AROS has no chance in the future if...

[dandelion]

Would it be possible (by this I mean, reasonably do-able, easy and worthwhile) to set up some sort of X-window device available to AROS, to make porting of unix applications that much easier to AROS? They've done that with RISC OS and it's brought many improvements in terms of application support including Firefox (which is a very nice application to have access to on a minority platform I can tell you).

For info on unix porting to RISC OS see: http://www.riscos.info/unix/

[uncharted]

Why not just use a *nix-a-like in the first place?

[adonay]

well, maybe a CD-R. If you try it and you like, great! if you try it and you don't like it, great, use something else!

You dont even need to bother with the live cd annymore there is a version that loads from in xp i have that one somwere on my hd :lol: but not sure were..

[iamaboringperson]

One thing I see very often, are companies/organisations which use x86 and MS-Win for POS and kiosks.

That bothers me - for numerous reasons.

AROS would be a great to use with these machines.

Perhaps it would be great if a group of AROS enthusiests were to get together and workout how to market (and actually sell) OS's to these kinds of users.

Certainly if it had memory protection and a decent built in TCP/IP stack it would be great for these types of applications.

Of course, it would also probably need some included tech. support, and a hell of a lot of 'how to program for' material. That would be the hard part.

But overall it would be better than buying 100's/1000's/10,000's MS-Windows licencess, IMHO.

[bhoggett]

iamaboringperson wrote:
One thing I see very often, are companies/organisations which use x86 and MS-Win for POS and kiosks.

That bothers me - for numerous reasons.

AROS would be a great to use with these machines.

...

But overall it would be better than buying 100's/1000's/10,000's MS-Windows licencess, IMHO.

Except that if cost was an issue, those companies could easily switch to a dedicated Linux distro to do exactly what they want, and Linux programmers and/or documentation & support is far more widespread than AROS will ever be.

Amiga people need to get off this concept that the embedded world is just sitting there breathlessly waiting to be swept off ots feet by Amiga-like operating systems.

I have no idea what the future of AROS is, but I'm pretty certain it isn't as a competitor for MS on embedded systems.

[coldfish]

uncharted wrote:
Why not just use a *nix-a-like in the first place?

I do, and no doubt many here do to.  But if I was given the choice of you-name-the-*nix-flavour or something that contains elements and the feel of Workbench, I'd pick the latter seeing as that platform is familiar and I know my way around it better.

Currently, this machine dual boots Win2K and Debian. In the future, I'd be more than happy to make that Winwhatever and AROS.  AROS with a functioning web suite and working UAE would seal the deal today.  I dont see AROS or any other OS usurping Windows' role in my day to day use any time soon, and I'm ok with that.

I'm just happy someone out there is making the effort and providing the results for FREE no less!  

Hats of to the AROS team!

[Gojirax]

iamaboringperson wrote:
One thing I see very often, are companies/organisations which use x86 and MS-Win for POS and kiosks.

That bothers me - for numerous reasons.

AROS would be a great to use with these machines.

Perhaps it would be great if a group of AROS enthusiests were to get together and workout how to market (and actually sell) OS's to these kinds of users.

Certainly if it had memory protection and a decent built in TCP/IP stack it would be great for these types of applications.

Of course, it would also probably need some included tech. support, and a hell of a lot of 'how to program for' material. That would be the hard part.

But overall it would be better than buying 100's/1000's/10,000's MS-Windows licencess, IMHO.

The solution to what you're suggesting is Citrix and Terminal Services support.

We've made PXE boot and small flash boot disks at the hospital I work at with a teeny tiny DOS Based Citrix client. Using Citrix it takes 10 seconds to get from Bios splash screen to a Windows XP login.

AROS could do it better, and cheaper. There are already Linux solutions for a Citrix boot environment too, so there would be some competition.

The area it could make huge advances is to make a thin client and make it as simple and easy as possible to setup. For us it wasn't all that simple, and we haven't installed the 300 thin clients we need.

Realistically, to survive in the current world you need support natively for the following: (Totally just my $0.02 worth and not anything I put a lot of stock in.)

Web Browser with support for Flash, Shockwave, CSS, SSL, XML, Citrix, Anti Spyware/Virus etc.

Active Directory support, support for Group Policy and TCP/IP Printing, COM, DCOM, RPC etc.)

