Probably you remember that four weeks ago OSNews introduced the "OSNews Alternative OS Contest", asking for article contributions. The deadline was July, 14.

Well, on July 13, I have sent an article called "MorphOS: The Lightning OS".

Currently I cannot put the article on line here or elsewhere because the contest rules require that (1) the article must be an original work written expressly for OSNews, and (2) articles previously published elsewhere, including a blog, are not eligible.

Then I (we) must expect the results of the contest: if the article will be one of the winners, it will appear on OSNews, otherwise I will publish it here and on my homepage.

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Writing a decent full length article in four weeks starting from scratch has been a very hard work. At first I had no inspiration, then I was highly unsatisfied because the first versions were not as good as I wanted. After I lost in such a way the first two weeks, I was finally able to find the right structure and everything slowly found its location therein. Anyway, this would have been too much work in comparison with the available free time, if I had not found the support of a few great friends.

I want to thank publicly Gunne Steen and Stefan Blixth for providing almost all the pictures used in the article. Ed Vishoot kindly reviewed the technical aspects of the article, and suggested many changes that greatly improve its correctness, as well as its readability (heavily conditioned by my imperfect English). Andrea Maniero suggested the insertion of a completely new section, sent me specific contents, and reviewed the results together with Gunne.

Finally I obtained even the kind help of Frank Mariak (no need to say who he is!), who read the article and gave his approval, certifying that I had written real things about MorphOS and not dreams&hopes.

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Taking into account that the article would be read by people that do not know anything about MorphOS, it was written explicitly and specifically for absolute newcomers. No knowledge concerning our community, our history, our experiences, and our motivations, is assumed. Facts that are important only for Amigans have the correct (small) weight in the article context.

It is a common experience for me, and (I think) also for all of you, to receive questions about the strange computer that I use, and the unknown OS that drives it. It was always very hard for me to give reasonable answers. It is simply impossible to describe in a few sentences or in a few minutes my motivations. Also long arguments are not useful, because too many secondary explanations must be given, the scenario soon enlarges too much, the subject becomes vague, and people lose interest. Until now, I was unaware of written references that could provide correct and complete answers in a way fully understandable by aliens.

When I finished the article I realized that I had written the required reference. From now on, if someone will ask me "Why are you using that strange OS?", I will have something better than replying "Because I am crazy...". Instead I will say "Read this! And you will know...", specifying a web link to "MorphOS: The Lightning OS".

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If "MorphOS: The Lightning OS" will be published on OSNews, MorphOS for a while will acquire visibility and will be advertised in a context much larger than our small niche, here at MorphZone. I hope that the resulting interest will be positive. The article was written for information purposes only, trying to give my help for MorphOS future, and not for my personal advantage. I hope that Genesi and the MorphOS Team will use the article for advertising MorphOS everywhere they judge the news could be useful. I will give them full rights to use the article as soon as the OSNews rules will make it possible.

[Articles submitted and published on OSNews are not to be re-published elsewhere... You may freely re-publish your article elsewhere after a period of 30 days of the article being live on the OSNews web site.]

Furthermore, I would like to suggest the following idea to the people of MorphZone. Besides the English version of the article, an Italian version is already in the works. If you are a non-English/non-Italian subscriber of MorphZone, please consider the possibility of translating the article (40 KB of text) in your native language. This could be very useful for a larger diffusion and advertising of MorphOS. Let's distribute the knowledge that MorphOS exists and is a very good OS, trying to reach even contexts where English is not spoken.

(Translations should be freely usable by Genesi and the MorphOS Team for advertising purposes).

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After having said so many things about an article that is not yet available to the public, I can only add that I am sorry, because currently I have no control on its publication date.

In the meanwhile, you can go to my new homepage, where you will find all my previous articles written for MorphZone. After the multiple crashes and database problems suffered months ago by MorphZone, only 2 of my 5 articles are still accessible here at MorphZone. At my website you will find all the articles, as well as their available translations.

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Thank you for your kind attention (and forgive me if I was so long and so boring...)

DoctorMorbius_FP


[ Edited by DoctorMorbius_FP on 2006/7/16 21:09 ]