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Re: MISC-d Digest V00 #13

From: Eugene Leitl <eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>

Wayne Morellini writes:

-I know all about TaOS. I used to push them after the Byte series
-articles wherever I could. Nifty technology, will never make it
-because their they have no clue about business, and even if they had a
-ghost of a clue now it would be too late anyway, since now OpenSource
-OSses are out there.


QNX uses their Java engine (because it is the best in the industry) and the 
Amiga developement system is to be launched next month.  So it might be 
worth checking out.


-Anything which doesn't come with source is essentially dead. Free
-binaries alone don't cut it anymore. I'm surprised so few people are
-yet grokking it.

Well I had a worry about Linux (surprising that it has technically done so 
well to date) about fracturing up and not hanging together in a coherent way 
in the long run.  Standards can help but may not be innovative.  So once 
Linux hackers get distracted by other things even open source systems 
troubles might eventuate.  But when a commercial company gets innovative 
then it could be pushhed a lot further.  But commercial companies don't 
really set standards in a way that allows them to easily manipulate for 
technical innovation etc etc.  A commercial company could though do it on 
it's own (Apple etc).



-PalmOS is dead as is WindowsCE. It may take time, but I'm pretty
-certain that Yopi thing won't remain single. What the teller machine
-uses is of little relevance, because 1) I can't control it 2) I don't
-really care what it is, as long as I don't have to buy it and to fix
Well you use it and it is used because it is a Quality thing.  See quality 
is also technical and users don't want slowing PC's, crashes, choking when 
their printing, unrequested mouse clicks etc etc etc they want a quality 
system if only they knew they didn't have one, like Linux users know (apart 
from the momentem of Windows).  A quality system can fix most all these 
problems.  People buy PC's don't know ask us (freinds and family) to spend 
hours fixing it for free, can't or wont learn how to do it themselves etc 
etc.  They don't realise that there is a lot of money etc above the purchase 
price.  There is room that why Playstation, Amiga, Taos and Linux are still 
possibles

-The good part of Linux is that it is noncommercial, and hence not
-subject to lawsuits. I don't care a fig what is patented/copyrighted
-or not, because I can implement it and put it on the web. Especially
-with budding new anonymous distribution infrastructure publishing
-becomes irreversible, since not giving you a point of attack in
-meat/legalspace. It is quite amusing to see the CEOs and lawyers
-scurry, and not get anywhere.
Things like the DVD decoding hack might be a problem.  They could even 
restrict distibution under patent law, so companies like Red Hat could face 
problems if some of the free code violates patents.

 >  > with the exception of Windows and QNX, no one in their right mind 
would
 >  > release a new operating system under closed source.  Windows can do it

When you have such high quality there is little room left for improvement, 
does it matter.


-I call a standard motherboard what Asus sells in quantities. So far,
-Transmeta's offering is not even a standard: it's vaporware.

ATX is a standard and crusoe ATX boards are comming.

 > In case other people haven't realised, QNX and the Toas OS (too some 
extent)
 > have a very Misc flavour about them.  They are practically minimial and

-Which is probably why they are doomed.

For maximal benefit otherwise why bother with Linux etc?

-Users are not purists, they are users. 98% could hardly care less
-about the architecture, as long as the system more or less does what
-it is expected to do. If you don't believe me, ask a few Windows -users.

As I said before they want Quality, technical superiority is part of that.


You have good pionts about Low performance closed sourced code not being 
published (after all somebody might re-write them and make them quicker).  
Also it is the businesses right to protect, and QNX, Toas and BEOS have very 
efficent code they are protecting as well.

-and I have 0 tolerance for proprietary place&route software.  I -figure
-some people here have probably went through the same search and
frustration.

Well if I can load it run it and use it without hassel it would be fine, but 
a lot of commercial software for windows is a pain to manage(even if it is 
free).

Thanks Eugene, you have good points, I however am interested in pushing 
responsible commercialism (not the present system of the world).  I see some 
pitfalls with non money backed large scale software systems, and the 
potential for the commercial sector to act responsible and deliever quality 
(good example Was Geoworks for the PC that was to be OS2 Lite that got 
canned for Windows 3.0, what a difference).

Have fun I think we will all lend up (if we are willing) with decent OS's on 
our desktops one day, and I'm sure Linux will be one of them, plus some 
others.
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