[haiku] Re: Preinstalling Haiku on new computers.

Hi,

first of all - thanks for considering to install Haiku on your laptops, 
that's pretty cool!

On 2009-04-23 at 21:27:06 [+0200], Rybin Valeriy <walera@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
> > what's the typical end user of these?  Are your customers mostly 
> > business or home users, or schools?
> Typical end user - home users, students.

As I understand, you want to replace the DOS version of your laptop with 
Haiku. Do your customers actually use DOS for anything? Or is it just a way 
for them to avoid paying for a Windows license? (In case they want to 
install some Linux distro or already have a Windows license?) I am having a 
hard time trying to imagine that you have 1000 people per month who 
actually have a use for DOS. If it works like I imagine it does, then these 
costumers just have a nice surprise when they are greeted by the Haiku 
desktop. Worst case,they will simply do what they planned on doing anyways, 
which was to wipe the harddrive and install whatever OS they planned on 
installing.

Anyways, our license allows you to do what you want with Haiku, as long as 
you give proper attribution. Which is taken care of by Haiku itself. If you 
don't change the "distribution" (like if you use a pre-alpha image), then 
you do not need to take any additional steps. Otherwise you need to follow 
the distro guidelines.

The other question is whether you "should" do this before we have declared 
even the first alpha release. I know that Haiku can run pretty well (I'm 
using it full-time now). But it can also just freeze up or corrupt the 
users data. If you use the pre-alpha image, then the Welcome package is 
installed and there will be a link on the Desktop with the appropriate 
warnings. But you should definitely add additional notice about the 
expected quality of the pre-alpha Haiku at any product 
offerings/descriptions.

If you really need an additional document and our MIT license is not 
enough, then I am sure we can help you. But you would most likely have to 
explain specifically what all needs to be mentioned in this document.

Best regards,
-Stephan

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