An Update has been posted on the HawkinsOS web site. It discusses the purpose of the operating system and why it has been delayed.
HawkinsOS Update
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
… a FreeBSD “distribution”?
The website seems barely gives any details except giving a link to an e-mail address. The kind of website that you expect a fresmint to have when he is fresh into school.
http://www.hawkinsos.com/
Steve does not read text very well, it is a BSD OS…
there is always room for more, be it either Linux or BSD, competition is a good thing…
Bazaar. It’s doing exactly what it’s suppose to be doing. Don’t worry, it’s a good thing.
This is a post by Tim Hawkins, “founder” of HawkinsOS, to do nothing more than drag eyeballs to his commercial site. As far as I can see, HawkinsOS is nothing more than rebadged FreeBSD with “commercial” support.
What’s humorous is that the “updates” proclaim a delay caused by a lack of funding and staff. It’s fairly obvious (to me anyways), that this is a one-man operation run out of his bedroom. Is this really the sort of operation you want supporting your enterprise FreeBSD deployment? But hey, he’s ready to take your money… see the bottom of the main page. I guess his “staffing shortages” don’t affect his accounting department. 😉
Merry Christmas!
So a guy is out trying to make a buck. He’s doing quite a few things right, and attempting to offer a service that’s not easy to come by in the BSD world – support – and is developing some package sets of common functionality to make life easier for people to switch to FreeBSD.
And you guys have nothing but derision for him?
Mr. Hawkins’ little business prospect might fly and it might not, but why don’t you just let the market decide that?
And keep in mind that *BSD is not Linux in any way shape or form.
Hehe
>>Great. That’s all we need. Another LinuxOS…..like we don’t have enough of those already?
I am tired of these comments. First it is BSD not Linux. Second, so what? Dont we like choice in linux. You dont go to a store and find only one type of shoes. Yes, there are many that look the same, but you will find the one that fits you. So if you already have the distro that you like, let other people do what they want. That is the best of linux, you can put together the best ideas of many distros into one.
“And you guys have nothing but derision for him?
Mr. Hawkins’ little business prospect might fly and it might not, but why don’t you just let the market decide that?
”
Hello? Us guys are the market, and it seems that some of us *are* deciding.
This guy has a bad reputation on slashdot for spreading FUD about FreeBSD. I wonder how different his 100% FreeBSD compatible OS is from official FreeBSD.
The guy is trying to make a go of it. Not everybody starts out with a full staff of developers and admin people . . . especially NOT in the OpenSource world. The website looks well done and the presentation as well IMO.
To me it’s always nice to see somebody making a play at creating a business around OpenSource . . . even nicer when it actually works out.
What I don’t think many of you understand is that it’s not an easy market to play in, and much of the ability for that market to grow and survive will depend on many businesses just like HawkinsOS.
Good luck to HawkinsOS.
“especially NOT in the OpenSource world.”
I’m pretty shure it is not open source.
I guess we will see the reviews soon enough. It will be interesting.
Somehow I hope there won’t appear any successful FreeBSD clone in near future. I’ve got enough to see success of Linux commercial distros. I agree that this is needed to compete with gigants; but I enjoy *BSD having no commercial success so far
Commercializing any software makes it evolve faster – but this usually means slapping down quality, ideas, soul behind this software…
This guy is well known for having a big mouth and spamming/trolling FreeBSD lists.
A few fun readings from slashdot might be:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125640&threshold=1&commentsort=…
http://bsd.slashdot.org/bsd/04/10/20/132232.shtml?tid=162&tid=190&t…
Somehow I hope there won’t appear any successful FreeBSD clone in near future. I’ve got enough to see success of Linux commercial distros. I agree that this is needed to compete with gigants; but I enjoy *BSD having no commercial success so far
Baha, I guess you’ve never heard of Mac OSX.
A quick glance at the OS website reveals two things:
– It has not been released.
– It has a release date of June 15, 2004.
If this guy wants to make money by selling support for FreeBSD, he should do that. If he wants a new-and-improved FreeBSD, he should do that. Doing both dilutes his efforts and is a sure sign of impending failure. Of course, missing the six month old deadline is a sign of impending failure too.
For a nice easy to install and MUCH cheaper way to go, get Clark Connect. Great web interface and has all that and very easy to work with.
http://www.clarkconnect.com
This guy should not be getting any press. He seems like quite a smart guy and knows what he is doing. However, he has the maturity of your average 2 year old. In other words, he is a prick. IMO it would be nice if he just worked on the FreeBSD project for awhile. Closing PR’s and helping people out. This would actually get him some respect and might even improve his personality…
i don’t even post comments on slashdot nor do i trash freebsd.
