MorphOS Library - User contributions [en]

Games

2009-12-13T17:53:02Z

Guruman: Minor edit to one caption

[[File:VGP2HD_000.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Virtual Grand Prix 2 with HD textures]]One of the most notable games available for MorphOS is definitively ''Virtual Grand Prix 2'', published by Alassoft. It is a very realistic Formula 1 simulation (probably one of the most realistic for any platform), with nice 3D accelerated graphics, and the mandatory support for analog input devices, that in MorphOS is available thanks to the ''Poseidon'' USB stack and the new ''lowlevel.library''. The MorphOS version has been released shortly after the Mac and Windows ones, due to the Amiga roots of the main programmer Paolo Cattani. Notably, the MorphOS version is completely free. The game includes most of the true circuits, very nicely realised, and highly recognizable. Those not included can be found as additional packages created by users on the net. The game is quite fast and playable also on low end machines, including the 400MHz Efika with just 128MB of RAM. Moreover, the game was conceived with the maximum freedom to customize the graphics and this led to the creation of [http://www.siniscope.com/vgphd/home.html higher quality textures and more detailed circuits] that can be used in the MorphOS version as well. As a consequence this game is at the same time enjoyable on the lowest end machines and yet can be one of the most graphically advanced available on MorphOS.

[[File:WipeOut2097_001.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Wipeout 2097 running in a window]]Other commercial games available for MorphOS include all those released for classic Amiga computers with PowerPC CPUs. These include the ''Wipeout 2097'' port released by Digital Images and the ''Heretic 2'' port released by Hyperion Entertainment. The former was a very nice version of the famous game, that took the best from the PlayStation version (the most playable one) and the Windows version (the higher resolution graphics, for instance), making the Amiga conversion the best incarnation of them all. ''Wipeout 2097'' is a WarpUp executable, using the Amiga ''Warp3D'' software for graphic acceleration, but, as usual, MorphOS users have little to worry about, since the OS includes ''Goa3D'', a wrapper for the Amiga's Warp3D. ''Wipeout 2097'' runs transparently, both in full screen and in a window on the desktop, supports graphics and audio boards not supported by the classic Amigas, and can be played using USB controllers. It is of course faster than it ever was on any classic Amiga.

[[File:quake3_003.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Quake III on Ambient]]Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'', ''Doom II'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'' and ''Quake III''. The ''Quake'' series supports 3D acceleration, and in particular in the case of the old first ''Quake'' episode, even the better looking versions ''Fodquake'', ''Fuhquake'', ''GLQuake'' and ''BlitzQuake'' have been ported. All the games run quite fast in high resolutions thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Speaking of first person shooters, also ''Cube'', ''AlephOne'' and the freeware game ''Warsow'' have been released. ''Warsow'' is probably graphically the most complex project ever ported to MorphOS (even though it is based on the old Quake II engine), and in fact might not run at a decent speed on a G3 CPU with Voodoo graphics. But it is also one mean to show that better hardware does not sit unused with MorphOS.

[[File:freespace2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Icculus' Freespace 2]][[File:HomeWorld_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|HomeWorld port]]Other open source projects ported include the icculus.org games ''Freespace 1'' and ''2'' (that of course need the original versions to be fully operational), and games like ''NeverBall'' and the 3D pool game ''FooBillard''. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', the open source reimplementation of Microprose's ''Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', is available, too. The MorphOS version (that, as well as all the other versions, needs the original game files to run) is synchronised with the official releases. This means that it is available directly from the project home page, since MorphOS support was inserted into the main source tree. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'' makes use of the ''PowerSDL.library'' to run. This library (whose special features are described in the section dedicated to [[MorphOS exclusive software]]) facilitated already the porting of dozens of free and open source SDL games to MorphOS. A recent addition to this list of ports is the space real strategy game called ''HomeWorld'', that is probably the first game requiring at least MorphOS 2.1. Also in this case the user needs the original PC version to be able to play this game on his MorphOS system. Other open source real time strategy games are available, notably ''Warzone 2100'', while fans of turn based strategic games have the chance to get some hours of fun with the famous ''Battle for Wesnoth''.

[[File:robinh_000.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Robin Hood]]In the past at least one commercial software house had been releasing specific ports for MorphOS, and that is RuneSoft (formerly known as Epic Interactive). They released ''Knights and Merchants'' and ''Robin Hood''. ''Knights and Merchants'' is a strategic game in the fashion of ''The Settlers'', just with much better graphics than the first release of that famous saga which started on the Amiga in 1993. ''Robin Hood'', on the other hand, is a strategic arcade game in ''Commandos'' style, originally released on PC by Spellbound. The graphics and audio are probably the best ever seen on MorphOS in a 2D game, and, even if a bit demanding, were carefully optimised to run smoothly even on a G3 Pegasos. RuneSoft had more games in the pipeline, and hopefully they will resume their support to MorphOS if they find again some viability in this market thanks to the broader hardware availability brought by the support of PPC Macintoshes. They always release demo versions of their conversions: therefore users can test the game, before voting with their wallets for more support.

[[File:scummvm_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sam & Max Hit the Road on MorphOS, courtesy of ScummVM]]Of course, on MorphOS the user can entertain himself not just with more or less native executables: there are also many emulators and virtual machines. One of the best known is ''ScummVM'', the free reimplementation of the engine behind most Lucas Arts/Lucas Games adventures. The newest versions are also compatible with some games from other vendors (just like ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' or ''Broken Sword'' from Revolution) and luckily available for MorphOS, too. The nice thing about this is the possibility to run some of these adventures that were never published in an Amiga-like environment (Lucas Arts left the Amiga scene after ''Indiana Jones 4''). The engine works flawlessly and nicely, and these games, with their retro appearance, are always fun to play.

[[File:MAME_MorphOS004.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The arcade emulator MAME]][[File:FPSE_001.jpg|200px|thumb|right|PlayStation emulator FPSE]]The category of the "real" emulators includes ''Genesis Plus'' and ''SMS Plus'' for the Sega consoles, ''SNES 9x'' for the Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) console, ''VICE'' for the VIC series of Commodore home computers, ''MAME'' for the arcade machines... All of these are quite good at their work and are not just fast ports, since, for instance, they all support overlay (in order to enable transparent real time resizing of the window) and USB joypads. A nice addition is ''FPSE'', the PlayStation emulator that supports even 3D graphic acceleration, enabling the possiblity to play games at video resolutions higher than the original.

Contributors

2009-12-13T17:51:51Z

Guruman:

''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'' wrote most of the original English text.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' provided many contents for the "Developer tools" section and wrote the sections "Games" and "Examples of MorphOS software".

''Martin "Senex" Heine'', ''David Brunet'' and ''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' applied updates to this article to reflect the changes following the release of MorphOS 2.x.

''Frank Mariak'' carefully read the text and supervised technical subjects.

''Grzegorz "Krashan" Kraszewski'' did proof-read version 2.4 of the text.

''Ed Vishoot'' carefully read the text and made important suggestions for its improvement.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' made an uncountable number of suggestions and criticisms, and reiterated them until the text was dramatically improved.

''Stefan Blixth'' provided the following pictures: MorphOS0.jpg and Blender.jpg as well as MorphOS1.jpg and MorphOS2.jpg of previous versions.

''Gunne Steen'' provided the following pictures: UAE_Workbench.png, ShowGirls.jpg and MPlayer.jpg as well as MainPrefs.png, AmbientSettings.png, AboutMUI.png and MUIPrefs.png of previous versions.

''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'' provided the following pictures: Shell.png, MAME_MorphOS004.jpg, CubicIDE.png as well as VGP2_001.png and VGP2_007.png of previous versions.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' provided the following pictures: VGP2HD_000.jpg, WipeOut2097_001.jpg, quake3_003.jpg, freespace2.jpg, HomeWorld_000.jpg, robinh_000.jpg, scummvm_000.jpg, FPSE_001.jpg, ANR_morphos2x.jpg, showgirls_mos2x.jpg, PTPDigCam_mos2x.jpg, chromium_004.jpg as well as fpse_000.jpg, ANR_003.jpg, showgirls_001.jpg, PTPDigCam_001.jpg of previous versions.

''Christian "tokai" Rosentreter'' provided the UAE_SuperFrog.png picture.

''David Brunet'' provided the following pictures: morphos_base_1.jpg, morphos_base_2.jpg, morphos_installation_1.jpg, morphos_mui_1.jpg, morphos_mui_2.jpg, morphos_ambient_1.jpg, morphos_ambient_2.jpg, morphos_prefs_1.jpg, morphos_poseidon_1.jpg, morphos_turboprint_1.jpg.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' provided the pictures MorphOS1n.jpg and OWB.jpg.

''Paolo Russo'' provided the picture morphos_personalized_1.jpg.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' and ''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'': Italian translation.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' and ''Oliver "Bladerunner" Hummel'': German translation.

''Andrei "mobydick" Shestakov'' and ''"AmiF1team"'': Russian translation.

''Jean-François "Jeffrey" Richard'': French translation.

''Héctor "Amiades" Juan López'': Spanish translation.

MorphOS key applications

2009-12-13T17:49:32Z

Guruman: Updated screenshots to reflect MorphOS 2.x default look, added some useful URLs

The reduced size of the OS and its simple structure (in relative terms) imply, among other things, that projects that require a team of programmers on other platforms often become modest one-man projects in MorphOS/Amiga environments. This slowdowns the development, but also gives excellent efficiency, simplicity, and compactness to the code. In this section a few excellent tools for MorphOS are mentioned, while in the next section you will find descriptions of the most important and powerful applications.

'''AmiNetRadio'''
[[File:ANR_morphos2x.jpg|200px|thumb|right|AmiNetRadio in action, with some gfx plugins and ShoutCast search support. Transparency courtesy of the commodity [http://morphzone.morphos-files.ppa.pl/find.php?find=lucy Lucy]]][http://www.amigazeux.net/anr/ ''ANR''] is an audio player. Born as a ShoutCast stream player, it has soon evolved into a fully featured and extremely modular player supporting many audio formats and graphical plugins. It is able to play RIFF WAVE, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG Audio, CDDA, AIFF, and ProTracker modules out of the box. However, an [http://www.amigazeux.net/anr/down.php SDK] documenting how to code additional players is available, and has lead to [http://www.amigazeux.net/anr/play.php third party support of MIDI, ScreamTracker, FastTracker as well as some more obscure formats] (including NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Atari ST sound formats). This makes ''ANR'' one of the best suited candidates at substituting ''Ambient'' 's internal audio player when associated to the audio files by means of the mimetype configuration.

One thing worth mentioning is that ''ANR'' is actually an AmigaOS 3.x executable coded for Motorola's 680x0 range of CPUs. Emulation transparency and effectiveness in MorphOS are so good that most of the aforementioned players are compiled exclusively for MorphOS in native PowerPC code, and can be mixed without any need for the user to be careful. The same can be said for the video plugins: ''ANR'' is compatible with the API of ''AmiAMP'' (an old Amiga version of the well known WinAMP), and therefore it is possible to mix 68k and PowerPC plugins. A fact even more interesting is that it is possible to use plugins compiled for the old executable formats (PowerUp and WarpUp) introduced years ago for PowerPC accelerators on classic Amigas. Non-Amiga people should not worry: all that matters to them is that MorphOS is transparently compatible with all the weird kinds of executables the Amiga community has introduced in the past, as long as they were coded in a "system-friendly" manner. ''ANR'' itself makes use of some extensions of the AmigaOS 3.x APIs for better skinning capabilities, thus resulting a MorphOS program at all effects, while consisting of 68k code.

'''ShowGirls'''
[[File:showgirls_mos2x.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A list of tools ShowGirls provides, the interface of one of them, and the new album manager]]As the name says (and if for you it doesn't, it just means you are not geek enough), this is an image viewer. While the internal viewer of ''Ambient'' provides the required basic functions, ''ShowGirls'' does a lot more: its interface is usually divided in two parts, on one side there are the thumbnails (with support of the EXIF format in JPEG pictures, which means that it doesn't need to load a 3MB+ image just to show a 50x50 preview) and on the other side the selected image is displayed. The image can be viewed in full screen as well, can be zoomed in and out, and can be elaborated. ''ShowGirls'' in fact features some basic image manipulation tools for adjusting colours, changing image resolution, as well as smoothing and sharpening operators, noise reduction, glow and blur effects, and enables cropping, rotating, flipping, as well as batch conversions. It is possible to use also a 3D view (with 3D accelerated rendering), but that's mostly a nice toy option.

