Please also see the following well researched article published on The Register :
EloneX: the end of an era By Tim Phillips 18 Jul 2006 13:46
and the preceding articles which may also be of interest :
Elonex sketches phoenix PC plan By Mark Ballard 7 Jul 2006 12:03
Elonex sold to stationer By Mark Ballard 5 Jul 2006 11:15
Elonex deal hits the doldrums By Mark Ballard 3 Jul 2006 12:15
Rank outsider poised to buy Elonex By Mark Ballard 29 Jun 2006 11:15
Centerprise opts out of Elonex bidding By Mark Ballard 27 Jun 2006 12:22
Elonex: administrators lay off 28 By John Oates 15 Jun 2006 08:57
Elonex UK goes titsup By John Oates 13 Jun 2006 14:58
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Obituary for EloneX PLC
I learned three days ago one of my favorite computer companies went bankrupt.
This was the one company that cared about the individual customer, and provided tireless aftersales support even on machines over ten years old. They built machines to last twenty five to thirty years, and even their monitor tubes lasted very well. They never told a customer to upgrade to the latest machines of their range, which was considerably good for a small London based company, and one of the first OEM IBM X86 compatible system makers. Furthermore, they supported the use of any X86 operating system the client needed and chose to use ; Windows, OS/2, BSD, Solaris, OPENSTEP, BeOS, QNX and Linux.
Quoted from About EloneX
The company's logo, slab format system designs and website style were also a living tribute to the unique style of NeXT Computer, Inc., as can be seen from the source of the above quotes and their website, in particular their Showroom
This was the one company that cared about the individual customer, and provided tireless aftersales support even on machines over ten years old. They built machines to last twenty five to thirty years, and even their monitor tubes lasted very well. They never told a customer to upgrade to the latest machines of their range, which was considerably good for a small London based company, and one of the first OEM IBM X86 compatible system makers. Furthermore, they supported the use of any X86 operating system the client needed and chose to use ; Windows, OS/2, BSD, Solaris, OPENSTEP, BeOS, QNX and Linux.
Elonex was founded in 1986 to offer computer and related IT services direct to customers allowing them to exercise more control and benefit from improved flexibility. Elonex is now one of the few UK manufacturers to have developed international sales with a strong customer base in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Russian Federation. UK customers therefore benefit from a broader range of skills and experience.
* A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELONEX
* 1986 Elonex PLC founded.
* 1988 Bradford office opens.
* 1990 Elonex Belgium opens.
* 1991 Elonex Taiwan opens (procurement arm) and is awarded Microsoft OEM status.
* 1992 Elonex France, Israel and Switzerland established.
* 1995 Elonex Solutions Division formed, won MOD contract.
* 1996 Elonex E-Commerce introduced.
* 1997 Elonex wins NHS Supplies Authority (having previously supplied the Regional Authorities) and Gcat contracts.
* 1999 Elonex Gatwick opens as a new base for the Specialist Education Division and awarded NGfL Managed Service status.
* 2000 Elonex's Software Development Division established in Russia.
* 2000 Elonex becomes Microsoft EdLAR.
* 2001 Elonex wins Gcat/NHSCat contract for Hardware & Systems Integration, IT Managed Services and Third Party Maintenance categories.
* 2002 Awarded Becta Accredited Service Supplier status.
* 2003 Elonex wins a contract to supply under the Governments' Laptops for Teachers Initiative, earns supplier status for the Governments NHS National Programme for IT (worth £25m).
* 2004 Contract awarded to supply Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based laptops under the Essex e-Learning Foundation Initiative (£150m).
Quoted from About EloneX
The company's logo, slab format system designs and website style were also a living tribute to the unique style of NeXT Computer, Inc., as can be seen from the source of the above quotes and their website, in particular their Showroom
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Unconscious rendered
I've been taking a break from research, and a needed break from the amount of work with source code and OS maintenance it requires.
Instead I've been relaxing, and occasionally playing graphically with molecules that interest me for various reasons, through usage in medical practice, growing them in asia or historical and spiritual association and such.
An example is Lotus. An important symbol in asian traditions of meditation, for it's gentle path between darkness and light, the apparent impurity of sleeping in the muddy bottom of a lake, and awakening a bright beautiful appearance, often white but many other colours as well for some specimens, and each of these equally well regarded, especially red, blue and indigo and purples.
