| [Web] New Morphos.net website | ANN.lu |
| Posted on 06-Aug-2003 17:49 GMT by Christophe Decanini | 47 comments
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The morphos.net website has been completely redesigned. There are some MorphOS 1.4 screenshots here.
I could notice some new things such as:
An improved preferences system including USB and printing, new skins with preferences and preview, zoom utility, task monitor including CPU meter, JIT statistics, docks, new icons, etc.
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 1 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by itix on 06-Aug-2003 16:03 GMT | | Just visited there. It is cool :-) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 2 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Kjetil on 06-Aug-2003 16:47 GMT | The screen shouts are nicely done, like how the window frames look, and how the mui configuration blend inn with it, the printer config tab looks nice as well, I Se the Fonts are not yet analyzed, to bad.
Can you scale the icons? they are all to big for my taste!
is it the same USB stack used on MorphOS and the upcoming OS4.0?
I think it is. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 3 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Sigbjørn Skjæret on 06-Aug-2003 16:58 GMT | In reply to Comment 2 (Kjetil):
"analyzed"? Do you mean anti-aliased? Yes they are, and have been for months, guess the person who took the screenshots either had it turned off, or didn't use scalable fonts...
..and no, it's not the same stack, MorphOS uses a licensed Poseidon, OS4 uses their own stack afaik...
- CISC |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 4 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Emeric SH on 06-Aug-2003 17:11 GMT | "Can you scale the icons? they are all to big for my taste!"
They are png icons, you do to them whatever you like. :) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 5 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by T_Bone on 06-Aug-2003 17:45 GMT | | Looking better all the time! |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 6 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by JoannaK on 06-Aug-2003 17:54 GMT | | Oh.. Looks good. Thanks people. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 7 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Daniel Miller on 06-Aug-2003 18:01 GMT | In reply to Comment 2 (Kjetil):
Kjetil says: "Can you scale the icons? they are all to big for my taste!"
The large icons and lowish desktop resolution give a certain simplicity to things, which I think is appealing to people who are not totally advanced in their computer tastes. The color and cartoonishness of it should be attractive to Grandma and Grandpa, and maybe women also would tend to like this style.
This is very surprising to me to see such big changes coming from just an incremental update from 1.3 to 1.4! I really, really see this as a positive change that adds a good amount of marketability to MorphOS and Pegasos. Congratulations to the people who did this. From the looks of things, you did a great job!
Also worth pointing out is that this look would also be practical for a regular television screen, which is what would be used for an STB. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 8 of 47 | ANN.lu |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 9 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 06-Aug-2003 19:49 GMT | | /me thinks someone at genesi needs to get their mouse outta the filters menu and their head into some new media books |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 10 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Johan Rönnblom on 06-Aug-2003 20:25 GMT | In reply to Comment 2 (Kjetil):
There's also a feature underway that will let you automatically scale
all icons upon display. But it's not in yet. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 11 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by MIKE on 06-Aug-2003 20:35 GMT | | Hmm, doesn't look too awful. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 12 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by spotUP on 06-Aug-2003 21:16 GMT | In reply to Comment 11 (MIKE):
daaaaaaaaamn! they look sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!
everytime i look at new AOS4 screenshots i get dissapointed.
when looking at new MOS screenshots i get jealous. they look way better than OS4 so far.
everytime i look at amiga incs site i get dissapointed.
when looking at the morphos sites i get jealous.
WHY O WHY can't Amiga/Hyperion hire a proper designer!? :(
I have an A1, I am desperate for OS4, but why does everything amiga have to be so uggly these days? :( |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 13 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by spotUP on 06-Aug-2003 21:22 GMT | In reply to Comment 12 (spotUP):
mmm.. correction. i have been looking at all the screenshots now.
some of them where really uggly.
but still, these ones
http://www.morphos.net/images.php?image=193
http://www.morphos.net/images.php?image=194
is a really beautiful! is this the default look? |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 14 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 06-Aug-2003 22:46 GMT | In reply to Comment 12 (spotUP):
" WHY O WHY can't Amiga/Hyperion hire a proper designer!? :("
Check out : www.metadesign.com, www.hillmancurtis.com; for some real design ;). The genesi sites all have that tacky over filtered look that not only looks cack when compaired against really nice sites like those mentioned above, but is also unfriendly to those using slow connections, low resolutions and colour depths... then there's the issue of using images for text blocks (at least on pegasosppc.com), this excludes those using screen readers from getting all the information, iirc there have been legal cases over this sort of discrimination so it is something web designers need to be aware of. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 15 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Christophe Decanini on 06-Aug-2003 23:55 GMT | In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
On the 2 sites you mentioned, the fist one requires flash and the second look quite poor and ugly when opened in Amiga browsers.
