Where Do We Draw The Line?

[B00tDisk]

Wayne wrote:
It's really a catch-22.

I like XP.  It does everything I think an OS should, and everything I think AmigaOS should have done.  I don't think XP is perfect by any stretch of imagination, but I like it because it includes a lot of things that I don't have to even think about, like multi-user support, an IP stack, browser (even if I choose to use Mozilla), and media players.  

On the other hand, AmigaOS has none of that stuff to make it end-user friendly (like mom and pop friendly, not Amiga-geek friendly), but Amiga users always whine about how "putting all that crap in would add bloat and eliminate choices which is anti-Amiga" but that's really short-sighted.  Memory and hard drives are cheap, especially for the outdated slower PPC systems, so stop {bleep}ing about the resources.

My choice is to take the time to write the damned OS correctly, where -- on installation -- the user can decide whether he wants a base (pretty much non-networked) stripped-down AmigaOS 4 (so they can add their own toys) or they can choose to add in an IP stack and a browser, media players, etcetera.  In other words, bundle absolutely everything with the OS, but make it 100% user-choice to install any part of it (where possible).  

In that respect (and don't start in on this but) I think Genesi initially had the hint of the right idea with the Superbundle.  Unfortunately their licensing and execution is pretty much kerplunkt.

Wayne

All very well said, Wayne.  I, too, like XP.  Issues with IE aside, it does everything I want very, very well.  It's installation is turnkey.  I've always said that while you can fault MS for a great many things, at least they've helped drive technology: I'd much, much rather be playing with a 120gb HD than the 170MB hard drive my first PC had (it eventually wound up with bad sectors, and I had doublespaced it, and installed Win'95...what a mess).

If AmigaOS had a big footprint and had the features of WinXP, I wouldn't mind in the least.  These are not the days of $200 per megabyte RAM any more.  Bring on the features!