Lotus also was a proposed choice last week for a header graphic for the new web site design of the BioCocoa project. The header can at this time be seen here, Option1 but might be moved or removed. If so, I might ask permission of the project admin and designer to mirror Option1 ... he and I seem to be the only people who like it and Option2 seems to be the design going ahead :)
Among near countless chemicals within Lotus are some genes that are of interest in research, but I have restrained myself from distraction, and loaded one of these gene's Protein Database file into one of my 3d molecular graphics and editing applications. Besides, there are enough highly competent teams in Japan researching Lotus Japonica already.
If I had dedicated machines such as a Silicon Graphics Octane2 I could have generated some interesting animations and Virtual Reality web pages, but last time I tried this on my Thinkpad and old G2 Macs, everything crashed.
Even using molecular graphics applications designed on SGI workstations, compiled and running fine under SuSE Linux, not nearly fast enough. I am used to having 25 computers, and being able to commit many of them to rendering as much as actual computations and simulations. Working with three, all of which need larger hard disks, is like having only one or two of 25 limbs useable.
Also this time I had trouble saving the close up images I had created, as mesh and include file for POV-Ray, to work on rendering the results outside of the molecular graphics suite I was using, and thus have a lot more system resources and be able to do this faster. Instead I had to use the suite's internal renderer.
Below is a small section of a 1024x768 pixel render from the gene 1CT9 from Lotus Japonica. I have edited the colours away from schemes in use for bioinformatics, which are to highlight some particular aspect or other, instead to evoke a sense of the general beauty of the Himalaya, Kasmir in particular, and the jungles at their foot.
1CT9 from Lotus Japonica
I also wanted to play with genes from Fragaria, Strawberry. Purely for the sake of scientific erotica, but this will take some time. Especially, I want to include non molecular elements in the scene, more accurately, a highly tasteful but very evocative female form.
Strawberries have a significance among Italian Sci Fi authors and Journalists I know ...
I want this scene rendered to my artistic aesthetic's satisfaction.
Fragole buone!
Ti voglio coperta di fragole, Venere di Milano ;)
Instead I've been relaxing, and occasionally playing graphically with molecules that interest me for various reasons, through usage in medical practice, growing them in asia or historical and spiritual association and such.
An example is Lotus. An important symbol in asian traditions of meditation, for it's gentle path between darkness and light, the apparent impurity of sleeping in the muddy bottom of a lake, and awakening a bright beautiful appearance, often white but many other colours as well for some specimens, and each of these equally well regarded, especially red, blue and indigo and purples.
Lotus also was a proposed choice last week for a header graphic for the new web site design of the BioCocoa project. The header can at this time be seen here, Option1 but might be moved or removed. If so, I might ask permission of the project admin and designer to mirror Option1 ... he and I seem to be the only people who like it and Option2 seems to be the design going ahead :)
Among near countless chemicals within Lotus are some genes that are of interest in research, but I have restrained myself from distraction, and loaded one of these gene's Protein Database file into one of my 3d molecular graphics and editing applications. Besides, there are enough highly competent teams in Japan researching Lotus Japonica already.
If I had dedicated machines such as a Silicon Graphics Octane2 I could have generated some interesting animations and Virtual Reality web pages, but last time I tried this on my Thinkpad and old G2 Macs, everything crashed.
Even using molecular graphics applications designed on SGI workstations, compiled and running fine under SuSE Linux, not nearly fast enough. I am used to having 25 computers, and being able to commit many of them to rendering as much as actual computations and simulations. Working with three, all of which need larger hard disks, is like having only one or two of 25 limbs useable.
Also this time I had trouble saving the close up images I had created, as mesh and include file for POV-Ray, to work on rendering the results outside of the molecular graphics suite I was using, and thus have a lot more system resources and be able to do this faster. Instead I had to use the suite's internal renderer.
Below is a small section of a 1024x768 pixel render from the gene 1CT9 from Lotus Japonica. I have edited the colours away from schemes in use for bioinformatics, which are to highlight some particular aspect or other, instead to evoke a sense of the general beauty of the Himalaya, Kasmir in particular, and the jungles at their foot.
1CT9 from Lotus Japonica
I also wanted to play with genes from Fragaria, Strawberry. Purely for the sake of scientific erotica, but this will take some time. Especially, I want to include non molecular elements in the scene, more accurately, a highly tasteful but very evocative female form.
