[openbeos] Re: The world as we know it
- From: "Axel Dörfler" <axeld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 13:33:30 CEST (+0200)
Helmar Rudolph <helmar@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Axel Dörfler wrote:
> > Also remember that a normal user doesn't even see or know
> > about the API; he will just see that R1 works better all
> > over the place.
> Yes, BUT (!!) he will NOT compare it to R5, which in some
> cases he has never ever seen before (and never will), but he
> will compare it to WinXP, MacOS X, Lindows, Linux
> derivatives, etc. As much as one would like to avoid it,
> that's the yardstick for any other OS out there, not a
> previouss version that was last updated -say- 3 years prior.
IMO that's both, right and wrong. (Ex-)BeOS users will compare it
mostly to R5, others probably not :)
BeOS R5 appeared in 2000, I hadn't used it before, but I got
immediately attracted to it. The only problems I had with it are: bugs
(that includes the whole net stack :-)), missing hardware support,
missing applications.
AFA the OS foundation works flawlessly, I don't see how it could have
problems in a direct comparison. The responsiveness alone let everyone
feel at home. The problem is: oh, I can't do that, this app is not
there, but I need it, etc.
The only real flaw that we will inherit fom the OS is missing hardware
accelerated OpenGL.
> For _US_ it's nice to see the improvements, but _US_ is not
> the market we are aiming for. _WE_ have shown that we have
Here I was confused for a short time ("for the States, it's nice to see
..") ;-)
> failed Be and we have failed each other, so if you want to
> be successful, pretty much ignore the current BeOS userbase
> - it doesn't really matter.
No, we can't ignore *our* current userbase. They are all what we still
have, and they probably are what will get OpenBeOS rolling*.
[* before it takes over the world ;-)))]
> Full circle... that will leave you with new users, those
> without any prior BeOS experience. And they wll NOT compare
> it to....
There we are, and that's right. My main point here: the BeOS experience
itself is like *wow* - the problem is not the OS, the problem is what
can *I* do with it?
See, at university, we had one (yeah, okay, they are more) computer
that didn't run Windows nicely - it crashed very often, hang, was slow,
etc.
The user was very dissatisfied, so I installed Linux with StarOffice,
because Linux could do all the things he needs to do. Some months later
he admitted that he is rarely using it, because it's too complicated
and slow for him.
Now he has BeOS with GobeProductive, and he is confident. And that,
although R5 has a very weak net_server, and NetPositive only which
isn't even enough to fulfil the needs this particular user had (well, I
still like it).
Adios...
Axel.
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