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

  • From: Timothy Brown <stimbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 10:41:35 +1000

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Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) wrote:
> 
> You keep equating a demo to a distro, which is not necessarily the case.

In purpose, a demo does not necessarily equate to a distro, but in
substance, it does. The modifications are there, the potential instability
is still there, the impression of what Haiku is is still there...

You are assuming that providing demo CD's will only benefit the Haiku
community, whereas it could just as easily be detrimental depending on how
the demo CD is put together.

This is why, for me, I believe that, yes it should be easier to make a
demo CD than a distro, but we should be careful not to allow loopholes
which basically permit people to distribute a "demo" on a permanent basis
without following the distro guidelines. For that reason (and also for the
possibility of bad quality demo's hurting the Haiku name), I believe demo
CD's should be OKed on a case by case basis. I also believe that there
should be blurb making it clear that it is not an official build (I think
Koki's blurb here is quite good).

Although it is good to cover all of these possibilities and have
contingency plans ready, I also suspect that this will be less of an issue
than people think. When Haiku is ready to be distributed, even on a
pre-release preview basis, it sounds like the base distro will include a
sensible selection of apps, making the incentive to create your own demo
lessen. As for attracting developers, I think they are less impressioned
by flashy GUIs and more on a technical basis of what Haiku has the
potential to offer them over other operating systems. In other words,
developers don't need a demo CD, they are very much in user land.

Stim
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