Strawberries have a significance among Italian Sci Fi authors and Journalists I know ...
I want this scene rendered to my artistic aesthetic's satisfaction.
Fragole buone!
Ti voglio coperta di fragole, Venere di Milano ;)
The Secret of the Four Pillars of a Screenshot
Many centuries ago, in a remote monastery in the Himalayas, the technique of visualising different things, in real time, was mastered and refined. This when portrayed on silk framed canvas is known as The Four Pillars of a Screenshot.
These Four Pillars represent the full capability of diversity and potential. Traditionally, monks would visualise a Video player, a Waveform Editor, a 3d Molecular structure viewer, and a Fractal generator.
Alternately, some monasteries preferred the classic Word Processor/Spreadsheet/Database suite, Graphics/Photo suite, Web Browser, and Media Player.
These Four Pillars represent the full capability of diversity and potential. Traditionally, monks would visualise a Video player, a Waveform Editor, a 3d Molecular structure viewer, and a Fractal generator.
Alternately, some monasteries preferred the classic Word Processor/Spreadsheet/Database suite, Graphics/Photo suite, Web Browser, and Media Player.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Drivel
Then last night I find the header from TicTac template works again, and my dashboard is back to it's usual scheme.
This journal entry was uploaded using Drivel, a GTK blog client supporting Blogger, Atom, Advogato, LiveJournal and Moveable Type.
Drivel is available for SuSE Linux users as an RPM, Gnome-blog is also but it wouldn't work, and I don't feel like compiling either Gnome-blog or BloGTK from source code.
This journal entry was uploaded using Drivel, a GTK blog client supporting Blogger, Atom, Advogato, LiveJournal and Moveable Type.
Drivel is available for SuSE Linux users as an RPM, Gnome-blog is also but it wouldn't work, and I don't feel like compiling either Gnome-blog or BloGTK from source code.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Oh well
Fixed it myself ...
A reproduction of the original image, made on SuSE/GNUstep, from a cached top_div.gif.
Please don't change things when we're not looking ... many GNUstep developers use blogger.
Half their blogs could look a total mess right now depending on how many style elements have changed without warning :)
A reproduction of the original image, made on SuSE/GNUstep, from a cached top_div.gif.
Please don't change things when we're not looking ... many GNUstep developers use blogger.
Half their blogs could look a total mess right now depending on how many style elements have changed without warning :)
Template Header
Now the header's gone. No warning, it's just gone.
The templates are changing. The dashboard as well.
Why is it 80% of the times I'm using a website, that's the time they choose to upgrade it ?
Last winter continual updates and server problems prevented me from being able to continue my work, due to continually borked CVS and SVN servers for Objective-C and other Biotech code.
No one considered the chaos and delays created by not telling anyone before hand.
This went on for several weeks.
When I take down my servers, or reorganise, rewrite and compile the code they run on, I warn people.
Running molecular dynamics simulations and various distributed filesystem/applications servers, I have to.
Now I have to write a template, or create and upload my own header graphic to fill the space left ? I'd rather have the original back.
It is a major reason why I chose the TicTac template to start with, since I'm running SuSE/GNUstep and apart from a CSS style that's a perfect Mac OS X Milk theme, or Openstep/Rhapsody theme ... TicTac was the only one here I like.
Oh well ... yet again I spend a little time on something, and the result is negated.
The templates are changing. The dashboard as well.
Why is it 80% of the times I'm using a website, that's the time they choose to upgrade it ?
Last winter continual updates and server problems prevented me from being able to continue my work, due to continually borked CVS and SVN servers for Objective-C and other Biotech code.
No one considered the chaos and delays created by not telling anyone before hand.
This went on for several weeks.
When I take down my servers, or reorganise, rewrite and compile the code they run on, I warn people.
Running molecular dynamics simulations and various distributed filesystem/applications servers, I have to.
Now I have to write a template, or create and upload my own header graphic to fill the space left ? I'd rather have the original back.
It is a major reason why I chose the TicTac template to start with, since I'm running SuSE/GNUstep and apart from a CSS style that's a perfect Mac OS X Milk theme, or Openstep/Rhapsody theme ... TicTac was the only one here I like.
Oh well ... yet again I spend a little time on something, and the result is negated.
Webcode
Hello again Blogger, Hello interface and backend code.