Citrix and Terminal Services support.

Office Suite (Not just Word, but Outlook, Excell, Powerpoint, Access, Front Page... even if you are going to use alternatives to these they need to be able to open and work with these formats or you won't be able to integrate your services seemlessly, which is critical.)

Remote management services. (Things like LanDesk, WSUS, SMS, Dameware etc.)

Full Media service (Audio/Video/Streaming Media etc.)

Authoring for Media Services as well.

Encrypted and secure Wireless networking, USB2.x, Bluetooth, Java.

Support for (And Exchange server conduits for) Mobile devices like Cell Phones, Cameras, PalmOS and CE devices.

Can it be done? Yeah, with a team of about 100 zealots.

I downloaded the AROS CD and booted it up. It was impressive, but missing everything. Nice to look at and responsive though. It was enough that I'll check in 6 months from now to see what they've got, but a Citrix client and decent Media player would be enough that I would actually attempt to make it work in some projects I have.

[Louis Dias]

iamaboringperson wrote:
One thing I see very often, are companies/organisations which use x86 and MS-Win for POS and kiosks.

That bothers me - for numerous reasons.

AROS would be a great to use with these machines.

hence my comment about being a solutions provider

give AROS a full browser and it does 95% of my casual computing...
...
...
or is that 99.% :horse:

[RWO]

AROS has no chance in the future if...

If the World goes under in the next 12 months.. with the current development speed there is no chance

RWO

[4pLaY]

Its fun to see all these posts about AROS not making it! who ever said AROS would be a competitor to the mass market anyways? if AROS can ever get 1000000 users id see that as a massive success and if it dosent so what? the more AROS improve the more people will consider using it either as a hobby OS or even main OS and that should be more then enough to make sure there will be some useable software (and AROS acctualy already have some usefull software in hollywood and Lunapaint to name a few) so stop looking so dark on it people .

[dammy]

Its fun to see all these posts about AROS not making it! who ever said AROS would be a competitor to the mass market anyways? if AROS can ever get 1000000 users id see that as a massive success and if it dosent so what? the more AROS improve the more people will consider using it either as a hobby OS or even main OS and that should be more then enough to make sure there will be some useable software (and AROS acctualy already have some usefull software in hollywood and Lunapaint to name a few) so stop looking so dark on it people .

I don't think people have quiet gotten the idea what AROS is all about.  AROS is not a White Knight looking to save Amigaland and make huge profits by crushing the other commercial OSs.  AROS being open source, is a *community* OS. Guess it's all the years of company's blowing sunshine up everyone's ass for sales, they don't understand this different mindset of AROS.  Being an end user, all they want is your cash.  Being a member of a community with a public OS, means that things only happen if the individual makes it happen.  How many copies sold/download is meaningless if the community is happy and moving forward.

Dammy

[dandelion]

Definately get that feeling too! Reading a lot of the views on here, it's like hearing a lot of disgruntled Windows users feeling amazed by the sudden presence of Linux in their computer world. "What, you mean when I went across to Windows because everyone said it's the be-all-and-end-all of computing they weren't actually correct and I look a fool now?" Yes people, you can have more fun with computers than what the people in Seattle tell you. No, this doesn't mean running UAE and it doesn't mean you have to open your wallet to do it. There's very exciting things of real technological prowess happening in the open source world. And they provide a real, viable alternative to MS. AROS isn't that yet, but it has, if we all stop complaining and support it, the potential to do so.

[Gojirax]

Dammy Wrote:

Being a member of a community with a public OS, means that things only happen if the individual makes it happen.

There's a community? What do people do with this OS exactly? I might be missing something, but from the 2 hours I spent tinkering with it I saw what appeared to be an interactive demo without sound.

People run this as an operating system? I'm honestly asking that because I didn't see enough there to provide a real computing environment, but close to one.

Dandelion Wrote:

And they provide a real, viable alternative to MS. AROS isn't that yet, but it has, if we all stop complaining and support it, the potential to do so.

Not that I was complaining, but I saw a lot of it, I was offering some consultation and advice into what the OS could easily do, and what would be required to be what the author of this thread wanted it to be (Not that AROS wants to be a mainstream OS, but since that's the thrust of the thread I stayed in context.)