He seems like quite a smart guy and knows what he is doing. However, he has the maturity of your average 2 year old. In other words, he is a prick.
Wow, a computer programmer with poor social skills. Stop the presses, ha ha.
I DO NOT post on slash dot. Names are confusing and if someone else out there is trying to spoof my identity to do this then please stop doing it.
I’m sure i could go and say im scott mcneely and some would believe it.
I may not seem mature to you but I am so very very successful with my work and the people working with me on this project are much more highly intelligent.
I really think out and right trashing people whom are trying to help the open source community is wrong and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Also, I’m aware of missing a huge deadline and there are good reasons for that.
I DO NOT post on slash dot.
Really not? I guess it was Anonymous Coward the PR man who posted this comment
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125640&cid=10535765
For context see
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125640&threshold=-1&commentsort…
Quote, in reply to someone who replies to ‘you’ and posts links to your website, ‘you’ say:
Look, I’ve been doing consulting work for nearly 15 years. About the site, I had to put up an old copy because after that thread several FreeBSD members broke into my network and nearly deleted everything. I’m 75% sure that it’s the work of Dag-Erling and his friends, as most of the packets and exploit attempts (until they succeded) were coming from Norway and Denmark.
I’ve sold 2,000 copies and made money off *my* work. How many copies has the FreeBSD foundation sold? Oh, that’s what I thought, becuase 5.3 is not usable in a production environment, not without my patches. And guess what, they won’t be getting my patches unless I see public apology from DES and PHK.
I smell libel.
PS: One good advice to your PR department: write in correct English. I expect nothing less from a corporation where people use English as native or first language.
PPS: Vaporware is quickly caught; at least Open, Net, Free and DragonFly are different to each other with different goals. Your ‘OS’ seems to be an extension to FreeBSD to make it more user-friendly. Which makes you not so much different from the FreeBSD consulting firms…
First of all. I HAVE NOT worked on FreeBSD for 15 years.
I DO NOT POST ON SLASHDOT.
I’m sure i could use the name DPI or something and quote you and try to ruien the press you get on a news site.
STOP trying to TRASH my reputation. This is unacceptable.
I never have linked my website on slashdot and if someone else does it then its not me! Did you look up the IP to see where it’s coming from?
Seriously, you are mistaken me for someone else. I could go and say im DPI and link to somewebsite you are and then go on news sites and try to mess up your business.
Understand? Don’t go accusing me of things I don’t do. It’s really making me think low of some people whom believe this.
you = someone else.
The internet is large guy. I rarely look on slashdot.
Hi, I’m just a simple lurker, but I felt the need to comment this time.
I feel sorry for Hawkins. This guy is obviously wound tightly. Now, I understand if he simply states that he doesn’t post on Slashdot or code on FreeBSD — I’ll take your word on it. I’m not *nix police. But to be making angsty posts again and again, that just makes me feel bad. Honestly, my heart goes out to you. You’ve obviously been hurt in the past and you need a hug. Badly.
Now, if it will make you feel better, I promise to test drive your little OS on my 486 in the attic. Provided I can download it free. Sorry that I cannot use it as my main OS — I’m pretty stuck on Slackware.
But please note that I’m handing out to you the condolence prize — just for being victimized by your angry doppelganger on Slashdot. The world is so cruel.
Well, I have been looking into this.
On osnews there is a “tim hawkins (IP: —.fayt.cox-internet.com)” and a “timh – tjhawkins.com (IP: —.dl.dl.cox.net).” They both post often. The one posting from fayt is rather annoying sometimes, but I cannot find really bad posts by either. I also looked around on slashdot and indeed all the Hawkins trolls I found were AC with nothing to ID them. My question is this timh…why? If someone really is after you, why would they do it and why wouldn’t they just attack you and not protend to be you, to the extent of hyping your product. So I have some questions for timh
A. Have you submitted patches to FreeBSD for the ULE scheduler?
B. What do you think about PHK and DES?
C. What do you think about where FreeBSD 5.x is heading?
Notes:
“STOP trying to TRASH my reputation. This is unacceptable.”
Either you or someone else has been making you look really bad…s/he has done it very well. You have nobody defending you but yourself…this is not the time to lash out buddy.
“It’s really making me think low of some people whom believe this.”
So, we are supposed to see trolls supporting HawkinsOS and claiming to be you and think “oh…someone is trying to frame him” automatically? Now if that is really true it would explain a lot to me personally since some posts credited to you are educated and well thought out and some are just off the deep end.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-advocacy/2004-September/…
Is that you?
>>I enjoy *BSD having no commercial success so far
>Baha, I guess you’ve never heard of Mac OSX.
