Very interesting analysis, Pete. "Conundrum" was not the best choice of words on my part; "issue" would have been better, the point being that from a marketing perspective we really have to get developers on board to write the apps which make the OS useful. e Peter Willis wrote: > > >The > >real conundrum to me is that it's the apps that make an OS truly > >"useful" to people > > It all comes down to the basic needs of the human animal. > > Food, water, shelter from the elements, A sense of community. > Most computer use falls into the 'community' category of human > content. > > Most human communication needs can be categorized: > > a.) communication listed by hardware connection > i.) Text > 1.) writing > -keyboard > 2.) reading > -video card > -monitor > 3.) fax > -modem > 4.) paging > > ii.)Speech > 1.) telecom > -modem > -network card > -phone > -intercom > -music > > iii.) Visual > 1.) Art > -video > -mouse > -tablet > -pen (stylus) > > b.) communication by group relationship interaction > > i.) internal interaction (family) > 1.) Human physical needs gathering services > -Food infrastructure > -Water infrastructure > -Shelter infrastructure > -Health infrastructure > 2.) Human psychological needs services > -Education infrastructure > -Communication infrastructure > -Health infrastructure > > ii.) external interaction (everyone else) > 1.) currency sources > -business > -job > 2.)currency sinks > -bills and costs > 3.) information resources and storage > 4.) communication resources > > The most useful applications fall into places where some or > many of these categories cross over each other. > Some of the categories are so general that they have, as yet, > not been matched with a computer program. > > Peter