A Time-Wasting Ramble

Just doing a bit of time wasting here. I just spent an inordinate amount of time watching Dan Wood videos about MorphOS, and his usage of that operating system. I've seen several of Wood's videos, including a couple that became rather popular. Especially the one's where he talked about using Amiga software in the mid-2000s. Interesting stuff for a techie obsessed nerd.

For those of you who don't know, MorphOS is a sort of mutant outgrowth of the old Commodore Amiga systems of 1980s and 90s. It's a dedicated attempt to make the Amiga-style operating system viable in the modern world. As far as I know, it's still mainly running on the old PowerPC architecture. But there has long been talk of porting it over to the X86 architecture, which would be intriguing.

For myself, I never used an Amiga. The closest I ever got was having the AmigaForever emulator kit installed on a Windows 7 machines I used to have. However, that computer hasn't been used in years, and in fact I'm not even sure where that old laptop is. I never really played with the emulator that much, though I'd occasionally fire it up. Most of the system installs were just that, system installs, with base software. I probably could've gotten onto something like AmiNet online and grabbed other software, but it just didn't really seem worth it. After all, the real purpose of that emulation package was to play old Amiga games, and I was never much of a game player. (Though I did enjoy running some of the “demos”, which were pretty cool.)

I think the greatest fascination for me in watching these videos is seeing the programs Wood was/is using, and getting a feel for what he uses them for. Like so many other nerdy types, I have to admit to a rather voyeuristic interest in what tools people use on their computer systems. And Wood does actually use MorphOS as part of his everyday workflow, which I really do find fascinating. Granted, Wood was an Amiga user from back in the day, so he has a background knowledge of the system. And a goodly collection of software he's accumulated over the years. It makes sense for him to use MorphOS, as he's familiar with it.

MorphOS looks really interesting. And, it sparks that little tickle in the back of my head to go down to my storage building, dig out that old PowerPC Mac Mini, and hook it back up. And then download & burn an ISO, and give it a spin…

Alas, I have to put the brakes on, and admit that's not going to happen. I have no room on my desk for a desktop computer setup. And I really don't want to drop c.$100 for the license to a bit of software that I really have no major use for. Besides, I have Linux running on my laptop systems, so… (Though, there is that 12" Powerbook that I forgot was in the back room… Hmmm…)

Still, it impresses me that someone is using something other than the current “Big 3” platforms (Window, Mac, or Linux) to do serious work. I like that. Makes me wish I could use my systems more productively, as well. My Linux boxen really demand to be put to serious work. Maybe, someday… If I'd just stop wasting time watching videos on YouTube…..