#jcmarcos:
> I like your comments and suggestions, as they come from "the outside".
Yep, that's the idea. If it's not useful, redundant or annoying I can stop.
> many of the faults you see for a newbie, actually wouldn't exist?
> Why? Because, to a newbie user, you sell completely CONFIGURED systems.
That's actually an interesting point. The more I work with MorphOS (and I don't have much time, less than an hour per day on average for now) I configure it more and make it more streamlined. However, my impression is that most of the people who are MorphOS potential customers would just want to use it instead of making it usable. I am talking expanding the MorphOS market, not preaching to the converted. You have to admit that the Amiga fans are getting less and less in numbers as the original machine fades from the memory and people get older.
That community is also somewhat fragmented. OS4 is perceived as the official Amiga OS but it works only on very exotic hardware. AROS is open source (so, in some circles, by definition, seen as "the good one") and free and works on i386 so many people give it the biggest chance. MorphOS is an interesting animal, it's the most expensive but it runs on iMac which is a good small quirky device appealing to Amiga fans because it's compact and it's not an evil Intel but the device is obsolete. Yep, even if MorphOS moves to G5 it's still several years behind.. We'll see what happens..
> Right, MorphOS doesn't do so, but in the other hand, there's nothing stopping anyone to do it.
I would argue that the closer to the core team the people who do this the better. For now, I have my list which is growing: command line help, unix tools, mime types preconfigured, pack installed, UAE installed and preconfigured and shipped with all free ADFs out there..
> regular users ("lame", as you say, and I like that) don't add new functions to their computers.
Depending what you think by "adding". Since most of the functions you need to add to MorphOS are already there and just work people just concentrate on doing work and using it. Which *might* be that there is still a room for a hobby device like something running MorphOS but for those people there is always Linux -- arguably much more potent tool for hacking (more people use it, UNIX based so you can make your knowledge maybe commercial one day). MorphOS, if you remove Amiga nostalgics, could appeal only for people who truly want a completely different experience. So its competition is for now probably those other 2 Amiga-like OSes and, maybe, Haiku (similar but instead of Amiga it has BeOS legacy).
> Having a system which allows to add funcions BUT requires you to learn is a good thing.
Yeah I agree it's good to learn things but learning how to make MorphOS usable is arguably highly specific knowledge. So it will always fall into a hobby domain unless MorphOS becomes more mainstream so then again we are talking about that catch 22.
> Of course, adding functions is something unsupported by the manufacturer.
Not sure what you mean by this.
> We are used to be able to do so, because of our heritage.
> But regular people just want things to work, and don't fiddle with them.
> That's for geeks, they think.
Exactly. So it's an interesting challenge: how to keep the hard-core interested while still taking the money from the "regular people" and keeping them happy too so they come back and spend more
> But fiddling raises community, like people who modify their cars,
> and get together for a great experience, not only technical.
Yes, I completely agree on this one.
> Back to computers, you could earn money selling services to add functions
> to other's computers, just like car workshops.
Only if the user base is big enough and diversified. If the user base is small and they are all people like you, they would actually prefer to do it all themselves, right? The comparison with cars is not completely right, not many people have the garage space, the heavy tools and the parts but with software and access to Internet most of people who care enough can fix most of the things they are bothered with. So you would be selling your "services" to a very small minority of users. At the end you also mentioned money and not hobby, right? So if it really boils down to money, the major thing is to increase the user base. There is nothing more important than that. OS4, AROS and Haiku are lurking..
> Yes, I like the MorphOS way that much, I think it's even viable (and better) in the modern world.
It's a nice hobby for me, for now on a separate machine, I don't do anything seriously with it but it's been fun for me so far as well. I will keep an eye on 2.5 to see if some things improve. Windows was unusable before 3.1 so there is lots of potential still... It's refreshing and I feel closer to the hardware if you know what I mean. Seeing IK+ starting on a full screen in MorphOS was a very emotional thing for me.. if I could only get the USB Joystick working.. or better not because I would spend hours playing it!!!
@Andreas_Wolf:
Thank you for the more recent version, I will take a look.
Which reminds me: one of the things which MorphOS is lacking is unified update checkup. For various programs, libraries and OS itself. I think I reported this as a feature request. Amiga OS4 has it for example (saw it on YouTube).
@jPV:
Yes, I get the MIME idea and starting to exploit it more. Sadly (or happily?) most people expect that to be hidden from them. That's why I like "open with" option which appeared after I installed the file types application. It makes it a bit easier for people who don't want to edit text. It's a tough task to make it appealing to everyone I know. Regarding MPlayer, I will try both modes (I was not even aware of those settings) as I said I only played with it for 15 minutes.