The program was originally born as a tool for digital cameras, and in fact it can perform all the needed operations on files on a mass storage device. And in conjunction with a USB camera working as mass storage device you will rarely need anything else. If your camera supports the PTP standard, though, you might need to look elsewhere.

Starting from the 2.0 release of MorphOS, ''ShowGirls'' is provided with the OS itself as a contribution to be found in the Application directory, but additional updates are still available separately in the [http://kiero.binaryriot.org/ programmer's site].

'''PTPDigCam'''
[[File:PTPDigCam_mos2x.jpg|200px|thumb|right|PTPDigCam downloading some pictures from a Canon digicam]]This is a nice native and original software (not based on libraries ported from Linux) that enables to download and delete pictures, videos and audio files from Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Sony cameras supporting the PTP standard. The latest versions let the user choose the images from their EXIF thumbnail as well, and the program is well written, with a nice and polished ''MUI'' interface. It is not the most complex program in the world, but it shows the spirit of the old Amiga community: most alternative OSs do not support the PTP standard and require the users to buy a card reader. As inexpensive as this add-on might be, it is always better to have a software supporting even this not so widely recognised standard. There is also an alternative, called ''SimpleCam'' and based on ''libPTP'' ported from the Linux environment, but with a ''MUI'' GUI. And for those who like to control remotely their digicam, there is also ''CanonToolBox'', based on ''libPTP'', too.

With the release of MorphOS 2.0, the USB stack ''Poseidon'' directly supports the PTP standard. It is therefore possible to access the contents of any digicam internal memory just like it was a mass storage USB device. Obviously, since ''Ambient'' supports image thumbnails, it is possible to have a scaled preview of the pictures to be downloaded. It is still possible to use a third party program like ''PTPDigCam'': the user just needs to unbind the device in the USB preferences, easily accessible from the ''System Preferences'' panel.

'''PowerSDL'''
[[File:chromium_004.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Chromium, one of the open source games requiring SDL and OpenGL]]This evocative name labels a software package, whose port allows to broaden, indirectly, the availability of software on MorphOS. ''Simple DirectMedia Layer'' (SDL) is a cross-platform multimedia library that provides an abstraction layer for graphics, sound, and input APIs over various platforms. SDL allows a developer to write computer games or multimedia applications that run on many operating systems, and makes a lot of ports possible. The MorphOS version has been greatly improved upon the original Amiga port, and it is now constituted by a number of shared libraries (which, incidentally, make possible to use them in closed source/non GPLed software) making full use of the MorphOS APIs.

'''Frying Pan'''
[[File:morphos_base_2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Frying Pan, ShowGirls and AmiNetRadio on Ambient]]While many AmigaOS applications can still be run on MorphOS, including the popular CD-writer software ''MakeCD'', Commodore's demise preceded the introduction of DVDs. Thus ''Frying Pan'', a CD / DVD burning and mastering software, is filling this gap meanwhile. The application is shareware and available natively for MorphOS

'''OS4Emu'''

This is an example of a software that broadens the working applications directly: it is a wrapper for the AmigaOS 4 APIs (which is very similar to the MorphOS one, given the common heritage) to the correspondent MorphOS functions. This means that by double clicking on the icon of an AmigaOS 4 executable (or typing its name in a CLI window) there is a good chance it will work. Notable examples include ''FPSE'', the Sony PlayStation emulator, that ironically, thanks to ''Poseidon'' (the USB stack included in MorphOS), even supports USB joypads. (This is enabled by a simple feature in ''Poseidon'', that associates keystrokes selected by the user to joypad buttons). Other working titles are ''SID4Amiga'' (a player for C64 music files), some scene demos, many shell commands and utilities, and much more. The compatibility is not total, but it is improving at every new release.

File:PTPDigCam mos2x.jpg

2009-12-13T17:48:18Z

Guruman:

File:Showgirls mos2x.jpg

2009-12-13T17:40:22Z

Guruman:

File:ANR morphos2x.jpg

2009-12-13T17:33:59Z

Guruman:

3D graphics

2009-12-12T14:27:44Z

Guruman: Minor cosmetic change

Most currently available alternate OSs have no support for 3D graphics, or a very minimal support. This is due to the fact that the few companies that develop graphics cards either do not distribute technical documentation at all, or make it available in a form that creates many obstacles to single developers. They provide their own drivers for Windows, or provide documentation that is very difficult to obtain and use.

In this scenario of missing 3D support, MorphOS is a relevant exception, within certain limits. There are two reasons for this. The first is the creation of ''tinygl.library'', a very important software component which (despite its name) is a highly compliant and almost complete MorphOS implementation of the OpenGL specifications. The second is that the MorphOS Development Team decided to concentrate all their 3D efforts on a small number of graphics cards compatible with the supported PowerPC hardware.

The Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) is a standard defined by a document that specifies a set of over 250 different function calls whose use allows to draw complex 3D scenes from simple primitives. Its importance lies in the fact that it defines a platform-independent API. Developers that use OpenGL to write applications can be sure that these programs will generate 3D graphics on every computer that has an implementation of the library. OpenGL, originally developed by Silicon Graphics, is important for the games industry (where it only competes with Direct3D on the Windows platform), but is also used for professional applications where the simple management of 3D graphics is important (starting from flight simulators and virtual reality implementations, ranging through high-end displays for scientific applications and information presentations, up to technical applications like CADs).

As to TinyGLthe the MorphOS Development Team states: "TinyGL was originally created by Fabrice Bellard as a subset of OpenGL for embedded systems and games. It was designed with no hardware acceleration in mind at this time. Only the main OpenGL calls were implemented. The MorphOS version of TinyGL is only loosely based on the original implementation. It was rewritten to take full advantage of 3D hardware acceleration. Furthermore, it contains several carefully chosen MESA features. TinyGL on MorphOS provides a much richer feature set and surpasses the original's speed at the same time."

Of course OpenGL/TinyGL are not enough for full management of 3D graphics cards. Special software drivers are needed to use the 3D hardware on the cards. The MorphOS Development Team created drivers for the following PCI and/or AGP cards: 3dfx Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5; ATI Radeon 7000, Radeon 7200, Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9000, Radeon 9100, Radeon 9200, Radeon 9250. As you can see, these certainly are not the most recent graphics cards on the market, but they are well supported by the drivers and have an optimal fit with the performances of the current PegasosPPC hardware.

Main Page

2009-12-07T17:29:00Z

Guruman: /* MorphOS - The Lightning OS */

__NOTOC__

<div style="font-size:162%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#274572;">Welcome to the MorphOS Library,</div>
<div style="top:+0.2em; font-size:95%;">the wiki based library of MorphOS related documentation.</div>
<div id="articlecount" style="width:100%; text-align:left; font-size:85%;">[[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}]] articles in [[English language|English]]</div>

Do you have suggestions or would like to contribute? Please contact: <div id="message2library"></div>

'''Important note to editors:''' [[Basic Guidelines]] - [[List of Wanted Articles]]

==MorphOS - The Lightning OS==

* [[What is MorphOS?]]
* [[Hardware Platforms]]
* [[Installation]]
* [[Characteristic features]]
* [[MorphOS integration]]
* [[MorphOS Development]]
* [[Developer tools]]
* [[3D graphics]]
* [[Games]]
* [[MorphOS exclusive software]]
* [[Platform expansion]]
* [[Who needs MorphOS?]]
* [[Conclusions]]
* [[Useful links]]
* [[F.A.Q.]]
* [[Historical notes]]
* [[Contributors]]

==Articles==
The core of the MorphOS Library can be found here. Along with the provided manuals, there are several documents designed to help users get the most out of their MorphOS powered computer.

* [[Getting Started]]
* [[Fundamentals of MorphOS]]
* [[Dictionary of Terms]]
* [[Volume Names]]

==Tutorials==
Welcome to the Tutorials section of the MorphOS Library. In this aisle of the library you can find examples and step by step instructions to help get the most out of your MorphOS experience.

*[[Modifying the User-Startup file]]
*[[Dual-boot MorphOS and MacOS X on a Mac Mini G4]]

==Development==
In the development section of the MorphOS Library, you can find a collection of helpful articles and tutorials focused on MorphOS software development.

*[[In-depth: The New MorphOS Memory System]]

==Work in Progress==
*[[ReTooled]]

Main Page

2009-12-07T17:28:31Z

Guruman: /* MorphOS - The Lightning OS */

__NOTOC__

<div style="font-size:162%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#274572;">Welcome to the MorphOS Library,</div>
<div style="top:+0.2em; font-size:95%;">the wiki based library of MorphOS related documentation.</div>
<div id="articlecount" style="width:100%; text-align:left; font-size:85%;">[[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}]] articles in [[English language|English]]</div>

Do you have suggestions or would like to contribute? Please contact: <div id="message2library"></div>

'''Important note to editors:''' [[Basic Guidelines]] - [[List of Wanted Articles]]

==MorphOS - The Lightning OS==

* [[What is MorphOS?]]
* [[Hardware Platforms]]
* [[Installation]]
* [[Characteristic features]]
* [[MorphOS integration]]
* [[MorphOS Development]]
* [[Developer tools]]
* [[3D graphics]]
* [[Games]]
* [[Examples of MorphOS software]]
* [[Platform expansion]]
* [[Who needs MorphOS?]]
* [[Conclusions]]
* [[Useful links]]
* [[F.A.Q.]]
* [[Historical notes]]
* [[Contributors]]

==Articles==
The core of the MorphOS Library can be found here. Along with the provided manuals, there are several documents designed to help users get the most out of their MorphOS powered computer.

* [[Getting Started]]
* [[Fundamentals of MorphOS]]
* [[Dictionary of Terms]]
* [[Volume Names]]

==Tutorials==
Welcome to the Tutorials section of the MorphOS Library. In this aisle of the library you can find examples and step by step instructions to help get the most out of your MorphOS experience.

*[[Modifying the User-Startup file]]
*[[Dual-boot MorphOS and MacOS X on a Mac Mini G4]]

==Development==
In the development section of the MorphOS Library, you can find a collection of helpful articles and tutorials focused on MorphOS software development.

*[[In-depth: The New MorphOS Memory System]]

==Work in Progress==
*[[ReTooled]]

MorphOS Development

2009-12-07T17:27:16Z

Guruman: Minor aesthetic changes (reintroduced italics)

In the first phase of its history, MorphOS was a dream that slowly came true by means of a number of very talented programmers. Then, when the hardware development by bPlan became closer and closer to finalisation, and MorphOS was the unique OS used for the first distribution of 200 betatester units by Genesi, the development was well supported and accelerated. Once corporate funding ended in 2002/03, MorphOS development slowed down again. Today, the current spare-time development of MorphOS goes on slowly but constantly with a number of simultaneous activities.

(1) The core internals of the ''boot.img'' are handled exclusively by the MorphOS Development Team. Little is known about the ongoing improvements, but it is publicly known that the members of the MorphOS Development Team already use MorphOS on Apple's eMac and PowerBook G4.

(2) Other parts of MorphOS which reside outside the ''boot.img'' are sometimes updated and released independently from the official OS updates. For instance, this concerns ''MUI'' and ''Ambient''. Furthermore, after releasing MorphOS 2.2, the Development Team published an update pack with various minor improvements, especially several libraries, for those who are still using the free version 1.4.5 of the OS to stay compatible with new software releases.

(3) Development for MorphOS in the open source/third party arena is not only active but well appreciated. Besides the already mentioned ''Ambient'' desktop, an original MorphOS product that became an open source effort later, there are several open source applications and games from other platforms ported over to MorphOS.

