BeOS Personal Edition was a great way to try it out without committing to it. Some Linux distros have a similar feature (Ubuntu’s Wubi for example). I think this would be a great way to get more exposure to user who might otherwise pass it by. Has anyone given this some thought?
This would be great for people who want to try Haiku, but don’t want to partition their hard drive or use virtual machine software.
You can use the installation-cd as a live-cds or boot from an usb-stick to try out Haiku already. What more would you need? Having the image on your windows partition like PE did?
Exactly. First impressions are very important when your goal is to get the user to install and use Haiku on a regular basis. Granted, its not production ready (yet) so the average user will unlikely to treat it as anything more than a toy until after R1.
Live CDs and USB installs are great for determining if your hardware will support the OS and give you the ability to “take your OS with you” but they both have drawbacks as well:
- They require external media which can have performance problems (especially CDs). The user may assume this is a problem with Haiku and dismiss it as a "resource hog".
- They have limited or no storage. CDs are readonly so anything the user does will be temporary unless they are aware of this and save their work to a mounted drive. Most USB stick drives are 2-4GB. Enough for the OS, a few applications and user files. If a user attempted to use a USB install on a regular basis they would soon run out of space.
With a PE style install you would trade the portability for access to larger disk space (the disk image could be as large or small as you like), better performance (there is a small hit for storing to an image within another file system but still better than most external media), fewer steps to get up and running (no burning disks, no repartitioning) and an easier way to dual boot with Windows.
I disagree with this. Lately I have been running Haiku from a 4 GB flash drive. 4 GB is enough for the full development environment, lots of libraries, lots of apps. And there’s still plenty of space left over. In addition, I can take the flash drive where ever I go, plug it in to any modern PC and boot from the flash. It’s not slow. It’s very convenient, It cost $8 a year ago. You can get them faster and larger if you want.
In my opinion, if we want more people to try Haiku, and keep using it, we need more Haiku software.
- http://www.osnews.com/story/24945/A_Programmer_s_Introduction_to_the_Haiku_OS
All of which would be consumed by less than an hour of 1080p video. Different users have different needs.
I’m not disputing the usefulness of being able to take your OS with you. I carry a Haiku and a Ubuntu drive with me whereever I go. I’m simply pointing out that for someone experimenting with Haiku for the first time a PE installation would be easier and more convenient to setup. It doesn’t consume a blank CD and it doesn’t require wiping a USB drive or purchasing one if you don’t have one already.
[quote=AndrewZ]In my opinion, if we want more people to try Haiku, and keep using it, we need more Haiku software.
- http://www.osnews.com/story/24945/A_Programmer_s_Introduction_to_the_Haiku_OS
Couldn’t agree more. Loved the article, btw. Have you seen Leszek Lesner’s recent Haiku screencasts?
[quote=ksc654]
All of which would be consumed by less than an hour of 1080p video. Different users have different needs.[/quote]
I would argue that someone trying out Haiku might not need that much storage, but you have a point 
I haven’t, and these are very cool. Are these videos linked on haiku-os.org?
No. Since much of haiku-os.org is a wiki I tried to add it myself but I guess only certain accounts have edit access. Understandable. I’m sure if it was a free-for-all there would be rampant vandalism.