What would one (A non-programmer) do to "Support" it? I hear rumors of bounties, what do they do? Is that the only form of support it has?

I remember reading about AROS in Amiga Format back when that magazine was still alive, but really had no idea why it was being made.

The ISO image I fired up on my PC was really neat looking though, for what it's worth.

[bhoggett]

dammy wrote:
I don't think people have quiet gotten the idea what AROS is all about.

True, and this despite trying to work it out for years. To be honest, I don't believe AROS knows what it's all about. There seems to be no direction and no aim, and the only actual purpose I can make out is to give the people involved something to do. Things seem to move on more by accident than design, but at the end of the day it seems to have very little to offer to those who are not involved in developing or advocating it - beyond something to mess around with for a few minutes every few months.

The reason I always ask the same question about AROS is because no one ever has an answer. It seems to be in a constant and perpetual state of aimless development, but I can't make any more use of it today than I could a few years ago. Does anyone ever plan to change this and elevate it to a point where it deserves the hype and interminable announcements? I wish they would, because then we could start talking about practicalities rather than just ideals.

The original question is this thread is a valid one, and despite all the protestations, no one has really has really said any more than "everything's great, don't bother us with details".

[Kalamatee]

bhoggett wrote:

dammy wrote:
I don't think people have quiet gotten the idea what AROS is all about.

True, and this despite trying to work it out for years. To be honest, I don't believe AROS knows what it's all about. There seems to be no direction and no aim, and the only actual purpose I can make out is to give the people involved something to do.

I think most AROS devs have a good idea of what its about.  AROS itself is a product of the devs - unable to form sentient thoughts ;0

If you really cant figure out what its for after "years" your probably wasting your time anyhow.

While we are on the subject (not my subject) what exactly are AmigaOS4 or MorphOS trying to be? They sure dont offer anything compaired to winblows and linsux. Decent 3d hardware driver support? Decent Apps? yeah right ..

Just novalty software for the "dedicated" amigans?

Things seem to move on more by accident than design, but at the end of the day it seems to have very little to offer to those who are not involved in developing or advocating it - beyond something to mess around with for a few minutes every few months.

Regardless what you may "think" or "feel" - most things have well thought out, and discussed (amongst devs on the mailing list), design.  Thats not to say everything works perfect - some well planned things dont always bear the fruits they appeared to.

(the replacement of dos packets comes to mind)

The reason I always ask the same question about AROS is because no one ever has an answer. It seems to be in a constant and perpetual state of aimless development, but I can't make any more use of it today than I could a few years ago.

Perhaps you should write down EXACTLY what IS your question.  Ive only read negative statements so far ..

 Does anyone ever plan to change this and elevate it to a point where it deserves the hype and interminable announcements? I wish they would, because then we could start talking about practicalities rather than just ideals.

Yeah AROS would do so much better to live in the land of Vapour AmigaOS has enjoyed for the last x years (I lost track.. but im sure its more than one digit now)

The original question is this thread is a valid one, and despite all the protestations, no one has really has really said any more than "everything's great, don't bother us with details".

There was no original question - just a statement that was subsequently put right. Some of the items STATED as not going to happen - are infact being actively developed even now.

If you dont think AROS has a future - bully for you.  I doubt anything Devs or otherwise would do can change that.

Luckily far more people DO see a future and appreciate the potential AROS has.

[dammy]

True, and this despite trying to work it out for years.

Is there a time table?  None that I am aware of.  Now it may not fit well within YOUR time table, but such is life.  Over the past two years, I've been very happy with AROS' developement.

To be honest, I don't believe AROS knows what it's all about. There seems to be no direction and no aim, and the only actual purpose I can make out is to give the people involved something to do

I guess it's possible for those on the outside looking in may interput it that way.  If that is what you like to think, by all means, do so.

The reason I always ask the same question about AROS is because no one ever has an answer.

Perhaps they did answer, and you just failed to recognise it as the answer you were looking for.  Or of course, they just ignored you.

It seems to be in a constant and perpetual state of aimless development, but I can't make any more use of it today than I could a few years ago.

Guess all those things have been developed over the past two years are meaningless to you.  Well such is life.  Perhaps AROS will eventually live up to your high expectations.  Until then, how about writing your own Amiga like OS so AROS knows how it should be done?  :roll:

Dammy