(4) In an interesting move to focus third party developers' attention and following initiatives already attempted in other environments, users have got together to provide a "bounty" system where users (and coders) can submit ideas for development and contribute money for their realisation.
Several noticeable projects have emerged from this "bounty" system, including ''SFSDoctor'' and ''MorphUp'' (a sophisticated package manager for automatic installation and upgrade of applications). The bounty system is being used even to speed up the development of parts of the OS that have a particular value for users. An example of a current project being developed and supported by the bounty program is a wrapper that translates GUI toolkit functions from GTK into MUI ones to facilitate ports of software making use of that user interface and to integrate them also with regard to their appearance.

MorphOS integration

2009-12-07T17:25:23Z

Guruman: Reintroduced links and italics

MorphOS is perfectly suited for its current user community, i.e. a group of hardcore Amiga users. Such persons, in the fast rise of the Wintel era, faced the problem of integrating an OS that was no more upgraded. Indeed, in the 90s, after Commodore's demise, the owners of the brand froze the development of AmigaOS. This OS survived thanks to the impulse provided by many independent developers who slowly added almost any type of missing features. Most of this software is available at the huge repository of free and shareware Amiga software, [http://main.aminet.net/ ''Aminet''], that currently contains almost 79,000 files. So the main rule of the thumb for Amiga users is: if something is missing, download it from ''Aminet''. And, of course, this rule extends to all MorphOS newcomers. Since there is no e-mail program included in MorphOS, you can get from ''Aminet'' for example ''YAM'' (Yet Another Mailer). Like ''SimpleMail'', ''YAM'' is one of the two most diffused mailers for the Amiga nowadays. You can download ''YAM'' or ''SimpleMail'' also from SourceForge.net or their homepages. There are nightly builds created in native PowerPC code for MorphOS, too.

Furthermore MorphOS has just a very minimal documentation. But due to the API compatibility, the documentation of AmigaOS 3.1 covers 75% of all the possible issues. However, MorphOS is not a simple clone of AmigaOS: it already embodies a large number of enhancements, most of which are not immediately visible to the unaware user. Here the community has given again its help with the creation of [http://www.efika.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=44 The Pegasos Book], that collects in a single book a huge set of very useful and important information concerning hardware, software and configuration issues that it is important to know when someone uses the Pegasos/MorphOS pair.

Characteristic features

2009-12-07T17:22:52Z

Guruman: Reintroduced links and italics

The core of MorphOS is compressed and stored inside a ''boot.img'' file which must reside on some storage medium accessible by the Open Firmware (OF). This file is loaded by the OF and starts up the ''Quark'' microkernel, as well as a number of other low-level basic components of the OS. The rest of the OS is formed by hard disk based files and runs on top of this software layer.

<center><gallery width=90px perrow=3>
File:UAE_SuperFrog.png|UAE on MorphOS
File:UAE_Workbench.png|UAE on MorphOS
File:morphos_installation_1.jpg|Installation
File:morphos_mui_1.jpg|Magic User Interface
File:morphos_mui_2.jpg|Magic User Interface
</gallery></center>

Amiga was characterised by advanced low-level software features provided by its microkernel, ''Exec'', like pre-emptive multitasking, inter-process communication, etc., that were absent in any popular computer of the late 80s (early Macs and PCs, Atari computers, etc.). Of course all these features and more are also provided in MorphOS by its own reimplementation of the ''exec.library''. In theory ''Quark'' is also able to provide a number of sandboxes where virtualised operating systems could run independently. Currently the low-level processes of the ''QBox'' do start only one box, though: the ''ABox'', which is actually just a single ''Quark'' thread that provides a special API for programs and applications. Indeed this API is fully compatible with AmigaOS 3.1 (the last operating system created and distributed by Commodore for its Amiga computers) and, together with ''Trance'' (a powerful JIT compiler for Amiga executables), guarantees a high degree of compatibility for a large set of Amiga legacy applications. The complex operations executed by ''Trance'' are instantaneous and invisible: ''Trance'' detects automatically any launched Amiga executable, converts it into a PowerPC executable, and runs it on the spot.

By the release of ''MorphOS 2.0'', a new memory management (described in the article [[In-depth: The New MorphOS Memory System]]) has been introduced. Actually, the operating system provides a pluggable memory interface now, allowing the user to choose between the new Two Level Segregated Fit (TLSF) allocator scheme or the old one, First Fit, used by AmigaOS and older versions of MorphOS. Compared to the previous memory system, TLSF maintains good performance regardless of memory fragmentation, which is in addition also reduced now.

Please note though that almost all of the huge number of excellent games that made famous the Amiga in the late 80s and early 90s do not run directly in the MorphOS environment. Amiga computers were equipped with custom chips for graphics and audio. Their operation is totally incompatible with a modern system like MorphOS, which is able to manage AGP and PCI 2D/3D GFX boards and on-board or PCI audio. If you want to play old games on a Pegasos, you can, but like on other systems you need ''UAE'' (the Universal Amiga Emulator), which is also available for MorphOS and provides the required compatibility. Thanks to ''Ambient'' 's configurability with regard to file recognition and the handling of executables, [http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://obligement.free.fr/articles/integrer_euae_ambient.php&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhjk2PsXgoQWd2VqwEc2hAQVx_2OeQ ''UAE'' integration] into MorphOS is easily achieved, though, allowing to directly launch Amiga disk images from the desktop.

The native compatibility of MorphOS with Amiga legacy software, instead, has a different target. Users can run almost all the most recent and advanced Amiga applications, which are able to manage additional GFX and audio boards created for the latest Amiga computers. The relevant software layers that were initially developed by third parties for the AmigaOS, known as ''CGX'' (CyberGraphX) and ''AHI'' (Audio Hardware Interface), mask and manage the retargetable hardware and are fully integrated into MorphOS.

<center><gallery width=90px perrow=3>
File:ShowGirls.jpg|ShowGirls - Picture Viewer
File:Shell.png|Shell Window
File:morphos_ambient_1.jpg|Ambient - 'Desktop'
File:morphos_ambient_2.jpg|Ambient - 'Desktop'
File:MorphOS0.jpg|MorphOS UI
</gallery></center>

MorphOS makes two very compact, efficient, and fully integrated interfaces available (Command Line Interface and Graphic User Interface) for shells and applications. For the latter MorphOS has adopted an object-oriented software GUI layer called Magic User Interface (''MUI''), which originated as a third-party AmigaOS product as well. ''MUI'' not only provides the programmer with more sophisticated GUI interactions and layouts, but also allows users to more fully customise these GUIs to their individual tastes. Actually ''MUI'' is one of the most distinctive components of MorphOS, both in terms of features and aesthetics.

MorphOS shell is a Unix-like shell provided with all the features you expect from such a component: AmigaDOS commands, local and global variables, command substitution, command redirection, named and unnamed pipes, history, programmable menus, multiple shells in a window, ANSI compatibility, colour selection, and so on. Of course the set of commands includes all the necessary commands for scripting. In conclusion: Command Line Interface users will not be disappointed...

''Ambient'' is the ''MUI'' based, fully asynchronous, multi-threaded, default native desktop of MorphOS. Although open sourced, in practice ''Ambient'' is an exclusive component of MorphOS, because it is so strictly related to ''MUI'' and the OS that its porting to any other environment would be quite difficult. ''Ambient'' provides program icon management, directory navigation, program launching, file handling, and everything that is needed for managing the system. ''Ambient'' is highly adaptable to user's taste: file management can be done in classic (spatial) mode or browser mode, using icon view or list view. Filetype recognition is done by means of direct file probing and/or mimetypes, and users have full control and editing capabilities on mimetypes for a fine-tuning of the related actions. ''Ambient'' allows the user to easily perform any type of activity with the inbuilt tools: file search utility, text viewer, picture viewer, sound player, system monitor, disk formatting utility, management of commodity utilities, and much more. From ''Ambient'' menus, users can control all the settings in their MorphOS environment, including ''MUI'' settings and the desktop itself.

It may be mentioned in passing that users are not necessarily forced to use ''Ambient''. Other common desktop environments of the Amiga world can be run at the same time, or even as complete substitutes for ''Ambient'', e.g. ''Directory Opus Magellan'' (also available for PC users as a substitute for Windows ''Explorer''), ''Scalos'', and even the classic Amiga ''Workbench'' (but this is reserved for crazy users which like some hacking).

The previous components of the OS are those that the user always sees and manipulates: their visual impact and easy handling have a high influence on user appreciation. ''Ambient'' users, for instance, can select distinct skins, changing on the fly the general aspect of all the windows, gadgets, and other graphic elements of the desktop (some distinct skins are shown in the pictures). On the other hand, other system software runs invisibly and silently, but is equally important, because without it the computer will be unusable. A few examples are filesystems, USB management, printing software, advanced scripting systems, etc. Of course all these components are present in MorphOS, but only short descriptions are given here, mostly concerning special features that add to those that users automatically expect from this hidden software.

Filesystems for hard disks are very important components that must take care of precious data. MorphOS is provided with an implementation of ''FFS'', the standard Fast File System of the Amiga, that is present mostly for compatibility reasons. ''SFS'' (Smart File System) is a much faster and more reliable filesystem, that keeps track of the last transactions before they are applied. In other terms it is a journaling-like filesystem that guarantees the integrity of the data even in the case of computer crashes during write operations. ''SFS'' has been adopted by MorphOS as its default filesystem, but MorphOS also supports other filesystems including ''PFS'' (Professional File System) available commercially for Amiga computers, the ubiquitous ''FAT'' (File Allocation Table) of MS-DOS environments, ''NTFS'' from Windows (read-only), ''EXT2FS'' and ''EXT3FS'' from Linux, ''SGIXFS'' from Silicon Graphics (read-only), ''Mac HFS+'' (read-only) and, since the release of MorphOS 2.4 for Apple's Mac mini G4, ''Mac HFS''. Salvage utilities are available both for ''SFS'' (''SFSDoctor'', included with MorphOS) and ''PFS'' (commercially available) and handle operations like retrieving deleted data, file system structure repair, and even reorganisation to decrease fragmentation. Old salvage tools for ''FFS'' can still be used as well, but they support partitions upto 4 GB in size only.

<center><gallery width=90px>
File:morphos_personalized_1.jpg|MorphOS - Personalized UI
File:morphos_poseidon_1.jpg|MorphOS - USB Driver Settings
File:morphos_turboprint_1.jpg|Printer Driver Settings
</gallery></center>

The USB stack of MorphOS is called ''Poseidon'', and is probably the most efficient USB stack existing on every computer platform. The best description of its features is certainly given by its author, whose words are reported in the following lines:
"''Poseidon'' is a software solution that unleashes the possibilities of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and the devices with USB interface, ranging from mice, keyboards, tablets, joysticks, printers, scanners, webcams, digicams, flash card readers, zip drives, floppy disk drives, harddisks, memory sticks, ethernet adapters, scanners and audio adapters to less common things like power supplies, GPS location devices or finger print readers. Poseidon has a modular design that fits into the AmigaOS/MorphOS environment very neatly. It is no port of an existing system (like the Linux USB stack), but has been created with the unique features of AmigaOS/MorphOS in mind, that make these operating systems so efficient."
It should be added that ''Poseidon'' always tries to do its job in a completely automatic way, but in case the user needs customisation for a specific USB device, ''Poseidon'' reveals incredible configuration capabilities that allow the user to solve almost any problem.

The printing system adopted by MorphOS is ''TurboPrint'', a licensed commercial software package also distributed in the Linux world. It allows full control of the printer and its colours (if any), and of course runs transparently for any application. ''TurboPrint'' requires an update if the user needs printer drivers for recent printers, but the upgrading package is also convenient for the presence of some useful printing utilities that are absent in MorphOS.

The advanced scripting system that characterised AmigaOS since version 2.0 is ''ARexx'', an implementation of REXX, an interpreted, structured, high-level programming language introduced by IBM. On the Amiga almost every important application has an ''ARexx'' port that allows its (possibly full) external control by means of ''ARexx'' scripts, or even by means of ''ARexx'' commands coming from other programs. In such a way advanced users can generate and manage interactive operations among any number of independent programs, as well as totally automatic activities of each single program, by means of simple ''ARexx'' procedures (whose use and structure were fully explored during years of use in the Amiga environment). MorphOS has a native implementation of this language (except for a library that for now still has to be extracted from AmigaOS, ''rexxsyslib.library'').

