[haiku-development] Re: What's the status of Haiku?
- From: Augustin Cavalier <waddlesplash@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 11:24:22 -0400
On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 11:02 AM, Sia Lang <silverlanguage@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A direction involving an existing kernel and set of drivers so my GPUs and
> obscure devices can be used.
>
You have not listed what devices those are that we don't support yet. File
bugs and we'll work on it; in some cases this is as simple as adding a
device ID to a driver configuration (say, half the time this is the case).
> A BeOS layer would obviously be coupled with a finely-tuned, ready-to-go
> configuration. Ubuntu and Android "distros" don't generally get stuck on
> users (which are in the billions.)
>
I don't intend to get "stuck on users". Most of my "evangelization" efforts
are for finding new developers, not new users.
And of course there are already configurations like that in Linux distros,
but there are always bugs and things break and then you're stuck because
it's not easy to fix stuff without being a nerd. Which isn't what we're
aiming for at all.
Anyway, I'm not really rooting for Linux per se. I'm rooting for an
> existing kernel with great driver, toolchain and library support. There's a
> few options.
>
We have good support for Raedon HD and Intel Extreme cards (modesetting
only, but Alex is working on acceleration as time allows him to).
Toolchain-wise we have GCC 4.8.3 with C++11 support. And library-wise we
have Qt and quite a lot of other POSIX/Linux libraries in HaikuDepot.
> I'm a long-time OS developer and do actually understand the complexity,
> and I'm one of the few who did commercial work on BeOS before it
> disappeared from the public eye. I basically did close to three kits in two
> months. Not to brag, but this isn't all that hard when you have a
> rock-solid and comprehensive kernel with a massive amount of ready-to-use
> libraries available. Really.
>
I'm willing to bet you wrote it on top of Qt or GTK (or maybe even X11),
no? You didn't start from scratch to do it "the right way" as we did.
> I'll put up a github repo when the source base is in good shape in case
> anyone wants to chip in.
>
I may use it for a few things if it's as simple as installing a package.
(And it's 100% source compatible with Haiku's public API that is). But
it'll never be a replacement for Haiku for me anyway.
> Thanks for the offer, but I have no interest in working on an approach I
> don't believe in.
>
I don't think I've heard you say why...
Also, in reply to Stephan: No, I don't want the Linux kernel and I never
will. If Haiku does switch kernels, there's a significant chance that I
leave and never come back. I think many others feel the same way.
-Augustin
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