Mac OSX is not exactly *BSD clone (or distro, this is somewhat better term). If MacOSX had be built entirely on BSD (kernel+userland+ports) codebase, then it would be clone; currently it just uses much of BSD code and architecture but nothing more.
“And keep in mind that *BSD is not Linux in any way shape or form.”
Thank God
And the BSD license provides anyone to do exactly what can’t be done with Linux. Like creating commercial derivates without having to release propietary stuff. And that’s a good thing
And because of that, well see many more *BSD distributions in the future with more leverage than any Linux distro, which are *ALL* basically the same thing and each one “takes” pieces from one another. And that’s not very good for the corporate/competitive business market.
So I applaud HawkinsOS and other newcomers.
We are targeting the low end server market and the desktop market among young adults and teenagers.
I really do not see a need to personally bash me.
Why bash me on an entire thread? You should bash the OS project instead.
NONE of the criticism that I have gotten has been helpful to me in creating an OS that statisfys your needs.
Customers drive the market, we need customer’s input. Not complete bashing for little or no reason.
What niche market are you expecting to fill with your niche alternative to FreeBSD? I would think you’d be much more productive focusing your energies on consulting and support services, rather than diluting yourself on a one-man BSD (that doesn’t exist to date).
-fp
Its easy to say you weren’t that Anonymous Coward, because we have no way to verify who’s who. Oh well, searching through writing techiques helps though. You haven’t answered the question from some, why someone would post in your name on Slashdot and perhaps elsewhere.
‘Bash’ the OS project? There’s not much about it online to discuss, let alone criticize or ‘bash’. Don’t draw the attention away from what we’re discussing here. What we discuss here is related to your person, related to your OS, and related to your company. Perfectly ontopic.
You evade RaVen’s questions. He asked 2 on page 2 (16-30) and you read them given you replied after his post. There are 2 posts. 1 is a longer one which includes a number of questions. The second post includes a link where you seem to ask a question on a FreeBSD list. He asks for confirmation wether thats you, yes or no. The second post seems a piece of cake to answer. It only takes about 10 seconds. Why do you evade these questions?
Its not exactly rocket science to draw certain conclusions because you seem to be so very evasive; its not in your advantage to stay silent to alleged proof.
Ofcourse you’re going to whine now “..but you attack me personally, boohoo”. Well, you don’t defend yourself from alleged proof, which points out that you’ve been a naughty boy. After RaVen’s posts, the burden of proof lies at you regarding these, but you do not take your responsibility.
We are targeting the low end server market and the desktop market among young adults and teenagers.
I’m afaid that you’ll find that the young adult and teenage market are not willing to spend money on a dumbed down FreeBSD system. As for the server market, most competent people would find FreeBSD easy to manage.
Quoting the HawkinOS website:
What is HawkinsOS?
HawkinsOS is a multi-purpose operating system for enterprise and personal usage. It is a highly scalable, secure and reliable operating system. It has the ability to run thousands of applications and is an extremely feature rich. It is also simple and easy to use with an easy to use text-based installation process. HawkinsOS rivals established operating systems like Linuxâ„¢ & Windowsâ„¢, however HawkinsOS is more mature and stable. HawkinsOS is derived from the BSD version of UNIXâ„¢ created in the late 1970s. It’s a proven platform.
HawkinOS is derived from FreeBSD, not BSD UNIX, is it not? The description misleads the reader to believe that you have developed the OS from the BSD days. You neatly bypass FreeBSD in your description. As for the maturity of the OS… FreeBSD is mature. HawkinOS… Is it out yet? I suggest you revise the copy on your site. As it stands right now most people won’t give you any credibility whatsoever. Too much marketing speak, plus you’ve left some spelling mistakes in there. It doesn’t carry any weight, especially with this crowd over here.
Ok ok, I think we’ve established the following facts:
* He can’t spell and has poor grammar.
* HawkinsOS is a scam and doesn’t actually exist.
* There aren’t any calm pleasant posts claiming to come from him.
And it is highly likely (although we will never know) that those posts on slashdot are by him. They are equally badly written, and lets face it why would anyone bother to impersonate him?
They’re not equally badly written, actually. The quoted posts from slashdot have significantly better grammar than the posts Tim H. makes here, and also better style – more correct capitalisation and punctuation. Either he takes more care when posting on slashdot, or it’s not the same guy. Tim H., I suggest you get yourself a GPG signature and undertake to *always* use it when posting anything anywhere.
How about JunOS? Juniper uses it’s own FreeBSD distro as OS for their routers. It comes with tons of proprietary software, and one license costs $10,000 🙂
Of course this isn’t exactly a FreeBSD distro, but someone was talking about commercial success 😉