Installation

2009-12-07T17:09:09Z

Guruman: Updated layout and added image captions

[[File:morphos_installation_1.jpg|125px|thumb|left|MorphOS installer]][[File:morphos_prefs_1.jpg|125px|thumb|right|MorphOS preferences]]The installation of most operating systems is usually a long operation, and may sometimes become a real nightmare if you are unlucky or unskilled. A small footprint OS like MorphOS shows its advantages even in the installation phase, both in terms of time and simplicity. Just boot from CD into a fully useable default configuration and let the included installer guide you during the setup. After less than five minutes everything will be done. But you will have another surprise: let MorphOS start from your hard disk and count the time that is necessary to boot into the plain OS environment. You will find that this occurs in less than five seconds: welcome to the lightning OS!

Hardware Platforms

2009-12-07T17:06:35Z

Guruman: Reintroduced weblinks and moved image.

[[File:Hardware_tn.gif|left]]MorphOS runs exclusively on PowerPC processors. Four specific hardware platforms have been supported so far: the PowerPC accelerator boards for Commodore's Amiga line of computers (developed by the former company Phase5 in the1990s and known as [http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=225 CyberStormPPC] and [http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=154 BlizzardPPC]), which were supported until MorphOS 1.4.5, the [http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/output.php?PAGE_ID=125 Pegasos I & II] and [http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/output.php?PAGE_ID=124 Efika] mainboards (developed by [http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/ bplan] and distributed by [http://www.genesi-usa.com/ Genesi]) and since version 2.4 of the operating system also the [http://support.apple.com/kb/SP65 Mac mini G4] by Apple. Pegasos and Efika boards are initialised by an HAL/OF (Hardware Abstraction Layer / Open Firmware) called [http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/output.php?PAGE_ID=127&LANG_ID=2 SmartFirmware], a BIOS-like software created and maintained by bplan for its PowerPC products (and available under license for every designer/manufacturer of PowerPC-based products).

What is MorphOS?

2009-12-07T17:01:21Z

Guruman: Reintroduced italics and weblinks

[[File:MorphOS1n_tn.jpg|200px|thumb|left|]] [[File:morphos_base_1.jpg|200px|thumb|left|]]

Supposedly this will be the most asked question among all readers of this article. It's likely that you never heard this name - [http://www.morphos-team.net/ MorphOS] - before in your life, but it is extremely likely that you heard another name: Amiga. In this introduction it is enough to say that MorphOS is currently an enhanced clone of the AmigaOS (the [[Historical notes]] section explores some details of this connection).

Although a functional clone of the AmigaOS is a nice experiment, the real potential for MorphOS is found in its ability to provide for more advanced OS features not found in the AmigaOS. This is possible because MorphOS is built around a very flexible, powerful, and compact microkernel called ''Quark'', whose structure is totally unrelated and independent from the Amiga and Linux kernels.

One distinctive feature of MorphOS is that it has a small "footprint". A complete installation requires just about 140 Megabytes for the whole OS and contributions. And much less is needed if one desires to optimise one's running environment and leave out unused and/or non-essential parts of the OS. Another distinctive feature of MorphOS is its speed. Even on a 400 MHz CPU the entire operating system and its applications remain responsive and quick to load at all times. Boot times for the operating system are short, and applications load up very quickly.

MorphOS is a proprietary OS except for some parts that are open source, e.g. its desktop [http://morphosambient.sourceforge.net/ ''Ambient''] or ''AHI'', the retargetable audio subsystem. Since version 2.0 MorphOS is a commercial product, before it could be used for free. A full-featured but time-limited trial version can be downloaded from the MorphOS homepage. After 30 minutes of use, the system becomes extremely slow, but after a reboot you'll have another half an hour and so on until you register your copy and buy a licence, which is sold for 150 Euro.

Contributors

2009-12-07T16:56:37Z

Guruman: Reintroduced italic and updated content a bit.

''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'' wrote most of the original English text.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' provided many contents for the "Developer tools" section and wrote the sections "Games" and "Examples of MorphOS software".

''Martin "Senex" Heine'', ''David Brunet'' and ''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' applied updates to this article to reflect the changes following the release of MorphOS 2.x.

''Frank Mariak'' carefully read the text and supervised technical subjects.

''Grzegorz "Krashan" Kraszewski'' did proof-read version 2.4 of the text.

''Ed Vishoot'' carefully read the text and made important suggestions for its improvement.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' made an uncountable number of suggestions and criticisms, and reiterated them until the text was dramatically improved.

''Stefan Blixth'' provided the following pictures: MorphOS0.jpg and Blender.jpg as well as MorphOS1.jpg and MorphOS2.jpg of previous versions.

''Gunne Steen'' provided the following pictures: UAE_Workbench.png, ShowGirls.jpg and MPlayer.jpg as well as MainPrefs.png, AmbientSettings.png, AboutMUI.png and MUIPrefs.png of previous versions.

''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'' provided the following pictures: Shell.png, MAME_MorphOS004.jpg, CubicIDE.png as well as VGP2_001.png and VGP2_007.png of previous versions.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' provided the following pictures: VGP2HD_000.jpg, WipeOut2097_001.jpg, quake3_003.jpg, freespace2.jpg, HomeWorld_000.jpg, robinh_000.jpg, scummvm_000.jpg, FPSE_001.jpg, ANR_003.jpg, showgirls_001.jpg, PTPDigCam_001.jpg, chromium_004.jpg as well as fpse_000.jpg of previous versions.

''Christian "tokai" Rosentreter'' provided the UAE_SuperFrog.png picture.

''David Brunet'' provided the following pictures: morphos_base_1.jpg, morphos_base_2.jpg, morphos_installation_1.jpg, morphos_mui_1.jpg, morphos_mui_2.jpg, morphos_ambient_1.jpg, morphos_ambient_2.jpg, morphos_prefs_1.jpg, morphos_poseidon_1.jpg, morphos_turboprint_1.jpg.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' provided the pictures MorphOS1n.jpg and OWB.jpg.

''Paolo Russo'' provided the picture morphos_personalized_1.jpg.

''Andrea "Guruman" Maniero'' and ''Fulvio "DoctorMorbius_FP" Peruggi'': Italian translation.

''Martin "Senex" Heine'' and ''Oliver "Bladerunner" Hummel'': German translation.

''Andrei "mobydick" Shestakov'' and ''"AmiF1team"'': Russian translation.

''Jean-François "Jeffrey" Richard'': French translation.

''Héctor "Amiades" Juan López'': Spanish translation.

Historical notes

2009-12-07T16:46:27Z

Guruman: Minor aesthetic (italic)

''Ultracondensed classic Amiga history:''

Probably you know that Amiga was considered an extraordinary game machine that gained a large user base in the late 80s and early 90s. But if you think it was only a game console masked as a computer, you are completely in error. It had 4096 colours when PC screens were black and green, it had sound and voice when PCs were dumb, it had pre-emptive multitasking when PCs run one program at a time. So Amiga also collected a community of advanced users, who adopted it for professional uses. After the demise of Commodore in 1994, the Amiga people slowly dispersed. Gamers migrated towards PCs and superconsoles; and most software houses and professional programmers converted their programs and migrated towards PC and Mac platforms. However many hardcore people did not migrate. Some software houses and hardware producers, a few professional programmers, together with many non-professional programmers, hobbyists, amateurs, and advanced users unified themselves into an extremely argumentative (thus vital!) community strongly glued together via the Internet.

''Ultracondensed Pegasos/MorphOS history:''

For a number of years the Amiga trademark passed from hand to hand without any real evolution, mostly used just as a brand for advertising. In the meanwhile, some extraordinary members of the Amiga community slowly emerged and were able to create something that no other nostalgic community of retro PC amateurs has ever been able to do. They created from scratch a new PowerPC-based hardware platform and a new operating system that were able to collect the Amiga legacy and revive the residual community of hardcore users. The hardware wizards are the guys of bPlan/Genesi, while the software wizards that started everything (Ralph Schmidt, creator of ''Quark'', and Frank Mariak, creator of ''CyberGraphX'') are the leaders of the MorphOS Development Team.

''Ultracondensed AmigaOne/AmigaOS 4 history:''

Another PowerPC-based community emerged in the new century. The penultimate owners of the Amiga trademark, mostly interested to use the brand in another market, first declared AmigaOS dead and later, once MorphOS emerged, outsourced the production of computers and the AmigaOS. This originated AmigaOS 4 as well as the AmigaOne (discontinued) and nowadays Sam440ep PowerPC platform. Furthermore, also the Pegasos II is supported meanwhile.

F.A.Q.

2009-12-07T16:45:08Z

Guruman: Reintroduced italic, and updated a bit the content of the first answer to reflect support of minis requiring again the small partition

''I'm installing MorphOS and the installation script requires that I create and format two partitions: one very small ''FFS'' partition for the ''boot.img'' file, and one larger, bootable, possibly ''SFS'', partition for system files. You said only one is necessary.''

This behaviour of MorphOS installation procedure is justified by the necessity to be compatible with the past. Old versions of the HAL/OF were able to manage only ''FFS'' partitions. So the ''boot.img'' was put in a ''FFS'' partition to let the HAL/OF be able to run it. On the other hand, it was/is better to put system files on a ''SFS'' partition, due to its higher reliability. New versions of the HAL/OF can read ''SFS'' partitions, and ''PFS'' partitions as well, so you can put everything on a single reliable partition. A notable exception is the installation of MorphOS on a supported Apple Mac machine. The Open Firmware of these machines only supports booting from ''HFS'' or ''HFS+'' partitions, therefore the creation of a very small partition for the ''boot.img'' file is again mandatory, as explained in the [[Dual-boot MorphOS and MacOS X on a Mac Mini G4]] guide.

''You said that ''Quark'' and other low-level software are compressed in the ''boot.img'' file. Compressed?''

The ''boot.img'' file is a gzip archive, the real image file (e.g. ''bootpegasos2rom.img'') is inside and is extracted and run by the HAL/OF.

''You said that in earlier versions of this article that ''Quark'' supports memory protection and virtual memory, but it seems these features are not active.''

Memory protection did not exist in the AmigaOS, and is not implemented within the ''ABox'' of MorphOS for compatibility reasons (almost all the legacy applications would not be able to run correctly with memory protection). On the other hand, memory protection is usable within the ''QBox'' and might be available for future applications especially designed for QBox in case a migration of hardware drivers from ''ABox'' to ''QBox'' will take place. Virtual memory was implemented in the beginning of MorphOS development, but its upgrade is currently halted, due to very low priority. In fact, the maximal RAM requirements of MorphOS and native/legacy programs are very small in comparison with the usual RAM sizes currently available.

Useful links

2009-12-07T16:37:16Z

Guruman: Reintroduced weblinks and changed MorphZone downloads link

''MorphOS community sites''

The center around which everything turns is [http://www.morphzone.org/modules/news/ MorphZone]. For german readers there is also the [http://www.pegasosforum.de/ Pegasosforum].

''News sites and Forums''

[http://www.amiga-news.de/en/ Amiga-News]; [http://www.amigaworld.net/ AmigaWorld]; [http://www.amiga.org/ Amiga.org]; [http://www.pegasos.org/ Pegasos.org]; [http://obligement.free.fr/ Obligement]; [http://www.amigaimpact.org/ Amiga Impact].

''MorphOS development sites''

[http://www.morphos-team.net/ MorphOS Development Team]; [http://morphosambient.sourceforge.net/ Ambient Desktop].

''Hardware related sites''

[http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/ bplan]; [http://www.genesi-usa.com/ Genesi]; [http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ Big Book of Amiga Hardware].

''Software related sites''

[http://main.aminet.net/ Aminet]; [http://www.morphzone.org/downloads/ MorphZone]; [http://www.morphos-files.net/ MorphOS Files]; [http://www.meta-morphos.org/download.php Meta MorphOS]; [http://morphos.lukysoft.cz/en/ morphos.lukysoft.cz].

