[openbeos] Re: Visual design stuff again

  • From: Lars Hansson <lars-openbeos-misc@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 22:36:13 +0800

On Thu, 2003-09-25 at 17:19, Simon Taylor wrote:
> They are the very people we should target  - people who are prepared to 
> download and try an alternative OS, people who have read good things 
> about BeOS and decided to try that. We should be able to say to them 
> "R5 might not have worked for you, but try OBOS R1, it's much better".

I dont see how cosmetical changes will all of a sudden make it work for
these people.
It would be much better to be able to say "Sure, it looks the same but
it works much better" than "It looks much better now but, well, it still
wont work for you".


> We obviously know different users. I have read lots of comments in 
> forums all over the place saying "My PC just keeps rebooting - this is 
> rubbish".

They must have been running Windows for sure.

> My point is that appearing to be a complete "clone" of R5 will not 
> please everyone. Moreover, that does not even accurately reflect what 
> R1 will be. 

Are you saying that a different UI would please everyone?


> Huh? Do you mean it doesn't matter how it looks? In that case, would 
> you download TriangleOS if it had lots of cool features, even if it 
> looks like this:
> http://members.chello.nl/w.cools/screenshot6.PNG

If it was the best choice for a given task I sure would.

> 100% new code, a name that doesn't include "Be" or "BeOS" anywhere, the 
> first milestone release from a new team of developers, yet it looks the 
> same pixel-for-pixel as a 5 year old OS.

Probably because the focus have been on making it work better rather
than look better.
Besides, I like the R5 look. Guess why there are so many GTK and KDE
themes that mimics the R5 look.

> Again, in a wholly self-contained OSS product, retailers and 
> distributors are not that "essential". How many retailers and 
> distributors do you know of for the GIMP? Yet I would say that is quite 
> a successful product.

If by distributor you mean someone who re-distributes something most OSS
software has many, many distributors. Just look at all the different
download sites, RPM repositories, package systems etc.

> If we get 100,000 users using OBOS because "it's cool", that might 
> encourage GoBe to release Productive 4 for BeOS. There's no way we'll 
> ever improve the app situation without users. And any type of user is 
> better than no user.

"Any sale is better than no sale". A salesman with that attidude will be
of great grief for his company pretty soon.


Since I wont be coming to BeGeistert I wont have to fear Jonas hitting
me so I can continue this dire thread for eternity and beyond!
-- 
Lars Hansson <lars-openbeos-misc@xxxxxxxxxxx>


Other related posts: