Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 16th Jan 2008 14:27 UTC, submitted by -ujb-
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Member since:
2006-09-13
"In my opinion, a replacement OS should do at least something better than the OS you're replacing, whether that be run faster on old hardware, or some new feature that nobody else has, or simply doing some important task better or faster. If a replacement OS can't offer any of that, what's the point; other than hobbyist interest?"
Your opinion is flawed, I'm afraid. An OS shouldn't do much at all, it should get out of your way and let you use your apps. Today, modern OSes does too much in my opinion. It takes up resources because of it. In my opinion the OS should take care of abstracting hardware resources in a good way so developers can access and control it -- lay the playground ready for app developers to make the platform useful. These days with OSes delivering integrated web browsers and media players, even office apps (Windows) then they are taking over the tasks that 3rd party app developers should have. So when a new OS, like MorphOS, comes out and does minimal work on its own, I see it as a great thing. It will not do what the big systems out there do today - it doesn't come with MSIE 7, or Windows Media Player, or iTunes, or Garage Band, or iWorks; but many users, including me, are tired of these over bloated systems anyway. We want something small and lean :-) Morphos is a solution.
Also, many people, wrongly, let the absence of big name apps on new platforms show them in a bad light. They say: "If it doesn't have Adobe CS3, I can't use it!" - and they are right - if they are dependent on some special software to work, then they can not replace it with something non-equivalent. But an OS is a platform running apps, it is up to Adobe to support it. And if Adobe does not, then the chance is there for other devs to deliver an equivalent in time.
So what I'm saying is that in time, many alternative OSes, like MorphOS, will have on offer all the functionality that other mainstream OSes has today, developer mass allowing. But the operating system itself does not have to offer much functionality on its own. It is very reasonable to speculate that even Windows 95 could still be the main OS used by people, given that it would still have the majority of developers supporting it. I mean, in many respects, Vista is just Win95 on steroids.. It is the application availability that sets an OS apart in the mainstream, not its technical prowess. The big operating systems on market today, like MacOSX, Fedora and Windows Vista; they are huge, bloated dragons that need some slaying if you ask me :-)