[openbeos] Re: news: development mailing list, distro guidelines

  • From: "Urias McCullough" <umccullough@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 09:42:24 -0700

On 5/20/07, Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: "Urias McCullough" <umccullough@xxxxxxxxx>
> > In the case of a CD produced to demo at a single event, say SCaLE, the distro could 
be called "SCaLE 2007 Demo", and then lower down on the CD it could include the text:
> > "This CD is based on pre-release Haiku code. The Haiku project will release 
an official distribution of the OS when it is ready. For information about the official 
Haiku project, please visit http://haiku-os.org.
> > This software is work in progress and has missing functionality as well as 
many (known and unknown) bugs. Use at your own risk.
> > We are not affiliated with Haiku, do not contact them for support."
>
> That's very interesting - marketing to developers and technical users
> with a demo CD and then treating them like average users... That seems
> like an effective way to turn away potential developers.

Sorry, I just don't get that. I was demonstrating how the case Koki was talking about 
(pre-release CD for handing out at conferences) could be accommodated within the current 
guidelines. What do you mean by "treating them like average users" - just 
saying on the CD that it is pre-release code and won't necessarily be a good indication 
of the quality of the release? Surely that's a sensible thing to say, whether to 
developers or users?


I was mostly referring to that last line - it sounded harsh and
unfriendly to me. Mostly just sounded like: "This is all we've got,
it's not official, and don't bother contacting Haiku about it because
they cant help you."

In any case, sorry for the disturbance. This is just one of the things
that has bothered me in the recent months. I may not have any truly
valid points, but it seems like a more "pushing" of the OS out to the
public might be a good strategy right now - and the act of doing this
should primarily be to encourage developers and the like to join the
cause. I highly doubt it's going to hurt the Haiku brand if a few
tech-savvy people hit a KDL here and there - especially when they know
it's pre-alpha software.

- Urias

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