[openbeos] Re: patch for vim on haiku

Michael Phipps <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 2005-03-26 at 20:05:11 [-0500], Ingo Weinhold wrote:
> > With this argument you could strip the base off virtually 
> > everything save 
> > Tracker + Deskbar, Firefox (or Mozilla), BeMail (or some other mail 
> > client), 
> > and a media player. Why a text editor? What most people want would 
> > be a word 
> > processor, but that is probably not part of a base distro.
> For a ***DOWNLOAD*** base, I think that the fewer applications, the 
> better. For 
> something on CD, I think that we should install the same as the 
> downloaded 
> base. I would challenge people - count the number of apps from a base 
> install 
> of R5, Max, Zeta, etc). Then count how many you use regularly. Then 
> count how 
> many apps you downloaded and use regularly. 

I wouldn't that call the base installation then, but a barebone 
installation :-)
We're already pretty small a download, so I don't think this really 
matters a lot (the only big thing to add is Firefox).

> > I seriously don't think, StyledEdit is really adequate for any kind 
> > of job. 
> > Save for writing ReadMe files that look a bit better than plain 
> > text (and 
> > make less work than HTML) maybe. It's just that an OS is expected 
> > to include 
> > at least a simple editor app. As it is expected to include a CLI 
> > and an 
> > editor for it (all the OSs I have in mind, do that anyway). We can 
> > certainly 
> > go a different way, but than we can as well cut more radically 
> > (Terminal, 
> > StyledEdit, DiskProbe, telnetd,...).
> PERSONALLY, I would cut telnetd and DiskProbe. Both are dangerous in 
> the hands 
> of the newbie and/or the clueless and are pretty rarely used by most 
> anyone. 
> Other than hard core devs, who uses DiskProbe? And telnetd, as an 
> unsecure 
> protocol, should go away, as should ftpd. 

I think a well balanced distro would need to include these things 
(although I would like to replace telnet/ftp with ssh). We also need to 
be aware that Haiku is not a "dumb user" OS; if you install it, you're 
already way beyond a standard Windows user. Focussing on the wrong 
needs could make a bad first impression.
That's where I think BeOS R5 does quite a good job: it provides the 
right tools for most of us.
If Haiku is getting more interest, and only if, we should start to 
address the shift in its user base.

> > Personally I find BeOS mostly a quite well balanced basic distro, 
> > though. I 
> > would probably remove a few things and add some others instead, but 
> > basically 
> > that's what I'd have in mind.
> Honestly, I do, too, remembering that it was designed to be 
> distributed on CD 
> where bandwidth is not an issue. Personally, I would love to see R1 
> as a 60meg 
> zip file for d/l. I don't think that is an unreachable goal (not even 
> having 
> looked at where we are now). I believe that we should treat the 
> users' machine 
> and resources sort of like the fridge at a friend's house - we should 
> take what 
> we need, but nothing more.  

Have you forgotten about R5 Personal Edition? Even with Firefox on the 
table it would be still an acceptable download.
Also, I don't think there is a huge difference (in convenience) between 
downloading 40 MB and 80 MB. The one between 4 MB and 15 MB is much 
larger IMO.

Bye,
   Axel.

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