> go to the menu –> choose “Ambient” –> “About MorphOS” –> “Support” –> click on the “Report bug” button) and the developers work hard to fix them. They also hang at MorphZone and on IRC if you want to contact them directly.

Lastly, I want to answer the question: Why don’t I use AmigaOS 4 or AROS?

Well, I do use AROS actually, and I have tried out AmigaOS 4.1. My first new Amiga was one running the latter OS but sadly that hardware had some serious issues and was pretty much unusable. Some people tried to help me out, but in the end it just stood there on the table collecting dust. I sold it to another guy who got it working and is apparently happy with it. And now I simply can not afford a new AmigaOS 4 machine since they cost a lot.

After that I started to use AROS and was very happy with it for 6 months or so. The problem with it was that it’s still way buggy and has a pretty poor web browser. I simply stopped using that one as well. I still got my AROS laptop here, but it hasn’t seen action for months. I’m waiting for the next update of Icaros Desktop (or AspireOS if the guy is still working on it) and hopefully then I will use AROS more.

I also want to tell you about the excellent AmigaOne X1000 blog that inspired me to start blogging about MorphOS. This blog is about how you make the most out of your X1000 computer system and is directed to beginners and intermediate users. Please go take a look.

Next time we will take a look at my different machines and my current MorphOS settings.

[Edit] 140713: Some minor corrections.

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The very beginning: The long story of the Amiga

Posted on 2014-07-09 by Yasu

In the beginning, there was Jay

It all sJay Miner in 1990tarted with Jay Miner (1932‒1994). He was the special chips guy at Atari when they where still the undisputed king of the gaming industry in the late 1970’s. He made the TIA chip for the massively popular Atari 2600 for example. His designs made the computers a lot more powerful by not having to rely on the CPU and RAM for every operation. CPU and RAM was very very expensive and that was a huge problem when turning a computer/game system into something ordinary people could afford. By 1980 he wanted to fulfil a dream of making the most powerful computer his designs would allow. But the management of Atari said no. They didn’t want their own products to compete with each other. Jay quit and tried to make his dream come true himself. He didn’t get far and started to work for a company named Xymos making pacemakers chips.

Then came a call

One day in 1982 he was called by Larry Kapland, another former employee of Atari, who now wanted to start his own video game company and needed funding. Jay found some dentists from Florida who was willing to invest. They named the company Hi-Toro. Pretty soon Jay became the man calling the shots and he pushed to make a gaming console instead. In 1982 video games was the hottest thing around and the dentists saw a console as a sure bet. But it was not just going to be a game console, but a whole computer with just a few extra peripherals. It was based on the new and powerful Motorola 68000 processor, had a keyboard and used a 3.5″ floppy drive instead of cartridges. At the same time they changed the name of the company to Amiga inc. since the name Hi-Toro was taken by a Japanese lawnmower maker (Hitoro). The name was mostly chosen because it would be shown before both Atari and Apple in the phone book. The computer/gaming console was nicknamed the Lorraine.

“Too amazing to be true”

Boing ball demo, 1984Work progressed, more people where hired and the computer soon became very impressive. With a 4096 palette graphic chip (32 colours on a 320×256 pixel screen), 8 bit sound and plenty of raw power (thanks to it’s special co-processors Agnus, Daphne and Portia (later renamed Paula)) it was not just an impressive computer, it was also a lot cheaper than anything else equal to it on the market. At the computer fair CES in January 1984 they showed the now famous Boing ball demo to a baffled audience. People didn’t believe this demo was shown in real time. Reports say some folks looked under the table for a video player.

Trouble ahead

But the good times didn’t last. In 1983, the massive amount of bad games and way too many game consoles alienated gamers who suddenly decided games weren’t cool any more. The famous video game crash of ’83 hit Amiga inc. hard. They where selling peripherals for the Atari 2600 to have some revenue and that suddenly dried up. The investors pulled out and funds were running low. Atari was also doing bad, loosing some 500 million dollars in 1983. They were desperately looking for a way to turn the tide and found out that Amiga inc. had something good going on and needed money. Atari gave Amiga inc. a loan of 500.000 dollars to complete the computer. Atari would either get an exclusive right to it’s special chips or they would get them altogether if Amiga inc. couldn’t pay back. But the computer was still plagued with problems and soon they where in the same dire straight situation again.

