[openbeos] Re: distropia (was: unrar & about us)
- From: Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 12:00:17 +0000
It seems most of us are thinking along similar lines here.
One of the reasons I think the Haiku project is so exciting/unusual is the
level of integration never seen before with OSS. There is one project building
one OS. Look at all the discussion on Expander's behaviour - it's great that
everyone involved in the project has this "whole OS" mentality.
I feel the next logical step is to also be the *one* distributor for the OS
too. I realise there is nothing to stop others making distros, but with a good
distro available from the "heart of the project" as it were, most others would
probably consider making distros not worth the hassle. I point to the fact that
it is only since the death of Be Inc that the whole concept of a 3rd-party
"distro" of BeOS has appeared.
Obviosuly the developers should not be wasting their time with user support and
whatever else "distributors" are expected to deal with - but I'm sure there are
enough interested people in the community (me being one) to form a large enough
"distribution" team to deal with all of these issues. The key thing is it would
be an official team of the Haiku project, not some unrelated 3rd party.
I really like the idea of a 2-tier scheme. A pro version could include some
things that could be licensed (Apple's patents in FreeType, maybe some codecs,
Flash, etc) but could still generate income for the organisation - selling at
$30-$40 is reasonable and would probably give $15-$25 back to the project. It
wouldn't take too many sales to be able to pay some full-time developers.
Having an official Haiku paid-for distro means much more money for the project.
Donations by themselves will never make anything significant IMHO. People need
an excuse to give money to the project. I'd quite happily part with $40 for a
nice official CD of Haiku, with some extras not in the free version. The
website could include references to the "Pro" version - even references could
be put in the base distro - like Be did with the bookmarks in PE. It means a
clear, single source for information on the project, the source, and the end
product. It's better and clearer for users, and better for the project too - to
have a single pot of money that can be distributed wherever it is deemed useful
(again following the "whole OS" mentality).
I am somewhat suprised by Michael's position on this - it seems like he is not
quite willing to take the one project idea to it's (IMHO) logical conclusion.
Simon
> From: "Axel Dörfler" <axeld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:47:08 +0100 CET
> To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [openbeos] Re: distropia (was: unrar & about us)
>
> "Jonas Sundström" <jonas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Michael Phipps wrote:
> > ...
> > > We will put out a base distro. Pretty much what
> > > builds in CVS/SVN/whatever.
> > > A bootable CD with our apps. Nothing (much) else.
> > ...
> > > Distro makers can/should add other apps, art work,
> > > sounds, whatever, but keep the base, core distribution intact.
> > The only reasonable course of action is to take the lead,
> > and keep the lead. Presence, perfection, predation.
>
> As long as we can, we'll definitely try :-)
> OTOH if there really is a better substitute of us out there, it
> wouldn't be for the bad of all.
>
> > (I wish I was in a better position, contribution-wise, to speak
> > my mind on these issues, but nevertheless I believe this is true.)
> >
> > It would be naive to think that distromakers merely
> > want to bundle a little this and that, or change some
> > esthetic aspect of Haiku.
>
> Right. We need to stay in public, so that users will come to us or
> "friendly" distributions first.
>
> > Thinking ahead, what are likely reasons to fork Haiku?
> > Can those reasons be preempted?
> > (I'm not looking for a big discussion, just posing a question.)
> >
> > In any case, I hope the scenario will be more like that of
> > the BSDs, where low level as well as high level code
> > flow between the projects.
> >
> > Consider how Linux has benefitted from polish and a penguin. The
> > (superior?) FreeBSD collects dust in comparison. Two essentially
> > identical platforms!
>
> Nobody can predict what will happen with our little project :-)
>
> Bye,
> Axel.
>
>
>
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