[openbeos] Re: Wow! Great beginning!
- From: "Andy Satori" <dru@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 18:13:58 -0400
Ok, so who am I?
Andy Satori, Married, 2 kids, new house, 30 years old, living on the
outskirts of Atlanta, GA (US)
I consider myself to be a 'general geek'. I have no real specialty.
Operating Systems are my passion. I've used most of the commercial
platforms. OS/2, DOS, PalmOS, Windows CE, Windows XX (1,2,3.x, 9X, NT,
2000, XP), AIX, Solaris, MacOS, MacOS 10, NeXTStep/OpenStep, Linux,
FreeBSD, BeOS, Amiga WorkBench to name the highlights. In that time
I've developed for most of them, beat on all of them, and spent an
enormous amount of time money and effort making them interoperate.
Professionally, I've done web development, business application
development, device driver development and system tool development.
Currently I am the lead programmer on several projects for Stardock
Systems (the folks that brought you WindowBlinds and DesktopX for
Windows). I also do some web development work on a contract basis
during the days.
Looking at this ambitious project, what I would like to do is help
guide the process, and more importantly seek ways to make it a
profitable project for those involved.
The problem I see is that most open source projects are not managed,
they simply evolve. This typically means that the projects are never
x.0 releases, they are eternally stuck in the 95% complete stages and
lack the polish of commercial software. This is despite the more
complete testing and review process that an open source project sees.
Solving this problem is the task I would like to see this project take
on as well. OBOS, as I'll refer to it, needs a RedHat, an entity to
control the project, to set release goals, and to ultimately work with
the GOBE's and Apacabar's of the world to establish a commercial
distribution presence. In order for this project to succeed, we need
more than to keep the community together, we need to continue to expand
the community, without the religious zealotry of the OSS, FSF or Linux
is better set. This means the need for commercial partners.
Ultimately there would need to be a funding mechanism for any project
of this magnatude. CD releases, Documentation, Donations, T-Shirts, and
paid support contracts are methods to accomplish this. There are
others, but with this kind of startup project, they are the most
affordable.
There are a slew of little issues facing this project, not the least
of which is naming. BeOS is a registered trademark, therefore is a
liability to an unfunded project. First thing to done, change the
name. OBOS, might work in the short term, but not in the long term.
Legitimizing the project means that the code and the project needs to be
documented from day 1, not years later ala the LDP (Linux documentation
project). It also means that we need to approach some of the most vocal
and strong supporters in the community to throw some weight and
credibility to the project, Scot Hacker, Chris Herberoth, Daniel Berlin,
Dane Scott, etc... Each of these gentleman bring significant
credibility with them in the community.
These are my thoughts,
as always take them with a grain of salt
Andy
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