Enter Commodore

Jack Tramiel (1928-2012)Commodore was founded by the holocaust survivor Jack Tramiel (1928‒2012) in 1954 as a type writer manufacturer. The company grew rapidly. In the mid 1960’s a tax evading scandal almost destroyed the company’s reputation, but was saved when playboy investor Irving Gould took a liking to Jack and helped save the company. Jack was still the leader of the company, but Irving called the shots.

Fierce competition from cheap Japanese manufactures turned Commodore to adding machines. When the Japanese entered that business as well Jack looked for a new market yet again. He found electric calculators, a brand new technology, and Commodore was in the early 1970’s one of the biggest electric calculator businesses in the world. But they where dependent on parts made by Texas Instrument, and when they realised they could make their own calculators, they did, and they where cheaper than anything Commodore could make. Jack looked for chip manufacturers to buy, making themselves independent of other companies, and found MOS Technology inc.. They where famous for the extremely cheap 6500 CPU processor series but where in need of cash. Commodore was not a fair playing company: they bought a lot of their products and then refused to pay. MOS didn’t have the funds needed for a lengthy law suit and was about to fold when Commodore offered to take over their company with debts and all for small fee. They could not refuse. Jack thought he now had a chip manufacturer. He didn’t know he also now had Chuck Peddle.

MOS Technology inc.

Chuck PeddleChuck Peddle (b. 1937) was an computer chip designer, and the one responsible for Mos Technology inc.’s 6500 CPU series. In the mid 1970’s, computers where not sold as a complete package but as parts. You had to solder chips on the main board yourself. This was a problem for a new generation of programmers who didn’t know about hardware enough for such a difficult undertaking. Chuck wanted to make a whole computer but wasn’t able to at MOS since they where simply not up to the task.

Commodore becomes a computer manufacturer

Commodore PET 2001After the acquisition, Chuck was ready to leave but got a chance to show his new boss (Jack Tramiel) his ideas for a home computer. Jack loved the idea and allegedly said “OK” on the spot. In October 1977 the PET 2001 was on sale. More computers where to follow like the VIC 20 and in 1982 the worlds best selling computer to date: the Commodore 64. By 1982 the computer industry was booming and Jack Tramiel didn’t just want to dominate the home computer industry: he wanted to be the only player. He kept undercutting his competitors prices thanks to the low costs of his computers which did the trick. But it also made Irving Gould unhappy. He finally had a huge success but lowered the prices so much that Commodore wasn’t making much out of it (and therefore gave less to Irving). To make matters worse, Jack was moving to get his children into high positions in the company. Irving had enough and made the board dismiss Jack in 1984. Jack swore to revenge and bought Atari from Warner Brothers in order to turn that into a computer manufacturer. With him followed many of Commodore’s finest engineers, severely brain draining the company.

Nothing lasts forever

Commodore 64Commodore was having a good ride thanks to the Commodore 64 but by 1984 they where facing a technology shift, from 8 bit to 16 bit. MOS Technology was prepared for this, but where unsuccessful in turning their various chips and processors into fully working 16 bit. Commodore came to the conclusion that they should look for a another computer company to buy. They found Amiga inc., and they where at the time in real trouble.

Jack Tramiel was in talks to buy out Atari from Warner Brothers and he wanted to see how bad a deal Amiga inc. was prepared to accept. Jack also found out about their previous deal with Atari and came to the conclusion that time was on his side. Either they sell for a small fee, or Atari will get their hands of this technology anyway when they can’t return their 500.000 dollar loan. Jack kept lowering the bid, until it reached 98 cents per share. The staff at Amiga inc. where in agreement that they really didn’t want anything to do with Jack Tramiel nor a future Atari owned by him.

Then came Commodore and after some discussion agreed to pay 4.25 dollars per share, or 24 million dollars in total. On 30 June 1984 Atari got a visit from Amiga inc.. Atari where expecting to hear that they where unable to pay back. Instead Amiga inc. gave Atari a Commodore signed check of 500.000 dollars and promptly left to every ones great surprise.

