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OpenBeOs Developers Talk About Progress

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the always-room-for-more dept.

DeltaSigma writes: "Michael Phipps, of the OpenBeos team, recently hosted a public Q&A Session where many of the public musings over a completely new open source operating system have been addressed. The answer to all the 'is there room in the market?' questions was answered in a way: 'We are an OSS project. Marketing is not our job.' Perhaps more /.ers could keep this in mind ..."

4 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. BEos by wastedbrains · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is an operating system that hsould be developed even if there isn't "room" in the market for a new OS. Because as it progresses there will be room. As the OS becomes more usable people will make an effort to use it. Linux is a great windows alternative but starting completely over and not building off anything else is something that should really be done with most technology every so often. There is so much progress made in computer science why should we still be building off old systems and code. Build anew and you get a faster sleeker more efficient more reliable OS. This is great news even if it might take 6 years before it has the functionality of current OSes that are offered.

    --
    Dan Mayer: my blog, essays, art, etc
  2. Return of the Batmobile by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Now if we could just get people to stop buying station wagons and stick to either tanks or batmobiles, we'd be in business.

    Seriously, though, I think right now is a key turning point in the platform wars. Simply put: thanks to widely-available and cheap networking and a proliferation of cross-platform applications (even on the desktop, at least until MS decides to pull the plug on Apple), the platform you're running on means less now than ever. That's the point Apple's trying to make in their new advertising campaign. Given that, it might just be that there's room for an OSS desktop.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  3. Does one size really fit all? by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Isn't it possible that pushing Linux to the average user's desktop is like pushing a round peg into a square hole?

    It seems to me that Linux is and always has been a server and power-user OS. It's become more user friendly in recent years, with the caveat that the ease of use depends heavily on the under-the-hood stuff operating correctly -- my mom will never, ever be able to tweak her kernel or reconfigure an XF86Config file.

    Isn't is possible that an OSS-type BeOS is a better option? It provides an environment that is ground-up designed for desktop users. It can still give us all the Good Things that a OSS OS brings (compliance with standards, innate resistance to embrace-and-extend, etc). Why limit ourselves to only running over a specific kernel and using a specific (UN*X) basic paradigm?

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  4. Re:WhoOS? by dinivin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That kind of attitude certainly isn't going to get your OS on any desktops, and pretty soon you won't have any job.

    Except that none of these developers are working on OpenBeOS as their job. They are working on it because they like it, and that probably won't change even if no one uses the it.

    Dinivin