''Amiga history''

[http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/ Amiga history guide]; [http://www.pegasosmorphos.de.vu/chronike.html The history of the Pegasos].

''Manuals (PDF format)''

[http://www.efika.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=44 The Pegasos Book] and [http://www.efika.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=26 The Efika Book], both also available in translations.

''FAQ''

[http://www.morphzone.org/modules/xoopsfaq/ MorphZone Quick Help].

''Reviews''

[http://www.webalice.it/fulvio.peruggi/public/Pegasos&MorphOS/index.html DoctorMorbius_FP Homepage].

Who needs MorphOS?

2009-12-07T16:26:23Z

Guruman: Reintroduced italic

The previous arguments suggest that the use of MorphOS as a main desktop OS has a number of limitations that currently prevent its adoption for large-scope professional purposes. But MorphOS is already usable for strict-scope professional purposes, and is very well suited for semi-professional and hobbyist purposes. Of course, its current limitations would be irrelevant e.g. in the embedded market, where rather its small footprint and fast responsiveness are the really characterising features.

Well, although you may judge the following sentence like a paradox, one can say that those that appear as limitations in a professional environment are actually perceived as advantages by current users. In fact, these advanced users are able to compensate almost any deficiency of the software available for MorphOS by means of free, shareware and commercial software that already exists for the Amiga platform or is in the development phase for MorphOS. They already use MorphOS at its best obtaining a responsiveness unparalleled on every other platform; and their environment is totally immune from any virus, worm, trojan, spyware, adware and similar beasts coming from the net. They can install Linux and Mac OS X not only on their MorphOS-supported Apple hardware but (using MacOnLinux) even on their Pegasos, just to use ''FireFox'' and ''Office'' when it is necessary; or else they can use the ''RDesktop'' tool within MorphOS environment and control a remote PC.

Other potential users of MorphOS may be people that want to be "free" from the oppression of a monolithic authoritarian environment like Windows, and/or do not want to be "menaced" by the unfathomable depths of Unix-like systems, that are fully manageable only by Linux geeks. And of course MorphOS is the best choice for nostalgic Amiga users who want the speed of the real new thing instead of the slower synthetic environment provided by UAE. This list of people does not exhaust all potential users of MorphOS. If this OS will be used on PowerPC boards for the embedded market, another group of special users will join the others: the developers of embedded applications. They will need a comfortable desktop environment for their work, and will also discover the usefulness of the dialogue with a community where a large percentage of the members (higher than on most other platforms) are skilled programmers ready to help whenever they are asked for.

The evolution of the system should remove current limitations and provide for a larger base of users: people who will be able to open new horizons and enlarge the current niche.

Platform expansion

2009-12-07T16:23:46Z

Guruman: Reintroduced weblinks, italic and screenshots.

[[File:CubicIDE.png|200px|thumb|right|CubicIDE editing an HTML document and an ARexx script]]One of the most important positive effects of the compatibility of MorphOS with Amiga programs is the fact that MorphOS users can still run almost all the commercial software they purchased for their Amiga, with great advantage in power and speed. The MorphOS/Pegasos computer platform does not start from scratch! Although the official death of Commodore is dated April 29, 1994, many applications for the Amiga were developed for years and years after that date. And a number of important programs are still actively developed today, like, for instance, the extremely sophisticated DeskTop Publishing program [http://www.pagestream.org/ ''PageStream''] (which currently is available at the same time for Amiga, Linux, MacOS, and Windows platforms, as well as in native PowerPC code for MorphOS), the advanced editor ''GoldEd'' (that now is the core of [http://devplex.awardspace.biz/ ''Cubic IDE''], an Integrated Development Environment that covers all the major programming languages and SDKs available for AmigaOS/MorphOS), the state-of-the-art presentation program [http://www.airsoftsoftwair.com/ ''Hollywood''] (that inherits the illustrious legacy of ''Scala'', preserving full compatibility with that program, and adding all the features allowed by modern graphics systems), and so on.

Anyway, when a computer platform has a small user base, like MorphOS, the development of new software becomes difficult. The production of commercial software is not encouraged, since there is a small likelihood of finding a sufficiently large number of purchasers. The production of open source and shareware software is constant, or rises very slowly, because it does not find a sufficiently large base of coders: everyone is already concentrated on a number of projects and has no time for others. In such a case there is a solution that sometimes can drastically reduce the development time of an application: porting software from other platforms.

[[File:MPlayer.jpg|200px|thumb|left|An old version of MPlayer on MorphOS]][[File:Blender.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The 3D modeling and rendering program Blender]]When AmigaOS was designed, a number of structures and features were inspired by Unix, and of course this reflects in the ''ABox'' API of MorphOS. So the porting of small commands, utilities, programs, and games from Unix to AmigaOS, and now from Linux to MorphOS, is sometimes not difficult. Two specific system libraries (''ixemul.library'' and ''ixnet.library'') make a number of porting efforts easier that require special Linux-like routines. Even large and complex applications like ''MPlayer'', ''MEncoder'', ''MLDonkey'', ''E-UAE'', ''MAME'' and ''Blender'' have been ported to MorphOS.

The main obstacles for code porting are the absence of the ''fork()'' function in AmigaOS and the ''ABox'' of MorphOS, the fact that AmigaOS/MorphOS are not fully POSIX-compliant, and the extreme difficulty of GUI porting. Linux GUIs are based on windowing systems which are usually parts of larger desktop environments, and are not integrated in the OS. Besides a very early port of ''X-Windows'', no Linux windowing system has ever been ported to AmigaOS/MorphOS. There is no real advantage in doing such a port, because the effort would be very hard, and the smallest windowing system for Linux is a few times larger than MorphOS as a whole. Easy GUI porting would require the complete loss of the small footprint character of MorphOS, and would transform it into a useless new Linux-like OS.

So, contrary to other platforms, AmigaOS/MorphOS never had a port of very large and important applications like Mozilla and Open Office. The absence of programs like these, that are fundamental for a normal user who wants to interface his computer with the whole cyberworld without compatibility problems, is the biggest obstacle for a larger adoption of MorphOS in the desktop computer market.

[[File:OWB.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Origyn Web Browser]]Once people recognised the uselessness of porting large pieces of Linux distributions to MorphOS, a better idea emerged: the creation of wrappers that relate all the calls to certain basic structures of one system to their equivalents in the other system. As mentioned above, one attempt in this direction concerns GTK (the GIMP Toolkit, where GIMP is the acronym of GNU Image Manipulation Program), and tries to relate this popular widget toolkit for creating GUIs for the ''X-Windows'' system to the corresponding widgets of ''MUI''. Anyway, the most relevant current port is the MorphOS version of the ''Origyn Web Browser'' (OWB), which is - like Apple's Safari - based on the WebKit engine and thus provides MorphOS users with a state-of-the-art browser. Again the MorphOS version is not just a quick recompile but diligently integrated into the overall look & feel of the operating system (including ''ARexx'' support), providing all the common user's needs like cookie and password management, support for different languages and mime types, content blocking, configurable context menus e.g. displaying recently closed tabs and visited sites, session saving/restoration and also a Flash-plugin based on the MorphOS port of ''swfdec''.

MorphOS key applications

2009-12-07T16:09:44Z

Guruman: Aesthetic changes (bold and italic introduced) and slightly updated content of ShowGirls and PTPDigCam entries to reflect MorphOS 2.x releases.

The reduced size of the OS and its simple structure (in relative terms) imply, among other things, that projects that require a team of programmers on other platforms often become modest one-man projects in MorphOS/Amiga environments. This slowdowns the development, but also gives excellent efficiency, simplicity, and compactness to the code. In this section a few excellent tools for MorphOS are mentioned, while in the next section you will find descriptions of the most important and powerful applications.

'''AmiNetRadio'''
[[File:ANR_003.jpg|200px|thumb|right|AmiNetRadio in action, with some gfx plugins and ShoutCast search support]]''ANR'' is an audio player. Born as a ShoutCast stream player, it has soon evolved into a fully featured and extremely modular player supporting many audio formats and graphical plugins. It is able to play RIFF WAVE, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG Audio, CDDA, AIFF, and ProTracker modules out of the box. However, an SDK documenting how to code additional players is available, and has lead to third party support of MIDI, ScreamTracker, FastTracker as well as some more obscure formats (including NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Atari ST sound formats). This makes ''ANR'' one of the best suited candidates at substituting ''Ambient'' 's internal audio player when associated to the audio files by means of the mimetype configuration.

One thing worth mentioning is that ''ANR'' is actually an AmigaOS 3.x executable coded for Motorola's 680x0 range of CPUs. Emulation transparency and effectiveness in MorphOS are so good that most of the aforementioned players are compiled exclusively for MorphOS in native PowerPC code, and can be mixed without any need for the user to be careful. The same can be said for the video plugins: ''ANR'' is compatible with the API of ''AmiAMP'' (an old Amiga version of the well known WinAMP), and therefore it is possible to mix 68k and PowerPC plugins. A fact even more interesting is that it is possible to use plugins compiled for the old executable formats (PowerUp and WarpUp) introduced years ago for PowerPC accelerators on classic Amigas. Non-Amiga people should not worry: all that matters to them is that MorphOS is transparently compatible with all the weird kinds of executables the Amiga community has introduced in the past, as long as they were coded in a "system-friendly" manner. ''ANR'' itself makes use of some extensions of the AmigaOS 3.x APIs for better skinning capabilities, thus resulting a MorphOS program at all effects, while consisting of 68k code.

'''ShowGirls'''
[[File:showgirls_001.jpg|200px|thumb|left|One of the tools ShowGirls provides]]As the name says (and if for you it doesn't, it just means you are not geek enough), this is an image viewer. While the internal viewer of ''Ambient'' provides the required basic functions, ''ShowGirls'' does a lot more: its interface is usually divided in two parts, on one side there are the thumbnails (with support of the EXIF format in JPEG pictures, which means that it doesn't need to load a 3MB+ image just to show a 50x50 preview) and on the other side the selected image is displayed. The image can be viewed in full screen as well, can be zoomed in and out, and can be elaborated. ''ShowGirls'' in fact features some basic image manipulation tools for adjusting colours, changing image resolution, as well as smoothing and sharpening operators, noise reduction, glow and blur effects, and enables cropping, rotating, flipping, as well as batch conversions. It is possible to use also a 3D view (with 3D accelerated rendering), but that's mostly a nice toy option.

The program was originally born as a tool for digital cameras, and in fact it can perform all the needed operations on files on a mass storage device. And in conjunction with a USB camera working as mass storage device you will rarely need anything else. If your camera supports the PTP standard, though, you might need to look elsewhere.

Starting from the 2.0 release of MorphOS, ''ShowGirls'' is provided with the OS itself as a contribution to be found in the Application directory.

'''PTPDigCam'''
[[File:PTPDigCam_001.jpg|200px|thumb|right|PTPDigCam downloading some pictures from a Canon digicam]]This is a nice native and original software (not based on libraries ported from Linux) that enables to download and delete pictures, videos and audio files from Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Sony cameras supporting the PTP standard. The latest versions let the user choose the images from their EXIF thumbnail as well, and the program is well written, with a nice and polished ''MUI'' interface. It is not the most complex program in the world, but it shows the spirit of the old Amiga community: most alternative OSs do not support the PTP standard and require the users to buy a card reader. As inexpensive as this add-on might be, it is always better to have a software supporting even this not so widely recognised standard. There is also an alternative, called ''SimpleCam'' and based on ''libPTP'' ported from the Linux environment, but with a ''MUI'' GUI. And for those who like to control remotely their digicam, there is also ''CanonToolBox'', based on ''libPTP'', too.

With the release of MorphOS 2.0, the USB stack ''Poseidon'' directly supports the PTP standard. It is therefore possible to access the contents of any digicam internal memory just like it was a mass storage USB device. Obviously, since ''Ambient'' supports image thumbnails, it is possible to have a scaled preview of the pictures to be downloaded. It is still possible to use a third party program like ''PTPDigCam'': the user just needs to unbind the device in the USB preferences, easily accessible from the ''System Preferences'' panel.

