[openbeos] Re: Distropia
- From: Ronald Vos <egregius@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 02:53:13 +0100
Thowing in another 2 cents:
> 1) File size for bandwidth reasons.
Good point. I always wonder how all those Linux distributions manage.
Maybe because geeks all have well-paying jobs that they donate so
much, or maybe it's because they abuse their university comps..
But there's Bittorrent luckily.
> 2) File size for philosophical reasons. Aren't we supposed to be small,
> nimble,
> power in a contained package? Not the "suburban sprawl" of software. :-)
Good point, but if a user first has to go online to get even the most
basic stuff he needs, starting to be productive isn't that swift and
nimble an experience. Especially if there's no webbrowser!
> 3a) What would you include (legal) - there is a lot of time, effort and money
> necessary to negotiate terms for making a distro with non-free software.
> Assuming that I would be responsible for that, it is a pretty daunting task.
> What should we include? Who pays for ports? Are NDAs acceptable?
Here's a task for non-programming savy people ;)
Users probably won't object to NDA's the programmers have taken.
> 3b) What would you include for a selection?
Necessary: webbrowser. You don't want people to boot into another OS
to get the necessary software. Also: something for simple&fast
text-editing, and unzipping.
Extremely appreciated when included: something for mail, something for
mp3/ogg/wav, something for video, and something for text-formatting.
These are all usually available on BeOS PE distros.
Also: some toy is needed to show off the OS ;)
I'd like to see someone port Open Office (or improve on it). Being
able to handle MS proprietary formats and thus integrate with the
Windows world is a prime requisite to get people to switch. OO does a
very nice job at that. But porting OO would be a HUGE undertaking, not
something easily/possibly done with current dev resources.
> 3c) What focus or direction should a (or would each?) distro take?
Themed extra packages that are easy to install after the base install
would be perfect. Here's something that's not necessarily up to the
Haiku team though.
> 4) What facilities should/would/will we have in place for getting "other"
> packages?
If only all the software on Bebits had a mirror so the links wouldn't
break after some time.
A central server that would not only serve the primary distro but also
the extra packages would be great. Of course, there would have to be a
lot more income first.
Everything else is bikeshed colour ;)
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