I have to update and revise my html skills. Ok, this looks like SuSE's website, manual and install CD cover because I want it that way ... be grateful I didn't make it like BeOS's bootscreen :)
Too lazy and plain tired of code to write and maintain my own servers anymore.
WebObjects, Webware, OpenGroupware, SDS/SWS, Trac wiki, PostGreSQL, Apache ...
waaaaaaa
2006, and computers still feel like riding an elephant across an ocean of molasses ...
It's summer, and I have it on very good authority I'm too sexy to be living like Howard Hughes, hiding behind a wall of computer screens ;)
I have to update and revise my html skills. Ok, this looks like SuSE's website, manual and install CD cover because I want it that way ... be grateful I didn't make it like BeOS's bootscreen :)
Too lazy and plain tired of code to write and maintain my own servers anymore.
WebObjects, Webware, OpenGroupware, SDS/SWS, T
waaaaaaa
2006, and computers still feel like riding an elephant across an ocean of molasses ...
It's summer, and I have it on very good authority I'm too sexy to be living like Howard Hughes, hiding behind a wall of computer screens ;)
Saturday, August 14, 2004
What Haiku OS means to me
I was originally asked to write this article by Chris Simmons, aka Technix, Administrator and Editor of Haiku News Network (HNN), formerly The BeOS Journal (TBJ), a website focussed on Haiku-OS , the opensource implementation of BeOS that was formerly known as OpenBeOS.
He published it in his name, only mentioning I had submitted it, despite my having a journalist account on HNN and having been a contributor and moderator of The BeOS Journal. Furthermore any remarks regarding the German development upon BeOS called Zeta, from yellowTAB , were removed due to a strong bias against it that still persists today.
I am to this day not happy with the closure of TBJ's forum and disappearance of several years discussion of BeOS relevant to both Intel x86 and PowerPC platforms, including many valid and informative posts on the system's architecture, legal status, origins and future. The article was translated into several languages and republished in many countries in Western and Eastern Europe, and South America. Here is the article as I originally wrote it.
What Haiku OS means to me at this point in time, from the department of
"What do you mean did I run the OS before writing an article about it?"
To know this, I have to be clear what BeOS has meant and does mean to me now. It will always mean a young operating system that installed quickly and impressed me immediately after my first time booting with the R4.5 Live Demo CD ( I had BeOS since R3, but it was the R4.5 demo that really impressed me).
At that time I was using SuSE Linux, DR DOS, Windows 95, Rhapsody and Mac OS. It became my Media OS and I was happy working in BeOS. The media capabilities and speed of BeOS still impress me today.
I spent some years in Asia, away from computers and news until very recently. When I returned and began reading The BeOSJournal, I was shocked. Be, Inc. was no more, the BeOS was not available and there were no more upgrades to be found.
I learned that Haiku was to be the open source clone of BeOS R5 on x86 only. Ok.
I hope it can live up to the (perhaps excessive) expectations I have. The fact that BeOS doesn't run so well on my modern IBM ThinkPad, (except in Virtual PC 2004 in Windows 2000 where it rocks!), as it did on the earlier compatible equipment I used for BeOS before, does not change my high opinion of BeOS or expectations of Haiku.
I am looking forward to Haiku being my media OS, on modern hardware, with multiple fast CPUs and high memory. I am also looking forward to better networking than I know BeOS has now. In my earlier use of BeOS I never used it for networking or connecting to the internet, and had no knowledge of the problems others had and continue to have with it.
I have always felt BeOS was brilliant for scientific visualisation, as is done often on SGI and Sun workstations, especially for biochemistry. To use Haiku for the same purpose(s) is to me logical, and I hope this becomes a real possibility one day.
The area of artificial intelligence has always interested me, as has clustering; I am convinced Haiku could fulfill this application as well. I have often mused that if Be, Inc. had shifted focus to a "BeAI", instead of a "BeIA", things might have evolved differently.
An embeddable appliance-oriented Haiku? Why not, if people need it? A server/router/gateway OS? If it is possible I would use it.
What of Zeta ?
In the future is it possible to unite an opensource OS and a commercial one ?
Different kinds of licensing in a combined OS of Haiku and Zeta interests me.
Reading the official Haiku OS website FAQ and what is said in various chat rooms regarding Haiku, I can say all of my expectations are reasonable. It is open source and can be compiled to suit any specific set of purposes or needs. So far Haiku is an x86-only Operating System, but I know it can be compiled for other platforms such as Power PC.