'''PowerSDL'''
[[File:chromium_004.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Chromium, one of the open source games requiring SDL and OpenGL]]This evocative name labels a software package, whose port allows to broaden, indirectly, the availability of software on MorphOS. ''Simple DirectMedia Layer'' (SDL) is a cross-platform multimedia library that provides an abstraction layer for graphics, sound, and input APIs over various platforms. SDL allows a developer to write computer games or multimedia applications that run on many operating systems, and makes a lot of ports possible. The MorphOS version has been greatly improved upon the original Amiga port, and it is now constituted by a number of shared libraries (which, incidentally, make possible to use them in closed source/non GPLed software) making full use of the MorphOS APIs.

'''Frying Pan'''
[[File:morphos_base_2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Frying Pan, ShowGirls and AmiNetRadio on Ambient]]While many AmigaOS applications can still be run on MorphOS, including the popular CD-writer software ''MakeCD'', Commodore's demise preceded the introduction of DVDs. Thus ''Frying Pan'', a CD / DVD burning and mastering software, is filling this gap meanwhile. The application is shareware and available natively for MorphOS

'''OS4Emu'''

This is an example of a software that broadens the working applications directly: it is a wrapper for the AmigaOS 4 APIs (which is very similar to the MorphOS one, given the common heritage) to the correspondent MorphOS functions. This means that by double clicking on the icon of an AmigaOS 4 executable (or typing its name in a CLI window) there is a good chance it will work. Notable examples include ''FPSE'', the Sony PlayStation emulator, that ironically, thanks to ''Poseidon'' (the USB stack included in MorphOS), even supports USB joypads. (This is enabled by a simple feature in ''Poseidon'', that associates keystrokes selected by the user to joypad buttons). Other working titles are ''SID4Amiga'' (a player for C64 music files), some scene demos, many shell commands and utilities, and much more. The compatibility is not total, but it is improving at every new release.

Games

2009-12-07T15:36:43Z

Guruman: Aesthetic changes (reintroduced italic and liks), general content revision, added some new games (HomeWorld, Wesnoth, Warzone2100), updated VGP2 and FPSE content. Reintroduced and updated screenshots.

[[File:VGP2HD_000.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Virtual Grand Prix 2]]One of the most notable games available for MorphOS is definitively ''Virtual Grand Prix 2'', published by Alassoft. It is a very realistic Formula 1 simulation (probably one of the most realistic for any platform), with nice 3D accelerated graphics, and the mandatory support for analog input devices, that in MorphOS is available thanks to the ''Poseidon'' USB stack and the new ''lowlevel.library''. The MorphOS version has been released shortly after the Mac and Windows ones, due to the Amiga roots of the main programmer Paolo Cattani. Notably, the MorphOS version is completely free. The game includes most of the true circuits, very nicely realised, and highly recognizable. Those not included can be found as additional packages created by users on the net. The game is quite fast and playable also on low end machines, including the 400MHz Efika with just 128MB of RAM. Moreover, the game was conceived with the maximum freedom to customize the graphics and this led to the creation of [http://www.siniscope.com/vgphd/home.html higher quality textures and more detailed circuits] that can be used in the MorphOS version as well. As a consequence this game is at the same time enjoyable on the lowest end machines and yet can be one of the most graphically advanced available on MorphOS.

[[File:WipeOut2097_001.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Wipeout 2097 running in a window]]Other commercial games available for MorphOS include all those released for classic Amiga computers with PowerPC CPUs. These include the ''Wipeout 2097'' port released by Digital Images and the ''Heretic 2'' port released by Hyperion Entertainment. The former was a very nice version of the famous game, that took the best from the PlayStation version (the most playable one) and the Windows version (the higher resolution graphics, for instance), making the Amiga conversion the best incarnation of them all. ''Wipeout 2097'' is a WarpUp executable, using the Amiga ''Warp3D'' software for graphic acceleration, but, as usual, MorphOS users have little to worry about, since the OS includes ''Goa3D'', a wrapper for the Amiga's Warp3D. ''Wipeout 2097'' runs transparently, both in full screen and in a window on the desktop, supports graphics and audio boards not supported by the classic Amigas, and can be played using USB controllers. It is of course faster than it ever was on any classic Amiga.

[[File:quake3_003.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Quake III on Ambient]]Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'', ''Doom II'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'' and ''Quake III''. The ''Quake'' series supports 3D acceleration, and in particular in the case of the old first ''Quake'' episode, even the better looking versions ''Fodquake'', ''Fuhquake'', ''GLQuake'' and ''BlitzQuake'' have been ported. All the games run quite fast in high resolutions thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Speaking of first person shooters, also ''Cube'', ''AlephOne'' and the freeware game ''Warsow'' have been released. ''Warsow'' is probably graphically the most complex project ever ported to MorphOS (even though it is based on the old Quake II engine), and in fact might not run at a decent speed on a G3 CPU with Voodoo graphics. But it is also one mean to show that better hardware does not sit unused with MorphOS.

[[File:freespace2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Icculus' Freespace 2]][[File:HomeWorld_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|HomeWorld port]]Other open source projects ported include the icculus.org games ''Freespace 1'' and ''2'' (that of course need the original versions to be fully operational), and games like ''NeverBall'' and the 3D pool game ''FooBillard''. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', the open source reimplementation of Microprose's ''Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', is available, too. The MorphOS version (that, as well as all the other versions, needs the original game files to run) is synchronised with the official releases. This means that it is available directly from the project home page, since MorphOS support was inserted into the main source tree. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'' makes use of the ''PowerSDL.library'' to run. This library (whose special features are described in the section dedicated to [[MorphOS exclusive software]]) facilitated already the porting of dozens of free and open source SDL games to MorphOS. A recent addition to this list of ports is the space real strategy game called ''HomeWorld'', that is probably the first game requiring at least MorphOS 2.1. Also in this case the user needs the original PC version to be able to play this game on his MorphOS system. Other open source real time strategy games are available, notably ''Warzone 2100'', while fans of turn based strategic games have the chance to get some hours of fun with the famous ''Battle for Wesnoth''.

[[File:robinh_000.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Robin Hood]]In the past at least one commercial software house had been releasing specific ports for MorphOS, and that is RuneSoft (formerly known as Epic Interactive). They released ''Knights and Merchants'' and ''Robin Hood''. ''Knights and Merchants'' is a strategic game in the fashion of ''The Settlers'', just with much better graphics than the first release of that famous saga which started on the Amiga in 1993. ''Robin Hood'', on the other hand, is a strategic arcade game in ''Commandos'' style, originally released on PC by Spellbound. The graphics and audio are probably the best ever seen on MorphOS in a 2D game, and, even if a bit demanding, were carefully optimised to run smoothly even on a G3 Pegasos. RuneSoft had more games in the pipeline, and hopefully they will resume their support to MorphOS if they find again some viability in this market thanks to the broader hardware availability brought by the support of PPC Macintoshes. They always release demo versions of their conversions: therefore users can test the game, before voting with their wallets for more support.

[[File:scummvm_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sam & Max Hit the Road on MorphOS, courtesy of ScummVM]]Of course, on MorphOS the user can entertain himself not just with more or less native executables: there are also many emulators and virtual machines. One of the best known is ''ScummVM'', the free reimplementation of the engine behind most Lucas Arts/Lucas Games adventures. The newest versions are also compatible with some games from other vendors (just like ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' or ''Broken Sword'' from Revolution) and luckily available for MorphOS, too. The nice thing about this is the possibility to run some of these adventures that were never published in an Amiga-like environment (Lucas Arts left the Amiga scene after ''Indiana Jones 4''). The engine works flawlessly and nicely, and these games, with their retro appearance, are always fun to play.

[[File:MAME_MorphOS004.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The arcade emulator MAME]][[File:FPSE_001.jpg|200px|thumb|right|PlayStation emulator FPSE]]The category of the "real" emulators includes ''Genesis Plus'' and ''SMS Plus'' for the Sega consoles, ''SNES 9x'' for the Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) console, ''VICE'' for the VIC series of Commodore home computers, ''MAME'' for the arcade machines... All of these are quite good at their work and are not just fast ports, since, for instance, they all support overlay (in order to enable transparent real time resizing of the window) and USB joypads. A nice addition is ''FPSE'', the PlayStation emulator that supports even 3D graphic acceleration, enabling the possiblity to play games at video resolutions higher than the original.

File:HomeWorld 000.jpg

2009-12-07T15:33:31Z

Guruman:

File:WipeOut2097 001.jpg

2009-12-07T15:24:56Z

Guruman:

File:VGP2HD 000.jpg

2009-12-07T15:23:15Z

Guruman:

File:FPSE 001.jpg

2009-12-07T15:20:05Z

Guruman:

Games

2009-12-06T17:53:24Z

Guruman:

[[File:VGP2_001.png|200px|thumb|left|Virtual Grand Prix 2]]One of the most notable games available for MorphOS is definitively ''Virtual Grand Prix 2'', published by Alassoft. It is a very realistic Formula 1 simulation (probably one of the most realistic for any platform), with nice 3D accelerated graphics, and the mandatory support for analog input devices, that in MorphOS is available thanks to the ''Poseidon'' USB stack and the new ''lowlevel.library''. The MorphOS version has been released shortly after the Mac and Windows ones, due to the Amiga roots of the main programmer Paolo Cattani. Notably, the MorphOS version is completely free. The game includes most of the true circuits, very nicely realised, and highly recognizable. Those not included can be found as additional packages created by users on the net. The game is quite fast and playable also on low end machines, including the 400MHz Efika with just 128MB of RAM. Moreover, the game was conceived with the maximum freedom to customize the graphics and this led to the creation of [http://www.siniscope.com/vgphd/home.html higher quality textures and more detailed circuits] that can be used in the MorphOS version as well. As a consequence this game is at the same time enjoyable on the lowest end machines and yet can be one of the most graphically advanced available on MorphOS.

[[File:Wipeout2097.png|200px|thumb|right|Wipeout 2097 running in a window]]Other commercial games available for MorphOS include all those released for classic Amiga computers with PowerPC CPUs. These include the ''Wipeout 2097'' port released by Digital Images and the ''Heretic 2'' port released by Hyperion Entertainment. The former was a very nice version of the famous game, that took the best from the PlayStation version (the most playable one) and the Windows version (the higher resolution graphics, for instance), making the Amiga conversion the best incarnation of them all. ''Wipeout 2097'' is a WarpUp executable, using the Amiga ''Warp3D'' software for graphic acceleration, but, as usual, MorphOS users have little to worry about, since the OS includes ''Goa3D'', a wrapper for the Amiga's Warp3D. ''Wipeout 2097'' runs transparently, both in full screen and in a window on the desktop, supports graphics and audio boards not supported by the classic Amigas, and can be played using USB controllers. It is of course faster than it ever was on any classic Amiga.

[[File:quake3_003.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Quake III on Ambient]]Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'', ''Doom II'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'' and ''Quake III''. The ''Quake'' series supports 3D acceleration, and in particular in the case of the old first ''Quake'' episode, even the better looking versions ''Fodquake'', ''Fuhquake'', ''GLQuake'' and ''BlitzQuake'' have been ported. All the games run quite fast in high resolutions thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Speaking of first person shooters, also ''Cube'', ''AlephOne'' and the freeware game ''Warsow'' have been released. ''Warsow'' is probably graphically the most complex project ever ported to MorphOS (even though it is based on the old Quake II engine), and in fact might not run at a decent speed on a G3 CPU with Voodoo graphics. But it is also one mean to show that better hardware does not sit unused with MorphOS.

[[File:freespace2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Icculus' Freespace 2]]Other open source projects ported include the icculus.org games ''Freespace 1'' and ''2'' (that of course need the original versions to be fully operational), and games like ''NeverBall'' and the 3D pool game ''FooBillard''. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', the open source reimplementation of Microprose's ''Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', is available, too. The MorphOS version (that, as well as all the other versions, needs the original game files to run) is synchronised with the official releases. This means that it is available directly from the project home page, since MorphOS support was inserted into the main source tree. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'' makes use of the ''PowerSDL.library'' to run. This library (whose special features are described in the section dedicated to [[MorphOS exclusive software]]) facilitated already the porting of dozens of free and open source SDL games to MorphOS.

