The Elusive Killer App

[hishamk]

Just thought I'd start a thread on killer apps and how vital they're for an operating system's success.

Can OS 4 succeed by having two major killer apps (MS Office and Adobe's Creative Suite [maybe just Photoshop]) ported?

Obviously porting is nonsensical from a business perspective for MS and Adobe, though perhaps the same guys that built AROS in a clean room to function exactly like AmigaOS can pull off building a Photoshop clone that functions exactly like, er, Photoshop to the t

The only hold back to people not using Linux that I often encounter is: StarOffice is not MS Office and GIMP is not Photoshop.

I think if Linus built a Unix clone by clean rooming it's API, then why not start doing the same for popular commercial software? Will there be any legal obstacles in terms of interface similarity? I'm sure there are ways around that (have it ship with a customizable interface that the user can then change/download settings from another site to make it look exactly like Photoshop for instance).

[hishamk]

Apples and oranges.

You're suggesting reverse engineering a several hundred megabyte binary applications and somehow magically producing a working clone of it. Even if you somehow could do it, you would be sued to death (trademark & patent infringement if copyright wouldn't work) instantly.

To the contrary, I am not suggesting outright reverse engineering. I suggested clean room engineering. This, coupled with a good lawyer and the current precedents in the software industry, should not really cause any problems for people creating software from scratch that has the same functionality as existing software. Be it an OS's API or an end-user application.

Case in point, Compaq's 1982 clean room engineering of IBM's BIOS to produce compatibles. Or even AROS or ReactOS.

As to whether it is feasible in a free, open-source environment to create Office and Photoshop clones, I don't think so. It might best be taken on by Amiga, Inc. themselves (which in itself is highly unlikely since it's a dead corporation to begin with). Then again, every time I look at the progress made with AROS I'm amazed at the dedication and contribution of disparate individuals to create something for fun and not for profit; something that would take a major investment (and a huge argument with the number crunchers) by a corporation to pull off otherwise.

[hishamk]

Clear room engineering doesn't protect you from patent violations.

...

No corporation can do it or they'll be ground to dust with patent lawsuits.

I guess I wasn't concerned about patent infringement since there are apps out there that incorporate features that were once only part of Photoshop. Though I suppose the gazillion patent numbers that come up when you load up PS are there to be called on by Adobe in case someone really pisses them off.

I see your point about AROS being a clone of a rudimentary system of an age past.

Thanks