Look to the Future

41

“Let users to chose which software they want to use.”

All that is being said is that non-native apps should not be included in the Haiku default package.
Most computer users are aware they can download and install any software they like on their PC.
In Windows the bundled web browser is Internet Explorer, and in Apple it’s Safari. You don’t see these companies shipping their default install with ported apps from another platform. However, nobody is going to tell you that you cannot download and install these on your PC, if you so wish.
I think the developers have been correct in their determination so far of what is to be included or excluded from the Haiku package. I appreciate the fact that they have stuck to the roadmap, in spite of considerable pressure to do otherwise.

42

Hi @all

I am not absolutely new at Haiku.
I followed up the way of BeOs over Zeta to Haiku.
I am not using the System all the time, sometimes i never looked about that over Years.

But Today i installed the Haiku Alpha 4 on my old Dell Laptop.
It runs without any errors an i thought about the good old times.

And i become clear about this: “This “goog old times” are coming back”

Why?

I think People are using IT on a completely other way then in the past.
Now, and in the future the Consumer use things only and take not care about how, or which OS or which HW is under the hood. This is one thing why apple comes back so strong to the market.
They give us simple to use products without take care about IT Stuff.
Windows and Linux are great Systems for the IT Departments and for Productivity at the Industrie (e.g. ERP).
The home user don’t use all this thousand options and features, they want to do less tasks but this tasks with best results.
E.g. manage Pictures, hear music, communicate with messengers and E-Mail.
Nobody wants to have a Exchange Server, LDAP or bloat up Office Suite.
NO we want small fast effective Apps!

Windows and Linux are what they are, big Systems wich are important for Industrie but not for Home use.

This is what Steve Jobs always said and what he did with apple.

So how does this matter to Haiku?

I think that this is the chance Haiku would have.
A Small fast and easy to learn System for the home enviroment. Linux could never do that and never will.

But there must be a focus on the app side!
The OS which brings the App is more and more NOT the important thing. The user do not care about that.
The User use Apps and talk about apps best example is What’s App. They do not talk about the IOS or Android, no they are using Apps!
So we need a fast and secure Browser, E-Mail, Messenger , Photo App, Music App and lightweight Office.
If we have this, People could use Haiku … if not we can not use it.

Apps like Spotify and Cloud Services e.g. CardDav and Caldav are important to,

I know that a small developer Community could not do all this stuff.
But why not collect Money for this or search Partners.

I do not see Java ore Flash in the Future. Java gets more and more slow and insecure.
Flash ist dead!
Multiuser is good for Buisness Computers but at Home?
Who has multiuser on his Tablet? Does anybody take Care about it?
But encrypten and secure File Access could be a thing at the Future.

My Dream:
A special Hardware (like mac-mini) with a polished haiku.
With a small Office Suite (like Texmaker, iWork) and modern Apps for E-Mail, Messanger, Internet Browser for Home use.

But…i am be afraid it will be a dream…

43

Unfortunately modern software is not only simple - it always freakin’ gets in the way and it’s treating me like I was incredibly stupid or something. Software should be designed in a way that’s good for power users and simple. It should enable user to get things done quickly and easily but without limiting the user.

That’s why Windows is pissing me off. It enables me to do stuff easily and access a large base of software I love to use but… it often gets in the way, especially now, when Windows 8 was released.

That’s also why Linux is pissing me off too. The power user in me is very happy with this software, but sometimes open-source/Linux-specific software devs are so eager to complicate tasks that should be very simple with UI which is completely unfriendly (LibreOffice, GIMP, etc. good software, good capabilities, UI gets so much in the way of my creating process I simply CAN’T STAND IT).

And there is an opportunity for Haiku here. It’s already a very simple, elegant, minimalistic OS which never gets in the way, with very consistent philosophy of use, but unfortunately incomplete so much - I lack software, hardware support - I can’t use it… yet. Because I want to believe there would come a time when Haiku would be my main OS and I’ll be very proud of being its user.

44

“The company wanted to step beyond the evolutionary approach to personal computing architectures; to see what could be accomplished if you built a personal computer using new assumptions, based on cutting-edge software design concepts, and designed for the next decade’s applications, rather than the last decade”
(BeOS Website)

While BeOS binary compatibility may have made sense in the beginning of the Haiku (OpenBeOS) project, the passage of time has made this goal irrelevant. It’s time to move on, and design for the next “decades applications and hardware”, as the original BeOS developers envisioned.

45

Many good points have been made in this discussion.

Here are some items I would like to stress from an user view-point:

  1. HaikuOS builds on BeOS which was conceived with a fresh view on the future - back in 1995 or so. That future - centered on an indexed database/metadata file system, efficient handling of media file, and high responsive to user input - is still pretty much ahead of us.

i) BeOS/GCC2 compatibility

This should be maintained as long as the only available “office suite” is Productive 2.x. There are other worthy applications which have not been recreated for HaikuOS/Latest GCC but the lack of an “office suite” is the one which hurts me the most.

Productive offerred something fresh/new about handling documents and media and I liked it despites inherent quirks. There are already too many clones of MS Office and for those - I would go to a Linux distribution…

ii) Reference information

The only comprehensive book is the old “BeOS Bible”. Yes, one can search the web, etc. but it is not much help when one can’t get the internet connection to work on a first install.

iii) Capable of running on “older” systems

At home, I will not be able to install HaikuOS on the main (shared) system…can only used the previous one and even then…

Maybe one could get a main OEM to produce a HaikuOS “certified” configuration?

46

The future of Haiku could be well prepared by a simplified localization.
I am still waiting for a single switching to a full German language appearance.
And is it still legitim to use the word “beta” in postings?

47

Hi Octopus!

[quote=Octopus]The future of Haiku could be well prepared by a simplified localization.
I am still waiting for a single switching to a full German language appearance.[/quote]

Could you elaborate where the (German) localization doesn’t work yet? That should be fixed.

Regards,
Humdinger

48

Well, I will have a closer look on this within the next alpha or beta, whether this could be done via a single switch. I remember, there have been several additional places for related local output formats, which have not been obvious. But maybe I make a mistake here - I have not tested new alpha versions for a long time.

49

All the localization settings are in the Locale preferences. There you can choose first and secondary languages and have some formatting options. In the Keymap preferences you’ll set the keymap and in Time prefs the timezone etc.
Lumping all three together isnt sensible IMO. But since these settings aren’t changed regularly, I think that the current solution, where language, formatting and keymap are set in the FirstBootPrompt panel, is sufficient. This leaves just the time/timezone setting, which is currently not handled by FirstBootPrompt. Maybe that should be included there as well.

Regards,
Humdinger