[openbeos] Re: Distropia
- From: Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 16:51:46 +0000
Michael (et al...),
> The point I was/am trying to get at is this -
> I would bet that every user out there has a different set of software. My
> usage
> is different than axeld's usage which is different than DarkWyrm's usage.
> There
> is no way to make a one package fits all.
But I bet there is a core package that you all share - basically what Be put
out, and what you intend to put out.
When I suggest a paid-for distro, I don't mean something that bundles all of
BeBits. But I think there are huge advantages to the project by copying Be's
idea. R5 Pro didn't have huge amounts of stuff over PE - basically a few things
Be could purchase licenses for (RealPlayer, mp3 encoding) and some sample
source. Haiku could do something similar - buy Apple's freetype patents,
approach other companies (Macromedia springs to mind), enable (legal) DVD
support in Media Player, include the whole source tree on the CD.
I'm not talking about adding lots of 3rd party apps, along with all the issues
they bring about trying to stay up to date. That doesn't mean you can't make a
value-added distribution (that Haiku Inc is completely in control of) which
people would be willing to pay for.
That really would shift the whole identity of Haiku from being some geeky
community of coders, to an "operating system provider" - I think it would be a
highly benificial move both directly for the project (from a financial
perspective) and indirectly from the point of view of how Haiku Inc is
perceived.
> In order to do what some people are asking, we would need to add a group of
> people who will decide what software to include, check the licensing, keep up
> with the builds, test the stuff, etc. That is a very significant dedication
> of
> time and know how. Haiku not only doesn't have either to spare, but honestly,
> I
> don't see how said group can possibly succeed, given the vastly different
> people who use R5 and will use our R1.
I'm more than willing to be in a team dealing with distribution issues - not
bundling BeBits, but what additional things could be included in a paid-for
distro and looking into production of CDs etc.
> As far as BitTorrent... Technically, it is a great answer to the bandwidth
> issue. I wonder very seriously how many people out there use it.
I'm sure someone could whip up a quick "Get Haiku" app for windows or something
(:o) that is a thin wrapper around bittorrent. It would probably only be a few
hundred K to download, which would help your bandwidth costs a bit. Maybe it
could even be made as a java applet, so it would be as simple as clicking a
link in a browser.
I've even seen this distributed download technique crop up a few times on the
web already.
sf.net is still probably the best option though.
Simon
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