FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: Now let's think clear..

["Erik Jakowatz" <erik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well said, Peter.  I think most folks on this list would just as soon 
see Palm do right by BeOS and at least do an R6-ish update.  If Palm 
were to decide to go full steam ahead with continued development (or 
license that task out to, say, Gobe), I see no harm coming from 
capitalizing on the current energy to get a project rolling.  If 
anything, waiting for Palm to get on the good foot may cost us dearly in 
terms of enthusiasm and userbase:  the BeOS user community has been 
hanging tough for well over a year now, and I think it needs a serious 
boost at this juncture.  An active effort on our part could provide that 
boost.  Besides, I highly doubt that we'll have so much code written by 
the time Palm's position is clarified that we'll do anything but sigh 
with relief if they decide to let BeOS live. =)  I'm up to my armpits in 
building a large app for BeOS right now and I'd rather *not* detour -- 
but I'm prepared to fully commit to doing so if necessary.

Something else to consider is that the perceived vigor of the 
community's efforts to keep BeOS alive may have a serious influence on 
Palm's eventual position.  After all, if we're willing to reimplement 
the damn thing, maybe there's some money to be made! ;)  It may be that 
an active project will help convince them to open as much source as they 
can.  Who knows?  Point is, taking active steps even at this early stage 
can do nothing but help us in the long run.

So don't hold back; share your ideas with everybody.  There's nowhere to 
go from here but up. =)

e

>The announcement is only 2 days old and there's already a sourceforge
>project to recreate BeOS. Now, while there's absolutely nothing wrong 
with enthusiasm it seems to me like the BeOS community is so 
enthusiastic that they are about to run of in 117 different 
directions... a few of them represented here :)
>
>We actually don't know is BeOS is dead yet 
(http://www.befaqs.com/news/readstory.php?story=56). As I see it there 
are two options:
>
>*) Either Palm does better with regard to BeOS than Be did the last 6 
months. That is, release BONE/OpenGL and continue development.
>.... in that case there might be a need for an OpenBeOS project, but 
it's goals will be very much determined by the direction of the real 
BeOS. Maybe it wouldn't be worth the trouble.
>
>*) Or... Palm does anything worse than Be with regards to moving BeOS 
forward... Then I think a new open source OS project is needed.
>
>I think the first goal of an OpenBeOS project (of any part of the BeOS 
community actually) would be to get an official statement from Palm... 
maybe even urging them to opensource BeOS (then we'll have our OpenBeOS 
project :) ).
>After that... (if Palm's a dead end) .. then full steam ahead and 
(re)create the perfect OS :)
>
>I've got a few more comments on the design goals of OpenBeOS, but I 
think I'll wait a bit until the situaton stabilizes.
>
>Peter

Data is not information, and information is not knowledge: knowledge is 
not understanding, and understanding is not wisdom.
        - Philip Adams