Making the computer

Commodore Amiga (1000)Commodore was in a bad financial state, but they where still one of the biggest companies in the world and could muster a lot of money. Amiga inc. was renamed Commodore-Amiga and they got plenty of money to finish their computer. However, Jay and his crew had to make a lot of compromises like lowering the available RAM from 512 KB to 256 KB (to save money) which made it difficult to work with the computer when using the four colour operating system. But they did get to finish it, and it was presented at the Lincoln Center in New York City on 23rd of July 1985. The presentation was a success (Andy Warhol was there and showed off the Amigas graphical capabilities) and the press was impressed. But the price tag of 1600 dollars (plus the 300 dollar price for a monitor) made it too expensive for most people. At the same time, Jack Tramiel had cursed the recent backfire enough and quickly made a 16 bit computer: the Atari ST. It wasn’t as impressive as the Amiga but it was much cheaper (1000 dollars including a b/w screen) and came out several months before the Amiga. Terrible marketing decisions didn’t help either. The Amiga developers started to leave too, including Jay Miner (although he was frequently hired by Commodore as an outsider consultant). Commodore looked like they where going to lose.

Somewhat good change

Commodore Amiga 500Irving Gould decided to fire the tired CEO Marchall Smith and hired Thomas Rattigan in may 1985. Commodore was bleeding money. They had so many ongoing projects and most of them didn’t pay off. After a learning period he set out to cancel all the projects that either didn’t make sense or had nothing to do with computers (like furniture manufacturing) and laid off a lot of workers. He also decided to focus on the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. One of his smartest decisions was to turn the Amiga into a low end and a high end computer. The outcome was the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000 (the original Amiga was renamed the Amiga 1000) in 1987. He had stopped the bleeding and things where slowly getting better.

Mostly bad change

But Irving Gould didn’t like how Rattigan was getting along with people in the company, suspecting him of trying to create a power base and outmanoeuvring Irving. In April 1987 Irving hired an outside consultant named Mehdi Ali to check out how the company was doing. Naturally, Commodore was in a poor state (what consultant doesn’t come to that conclusion?) and it was Rattigans fault. On 16th of April Thomas Rattigan was informed by a lawyer that his job was terminated, after a board meeting he was not invited to. He tried to fight back to no avail. Rattigan later sued Commodore for breach of contract (it was supposed to last for 5 years) and won in 1991.

The good years

The Amiga became a huge success with the Amiga 500 and counted for much of Commodore’s profit in 1988 to 1990. Even though Atari had a head start Amiga was outselling the Atari ST by 1989. Atari tried to compete with new computer models but unsuccessfully. The last computer model was the Atari Falcon in 1993. It lasted for a year. After that Atari concentrated on their upcoming game console the Atari Jaguar, “the worlds first 64 bit gaming system”. There is dispute if it really is a 64 bit system, but regardless: it was too hard to program for it to make use of it anyway. The Jaguar didn’t sell well and stopped production in 1996. By now, Tramiel and his family wanted out of the business and left when Atari merged with JTS inc..

At it’s hight in 1991 the Amiga had about 5% of the computer market world wide according to some sources. Commodores huge debts where paid back and things where looking good for once, despite all the calamity. But all the previous lay-offs had hurt Commodore, and money was still tight. If there was any money, they didn’t go where they where most needed: research and development.

CDTVThe Amiga was an impressive computer in 1985, an excellent budget computer in 1988 but by 1991 it was getting old. The previous year the Amiga 3000 was released. It was a high end computer with some impressive hardware, but the graphic and sound chip was largely the same. 1991 Commodore tried to fool people who didn’t want a computer to buy a computer by making it look like a CD-player: the Commodore Dynamic Total Vision or the CDTV. It bombed. Mostly because it was basically a slick looking Amiga 500 with a CD player. People who liked computers didn’t want it. Others didn’t understand it. Then they tried to sell an upgraded Amiga 500, the Amiga 500+, that sold poorly. Mostly because a lot of games didn’t work with the improved chip set which alienated buyers. Then they tried to sell a cost reduced Amiga 500+ called the Amiga 600 that was smaller but costed a bit more (!). It sold poorly as well. At the same time Irving Gould had tried out several CEO:s (including himself) and finally settled for the consultant Mehdi Ali (!).

