[haiku] Re: Tips on making presentations about Haiku
- From: "Jorge G. Mare" <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:34:43 -0700
Hi Ryan,
Ryan Leavengood wrote:
I am going to have two opportunities in the next month to make some
presentations about Haiku.
<snip>
Here are a few key aspects that I usually focus on; this is mostly based
on what I have noticed in the many times that I have presented/demoed
Haiku over the years and in the context of a general -- mostly
non-technical -- introduction, so not all of it may apply to you; but
hopefully it can still useful at least as reference. :)
#Responsiveness of the system
Talk about how efficient Haiku is thanks to is multi-threadedness; show
the servers/apps and their threads (and various priorities) in
ProcessController; stress the system by running multiple videos and show
how the system remains responsive even if you turn off one CPU/core: use
Pulse to do this and to visually show the (high) CPU load. Putting this
in the context of modern multi processor/core modern desktops as well as
netbooks and other smaller form factor devices makes a lot of people nod.
#BFS/live queries
Before running a live query demo, show how Tracker exposes extended
attributes; for example, create an empty folder and show the Attributes
menu before and after you move an attributed (say, a People) file into
that folder; then show the various extended attributes and how how they
can be even edited directly in Tracker (the file manager becomes a
front-end to the database-like file system).
To engage your audience, you could (I always do) create a People file
with the data from someone from the audience (just get the name, city
and country); create a query where that person meets the criteria (this
goes to show how a easy it is to create a query); then change the People
file data back and forth so that the above-mentioned People file
appears/disappears from the query (this helps visualize how live queries
work). Show how easy it is to save the query to the desktop using D&D.
#Data translators
Show how easy it is to convert a graphic image (or part of it) from one
format to another. This is what I usually do: take a screenshot of the
User Guide welcome page, open it in ShowImage, select the logo and D&D
it on the desktop; repeat the same, but use the right mouse button so
that you can select the file format when you D&D the clip on the
desktop. I always install the GOCR data translator
(http://www.bebits.com/app/4098) to show how easy it is to take a block
of text from a bitmap image and convert it into text using D&D (from
ShowImage). Emphasize the modular aspect that allows adding data
translators to expand the capabilities of the system and applications.
#Media Kit
Run multiple audio/video in MediaPlayer, as many as your PC will bear
w/o dropping frames/sound. Show smooth scaling. Show how you can change
the volume of each MediaPlayer instance separately (using the Audio
Mixer in the Media preferences applet). Do a quick demo of Clockwerk,
including (particularly?) how it renders videos using the Media Kit
encoders. BeAE (http://www.bebits.com/app/4611/) is also a nice app that
you can use to demo media capabilities.
#Code base
A lot of people don't understand the Haiku code base. I always try to
educate them in terms of what the Haiku code base is comprised of: a lot
of home brew code, but also (the fork of) the NewOS kernel, OpenTracker
(open sourced by Be Inc.), FreeType, AGG, FFMPEG and other open source
software. Note the fact that Haiku includes the GNU tool chain, GCC,
bash, etc.; many people don't know this.
#Why not Linux?
I simply tell people that Linux is great, and that in fact I even use
it; but that at the same we think there is a better, easier, more
end-user focused approach to personal computing, and that is what Haiku
aims to become. When you put that in the context of the what makes Haiku
unique and (at least potentially) better, most people understand.
#History & people
When giving a presentation, I usually start by putting Haiku in the
context of the history of BeOS (I have a timeline slide for that). That
and putting a face to the project by giving the audience an idea of who
we are, how many and where serves as a good intro to get the audience
warmed up. Be brief though.
In general, I have come to the conclusion that people seem to relate
better to the solution that Haiku aims to provide when presented with a
well-prepared live demo rather than a verbal presentation with slides.
Of course it all depends on the topic and your audience; but if I were
to be asked to give a general Haiku introduction presentation today, I
would probably dedicate the first 10 - 15 minutes (at most) with a few
slides (say, no more than 10) and then show the system doing a live
demo, to end with a Q&A session towards the end.
Finally, prepare in advance and don't assume everything will work as
expected; For example, make sure that the audio/video files you plan to
use for your demo play well in the MediaPlayer; in the case of live
queries, make sure what the queries you plan to demo actually work; it
can (does) happen that they don't. ;)
Good luck with your presentations and if you need any specific help,
feel free to ask.
Cheers,
Jorge/aka Koki
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