Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 30th Jan 2009 20:58 UTC
SkyOS has always been criticised for the fact that you have to pay for it in order to beta test it. I personally never saw a problem with this construction, especially since the price included a full copy of SkyOS 
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RE: Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for.
by dagw on Sat 31st Jan 2009 11:47
in reply to "Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for."
Member since:2005-07-06
Paying customers were promised a product he did not, and it appears is not going to deliver. They have every right to demand their money back.
Where they? Do they?
I paid for SkyOS a few years ago, and from what I recall what I was promised was access to the beta and a copy of the final version if and when it was finished. I got access to the beta, and I have no doubt that if a final version ever ships I'll get that to. So as such I got everything I paid for, ie access to the beta. I'm a happy customer and feel no need for a refund and certainly no need for a lawsuit.
If a final boxed version ever appears and the beta crowd don't get their copy then we can start talking refunds, but until then at least I feel I got everything I paid for.
RE: Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for.
by areimann on Sat 31st Jan 2009 19:26
in reply to "Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for."
Member since:2006-06-12
Unless Robert sends out refunds to every person who ever paid for SkyOS, I see a lawsuit in his future. Whatever his intentions were are irrelevant. The fact is, paying customers got shafted. Paying customers were promised a product he did not, and it appears is not going to deliver. They have every right to demand their money back.
I don't know what is promised to the beta testers, but this reminds me of the BeOS 4.5 -> 5.0 issue. Be was forced to release a 5.0 version for free I think because they included some GPL-licensed software. So, couldn't that be the case? He might could open source one version, and still give the beta testers some (no offense) stupid version that has some pointless feature so legally they still have a "beta tester" version of the "upgraded" edition.
Or, similarly, not release the kernel, but allow 3rd party development of everything else. Also allowing 3rd-party drivers.
Just thinking out loud here.
RE[2]: Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for
by Big Al on Sat 31st Jan 2009 21:40
in reply to "RE: Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for."
Member since:2005-06-29
The release of BeOS 5 had nothing to do with GPL software. There was a free version and a version you could pay for that had a few extras. This was at the time of the famous "focus shift" which had much more to do with BeFree than anything else. There were no GPL issues involved.
I bought a beta, not expecting to own the company.
by alban on Sun 1st Feb 2009 19:23
in reply to "Nasty? No. Just wanting to get what you paid for."
Member since:2005-11-15
I bought the Beta; It seemed it was a reasonable fee to pay to take a look at a new operating system. (rather than say the 57th variety of Linux.)
As for open source; it does not solve all problems; sometimes a company open sources some really interesting and unique software; and it just rusts away from lack of maintenance or ends up forked to death.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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2007-03-07
> I hope this discussion doesn't get nasty because
> I think that Robert, after all, had in his heart
> the best of intentions. Those who paid for the
> beta's in the hope of getting a full product -
> consider your payments a donation to the future
> 'SkyOS Foundation"
Unless Robert sends out refunds to every person who ever paid for SkyOS, I see a lawsuit in his future. Whatever his intentions were are irrelevant. The fact is, paying customers got shafted. Paying customers were promised a product he did not, and it appears is not going to deliver. They have every right to demand their money back.
That's not being nasty. It's simply how the game is played. If you are going to sell customers a product, you better deliver on your promises. If you can't or won't deliver, you better be prepared to give refunds.
He was not asking for "donations to the SkyOS Foundation" He was selling a product he failed to deliver. There's a big difference.
Maybe he should have thought twice before charging people if he wasn't sure he could deliver the ultimate goods they payed for.
Edited 2009-01-31 10:59 UTC