On 8/16/06, Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
# Future vs. History
What excites/motivates engineers (our primary audience) more? The history of the technology, or the future potential that said technology has? I asked myself these questions in reaction to comments on the list about the absolute need to include our heritage in the "What is Haiku". Maybe it's me, but among BeOS fans I see a marked tendency to focus on the historic background of the OS. For example, the "What is Haiku" introduction on the new website (http://plonetest.haiku-os.org/introduction) dedicates about 30% to try to describe what Haiku is (one sentence), and then the remaining 70% to a historic background.
One thing I see that is often criticized is that "Haiku is re-creating technology from the 90s" (which of course then turns into the whole discussion about Linux being a re-creation of technology from the 60s/70s, etc. and the flamefest begins).
I think that part of the "Introduction" should point out that not only is it re-creating a great operating system - but also solving many of the problems that BeOS R5 had - including support for newer hardware and targeting a more scalable architecture.
Finally, maybe there should be a "Learn More" link taking the user to an "extended history" of Haiku/BeOS/etc. for those who want the full scoop (or maybe it becomes part of the FAQ?)
- Urias
