@bloodline
bloodline wrote:
I know I come across as overly harsh, and believe me, I know better than most how much work has gone into MOS! But I do think I am raising important questions, it the MOS team can answer them they will have a seriously competitive product on their hands... if you just sit there as apologists and make excuses, without thinking about what MOS really can do, where it need to be targeted and what is the key points required for the success of an operating system.. in it will go the way of all the other Operating systems that have come and gone.
...
Or.. you could forget everything I have said and we watch the MOS team sell 20 copies... and disappear forever... It's up to you, at least I have tried.
Now you are switching to a different argument though. Now you are arguing about something I would agree with you on. That being the price is higher than many users will accept and in the long run they are hurting themselves IF they want a large user base. But thats not the same as whether its expensive compared to Mac OSX (your original argument). In that comparison its not expensive given the resources of Apple vs. the MOS team and the possible user base given the required custom hardware. Should only Genesi make a profit since the Efika is really for the embedded marketplace and the MOS team not even get some beer money?? Its also not expensive compared to obtaining classic Amiga hardware if you no longer have any. Nothing defines expensive in the Amiga scene more than the going rate of classic Amiga hardware. In any examination of return on investment to the dev team in hours and money spent from their own pockets its not expensive.
Maybe they don't give a cr*p on whether they have 100 users or 1000 for all we know. Their objectives for the OS may not match yours. Maybe they'd rather have 100 users that think enough to want to give them a nice token of appreciation than 1000 that want to have them constantly working for nearly free. MOS is not an free project, AROS is. And look at the state of that OS in comparison. If people think MOS is too expensive they can vote with their feet and put a substanially lower cost donation towards an AROS bounty of their choice and see what they get for their money there in comparison. I've donated to an AROS bounty and its missed its deadline by almost two months now. And I've donated to an AOS 4.0 bounty, and I can't even run AOS 4.0. People in the Amiga community need to get real about what it will cost to do new things. MOS exists in a free market system. In an odd way if it fails maybe it will help people to realize they should donate more to AROS. Who knows how things will play out. Perhaps if MOS fails for its cost and AOS 4.0 for its legal mess we can finally all wave the flag of one OS. Or maybe the MOS team will continue to work anyway and are fine with a smaller user base willing to meet the prices they want to set.
It might be more productive to email them and say, "hey this seems a bit expensive if you really want to have a large user base, I really think in the long run thats a better strategy if you goal is to reach the Amiga masses someday" and see what they say.
Being like(to paraphrase) "whats the point I have UAE" and "man it costs more than OSX" in a public forum I don't think is "raising important questions". With your new post here I think you've now begun to. But not before IMHO.
Sure compare it with SkyOS... which is cheaper and runs on standard hardware... and still SkyOS is nothing... there has to be a lesson to learn here... I despise wasted effort and inefficiency!
You do realize I hope that apparently some people do feel that SkyOS is something rather than your declaration that it "is nothing". The developer still enjoys working on it it would seem, he has an update from June on the site. There are recent user posts in the forums. Maybe they don't want to be a big party of people. And if thats what they want thats ok. I'm sure that the MOS team knew that 111,11 Euro would make a certain population balk. Apparently they are ok with that. Would I rather more users with it being a lower price? Hell yeah. BUT that said it was not a price that was too much for me and I know they deserve the money regardless and right now it gives me something that I am interested in using.
The only compelling argument made here is that it is the only AmigaOS binary compatible computer system one can buy right now... but and in answer to the post quoted below... why would I choose it over UAE?
One needs only look at the fact that Genesi sold a number of Efikas way, way, ahead of MOS even being available to see that some people like other aspects that maybe you don't appreciate. Like building a machine. One they might view as a new Amiga. And getting a kick out of it being such a small footprint and having such low power requirements. It is a hobby after all. A great many hobbies are not practical, either in the usage of the person's time or money. And they often end up having the person take a loss if they ever leave the hobby.
Is any OS a success then only if its constantly working to YOUR ideals for trying to reach the masses? Thats in the eye of the beholder. If you are a programmer (not sure, but I noticed you said you understand the effort required more than most) why not join the MOS team and have a vote in all this for the future? Or maybe take up an AROS bounty? Or if you are not a programmer and don't have 111,11 Euro instead spend the currency of time to learn how to program to further the cause of an Amiga-like OS.
