'OS5' Myth or Fact?

[Louis Dias]

The problem I have with Linux is that it's not as easy to use as Windows and is now as memory hungry.

AROS FTW!  It boots fast and doesn't have that bloat factor and is easier to use.

But for OS5, to be platform independent, it needs to come with a JIT that runs a platform independant language such as any intermediate-code made by Microsoft's .NET platform.

Real, the Amiga-Anywhere model is a really smart idea, but I don't know if JAVA is the right language to do that with.  Hardware drivers would still be natively compiled, just that an API that is common to all platforms would expose it to the programmer and all apps would run on all platforms...

[Louis Dias]

Floid wrote:

lou_dias wrote:
The problem I have with Linux is that it's not as easy to use as Windows and is now as memory hungry.

The problem you have with Linux is that you're familiar with Windows...

True to a point.
I grew up coding on a C64 and 128.  I used various 'ixes in highschool and college.  Heck I bought a special cable for my 128D that connected to the RS-232 port and gave me a 25 pin standard serial connection.  This allowed me to connect to UMass-Amherst's serial connection that was in every dorm room and I was able to edit and run code from my dorm room over a 9600BAUD connection via a VT100 term program.  This was connecting to both VMS and SPARC mainframes...

Today, I just want to turn it on and have it work.  None of this chmod, grep, makefiles, blah blah blah.  I'm more than willing to PAY for something that just works and NO I don't have the time to make it myself.

All I'm willing to do from a command line these days is: ipconfig /all

AROS Live CD's just work.  However, until I see a bounty for porting to MY platform of choice, I have yet to contribute.

Call me lazy, but I'm the consumer that without alot more of people like me willing to pay for stuff that just works, this market will never grow and prosper without.  If I can't be bothered, then there is no way John Q. Public will ever look at AROS, OS4 and the like...and most certainly not Linux.

I've thrown my ideas out there before:
1) make a live CD for any/every platform
2) make applications run off of common intermediate code
3) all personal settings are saved to flash media

Now as long as there is a "live cd" for any given platform, I launch it and plug in my USB flash memory card and all my files are there and can download email from anyone's "system" be that "system" a Mac, Wintel, 360, PS3 or Wii.