[openbeos] Re: Bootable Test CD

  • From: "Michael Lotz" <mmlr@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:34:18 +0100

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:17:18 -0400, Karl vom Dorff wrote
> I've submitted a bootable test
> CD<http://www.haikuware.com/view-details/development/app-
> installation/haiku-bootable-alpha-test-cd>at Haikuware and have had 
> a lot of comments about it. Some for, and some against.

My opinion is clearly against for the following main reasons:

* CD boot currently seems to be unreliable. Most of those who try seem to have
it fail. This is in my opinion far more severe than with just trying the
images - they work reliably inside the emulators, and even if they don't for
some reason it didn't cost anything. If I wanted to try an OS, burnt a CD and
then it is unusable for some reason this would put me off quite a bit more -
especially if it is an OS that claims to be easy to use.

* For those that got the CD to boot, the reports state that it currently is
extremely slow. There are ways to optimize this and this will have to be done.
But currently it does not make a good impression - especially in the case of
Haiku that has the main selling point of being fast and responsive.

* There are numerous reported issues with the read-only case of the CD. Like
settings not applying, programs not working as expected and some even
crashing. Those are easy to reproduce and to iron out and therefore I'd
advocate to let the developers do that prior to releasing anything in CD form,
as it again makes a bad impression for no real benefit.

> I take the side that the software might be good for developers who don't
> want to bother setting up a build environment, download the entire 
> source, and then compile it and figure out why there's isn't an 
> *.iso etc. They just burn it, test it, and maybe as a result submit 
> patches or fixes to Haiku. Or, maybe users might have the same issue,
>  and later submit bug reports or add their hardware to our hardware database.

I am sorry, but I find this a rather naive view. If a developer does want to
give Haiku a try for the first time, then the harddisk images are way better
to do this. That's probably also the reason why they are so easily available.
Burning the CD is more complicated, more error prone and will not give any
accurate experience of the performance. If someone would judge it from a
current "Live CD" then it would most probably be dumped and never looked
again. And I firmly believe that you can write it over and over again and have
people click an accept button - the pre-alpha status does not change anything
in the overall perception.

> The other side is that Haiku should release a demo CD when Haiku is ready
> because it might give a false impression to users/critics.

Yes Haiku should release a CD when Haiku is ready, and it certainly will. I
guess the alpha release will also be available as a CD. Why don't we have that
release yet? Because the developers do not currently see Haiku ready for that.
So not having the alpha should answer have answered your question from the
beginning.

> I believe I've read and understood the BSD/MIT license correctly,
>  and it says that the software can be freely distributed/altered 
> etc. but I don't want to cause any rifts. So, I'd like to know how 
> the developers feel. I can easily remove the software if suggested/required.

It is not about the license. From a license point of view this is all fine. If
anything it is a problem with the Haiku name, where the distro guidelines
would apply.

Anyway that is my opinion as a developer and as one who frequently tries out
other OS's and then wonders about why the hell someone release something in
that state.

Regards
Michael

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