Re: Re: Re: MISC personal computers

[dcr@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dan C. Rinnert)]

dirnfir,dirnfir@usa.net writes:
>Hmm, it seems you and I have seperate views on this subject...  If I had the
>technical ability / funding / whatever to start a computer company, it would
>operate thusly: there would be no 'commercial operating system'  I would
>sell a MISC motherboard that came with operating system disks.  On those
>disks would be an open source Forth development system, graphics and I/O
>libraries, a basic GUI, ASCII text editor - the bare essentials.  The system
>would be targeted at geeks.  When the first modifications were written, I
>would incorporate them into the operating system and bundle them on the
>disks with the next batch of boards.  My company would contribute by doing
>quality control and correcting Human Interface issues.  After a year or two
>of that, I would be ready to attempt to sell to the average user.
>(Remember, my staff would be preparing it for mass consumption during the
>"geek" period.)  The system would still appeal to geeks, but would also be
>suitable for home users.

Well, if you will have an open hardware spec such that anyone can write an OS
for it, you can build and sell the hardware with your open source OS and host
of applications, and I can write my commercial OS and host of applications
for it (and resell the hardware bundled with my OS).  Then, consumers will
have a choice, which should help get it into more homes as well.  Both open
source and proprietary software have their advantages, so with both
available, the consumer can choose which one works best for them.

Dan

P.S.  Write up a business plan for your proposed company, then visit
garage.com.  ;-)


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