Is this going to be a Live CD or installable only or may be both?

It's just that we removed the "-aiku" part because it wouldn't be readable anyway.

This are how most of us developer (I think) sees Haiku so we need more hardware to test Haiku on. When it comes to driver, yes Haiku will only work on Nvidia cards older than 7xxx (x850, or so for ATI) but our VESA mode had a lot of work recently

I'm a longtime BeOS user and this is a milestone I've been looking forward to for a long, long time.

Unfortunately, I have a few problems with the Haiku OS and the project itself that needs to be addressed.

Code base
---------
The quality of the code base leaves a lot to be desired, and this of course trickles all the way up to the user.

For instance, the release from last week 1) didn't boot on my SMP machine (so I boot in non-smp mode), 2) didn't work with the my nvidia card (so I switched), 3) eventually corrupted my hard drive (which, fortunately, is only for testing.)

While Haiku isn't a target for nasty hackers yet, it's bound to be if it gains widespread usage. The network stack looks completely unaudited with respect to security, and I suspect a lot of the other subsystems suffers in similar ways.

Fixing these things late is painful, so please start working on this early!

Project and focus
-----------------
There's too much focus on icons, web pages and sugar. I couldn't care less about these things right now. I know that in an open source project, people tend to work on what they want to, but some management is always possible in order to direct focus. And that focus should be code auditing, and making sure stability and security issues are being worked on.

In short, I don't think an Alpha release is the right thing to do now. There's just too many issues.

That said, I really wish Haiku all the luck in the future!

No hard feelings, but i find it a bit severe from you to make such assumption on the "quality of the code base" just because you stumbled across a few bugs on your hardware

Why do you assume I assumed? I have actually studied and hacked on the Haiku code (mostly interested because I had intimate knowledge of the NewOS code base.)

"
Why do you assume I assumed? I have actually studied and hacked on the Haiku code (mostly interested because I had intimate knowledge of the NewOS code base.)

Our logo is up-to-date right?

AGAIN: I don't assume anything. I base my assertions on knowledge about the code, not merely the three examples of problems I gave.

I know it hurts to hear that the project you work on has problems, but I do this with the best intension.

In fact, I'm preparing a patch for a bug in the PCNet32 driver as we speak

Yes, but Vesa mode on many newer cards is too slow to contemplate.

I have no problem with you saying it has problems [...]

, what I have issues with you quite unambiguously making it sound as if the code as a whole sucks while only giving vague assertions with no substance to back that up, especially when your entire backing evidence is pretty much "It doesn't work on my machine". "I'm intimately familiar with NewOS" is utterly meaningless.

"Yes, but Vesa mode on many newer cards is too slow to contemplate.

GPL code is of course also possibly problematic, as the GPL is incompatible with the MIT license the Haiku project uses (one-way compatibility is no compatibility).

It means I know what I'm talking about (I do)...

"It means I know what I'm talking about (I do)...

Shift+reload .

Is this going to be a Live CD or installable only or may be both?

the PCNetII driver locks up, and I know why (this is the patch I was talking about.) Generally, that driver is extremly badly written and serves as another example.

No, what it means is that components which *are* linked with GPL'ed code won't be include in the alpha. It's optional components, like some media codecs (AC3 decoder) and foreign file systems (reiserfs and ntfs).

The last one, ntfs, may be the one that people will miss a bit eventually.

Had hoped Refraction would run on it too, but unfortunately it won't (even the beta builds that were not specifically compiled for Zeta crash).

I use VirtualBox on Leopard. Issues that I'm having:
- internet works but is slow
- won't recognise USB mass storage devices
- unable to transfer files OSXHaiku

There's too much focus on icons, web pages and sugar. I couldn't care less about these things right now. I know that in an open source project, people tend to work on what they want to, but some management is always possible in order to direct focus.

"There's too much focus on icons, web pages and sugar. I couldn't care less about these things right now. I know that in an open source project, people tend to work on what they want to, but some management is always possible in order to direct focus.

You obviously haven't seen the Google Tech Talk on Haiku. The core developers stressed icons, cursors and other completely non-kernel things more than anything else.

And now it's my turn to say that I know what I am talking about: I was at the talk, in person, and in fact helped create the slides used at the presentation.

Why do you assume I assumed? I have actually studied and hacked on the Haiku code (mostly interested because I had intimate knowledge of the NewOS code base.)

And overall, the code quality isn't impressive. That doesn't mean it can't improve. It just means it has to be a priority.

I have already touched the security issue. Another issue for me has been SMP support (not just last weeks build - I have tried a lot of builds over time), and I have a rough idea why. The locking isn't always done properly, ...