What does all of this add up to? I think Haiku will impress me as much as BeOS originally did, and I look forward to seeing it develop into a full-fledged Operating System. I have made a point of not discussing any technical details of OS design here, without too much emphasis or analysis. Instead, I have discovered the inherent beauty in how BeOS has changed the way I use all operating systems completely. To that end, I feel Haiku will change the way many people use their computers.
He published it in his name, only mentioning I had submitted it, despite my having a journalist account on HNN and having been a contributor and moderator of The BeOS Journal. Furthermore any remarks regarding the German development upon BeOS called Zeta, from yellowTAB , were removed due to a strong bias against it that still persists today.
I am to this day not happy with the closure of TBJ's forum and disappearance of several years discussion of BeOS relevant to both Intel x86 and PowerPC platforms, including many valid and informative posts on the system's architecture, legal status, origins and future. The article was translated into several languages and republished in many countries in Western and Eastern Europe, and South America. Here is the article as I originally wrote it.
What Haiku OS means to me at this point in time, from the department of
"What do you mean did I run the OS before writing an article about it?"
To know this, I have to be clear what BeOS has meant and does mean to me now. It will always mean a young operating system that installed quickly and impressed me immediately after my first time booting with the R4.5 Live Demo CD ( I had BeOS since R3, but it was the R4.5 demo that really impressed me).
At that time I was using SuSE Linux, DR DOS, Windows 95, Rhapsody and Mac OS. It became my Media OS and I was happy working in BeOS. The media capabilities and speed of BeOS still impress me today.
I spent some years in Asia, away from computers and news until very recently. When I returned and began reading The BeOSJournal, I was shocked. Be, Inc. was no more, the BeOS was not available and there were no more upgrades to be found.
I learned that Haiku was to be the open source clone of BeOS R5 on x86 only. Ok.
I hope it can live up to the (perhaps excessive) expectations I have. The fact that BeOS doesn't run so well on my modern IBM ThinkPad, (except in Virtual PC 2004 in Windows 2000 where it rocks!), as it did on the earlier compatible equipment I used for BeOS before, does not change my high opinion of BeOS or expectations of Haiku.
I am looking forward to Haiku being my media OS, on modern hardware, with multiple fast CPUs and high memory. I am also looking forward to better networking than I know BeOS has now. In my earlier use of BeOS I never used it for networking or connecting to the internet, and had no knowledge of the problems others had and continue to have with it.
I have always felt BeOS was brilliant for scientific visualisation, as is done often on SGI and Sun workstations, especially for biochemistry. To use Haiku for the same purpose(s) is to me logical, and I hope this becomes a real possibility one day.
The area of artificial intelligence has always interested me, as has clustering; I am convinced Haiku could fulfill this application as well. I have often mused that if Be, Inc. had shifted focus to a "BeAI", instead of a "BeIA", things might have evolved differently.
An embeddable appliance-oriented Haiku? Why not, if people need it? A server/router/gateway OS? If it is possible I would use it.
What of Zeta ?
In the future is it possible to unite an opensource OS and a commercial one ?
Different kinds of licensing in a combined OS of Haiku and Zeta interests me.
Reading the official Haiku OS website FAQ and what is said in various chat rooms regarding Haiku, I can say all of my expectations are reasonable. It is open source and can be compiled to suit any specific set of purposes or needs. So far Haiku is an x86-only Operating System, but I know it can be compiled for other platforms such as Power PC.
What does all of this add up to? I think Haiku will impress me as much as BeOS originally did, and I look forward to seeing it develop into a full-fledged Operating System. I have made a point of not discussing any technical details of OS design here, without too much emphasis or analysis. Instead, I have discovered the inherent beauty in how BeOS has changed the way I use all operating systems completely. To that end, I feel Haiku will change the way many people use their computers.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
TBJ How do I make BeOS look like this - Page 8,V
Hello all,
I will have to read this topic a few times before I think I have an understanding of it all.
But I will declare now, I never worked for Be, do not work for Palm, or anyone else. I am not a copyright lawyer either but I feel this forum needs a separate paralegal page something like Groklaw.
I run BeOS 5.0.3.
On an IBM thinkpad, (so my hardware is not a copy either :) )
With Windows 2k Sp4 (I hacked the boot screen, it says Longhorn M4 ), with Cygwin Unix/X11 on that (winBe if I ever find out how to compile it), SuSE 8.2/9/Sun Java OS Linux, and QNX 6.2.
