In a classic case of "two more weeks", the MorphOS team has actually finally really I'm-not-kidding-you released MorphOS 2.0. This release was long-awaited, and comes packed with so many new features they might as well have called it MorphOS 3.0. "The MorphOS development is proud to announce the public release of the much anticipated version 2.0 of MorphOS. For an overview of the included new features and updates, please read our release notes. A description of the hardware requirements and installation procedures can be found here."The list of new features is actually quite mind-blowing. The most important ones are the following:
- Ambient was extended massively and is well on its journey to become the ultimate desktop
- NetStack, the new integrated TCP/IP stack
- Poseidon USB stack, now at version 4
- MUI 4.0 with new UI classes
- Many brand new tools and utilities
MorphOS lacked a native tcp/ip stack before, so the addition of NetStack is a major, major stride forwards for the Amiga-inspired operating system. There is more though, such as AltiVec support, hardware accelerated graphics, and support for the Efika platform. In addition, it has also received a new mulitmedia framework titled Reggea. "A new, modular, streaming multimedia framework. It is going to replace existing datatypes system. Many Reggae classes are accelerated with AltiVec."
This is just a very narrow selection, as the list is seemingly endless - and to top it all off, they state, dryly, "please note that this is just an overview and does not mention or explain every new feature."
MorphOS 2.0 supports the Pegasos I and II, as well as the Efika platform. A time-limited, yet full-featured demo is available for free download, but the non-time limited version costs 150 EUR, but an introductory price of 111.11 EUR goes until 15 July.
I will be honest with you: MorphOS intrigues me beyond imagination. It is one of those operating systems that keeps eluding me - I just can't seem to get my hands on it, to test it out and review it for you guys. I hope this changes now that MorphOS 2.0 is out and about, and rest assured, OSNews will do everything within its power to get a review out to to you guys as soon as possible.
