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ES/2, the open source OS/2
RickCHodgin:
Hi Mathias. I appreciate your input. I will consider your guidance.
Some background: I contacted Arca Noae in 2016 or 17. They were unreceptive.
And I personally do not believe in a closed source model for OS files of any sort. Too much riding on what an operating system does to follow after the "please trust me" model. It needs to be open.
Martin Iturbide:
Hi Mathias
I disagree in just a little part of what you said, and it is just my opinion.
--- Quote from: Mathias on October 26, 2018, 10:38:25 am ---By forking OS/2 again, lots of developer power is needed for the other project as well, two or more people working on the same problem in a different project. This is quite inefficient, especially when you see that OS/2 is a dinosaur that has already died out almost, and now comes back to life slowly.
You asked for our opinions, so I will tell you mine: If I had the power and knowledge to actively develop for the core operating system and its features, I would rather go and help ArcaNoae out, but start my own thing. Not only that ArcaNoae already has the knowledge and sources, so developers can jump right into work, they also have the IBM/Microsoft licenses, lawyers and all the necessary stuff, that could get in your way later, when developing "your own thing".
There always is a gap between what's allowed and what could be done.. - So developing stuff is not the only thing, but also to legally create something. Else you might run into lawyers that could take your thing away later on.
--- End quote ---
Arca Noae is doing a great job keeping OS/2 alive by producing bug fixing, new installer and newer/updated drivers. But Arca Noae goals is not to liberate, free or open source OS/2, their goal is to keep the platform running in modern hardware. So, people with a higher dream of an open source OS/2 should not be limited only to help Arca Noae, because AN dream/goal is not to open source OS/2 (yet?).
While some guys dream on more OS/2 drivers that will need to be replaced every 5 to 10 years, there are other people with a longer team dream of finally liberating our self from IBM copyrights and allow the platform to be open and available for all the public as a first step for the platform to adopt new users.
Helping Arca Noae is good, but do not look for leadership there because they have a different goal at this point. If you are going to do any software development for Arca Noae, do it under an open source license that can not be close sourced in the future, since we need things that adds up in time (and snow ball), and not things that the source code is secret like we did on the 80's and 90's with IBM's OS/2. As I always said, close source software is future abandonware.
Don't be afraid of forking OS/2. Experimentation may lead to disaster or to discover new things, and this is just software not human cloning, please experiment !!!!
Regards
RickCHodgin:
--- Quote from: Martin Iturbide on October 26, 2018, 02:13:39 pm ---As I always said, close source software is future abandonware.
--- End quote ---
History is proving this to be completely accurate ... save big money operations like Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, etc. But I do believe that even big money operations will eventually become abandonware because people will want the free and open source models that support them, and are "good enough" to get the daily jobs done.
Mathias:
*g* Don't get me wrong guys; I'm not against open source. - Not at all infact. - It's just developer power and knowledge in projects with "low global interest" should imho be concentrated and not spreaded wide, as the progress in whole could be faster witih more devs working on one project. May it be open or closed : )
I doubt though, that ArcaOS will ever be opensource, since it relies on a closed source base, that is even licensed by thirdparties.
Years ago I always wanted the Warp 3 feeling on a linux desktop, but could never find a Window Manager, that could deliver the look & feel. In the end this might be the outcome of an open source project.. which itself would be great already! - But then again.. there is so much more around that, what OS/2 is all about. That would take years and years of developer power to rebuild, if it can be made at all. Developer power is needed. It's all fine, when you have enough people at hand, that work together nicely. But many open source projects start out nicely with flags flying, and 5, 10, 20 devs at hand... but as time goes by, people become interested in other things, develop a real life, gets occupied there, and it's hard to find replacement in such a niche product, that OS/2 is. Infact the number of people who know OS/2 is getting smaller and smaller, people that could develop software for it ... even worse.
In the end, the main attraction for devs to get known to OS/2, and actually produce something usable and user friendly, is interest at first. Then, over years, interest might wander off, and what's left is money to keep the majority of people going on. That's the point where closed software was in an advantage until now, but today we have platforms like patreon and co, where opensource does not necessarily mean, developers do everything for free..
Anyway... I'd be happy to see such a project, but as a developer I can somewhat guess the ammount of work that is necessary to come to that point of functionality that we have today in OS/2.
That's another reason, why I suggested to rather invest time and efforts into already existing projects. "where everybody else is", to take on the big task to bring OS/2 onto new computers, while still keeping backward compatibility for older machines..
RickCHodgin:
Something else I'm going to do with ES/2 is provide multiple pathways to achieve the same thing, meaning more than one technology solution to accomplish something that works well in one particular technology, allowing a way around catastrophic bugs or errors or security issues in a particular technology.
This is prompted by Java's recent changes by Oracle, such that the way Java's been for 20+ years will no longer be that way due to Oracle choosing to change their model.
In this example, ES/2 may have supported Java, but it will also allow other technologies to exist besides Java so they can be supported natively as well, allowing users to leave Java easily if something comes along they do not like.
In short: I will not be married to any particular hardware or software, save the tools that I create myself for development, all of which will be open source and able to be inspected and repaired by all at any time.
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