Stagnation

Like Thomas Rattigan, Mehdi Ali didn’t know anything about computers when he joined Commodore. But unlike Rattigan Mehdi didn’t bother to learn. He didn’t like computers, he just wanted to make Irving Gould happy. The engineers needed more money to stay ahead of it competitors but received too little for several years. The Amiga fell behind, even though some breakthroughs where slowly appearing, like the AAA chip. The AAA chip was the new graphic chip that could handle 16 bit graphics and was ahead of the competitors in 1991. But it wasn’t finished and Commodore had decided to kill off the Amiga and focus on the PC market instead. All development stopped but it didn’t last. Pretty soon Commodore realised that they simply didn’t have enough money to ship enough PC:s to make a profit. The margins was simply too tight. They realised that they had more margins using their own technology and started up the Amiga development again.

A last ditch effort

They pushed to get a new high end and low end computer out soon. Since the AAA chip wasn’t finished they went for a stop gap measure and produced a simpler (and not as advanced) version of the chip: the AA, later better known as the AGA chip. It didn’t have 16 bit graphics but could show 256 colours of a palette of 16,8 million at the same time, much better than the original 32 (of 4096). This was in 1992 barely competitive, but better than nothing. The sound chip stayed the same though.

Amiga 1200Commodore released first the Amiga 4000 in mid 1992 and a couple of months later the low end Amiga 1200. The Amiga 4000 was not as advanced as the Amiga 3000 (except the AGA chip) but cost as much and didn’t sell that well, but the Amiga 1200 sold pretty well, especially in the UK and in Germany where Commodore always have had a strong hold. But it didn’t sell enough to turn the tide. Not just because the Amiga wasn’t as cool as in 1987, but also because Commodore wasn’t able to manufacture enough units. In the Christmas sale of 1992 the Amiga 1200 was mostly sold out, missing out on many potential buyers. Commodore tried one last thing: the CD32.

CD32The CD32 was a game console version of the Amiga 1200 with a CD. It was released in September 1993 and was advertised as the worlds first 32 bit CD based gaming console (which wasn’t entirely true, the FM Town Marty in Japan beat it with a good 7 months. But it flopped and stayed unknown). It had strong sales in the UK that Christmas. CD32 titles outsold every other CD based media, owning 50% of the market there. On other places it did sell OK too. But debt was still mounting uncontrollably. Third party seller went unpaid and simply stopped shipping parts. Just as with the Amiga 1200, Commodore couldn’t manufacture enough CD32 to stay afloat.

The end of a giant

By the end of 1993 Commodore tried to sell the CD32 in the US. But due to a lost patent lawsuit Commodore owed 10 million dollars which they couldn’t pay. The US government thus refused to allow the shipped machines to enter the country. They had to return to the Philippines where they where manufactured. Commodore started to lay off people and stopped development altogether except for a few projects, including the latest version of AmigaOS; 3.1. During this time the board was still being paid enormous salaries. Gould got 3.5 million annually. Mehdi got one million. It’s clear that they where simply trying to milk they cow for as much milk as possible before it died.

And it did. On April 27th 1994 Commodore declared voluntary liquidation. This was something inconceivable just 10 years earlier. But poor management, terrible production decisions and a deafening absence of advertisement killed off one of the biggest computer companies in the world.

Two months after Commodore demise, Jay Miner died of kidney failure. Irving Gould died in 2001. Jack Tramiel died in 2012. He dedicated his post-computer business years to spread knowledge about the holocaust.

The computer that refused to die

By 1994 the Amiga had lost most of it’s appeal. A PC still costed more but was now more technically impressive. CD games was the new thing, as well as 3D first person shooters thanks to hits like Myst and Doom. But one thing was still going in the Amigas favour: it’s operating system. Hard drives was now common so a lot of Amiga owners where now using the operating system all the time. Unlike Windows 3.1 and MacOS, AmigaOS was small, quick and responsive. A lot of Amiga users stayed with their computer of choice because of their new found love of the OS. They hoped that Amiga would soon be bought up by some big player and come around.