The SCO Group case against IBM, Novell, Redhat and others is scary.
At the time I purchased my OS's and all the applications and drivers, everything was legal, publicly available for free or fee, and in worldwide usage.
I have installed and setup up systems for other people, for some 12 years now. I streamline an OS and it's shell by cutting out anything it can live without. I keep it up to date by upgrading software and hardware.
I am legally allowed to do this because when I pay for a product the manufacturer has a contract with me to have provided a service or device which will perform the functions I have been led to believe it is designed for.
For a computer, that list of functions it extremely big and complex.
If any one claims their computer device, or OS is a multimedia one, it has to perform audio and video and graphics.
If a desktop, (more than implying DTP), it better handle foreign scripts, including ligature stacks (Sanskrit, Tibetan), right to left (Arabic, Hebrew) and top to bottom (Mongolian, Japanese). And display that on screen, and be able to print it.
If internet able, the device or OS has to support network protocols and devices, and be prepared to keep up to date in all developments, especially now for the increased need for security against new models of virus and worm designs that will cut through our antivirus and firewalls like a razor to silk, and even more important, for wireless and DSL products.
To what extent are the various post Be versions illegal, when without necessary modifications, the product is no longer usable ?
Will Palm sue me for installing Bone ?
I haven't yet, but without I'm never going to be able to use my Speedtouch 545 DSL gateway/router, via ethernet eepro100, or orinoco wireless pcmcia.
Without an upgraded TCP/IP protocol stack, BeOS is vulnerable to Distributed Reflected Denial of Service Attacks, and therefore, to run a system capable of breaking international law and causing damage to other people's intellectual property is in itself illegal in several countries, and will be in a lot more soon.
The responsibility for damage caused by a compromised PC, called sometimes zombie, may fall on the owner of the PC, not the author of the system service with the security flaw.
Will Palm sue me for installing a network stack that might prevent more of their intellectual property being leaked or stolen ?
I have no moral stance here, I am trying to be purely pragmatic.
If the work done by individuals since the sale of Be Inc., including that legally definable as theft, is preventing the same intellectual property theft from happening on a much wider scale, Palm are unlikely to waste court time and expenses on, as one journalist recently stated "bizzare legal actions against communities of volunteer programmers".
I have spent some 24 years using various computer platforms, the entire subject is at the same stage of evolution as an adolescent teenager, that still needs help to change it's clothing.
I got tired of Microsoft a long time ago. They write brilliant programming languages and applications, but should never have gone into the OS market.
Linux and Unix should have scrapped the X windowing system in 1994, ten years later others are waking up to this, but X11 on Unix/Linux is the only reason I can see for the problems in X11 on BeOS, or Windows, or Qnx, and the only problem I have with KDE.
BeOS and QNX are by comparison extremely superior in stability with respect to their intended usage, as embeddable Media and RealTime Fault Tolerant OS's.
And it looks like BeOS has no certain future, because of exactly what ?
This is where I invite all of you in this topic to answer me.
Will Palm release BeOS 5.2 ?
If so, for which platforms ?
To ignore X86 and PPC is to devoid a large and valid code base of a widespread platform.
To concentrate on Palm devices and ignore Nokia would cut their market in half.
Finally, two months ago a user in New York asked how to modify the bitmaps used for window elements on their BeOS desktop.
During this time, a lot of people who probably are very good at their work, a few of whom may have worked for or with Be, and from what I can gather have made valuable contributions to the functionality of the OS, have been locked in a near personal war of politics not unlike the flame wars in asian Linux user groups recently.
Some of you are possibly capable of writing something like Windowblinds for BeOS. In the two months this discussion took, a pro could have got a beta out (If the pro programmer had no family, infinite finance and servants ? :) )
I possibly will contact some of the people who posted in this topic in the future (watchout - if I get my BeOS time machine embedded in my Nokia, I will question you in the past :) ) because I have loads of driver problems et cetera and a few of you seem to be very good at writing or rewriting BeOS.
My final question goes to the original poster tbb,
Did you get an useful answer to your question ?
I will have to read this topic a few times before I think I have an understanding of it all.
But I will declare now, I never worked for Be, do not work for Palm, or anyone else. I am not a copyright lawyer either but I feel this forum needs a separate paralegal page something like Groklaw.
I run BeOS 5.0.3.