[[File:robinh_000.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Robin Hood]]In the past at least one commercial software house had been releasing specific ports for MorphOS, and that is RuneSoft (formerly known as Epic Interactive). They released ''Knights and Merchants'' and ''Robin Hood''. ''Knights and Merchants'' is a strategic game in the fashion of ''The Settlers'', just with much better graphics than the first release of that famous saga which started on the Amiga in 1993. ''Robin Hood'', on the other hand, is a strategic arcade game in ''Commandos'' style, originally released on PC by Spellbound. The graphics and audio are probably the best ever seen on MorphOS in a 2D game, and, even if a bit demanding, were carefully optimised to run smoothly even on a G3 Pegasos. RuneSoft had more games in the pipeline, and hopefully they will resume their support to MorphOS if they find again some viability in this market thanks to the broader hardware availability brought by the support of PPC Macintoshes. They always release demo versions of their conversions: therefore users can test the game, before voting with their wallets for more support.

[[File:scummvm_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sam & Max Hit the Road on MorphOS, courtesy of ScummVM]]Of course, on MorphOS the user can entertain himself not just with more or less native executables: there are also many emulators and virtual machines. One of the best known is ''ScummVM'', the free reimplementation of the engine behind most Lucas Arts/Lucas Games adventures. The newest versions are also compatible with some games from other vendors (just like ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' or ''Broken Sword'' from Revolution) and luckily available for MorphOS, too. The nice thing about this is the possibility to run some of these adventures that were never published in an Amiga-like environment (Lucas Arts left the Amiga scene after ''Indiana Jones 4''). The engine works flawlessly and nicely, and these games, with their retro appearance, are always fun to play.

[[File:MAME_MorphOS004.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The arcade emulator MAME]][[File:fpse_000.jpg|200px|thumb|right|PlayStation emulator FPSE]]The category of the "real" emulators includes ''Genesis Plus'' and ''SMS Plus'' for the Sega consoles, ''SNES 9x'' for the Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) console, ''VICE'' for the VIC series of Commodore home computers, ''MAME'' for the arcade machines... All of these are quite good at their work and are not just fast ports, since, for instance, they all support overlay (in order to enable transparent real time resizing of the window) and USB joypads. A nice addition is ''FPSE'', the PlayStation emulator that supports even 3D graphic acceleration, enabling the possiblity to play games at video resolutions higher than the original.

Games

2009-12-06T17:38:26Z

Guruman:

One of the most notable games available for MorphOS is definitively ''Virtual Grand Prix 2'', published by Alassoft. It is a very realistic Formula 1 simulation (probably one of the most realistic for any platform), with nice 3D accelerated graphics, and the mandatory support for analog input devices, that in MorphOS is available thanks to the ''Poseidon'' USB stack and the new ''lowlevel.library''. The MorphOS version has been released shortly after the Mac and Windows ones, due to the Amiga roots of the main programmer Paolo Cattani. Notably, the MorphOS version is completely free. The game includes most of the true circuits, very nicely realised, and highly recognizable. Those not included can be found as additional packages created by users on the net. The game is quite fast and playable also on low end machines, including the 400MHz Efika with just 128MB of RAM. Moreover, the game was conceived with the maximum freedom to customize the graphics and this led to the creation of [http://www.siniscope.com/vgphd/home.html higher quality textures and more detailed circuits] that can be used in the MorphOS version as well. As a consequence this game is at the same time enjoyable on the lowest end machines and yet can be one of the most graphically advanced available on MorphOS.

Other commercial games available for MorphOS include all those released for classic Amiga computers with PowerPC CPUs. These include the ''Wipeout 2097'' port released by Digital Images and the ''Heretic 2'' port released by Hyperion Entertainment. The former was a very nice version of the famous game, that took the best from the PlayStation version (the most playable one) and the Windows version (the higher resolution graphics, for instance), making the Amiga conversion the best incarnation of them all. ''Wipeout 2097'' is a WarpUp executable, using the Amiga ''Warp3D'' software for graphic acceleration, but, as usual, MorphOS users have little to worry about, since the OS includes ''Goa3D'', a wrapper for the Amiga's Warp3D. ''Wipeout 2097'' runs transparently, both in full screen and in a window on the desktop, supports graphics and audio boards not supported by the classic Amigas, and can be played using USB controllers. It is of course faster than it ever was on any classic Amiga.

Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'', ''Doom II'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'' and ''Quake III''. The ''Quake'' series supports 3D acceleration, and in particular in the case of the old first ''Quake'' episode, even the better looking versions ''Fodquake'', ''Fuhquake'', ''GLQuake'' and ''BlitzQuake'' have been ported. All the games run quite fast in high resolutions thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Speaking of first person shooters, also ''Cube'', ''AlephOne'' and the freeware game ''Warsow'' have been released. ''Warsow'' is probably graphically the most complex project ever ported to MorphOS (even though it is based on the old Quake II engine), and in fact might not run at a decent speed on a G3 CPU with Voodoo graphics. But it is also one mean to show that better hardware does not sit unused with MorphOS.

Other open source projects ported include the icculus.org games ''Freespace 1'' and ''2'' (that of course need the original versions to be fully operational), and games like ''NeverBall'' and the 3D pool game ''FooBillard''. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', the open source reimplementation of Microprose's ''Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', is available, too. The MorphOS version (that, as well as all the other versions, needs the original game files to run) is synchronised with the official releases. This means that it is available directly from the project home page, since MorphOS support was inserted into the main source tree. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'' makes use of the ''PowerSDL.library'' to run. This library (whose special features are described in the section dedicated to [[MorphOS exclusive software]]) facilitated already the porting of dozens of free and open source SDL games to MorphOS.

In the past at least one commercial software house has been releasing specific ports for MorphOS, and that is RuneSoft (formerly known as Epic Interactive). They released ''Knights and Merchants'' and ''Robin Hood''. ''Knights and Merchants'' is a strategic game in the fashion of ''The Settlers'', just with much better graphics than the first release of that famous saga which started on the Amiga in 1993. ''Robin Hood'', on the other hand, is a strategic arcade game in ''Commandos'' style, originally released on PC by Spellbound. The graphics and audio are probably the best ever seen on MorphOS in a 2D game, and, even if a bit demanding, were carefully optimised to run smoothly even on a G3 Pegasos. RuneSoft had more games in the pipeline, and hopefully they will resume their support to MorphOS if they find again some viability in this market thanks to the broader hardware availability brought by the support of PPC Macintoshes. They always release demo versions of their conversions: therefore users can test the game, before voting with their wallets for more support.

Of course, on MorphOS the user can entertain himself not just with more or less native executables: there are also many emulators and virtual machines. One of the best known is ''ScummVM'', the free reimplementation of the engine behind most Lucas Arts/Lucas Games adventures. The newest versions are also compatible with some games from other vendors (just like ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' or ''Broken Sword'' from Revolution) and luckily available for MorphOS, too. The nice thing about this is the possibility to run some of these adventures that were never published in an Amiga-like environment (Lucas Arts left the Amiga scene after ''Indiana Jones 4''). The engine works flawlessly and nicely, and these games, with their retro appearance, are always fun to play.

The category of the "real" emulators includes ''Genesis Plus'' and ''SMS Plus'' for the Sega consoles, ''SNES 9x'' for the Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) console, ''VICE'' for the VIC series of Commodore home computers, ''MAME'' for the arcade machines... All of these are quite good at their work and are not just fast ports, since, for instance, they all support overlay (in order to enable transparent real time resizing of the window) and USB joypads. A nice addition is ''FPSE'', the PlayStation emulator that supports even 3D graphic acceleration, enabling the possiblity to play games at video resolutions higher than the original.

Games

2009-12-06T17:27:12Z

Guruman:

One of the most notable games available for MorphOS is definitively ''Virtual Grand Prix 2'', published by Alassoft. It is a very realistic Formula 1 simulation (probably one of the most realistic for any platform), with nice 3D accelerated graphics, and the mandatory support for analog input devices, that in MorphOS is available thanks to the ''Poseidon'' USB stack and the new ''lowlevel.library''. The MorphOS version has been released shortly after the Mac and Windows ones, due to the Amiga roots of the main programmer Paolo Cattani. Notably, the MorphOS version is completely free. The game includes most of the true circuits, very nicely realised, and highly recognizable. Those not included can be found as additional packages created by users on the net. The game is quite fast and playable also on low end machines, including the 400MHz Efika with just 128MB of RAM. Moreover, the game was conceived with the maximum freedom to customize the graphics and this led to the creation of [http://www.siniscope.com/vgphd/home.html higher quality textures and more detailed circuits] that can be used in the MorphOS version as well. As a consequence this game is at the same time enjoyable on the lowest end machines and yet can be one of the most graphically advanced available on MorphOS.

Other commercial games available for MorphOS include all those released for classic Amiga computers with PowerPC CPUs. These include the ''Wipeout 2097'' port released by Digital Images and the ''Heretic 2'' port released by Hyperion Entertainment. The former was a very nice version of the famous game, that took the best from the PlayStation version (the most playable one) and the Windows version (the higher resolution graphics, for instance), making the Amiga conversion the best incarnation of them all. ''Wipeout 2097'' is a WarpUp executable, using the Amiga ''Warp3D'' software for graphic acceleration, but, as usual, MorphOS users have little to worry about, since the OS includes ''Goa3D'', a wrapper for the Amiga's Warp3D. ''Wipeout 2097'' runs transparently, both in full screen and in a window on the desktop, supports graphics and audio boards not supported by the classic Amigas, and can be played using USB controllers. It is of course faster than it ever was on any classic Amiga.

Many open source games have been ported to MorphOS, including several commercial games whose sources have been released, like id Software masterpieces ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'', ''Doom II'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'' and ''Quake III''. The ''Quake'' series supports 3D acceleration, and in particular in the case of the old first ''Quake'' episode, even the better looking versions ''Fodquake'', ''Fuhquake'', ''GLQuake'' and ''BlitzQuake'' have been ported. All the games run quite fast in high resolutions thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Speaking of first person shooters, also ''Cube'', ''AlephOne'' and the freeware game ''Warsow'' have been released. ''Warsow'' is probably graphically the most complex project ever ported to MorphOS (even though it is based on the old Quake II engine), and in fact might not run at a decent speed on a G3 CPU with Voodoo graphics. But it is also one mean to show that better hardware does not sit unused with MorphOS.

Other open source projects ported include the icculus.org games ''Freespace 1'' and ''2'' (that of course need the original versions to be fully operational), and games like ''NeverBall'' and the 3D pool game ''FooBillard''. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', the open source reimplementation of Microprose's ''Transport Tycoon Deluxe'', is available, too. The MorphOS version (that, as well as all the other versions, needs the original game files to run) is synchronised with the official releases. This means that it is available directly from the project home page, since MorphOS support was inserted into the main source tree. ''Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe'' makes use of the ''PowerSDL.library'' to run. This library (whose special features are described below) facilitated already the porting of dozens of free and open source SDL games to MorphOS.

There is also at least one commercial software house releasing ports for MorphOS, and that is RuneSoft (formerly known as Epic Interactive). They released Knights and Merchants and Robin Hood. Knights and Merchants is a strategic game in the fashion of The Settlers, just with much better graphics than the first release of that famous saga which started on the Amiga in 1993. Robin Hood, on the other hand, is a strategic arcade game in Commandos style, originally released on PC by Spellbound. The graphics and audio are probably the best seen on MorphOS in a 2D game, and, even if a bit demanding, were carefully optimised to run smoothly even on a G3 Pegasos. RuneSoft has more games in the pipeline, and hopefully they will continue to support MorphOS if they find some viability in this market. They always release demo versions of their conversions: therefore users can test the game, before voting with their wallets for more support.

