I have a couple of computers that I use for various activities throughout the day (and sometimes night), so I’m always keen to learn about new developments and a new OS is certainly intriguing, but what will set this one apart from, say, Ubuntu?
I’ve been using Windows XP on one computer and it serves me well, while on my other computer I have Ubuntu, which also serves me well. I’m not a particularly “techy” kinda guy, so from reading about on the site, I’ve only really come across a lot of jargon and general talk about Haiku.
Would like to hear some thoughts on why people will want to switch to Haiku. How exactly is it going to make the average Joe’s life easier?
Speed and (lack of) expense are two I can think of. I have yet to find an operating system that feels as fast as BeOS and Haiku. As such, it would make a wonderful operating system for netbooks and other low-power computing tasks. In fact, it would be better suited to netbooks than Linux or Windows. The fact that Haiku is free removes a barrier to entry. At this point, though, Haiku is not cooked enough for it to be a viable alternative for Joe User, but it gets closer every day.
How I see it from my heap of gathered information, Haiku (or its ancestor, BeOS) is very optimal for GUI-oriented dynamics in mind; elegant ways of styling interface on apps; nice coherence along with consistency.
When you ask an Audiophile why he selects components which dont have any where near the features the ‘popular’ electronic decks/players have, she will respond with her quest for purity and noise free sound. A similar analogy can be applied to Haiku - there is a sense of purity and elegance with this project. Haiku is open source (with a proper license), it’s not a mis-mash of components forced together, instead it’s designed to be a comprehensive whole, where everything fits together, in an elegant fashion. Haiku is designed for the desktop, and not for running toasters and big iron. Finally, the Haiku community doesn’t have the l33t h4x0r mentality commonly found in the Linux world.