The Genesi sites have the advantage to be appealing and to work with Amiga/MorphOS browsers. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 16 of 47 | ANN.lu |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 17 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Nate Downes on 07-Aug-2003 00:31 GMT | In reply to Comment 13 (spotUP):
For the most part. Some customization has occured, like the backdrop, but yes, it is the default layout for the most part. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 18 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by hooligan/dcs on 07-Aug-2003 01:08 GMT | In reply to Comment 13 (spotUP):
Honestly, I think they all are ugly =) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 19 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 07-Aug-2003 01:12 GMT | In reply to Comment 15 (Christophe Decanini):
"On the 2 sites you mentioned, the fist one requires flash and the second look quite poor and ugly when opened in Amiga browsers."
Examples of good design, not Amiga browser compatibility; Although IIRC Voyager has a flash player ... but if you insist on an Amiga compatible design look at google; great layout, easy on the eye and notice how its all text except the logo, so the blind can actually use it.
"The Genesi sites have the advantage to be appealing"
If abuse of gradient and shadow filters is "appealing" knock yourself out, but even microsoft have used these to better effect on hotmail (even my cousin that recruits design talent for a well known search engine/portal etc provider thought it was pretty well done for microsoft)
"and to work with Amiga/MorphOS browsers."
Personally, I can't see it working at all well on machines using the original chipset graphics or the lower end (resolution wise) monitors that many have hooked up to their Amiga's ... I believe its more of an attempt to leverage the popularity of the Windows XP Luna and OS X Auqa effect (Which only really work because they preserve the clarity of the information instead of completely destroying it) there again you've spent time within a team doing real new media design, have loads of books for refrence and multiple family members working in the field, I know I have ;) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 20 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by the man in the shadows on 07-Aug-2003 01:49 GMT | In reply to Comment 15 (Christophe Decanini):
You can make really nice looking sites without the use of flash. You can also make good looking sites without having to dip into style tags. I think the world has jumped too far into style tags and continues to use html making the sites look absolutely horrid on anything that doesn't use style. A professional developer will tell you to either use nothing but style or don't use style at all. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 21 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Lando on 07-Aug-2003 02:12 GMT | In reply to Comment 19 (corpse):
>Examples of good design, not Amiga browser compatibility
Maybe in your opinion. Personally I thought both the sites you listed looked crap. Dull, grey, boring, poorly laid out, not enough information making it apparent what the sites were about, vertical upside-down text making it hard to read, too small font sizes. If I'd paid these guys to design my site and they came back with rubbish like that, I'd be demanding a refund.
Still each to his own. :-) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 22 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by gary_c on 07-Aug-2003 02:23 GMT | In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
corpse wrote:
> Check out : www.metadesign.com, www.hillmancurtis.com; for some real design ;).
Both have Flash central to the presentation. Is that your recommendation for Genesi?
> then there's the issue of using images for text blocks (at least on pegasosppc.com), this excludes those using screen readers from getting all the information, iirc there have been legal cases over this sort of discrimination so it is something web designers need to be aware of.
Funny how hillmancurtis.com relies on this almost exclusively. You didn't notice?
-- gary_c |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 23 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by André Siegel on 07-Aug-2003 04:09 GMT | In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
"Check out : www.metadesign.com, www.hillmancurtis.com; for some real design ;)."
There are some very nice websites out there, but the ones you chose are fairly bad examples. Metadesign.com takes up 25% of my screen, the remaining 75% are plain grey. It is not even centred but placed in the upper left corner of my screen. Plus, with such as small size, the fonts are hardly readable at all. The navigation concept is certainly interesting, but apart from that the website is almost unuseable in resolutions higher than 800x600...
As for hillmancurtis.com; I cannot see anything interesting on this website. It looks very ordinary in a way and the colour scheme is not optimal, in my opinion. The grey background is so dark that the contrast between the black text and the background colour is not high enough anymore on plenty of monitors. This should definetely be fixed to make it more eye-friendly. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 24 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by samface on 07-Aug-2003 04:39 GMT | In reply to Comment 12 (spotUP):
Well, atleast their design is original and recognized as Amiga. Now both the MorphOS site and the default MorphOS desktop looks more like Mac than something Amiga related.
Please note, that's my opinion. Flames goes to >NIL: |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 25 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 07-Aug-2003 04:47 GMT | In reply to Comment 21 (Lando):
"If I'd paid these guys to design my site and they came back with rubbish like that, I'd be demanding a refund."