Of course, on MorphOS the user can entertain himself not just with more or less native executables: there are also many emulators and virtual machines. One of the best known is ScummVM, the free reimplementation of the engine behind most Lucas Arts/Lucas Games adventures. The newest versions are also compatible with some games from other vendors (just like Beneath a Steel Sky or Broken Sword from Revolution) and luckily available for MorphOS, too. The nice thing about this is the possibility to run some of these adventures that were never published in an Amiga-like environment (Lucas Arts left the Amiga scene after Indiana Jones 4). The engine works flawlessly and nicely, and these games, with their retro appearance, are always fun to play.

The category of the "real" emulators includes Genesis Plus and SMS Plus for the Sega consoles, SNES 9x for the Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) console, VICE for the VIC series of Commodore home computers, MAME for the arcade machines... All of these are quite good at their work and are not just fast ports, since, for instance, they all support overlay (in order to enable transparent real time resizing of the window) and USB joypads. A nice addition is FPSE, the PlayStation emulator: even if it is an AmigaOS 4 version that needs OS4Emu in order to work, FPSE, once launched, runs just like a native program.

Developer tools

2009-12-06T17:03:18Z

Guruman:

All the previous sections are mainly addressed to people that want to know what MorphOS is from the point of view of a normal user. But there are less common users who certainly have specific interest for other details of the MorphOS environment: the developers. These are the most important persons in any computer platform, because without them there is no new software, and the platform will go quickly to a stagnation state. Either directed by professional interest or hobbyistic purposes, any coder wants to know what is the environment available for his activity.

MorphOS of course has a dedicated [http://teleinfo.pb.edu.pl/krashan/u/mos_sdk/ Software Development Kit] that allows any coder to create applications. The SDK is completely free: any developer can download the relevant archives. Please note that the SDK is available for anyone, also people who do not own the hardware necessary to run MorphOS. Indeed this has two important effects: it allows the creation of Integrated Development Environments by third parties ([http://devplex.awardspace.biz/ Cubic IDE]), and also allows cross-compiling from any platform, in particular from Linux, or Windows by means of ''cygwin'' (related sites: [http://www.zerohero.se/cross/mos.html Cross-compiling for MorphOS], [http://amidevcpp.amiga-world.de/ AmiDevCpp]).

The SDK of MorphOS contains all system includes; developer documentation including autodocs, articles, example code, and general information; third party tools and developer documentation; and two very useful components, ''MorphEd'' and a complete ''Geek Gadgets'' environment. ''MorphEd'' is an advanced text editor that, besides all the functions usually expected for text editing, offers syntax highlighting, developer environment support, integration of the ''GCC'' or ''vbcc'' compiler, and so on. The ''Geek Gadgets'' are a large body of development tools that have been ported to Amiga/MorphOS and are available in both source and binary form. The package contains, among other things, a lot of commands available for Linux shells, and its aim is to provide people accustomed to Linux environments with a familiar command environment within MorphOS shells.

Right now, the SDK of MorphOS still refers to the older 1.4.5 version. It can be brought up to date by downloading the relevant system includes supporting MorphOS 2.x from the [http://www.morphos-team.net/downloads.html Download section] of the official MorphOS web page. A fully updated SDK is still expected to be released as soon as the developers will find time to create a package that is as comprehensive, polished and easy to install as the current one. It has to be noted, in fact, that the installation process is easy enough to enable the usage of the SDK contents to non developers as well. Common users will terefore be able to use the already mentioned ''MorphEd'' text editor and the shell commands. Installing the SDK is in fact suggested also to enable the fruition of some third party software - like the Peer2Peer program [http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public/mldonkey-3.0.0-morphos.lha MLDonkey] and the YouTube downloader [http://www.webalice.it/pgermano/tubexx/main.html Tubexx] - that requires some of these Linux shell commands.

The availability of ''GCC'', the most diffused C compiler, and others, does not exhaust the list of interpreters and compilers existing for MorphOS: a full scale is available, ranging from PowerPC machine code assemblers for low-level programming to high-level languages like the classical ''FreePascal'' and more modern products like ''Python''.

Developer tools

2009-12-06T17:02:57Z

Guruman:

All the previous sections are mainly addressed to people that want to know what MorphOS is from the point of view of a normal user. But there are less common users who certainly have specific interest for other details of the MorphOS environment: the developers. These are the most important persons in any computer platform, because without them there is no new software, and the platform will go quickly to a stagnation state. Either directed by professional interest or hobbyistic purposes, any coder wants to know what is the environment available for his activity.

MorphOS of course has a dedicated [http://teleinfo.pb.edu.pl/krashan/u/mos_sdk/ Software Development Kit] that allows any coder to create applications. The SDK is completely free: any developer can download the relevant archives. Please note that the SDK is available for anyone, also people who do not own the hardware necessary to run MorphOS. Indeed this has two important effects: it allows the creation of Integrated Development Environments by third parties ([http://devplex.awardspace.biz/ link Cubic IDE]), and also allows cross-compiling from any platform, in particular from Linux, or Windows by means of ''cygwin'' (related sites: [http://www.zerohero.se/cross/mos.html Cross-compiling for MorphOS], [http://amidevcpp.amiga-world.de/ AmiDevCpp]).

The SDK of MorphOS contains all system includes; developer documentation including autodocs, articles, example code, and general information; third party tools and developer documentation; and two very useful components, ''MorphEd'' and a complete ''Geek Gadgets'' environment. ''MorphEd'' is an advanced text editor that, besides all the functions usually expected for text editing, offers syntax highlighting, developer environment support, integration of the ''GCC'' or ''vbcc'' compiler, and so on. The ''Geek Gadgets'' are a large body of development tools that have been ported to Amiga/MorphOS and are available in both source and binary form. The package contains, among other things, a lot of commands available for Linux shells, and its aim is to provide people accustomed to Linux environments with a familiar command environment within MorphOS shells.

Right now, the SDK of MorphOS still refers to the older 1.4.5 version. It can be brought up to date by downloading the relevant system includes supporting MorphOS 2.x from the [http://www.morphos-team.net/downloads.html Download section] of the official MorphOS web page. A fully updated SDK is still expected to be released as soon as the developers will find time to create a package that is as comprehensive, polished and easy to install as the current one. It has to be noted, in fact, that the installation process is easy enough to enable the usage of the SDK contents to non developers as well. Common users will terefore be able to use the already mentioned ''MorphEd'' text editor and the shell commands. Installing the SDK is in fact suggested also to enable the fruition of some third party software - like the Peer2Peer program [http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public/mldonkey-3.0.0-morphos.lha MLDonkey] and the YouTube downloader [http://www.webalice.it/pgermano/tubexx/main.html Tubexx] - that requires some of these Linux shell commands.

The availability of ''GCC'', the most diffused C compiler, and others, does not exhaust the list of interpreters and compilers existing for MorphOS: a full scale is available, ranging from PowerPC machine code assemblers for low-level programming to high-level languages like the classical ''FreePascal'' and more modern products like ''Python''.

Developer tools

2009-12-06T17:02:35Z

Guruman:

All the previous sections are mainly addressed to people that want to know what MorphOS is from the point of view of a normal user. But there are less common users who certainly have specific interest for other details of the MorphOS environment: the developers. These are the most important persons in any computer platform, because without them there is no new software, and the platform will go quickly to a stagnation state. Either directed by professional interest or hobbyistic purposes, any coder wants to know what is the environment available for his activity.

MorphOS of course has a dedicated [http://teleinfo.pb.edu.pl/krashan/u/mos_sdk/ Software Development Kit] that allows any coder to create applications. The SDK is completely free: any developer can download the relevant archives. Please note that the SDK is available for anyone, also people who do not own the hardware necessary to run MorphOS. Indeed this has two important effects: it allows the creation of Integrated Development Environments by third parties ([http://devplex.awardspace.biz/ link titleCubic IDE]), and also allows cross-compiling from any platform, in particular from Linux, or Windows by means of ''cygwin'' (related sites: [http://www.zerohero.se/cross/mos.html Cross-compiling for MorphOS], [http://amidevcpp.amiga-world.de/ AmiDevCpp]).

The SDK of MorphOS contains all system includes; developer documentation including autodocs, articles, example code, and general information; third party tools and developer documentation; and two very useful components, ''MorphEd'' and a complete ''Geek Gadgets'' environment. ''MorphEd'' is an advanced text editor that, besides all the functions usually expected for text editing, offers syntax highlighting, developer environment support, integration of the ''GCC'' or ''vbcc'' compiler, and so on. The ''Geek Gadgets'' are a large body of development tools that have been ported to Amiga/MorphOS and are available in both source and binary form. The package contains, among other things, a lot of commands available for Linux shells, and its aim is to provide people accustomed to Linux environments with a familiar command environment within MorphOS shells.

Right now, the SDK of MorphOS still refers to the older 1.4.5 version. It can be brought up to date by downloading the relevant system includes supporting MorphOS 2.x from the [http://www.morphos-team.net/downloads.html Download section] of the official MorphOS web page. A fully updated SDK is still expected to be released as soon as the developers will find time to create a package that is as comprehensive, polished and easy to install as the current one. It has to be noted, in fact, that the installation process is easy enough to enable the usage of the SDK contents to non developers as well. Common users will terefore be able to use the already mentioned ''MorphEd'' text editor and the shell commands. Installing the SDK is in fact suggested also to enable the fruition of some third party software - like the Peer2Peer program [http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public/mldonkey-3.0.0-morphos.lha MLDonkey] and the YouTube downloader [http://www.webalice.it/pgermano/tubexx/main.html Tubexx] - that requires some of these Linux shell commands.

The availability of ''GCC'', the most diffused C compiler, and others, does not exhaust the list of interpreters and compilers existing for MorphOS: a full scale is available, ranging from PowerPC machine code assemblers for low-level programming to high-level languages like the classical ''FreePascal'' and more modern products like ''Python''.

Developer tools

2009-12-06T16:51:20Z

Guruman:

All the previous sections are mainly addressed to people that want to know what MorphOS is from the point of view of a normal user. But there are less common users who certainly have specific interest for other details of the MorphOS environment: the developers. These are the most important persons in any computer platform, because without them there is no new software, and the platform will go quickly to a stagnation state. Either directed by professional interest or hobbyistic purposes, any coder wants to know what is the environment available for his activity.

MorphOS of course has a dedicated Software Development Kit that allows any coder to create applications. The SDK is completely free: any developer can download the relevant archives. Please note that the SDK is available for anyone, also people who do not own the hardware necessary to run MorphOS. Indeed this has two important effects: it allows the creation of Integrated Development Environments by third parties (Cubic IDE), and also allows cross-compiling from any platform, in particular from Linux, or Windows by means of cygwin (related sites: Cross-compiling for MorphOS, AmiDevCpp).

The SDK of MorphOS contains all system includes; developer documentation including autodocs, articles, example code, and general information; third party tools and developer documentation; and two very useful components, MorphEd and a complete Geek Gadgets environment. MorphEd is an advanced text editor that, besides all the functions usually expected for text editing, offers syntax highlighting, developer environment support, integration of the GCC or vbcc compiler, and so on. The Geek Gadgets are a large body of development tools that have been ported to Amiga/MorphOS and are available in both source and binary form. The package contains, among other things, a lot of commands available for Linux shells, and its aim is to provide people accustomed to Linux environments with a familiar command environment within MorphOS shells.

Right now, the SDK of MorphOS still refers to the older 1.4.5 version. It can be brought up to date by downloading the relevant system includes supporting MorphOS 2.x from the Download section of the official MorphOS web page. A fully updated SDK is still expected to be released as soon as the developers will find time to create a package that is as comprehensive, polished and easy to install as the current one. It has to be noted, in fact, that the installation process is easy enough to enable the usage of the SDK contents to non developers as well. Common users will terefore be able to use the already mentioned MorphEd text editor and the shell commands. Installing the SDK is in fact suggested also to enable the fruition of some third party software - like the Peer2Peer program MLDonkey and the YouTube downloader TubeXX - that requires some of these Linux shell commands.

The availability of GCC, the most diffused C compiler, and others, does not exhaust the list of interpreters and compilers existing for MorphOS: a full scale is available, ranging from PowerPC machine code assemblers for low-level programming to high-level languages like the classical FreePascal and more modern products like Python.