Ok, let me try again...
Some early quotes:
Quote:
...as a product they have every right to make money from...
...We finally have an OS that actually makes the Efika a useable computer rather than this sad little slow Linux hobbyist device mine was rapidly becoming...
(emphasis mine)
This basically implies that you want to see wide spread adoption, so the authors can make money for the past/future development. We argued that this won't happen unless this and that would happen - one of the main requirements that it would become more open (as in source, not GPL), and that there is a
possibility to take MorphOS there, focusing on what it's good at (fast,multimedia,...)
Some later quotes:
Quote:
... doubt that the MorphOS Team is even interested in
making a big operating system...sure they all have
their regular day-jobs... MorphOS as a hobby...
* A hobby is something you keep for fun. When you make a
profession out of it the stakes are going up and you still
need food on the table..
...was always how I understood it to be. It's a project done for the same kind of fun as homebrew or reverse engineering...
...seem to consider thinking of this as "hobbyist" some kind of insulting term...
So, doesn't it make sense then to open source the system so that more people can join the hobby? I know for sure I'd like to check out the kernel of this little OS (maybe I can even use it as a teaching tool in my Operating systems classes).
Oh, I have nothing against it being a hobbyist system, I just thought it might have the
potential to grow bigger, like, say, Linux did. This does not have to mean that the MorphOS developers have to give up their hobby, or their daytime jobs, or whatever.
Besides, the current developers might give up on their hobby in favor of something new and exciting (thats what happens with hobbies). If you have the source, at least others can pick up easy and make it their hobby project.
Quote:
If MorphOS hadn't been promoted at all in regard to the Efika, myself and several others I know of would never have even considered using the platform. It would've been just another underspec base motherboard, with the added issue of being PPC based which narrows the options considerably.
It's not an "underspec base motherboard", it's an evaluation board for the 5200B
embedded chip. I don't understand why anyone would want to use an EFIKA to replace their Desktop PC. The 5200B is wonderful for those embedded applications where you need relatively lots of computing power, where a normal microcontroller wont' do, yet are limited in power supply. It can be used as a thin client (even running some applications itself), but it just isn't made to run a desktop oriented OS with the latest FireFox and OpenOffice.
Quote:
The single point the Efika had for us *was* MorphOS. That's a fact. It WAS the deciding factor.
Well, good for you. If it satisfies your needs and those of a few others, thats fine. After all, thats what a hobby is (I have many). The problem is, a lot of those hobbies don't make sense when you try to make money - which is what a company is trying to accomplish.
Quote:
A very fast, useable, user-friendly, well featured desktop-ready
I have to disagree with you here. It is not desktop ready. There are not nearly enough applications for MorphOS to make the platform desktop-ready.
Quote:
...One with extremely quick boot times...
...low powered PPC board that struggled to run Linux...
Linux is literally light years ahead of MorphOS. Of course MorphOS will boot faster since it omits a lot of the things Linux is doing which MorphOS is not. There are graphical, multi-threaded Operating Systems for microcontrollers that will boot in a few seconds, but these cannot be compared to Linux either...
Quote:
constantly excuse its hardware for not being able to *quite* cope with an IRC client and a web browser
Oh come on, Efika can do this just fine. I even created a GUI for
http://projects.powerdeveloper.org/project/efika/338 based on a web interface using a Webkit based browser. You can also see some GUI demo's in the blogs.
Quote:
Maybe there is no market for this OS outside a small group...
Maybe there is. And all I was trying to argue is that it would be possible to explore these options if it were open source.
Quote:
I'll happily be part of that nonexistant market, because they've done more with it to promote the Efika as an actual computer than Genesi
It is an embedded system - Genesi has been promoting it as such. MorphOS could have been part of it if it had been available 2 or so years ago. since it is a non-existent market at this time, what could possibly be lost by open sourcing the system?
Quote:
...a niche device in itself competing against thousands of others that are often far more capable of the tasks they are in demand for...
No it's not. It is actually positioned very nicely and has enough computing power for what it's targeted at. Besides the performance per Watt is a factor that will become more and more important (it is already), and the 5200B and successors are great in this regard.
Quote:
I'd have thought every sale it could get via MorphOS would've been useful and appreciated
The problem is that a couple of hundred even 5000 sales don't mean anything for a company - they are targeting millions!
With 5000 sales you cannot possibly recover the development and manufacturing costs of the system, let alone run a rewarding business. As I said before, MorphOS could have been part of the equation some years (maybe even 1 year) ago to drive a market of possibly millions of devices.
Let me summarize this rant...
MorphOS == hobby-OS (Great); maybe open sourcing it will allow more people to enjoy the hobby.
MorphOS == Not to make money (Great); why charge large amounts anyway? Why the difficult licensing (one per system, with keyserver...)
MorphOS == Real Business (Great); Open it up so we can see what it can do, and maybe we can use it to sell millions of devices. Maybe not.
MorphOS is
better then Linux - no
MorphOs has
features which set it apart from Linux - yes - how can we capitalize on these?
Johan.