The saviour arrives …

Escom WalkerThe buy out dragged on but after a year of lengthy negotiations the German PC reseller company Escom came out as the new owner. Apparently they were not interested in the Amiga brand in retrospect, but only wanted the Commodore name. But when they found out about the almost fanatical Amiga following they decided to make something out of it. They started to produce Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 again, and presented a plan for the future, based on the IBM/Motorola PPC processor instead of the now dying Motorola 68000 series.. A prototype name the Walker was shown to the world as a stop gap between the old Amiga generation and the new one. They also started a licensing deal, making it possible for third party developers to sell their own Amigas. The future looked promising.

… and goes away

Escom however expanded too fast, and they where making heavy losses (185 million D-Marks in 1995). Before anyone knew it, they declared bankruptcy the 15th of July 1996. Once again, the Amiga was without an owner.

But there were still companies interested in the technology. Viscorp was one. They wanted to turn the Amiga into a set-top box, which is basically a simplified and cheap computer for internet services. It looked somewhat promising anyway since Viscorp was runned by former Amiga developers. But Viscorp where not able to buy out all of Escom for their proposed price and dropped out. Next in line was Quickpak. They looked like the new future owners for a time until, really quite suddenly, the Amiga was bought up in 1997 by the PC manufacturer and retailer Gateway 2000.

Hope and despair

Gateway 2000 was, like Escom before it, not interested in making new Amiga computers at first but changed their mind when they saw how many users where still out there and eagerly waiting for the next Amiga. They also announced a bright new future for the Amiga, but kept changing their mind of what to do with this technology. Basically, Gateway 2000 bought the technology because of it’s patents but once they got it they didn’t see any real use of it. As time went by, they probably lost interest altogether. In the end, they sold the Amiga brand and operating system (but kept the technology patents) to an employee, Bill McEwan, who had formed the company Amino in order to buy it. After the purchase, he renamed the company Amiga inc..

This is where history goes in two different directions and we have to go back a few years to understand it.

Escom asks for help

When Escom decided to make this new Amiga and had chosen the PPC as their new processor they had to reprogram the operating system to work on it. The German Amiga hardware maker Phase5 got the job. Escom sent them the source code for AmigaOS 3.1 and they went to work. But they didn’t get far before Escom went belly up. But the results so far gave them the idea to make their own PPC based accelerator cards that would run in old Amigas. These cards had two processors, one 68000 (68040 or the fastest to date, 68060) and one PPC. The former was used as the base since AmigaOS 3.x needed it and the latter for more demanding operations, or programs made to make use of it. These cards were popular and made Phase5 a household name in the Amiga community.

As time went by and no light at the end of the tunnel in sight Ralph Schmidt got the idea to make his own PPC based Amiga compatible operating system. Work began in 1998 and the first beta was shown to the world in December 1999. It was running on an Amiga 4000 with a PPC card and was named MorphOS. But the Amiga market had shrunk massively the last years and Phase5 went bankrupt in February 2000.

The next AmigaOS?

Around this time Bill McEwan of Amiga inc. contacted the MorphOS development team and offered to make MorphOS the next official AmigaOS. But after reading the contract they turned him down. According to the team, Bill was demanding too much money and too much influence for it to be a good deal. He had to keep looking, and in the end, in 2001, he gave the small Belgian firm Hyperion Entertainment the job of making AmigaOS 4.0, based on the source code of AmigaOS 3.1. Until now, they were mostly known for porting hit PC games to Amiga, Linux and MacOS.

Up until now, Hyperion had been positive to MorphOS, seeing it as another platform they could sell their games. But once they got the job of making AmigaOS 4.0 the tone changed drastically. They started to accuse MorphOS of “unfair and parasitic competition” and later that MorphOS was based on stolen AmigaOS 3.1 code. The Amiga community was divided into two camps: the MorphOS camp and the AmigaOS 4 camp, fiercely defending their own OS of choice and bitterly fighting the other. Still today, it doesn’t take much to get the “flame war” starting up again in various Amiga forums.