The process is a little more interactive then "here's some money, make me a site", but with a small flashspot costing many tens of thousands sometimes you would expect something that worked ;)
n.b. Looking back those sites probably aren't as interesting if you haven't seen the design process and idea's behind them, but if you took the time to explore the sites and explore the work the people have done (e.g. Adobe Studio for Hillman Curtis and the Palm Pilot buttons for Meta) which was my intention you would have seen some really nice stuff that A: isn't bandwidth intensive B: isn't just a bunch of photoshop filters jammed together C: could be easilly recreated to work with amiga browsers with some server-side scripting :)
Eh, but if you think fuzzy text and gradients are pimp who am I to try and change your mind :P |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 26 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 07-Aug-2003 04:55 GMT | In reply to Comment 22 (gary_c):
"Funny how hillmancurtis.com relies on this almost exclusively. You didn't notice?"
The argument being that hillman curtis is selling visual art, not computers.. and I can't see the blind being very interested in "visual" art. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 27 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by corpse on 07-Aug-2003 05:03 GMT | In reply to Comment 24 (samface):
"MorphOS desktop looks more like Mac than something Amiga related."
The difference being that Apple publishes a user interface design guide which allows people to construct applications that not only look "nice" but are also functional. Genesi on the other hand have "the Pimp Mac Daddy for Photoshop(TM)" plugin which allows a trained monkey to generate over 1000 mac/xp lookalike website or desktop themes a day.
Only kidding ;) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 28 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by priest on 07-Aug-2003 05:10 GMT | | Concratulations for a very good looking web site, AGAIN. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 29 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by priest on 07-Aug-2003 05:16 GMT | ... I disliked every screenshot there (a little bit like mimics of OSX, XP, AmigaDE, etc.)...
(I did not like the first AOS4 s.shots either.)
And I quess the point is to show the GUI configurability, one can set the GUI to look like one desires and that is what I personally want. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 30 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Anonymous on 07-Aug-2003 05:40 GMT | In reply to Comment 7 (Daniel Miller):
>The large icons and lowish desktop resolution give a certain simplicity to
>things, which I think is appealing to people who are not totally advanced in
>their computer tastes.
Doesn't sounds exactly suited for the average MOS user, does it? ;)
IMHO the design is extremely incoherent, even within the same application (rounded/square, macos9 blueish / os31 grey, choice of font styles etc) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 31 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Anonymous on 07-Aug-2003 05:45 GMT | Ahh, it is refreshing to see progress! :) MOS keeps
getting closer and closer to a "full" releease.
Now, with printing and USB support integrated, the
only "major" deal breaker left is the TCP/IP-stack.
BTW, the default theme is looking a lot better this time.:)
(the one that resemble the genesi website graphics) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 32 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by itix on 07-Aug-2003 09:13 GMT | In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
> www.metadesign.com Hmm.. Couldn't view this site properly at university because they dont install flash for their XP machines. Couldn't access this site using Links either. Good example site designed by some incompetent hobby coder ;-) At least I can access morphos.net from any browser, including text browsers. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 33 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Marcus Sundman on 07-Aug-2003 09:41 GMT | "Unlike popular modern OSes, such as Linux, MorphOS is built using an idea of shared resources."
Why do they think Linux isn't "built using an idea of shared resources"? That is precisely how it is built.
Does MorphOS even have copy-on-write shared memory? |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 34 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Anonymous on 07-Aug-2003 09:42 GMT | can you say wanna-be-aqua-mac?
uhhh .... |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 35 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by spotUP on 07-Aug-2003 11:13 GMT | In reply to Comment 24 (samface):
true true. pegasos looks mac.
amiga has it's own style. but it looks unprofessional. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 36 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by gary_c on 07-Aug-2003 11:18 GMT | In reply to Comment 26 (corpse):
> "Funny how hillmancurtis.com relies on this almost exclusively. You didn't notice?"
> The argument being that hillman curtis is selling visual art, not computers.. and I can't see the blind being very interested in "visual" art.
Just thought it was interesting that your example does *exactly* the same thing that you critized Genesi for. Product range aside, it is ironic that hillmancurtis produces inaccessible pages for some part of the population at the same time they bill themselves as "making the invisible visible." But this is getting off the topic. It comes down to a question of taste. If the criticisms people have managed to bring up in this thread are any measure, then Genesi certainly doesn't have anything to be concerned about, design-wise.
-- gary_c |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 37 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Lando on 07-Aug-2003 11:27 GMT | In reply to Comment 24 (samface):
>Well, atleast their design is original and recognized as Amiga. Now both
>the MorphOS site and the default MorphOS desktop looks more like Mac
>than something Amiga related.
This is a good thing. I like the way OS X looks - it looks better than any version of Workbench.
