[...] at least share some ideas of what can we do about the future of the platform.
- set priorities and sort important things
- make it running perfectly on a reference hardware (support a small set of hardware but then perfectly)
- make killer apps (niche apps that don't exist on other platforms)
- get back to stability instead of desktop enhancers
- don't port 1000 (qt) apps and don't test but port 2 apps and make it big
- @developers: make as much as possible software free (Open Source or even freeware)
- @developers.ru don't try to sell mini apps which are better and free on all other platforms for 20 years.
- avoid things like "you can only use this software when you're a member of my club"
Thanks for sharing your ideas, those are very good.
In my wild dreams I will like to suggest a development strategy based in 2 pillars.
Pillar 1: Short Term Strategy:- Drivers - (Have a good reference hardware for eCS/OS2 to run)
- Stability
- Porting apps
- Find Killer Apps
Pillar 2: Long Term Strategy:- Clone replacements for OS/2 close source components like Presentation Manager, SOM, WPS, Loader, etc.
- Fix the things that are not broken.... yes, fix the things that works.... Start experimenting replacing things. Ex: REXX vs. Regina REXX, try to replace OS/2 close source DLLs produced but OSFree. This is very polemic since there is resistance to do modify the legacy, but it has to be done. The first tries will not be something stable, but if it is open it will allow to be improved over time.
- Some focus on replacing every single IBM close source EXE. Caring about little "quickwins" like "hey!!.. today I replaced bldlevel.exe with an open source one".
But the two pillars needs to be under an open source basis. It is not worthy to support "future abandonware". It is good that developers asks for money to do things, but it is not good to produce close work that can not allow derivative works. The idea is that things produced on the "
Pillar 1: Short Term Strategy:" can also be reused for the second one.
About fixing what is not broken: I remember that some guy from an evil corporation told me
"Good code produces a user community, bad code produces a developer community". I think that our main issue is that OS/2 is good code, it still runs after 12 years of not touching the PM, SOM, WPS, Kernel, Loader code. That made us stop worrying about those components because it is good enough for our needs, but when some of it got broken or misbehave the real problems starts. The developers needs to do tricks to keep applications running, without any possibilities of fixing the source of the problem. That is why we need to move slowly caring about cloning the things that are working.
But there is also the part that can do the "Non-Developers".
- Share content/articles under a license that allows derivative works (OS2World Wiki, EDM/2 with Creative Commons)
- Help document the software and share the documentation with the public.
- Upload source code on the Github for other developers to find out what we have to create derivative works.
- Post pictures/screenshots/experiences on social networks and on the community.
- Keep collaborating on forums.
- Help posting news and team up with developers to help them manage announcements and requirements of the community.
The thing is not to leave everything for developers, the trick is for everyone to collaborate for our common benefit.
And any efforts that we made should be focused that can be added or included on something bigger, that's why I think open source/Creative commons are important.
Regards