User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:23 pm

I decided to take the plunge and try out MorphOS. I bought a 15" 1.5 GHz G4 Powerbook on ebay for cheap (I would have gone for a 17" 1.67GHz but the prices are obscene).

I downloaded the liveCD and will install it once the Powerbook arrives. I plan to upgrade the RAM to 2GB from the 1 it comes with and to install an SSD to replace the 80GB HDD, should I like MorphOS.

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:19 pm

I gave it a try on a 17" G4 laptop a while back. It was nice and I really would like to buy a licence myself at some point. It is the perfect machine to confuse people at coffee shops. The price does hold me back a little bit, but I do have a birthday coming up...

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:33 pm

I have a license on a G4 mini 1.5ghz with the 64mb radeon. I used to have it on a dual G5 but that was so overkill and the machine was sooo big

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:49 pm

I fear I may have bought the wrong Powerbook. After looking at the compatible hardware, I happened to click on some other link on the Morphos website. Following that link, it had a much extended description of all the individual hardware it worked on, including a "Powerbook buyer's guide" of sorts. Even though the one I bought was a 1.5GHz model and has the proper Radeon GPU, this FAQ (compiled in 2011, so hopefully just out of date) states that the Powerbook must support the use of DDR2 RAM. My purchase uses DDR. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will work.

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Wed Mar 11, 2020 5:24 am

Wow, I did not see that one either. I woonder what makes the need for DDR2? I mean, would it not work with DDR or would it be slower?

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Thu Mar 12, 2020 8:41 am

I received the Powerbook yesterday and it seems to run MorphOS just fine. :) At least from the LiveCD (I haven't installed it onto the HDD yet, as I want to back up what is on the HDD first -- it's weird not having TimeMachine built in like the Intel Macs have -- before I partition and format it to install MorphOS).

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:57 pm

Do report back on your impressions. was it worth the cost?

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Fri Mar 13, 2020 7:14 am

It's very refreshing to see such a lightweight OS. I am browsing the forum right now using the built-in browser, Odyssey. It seems to work pretty well for something like this, which is not graphics intensive. It boots about twice as fast as the OSX 10.5 that was on it before now that MorphOS is the operating system. I will need to add an email program as well as some kind of word processor if there is one available. I just haven't looked yet to see what's out there.

I will say this, though. If MorphOS was shipped with the Amiga back in say, 1992-1993, Commodore would likely still be around, in my opinion (take it for what that's worth :)).

I'm going to mess around with it for a few more days, and most likely buy it.

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:30 am

Installed 3.13 on my PowerBook G4. Runs very well. WiFi evens works. Still need to test out my applications and games. Feels quite responsive. Could this be a daily work machine I think to myself.

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:12 pm

obitus1990 wrote: It's very refreshing to see such a lightweight OS.....I'm going to mess around with it for a few more days, and most likely buy it.
Checking back in. How has the journey been so far. Still enjoying Morphos? I am still on the fence. Do I flog my G4 Powerbook and just have a RaspberryPi run my Amiga setup? Or is the MorphOS experience that good that it serves both classic and modern Amiga use?





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