But of course Ambient is customisable (unlike OS X). Maybe someone will produce an OS4 skin for Ambient, just for you, to make you feel at home should you ever buy a Pegasos :o) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 38 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Nate Downes on 07-Aug-2003 15:36 GMT | In reply to Comment 33 (Marcus Sundman):
>Why do they think Linux isn't "built using an idea of shared resources"? That
>is precisely how it is built.
Um... being an ex kernel maintainer, I can tell you that Linux is not built using the concept of shared resources. It is a monolithic kernel (don't bring up modules here, I know how modules work, and they're still used in a monolithic style). You might be discussing the .so libraries, but that's not Linux, that's GNU/BSD/etc, as Linux is not an OS, it's a kernel.
>Does MorphOS even have copy-on-write shared memory?
First time I've been asked that, let me find out and get back to you. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 39 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Alkis Tsapanidis on 07-Aug-2003 15:55 GMT | In reply to Comment 30 (Anonymous):
1) Icons are scalable.
2) Everything you listed is totally skinnable. You can have no grays if you want
to (as I do). |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 40 of 47 | ANN.lu |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 41 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Marcus Sundman on 07-Aug-2003 21:59 GMT | In reply to Comment 38 (Nate Downes):
> > Why do they think Linux isn't "built using an idea of shared resources"?
> > That is precisely how it is built.
>
> Um... being an ex kernel maintainer, I can tell you that Linux is not built
> using the concept of shared resources.
How so?
> It is a monolithic kernel
Are you saying that microkernels use shared resources to a higher degree than monolithic ones do? If so: how?
> (don't bring up modules here, I know how modules work, and they're still used
> in a monolithic style).
I really wasn't refering to the modules, but since you brought it up... how could there be any more sharing of resources if modules weren't just "clumped together" into the kernel but instead separate units like in a microkernel?
> You might be discussing the .so libraries, but that's not Linux, that's
> GNU/BSD/etc, as Linux is not an OS, it's a kernel.
When people (i.e., ordinary people, not people like RMS) talk about "Linux" they usually refer to GNU/Linux.
> > Does MorphOS even have copy-on-write shared memory?
>
> First time I've been asked that, let me find out and get back to you.
Copy-on-write is a great way to share data that stay mostly the same (e.g. libraries and other executable code).
The bottom line remains: in what way is MorphOS "built using an idea of shared resources" but Linux isn't? |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 42 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Nate Downes on 08-Aug-2003 01:47 GMT | In reply to Comment 41 (Marcus Sundman):
Linux did not handle shared libraries nor shared resources for many years, don't forget. Sure, it gained it by 1.2, but in the begining, it just wasn't there. MorphOS, by comparison, was designed from day 1 with the concept of shared libraries and resources in mind. I'm just calling it as it is, namely that Linux in it's early days was not engineered for the sharing of these things. Has this changed, sure, but that doesn't invalidate my point, that Linux began without being able to share very well. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 43 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by priest on 08-Aug-2003 08:17 GMT | The clever way of avoiding of saying word "Amiga" makes me smile.
"Commodore Ax00 and Axx00 series of computers"
LOL * 2 ! |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 44 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Hagge on 08-Aug-2003 08:20 GMT | In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
imho the morphos and pegasosppc sites look very well, even apple might get themself a match. I didn't liked the metadesign site, the other one looked better but far from the best i've seen. http://louie.e.phetast.nu/ looks quite ok |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 45 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Marcus Sundman on 08-Aug-2003 10:24 GMT | In reply to Comment 42 (Nate Downes):
> Linux in it's early days was not engineered for the sharing of these things.
> Has this changed, sure, but that doesn't invalidate my point, that Linux
> began without being able to share very well
Yes, that is true. I'm sorry if I misunderstood you and/or the MorphOS website. I was under the impression that MorphOS was meant to share resources to a higher degree then GNU/Linux now does. (I personally think that whatever linux pre-2.0 did back then a long time ago is quite irrelevant, and that it really isn't smart to say "MOS is now better than a prehistoric version of linux".) |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 46 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by BrianK on 09-Aug-2003 16:02 GMT | Why the removal of Amiga?
Seems they state Commodore Axx00 compatibility and with Commodore v39. As far as I know Commodore v39 doesn't exist it's Amiga. You can use other companies trademarks as long as you give credit to that company for the trademark.
Also, Commodore is trademarked and they don't appear to give them credit. So what's up here? Would they rather be sued by the owners of Commodore vs the owners of Amiga. My 2 cents the Amiga is probably less likely to sue because their pockets don't run so deep. Commodore is renewing their TM and IP protections. |
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| New Morphos.net website : Comment 47 of 47 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Anonymous on 09-Aug-2003 16:05 GMT | Nice Website.
Very clean looking a bit Apple Website looking. But, a nice design. |
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| Anonymous, there are 47 items in your selection |
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