MorphOS

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:AmigaOS.png MorphOS is a mixed proprietary and open source operating system produced for the PegasosPPC hardware platform by a core development team and contributors. The OS itself is proprietary. Several libraries and other parts are open source, such as Ambient (the desktop interface).

It currently runs only on PowerPC processors by Freescale and IBM while still supporting the original AmigaOS MC680x0 applications via its proprietary task-based emulation solution and most of the newer, PPC/AmigaOS applications using API wrappers. It is API-compatible with AmigaOS 3.1 but implements many enhancements that bring it up to date, and a modern GUI based on MUI.

Besides the Pegasos version of MorphOS, there is also a "PowerUP" version for Amigas equipped with PPC accelerator cards produced by Phase5. This version is free, although it does slow down after each two hour session if you have not registered it. Registration is free. PowerUP MorphOS was most recently updated on 23 February 2006, however it does not exceed the feature set or advancement of the Pegasos release. [1][2]

Two key deficiencies of MorphOS are the absences of a built-in native TCP/IP stack and a web-browser with modern capabilities. The user community is attempting to remedy this through the use of bounties [3] that have so far resulted in a functional, available, but unfinished version of MOSNet, and an unreleased port-in-progress of KHTML browser, based on GTK+WebCore.

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History

The project started in 1999, and it is based on the Quark microkernel. After some bitter disagreements within the MorphOS development team in 2003 and 2004, the Ambient desktop system was released under GPL and is now actively developed by the MorphOS community. Two alternative MorphOS desktop systems are Nemesis [4] and Scalos. [5] MorphOS is currently under development, with the latest Pegasos user release being 1.4.5 (30 April 2005). There is a user community that supports the OS as well as a number of developers.

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Characteristics

MorphOS components:

Ambient desktop—the default MorphOS desktop, inspired by others like Workbench and Directory Opus
Cybergraphics—RTG system
TinyGL—OpenGL clone + Warp3D emulation (RAVE low-level API)
MagicUserInterface—primary GUI toolkit
Trance JIT—JIT code translator for 68k applications
QBox—manages the low level systems
ABox—a PPC AmigaOS API clone (similar, and based in part, to AROS)