On an IBM thinkpad, (so my hardware is not a copy either :) )
With Windows 2k Sp4 (I hacked the boot screen, it says Longhorn M4 ), with Cygwin Unix/X11 on that (winBe if I ever find out how to compile it), SuSE 8.2/9/Sun Java OS Linux, and QNX 6.2.
The SCO Group case against IBM, Novell, Redhat and others is scary.
At the time I purchased my OS's and all the applications and drivers, everything was legal, publicly available for free or fee, and in worldwide usage.
I have installed and setup up systems for other people, for some 12 years now. I streamline an OS and it's shell by cutting out anything it can live without. I keep it up to date by upgrading software and hardware.
I am legally allowed to do this because when I pay for a product the manufacturer has a contract with me to have provided a service or device which will perform the functions I have been led to believe it is designed for.
For a computer, that list of functions it extremely big and complex.
If any one claims their computer device, or OS is a multimedia one, it has to perform audio and video and graphics.
If a desktop, (more than implying DTP), it better handle foreign scripts, including ligature stacks (Sanskrit, Tibetan), right to left (Arabic, Hebrew) and top to bottom (Mongolian, Japanese). And display that on screen, and be able to print it.
If internet able, the device or OS has to support network protocols and devices, and be prepared to keep up to date in all developments, especially now for the increased need for security against new models of virus and worm designs that will cut through our antivirus and firewalls like a razor to silk, and even more important, for wireless and DSL products.
To what extent are the various post Be versions illegal, when without necessary modifications, the product is no longer usable ?
Will Palm sue me for installing Bone ?
I haven't yet, but without I'm never going to be able to use my Speedtouch 545 DSL gateway/router, via ethernet eepro100, or orinoco wireless pcmcia.
Without an upgraded TCP/IP protocol stack, BeOS is vulnerable to Distributed Reflected Denial of Service Attacks, and therefore, to run a system capable of breaking international law and causing damage to other people's intellectual property is in itself illegal in several countries, and will be in a lot more soon.
The responsibility for damage caused by a compromised PC, called sometimes zombie, may fall on the owner of the PC, not the author of the system service with the security flaw.
Will Palm sue me for installing a network stack that might prevent more of their intellectual property being leaked or stolen ?
I have no moral stance here, I am trying to be purely pragmatic.
If the work done by individuals since the sale of Be Inc., including that legally definable as theft, is preventing the same intellectual property theft from happening on a much wider scale, Palm are unlikely to waste court time and expenses on, as one journalist recently stated "bizzare legal actions against communities of volunteer programmers".
I have spent some 24 years using various computer platforms, the entire subject is at the same stage of evolution as an adolescent teenager, that still needs help to change it's clothing.
I got tired of Microsoft a long time ago. They write brilliant programming languages and applications, but should never have gone into the OS market.
Linux and Unix should have scrapped the X windowing system in 1994, ten years later others are waking up to this, but X11 on Unix/Linux is the only reason I can see for the problems in X11 on BeOS, or Windows, or Qnx, and the only problem I have with KDE.
BeOS and QNX are by comparison extremely superior in stability with respect to their intended usage, as embeddable Media and RealTime Fault Tolerant OS's.
And it looks like BeOS has no certain future, because of exactly what ?
This is where I invite all of you in this topic to answer me.
Will Palm release BeOS 5.2 ?
If so, for which platforms ?
To ignore X86 and PPC is to devoid a large and valid code base of a widespread platform.
To concentrate on Palm devices and ignore Nokia would cut their market in half.
Finally, two months ago a user in New York asked how to modify the bitmaps used for window elements on their BeOS desktop.
During this time, a lot of people who probably are very good at their work, a few of whom may have worked for or with Be, and from what I can gather have made valuable contributions to the functionality of the OS, have been locked in a near personal war of politics not unlike the flame wars in asian Linux user groups recently.
Some of you are possibly capable of writing something like Windowblinds for BeOS. In the two months this discussion took, a pro could have got a beta out (If the pro programmer had no family, infinite finance and servants ? :) )
I possibly will contact some of the people who posted in this topic in the future (watchout - if I get my BeOS time machine embedded in my Nokia, I will question you in the past :) ) because I have loads of driver problems et cetera and a few of you seem to be very good at writing or rewriting BeOS.
My final question goes to the original poster tbb,
Did you get an useful answer to your question ?
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