AmigaOS 4.0

AmigaOS 4.1Hyperion was given 4 months to make this OS. A way to optimistic deadline to say the least. Amiga inc. had a contract with Eyetech to make hardware for the upcoming AmigaOS 4.0. They produced several motherboards between 2002 and 2005, but they were sold with Linux because the OS wasn’t finished. Time went and nothing seemed to happen until 2004 when the fist public beta was released. It wasn’t until Christmas day 2006 it was finally released as a non-beta. By then, Eyetech had stopped producing Amiga (called AmigaOne) hardware.

At the same time, relations between Amiga inc. and Hyperion went sour. Once the OS was finished, it was supposed to be handed over to Amiga inc.. But there where several problems on both sides. Hyperion had subcontracted the all important kernel development to Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden who owned the right to it. A lot of other parts was also owned and developed by subcontractors. Hyperion could not give Amiga inc. a complete OS even if they wanted to. Amiga inc. on it’s side had in order to avoid bankruptcy transferred it’s assets in 2004-2005 to another company, KMOS, which was later rejnamed to Amiga Inc. and owned by Bill McEwan. In November 2006 the new Amiga inc. demanded that Hyperion would hand over the source code within 30 days. When it didn’t happen, Amiga inc. sued Hyperion a month later.

It wasn’t until 30 November 2009 an agreement was settled. The judge agreed that a contract was not transferable between companies and therefore Amiga inc. could not claim a right to the OS. Hyperion got an exclusive right to develop and sell it’s OS, which they still do today. The latest version is 4.1 but the version 4.2 has been announced for quite some time now.

Amiga inc. today is mostly involved with selling old Amiga games to the Blackberry phones.

The third OS

AROSWe also should mention AROS. AROS origninally stood for Amiga Replacement Operating System but changed it’s name to Amiga Research Operating System and lastly to AROS Research Operating System (a recursive acronym). It was originally conceived in 1993 when the future of Amiga looked bleak. Some people argued that the biggest problem was the lack of hardware, and they were inspired by the open source movement. In 1995 work started with the goal of creating a portable version of AmigaOS 3.1. It’s still worked on today and is usable, but still far from finished. Unlike the other two OS’es, AROS is fully open source.

Plan b

MorphOS Team on it’s side decided to go their own way. Shortly after the bankruptcy of Phase5 some former employees formed the company bPlan with the goal set to make their own PPC based computer. Together with their partner Thendic-France they started to produce the Pegasos motherboards in 2002. When Thendic-France got into economic problems in 2003 and pulled out bPlan started to cooperate with Genesi to continue selling the product. MorphOS development continued and the first non-beta was released in December 2002. Two version of the Pegasos was sold; the Pegasos I (PPC G3) and the Pegasos II (PPC G4) until 2006, when new EU rules forced the discontinuation of the products. That same year Apple stopped using the PPC processor and started using the Intel x86 processors instead. PPC was no longer a contender in the home computing market. MorphOS had reached version 1.4.5 but now you couldn’t buy any new hardware to run it on. MorphOS Team and Genesi went their separate ways.

Plan c

MorphOS 3Some of the developers then got the idea to start porting MorphOS to used PPC Apple Macintoshes instead. The reason was simply because it would be way to expensive to make their own hardware and used PPC macs were plentiful and cheap. From version 2.4 the first PPC mac was supported and the number of supported hardware has grown even since. The MorphOS Team has stated that they will eventually switch to another platform. Which and when, it’s not decided. The problem is that when they do that they have to break comparability with both Amiga programs (which is emulated in real time) as well as MorphOS programs. So the team is not in a hurry.

This is where we are today. Next time we will take a closer look at MorphOS. Stay tuned!

 

 

Note: I will change information in this text when faults are pointed out to me.

Sources: On The Edge – The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore, by Brian Bagnall; Commodore – A company on the edge, by Brian Bagnall; The Future Was Here – The Commodore Amiga, by Jimmy Maher; Wikipedia

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