Order of the Butterfly
Posts: 303 from 2005/11/21
From: UK
Quote:
You fail to mention _why_ Asus is dropping Linux - unsatisfied costumers!
They didn't offer matching coats and trousers ?
Sorry, I had to say it ;)
This is not true. When the Eee PC was first offered, they were very open with screenshots that looked nothing like Windows. The people who bought it did so because it was tiny, could edit files and do a bit of internet. It trailblazed the path for netbooks. It was only later, after they built up enough interest, that they considered going to Windows. Presumably with a slightly more powerful model and more favourable licence negotiated from MS; knowing that they could make the sales.
Why should a store have to "warn" people that a device is NOT Windows ? That seems bizarre marketing to me.
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I dont know anyone outside geekhood who owns a N700/N800/N8210 - do you?
My point was that there are products running a satisfactory version of Linux aimed at the general market; Matt was suggesting that Linux was not ready in some respect.
I know a lot of people who want small, portable computers for internet, editing documents and nothing more. They know that Mac OSX is cooler than Windows but they can't afford it. They don't care about Windows if the device is cheap and small.
Quote:
Why would that make developers turn away?
You misread my post. Let me sum up my last points more simply:
IMHO the majority of developers who are interested in MorphOS don't want 2 machines on their desks. They don't want to compile on a powerful machine in order to run on a real and much less powerful machine.
If developers don't write new software for MorphOS, then users won't be interested in buying a low power machine to run an OS that has no applications.
Quote:
imagine running MorphOS on a KVM instance
It's only interesting from an academic point of view.
There are several things that are needed to secure an interesting future for our platform. The main thing is that it has to grow. At the current size the user base is too small to support the market. So what do we need in order to grow and who can do it ?
1. Hardware availability (Genesi, possibly others)
2. Nice development tools, SDK, support forums (MorphOS team, developers)
3. Modern web browser and internet clients (Developers, such as Marcin but don't expect 1 person to do it all)
4. Lively forums (users come and chat about their experiences, ask questions, share knowledge; maybe Targhan can oblige with some statistics, I would be interested to see the number of posts plotted against the number of page views)
5. Home brew software apps (users try to learn a language and do something interesting)
If there is any way to stimulate these 5 points we should do it. Or we can go back to the standard Amiga refrain,
1. Wait for something to happen. (2 more weeks)
