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balloooza
July 19th, 2009, 12:28 AM
This is more than my lifes dream, it is a forum.

Just so start, I am still yong, and I am interested in open source software, not neccecarily linux, everything open source, why because of this:

Somone who has this merical idea to make a device that can make a peice of bread become crispy (a toaster) will make his device, and patent it, then sell it, the user can disassembal the device and look inside, he just can't sell the idea, untuil the patent wears out (like a toaster, there is nothing preventing a company from making a toaster now)


Propritory software has a strange approach: the code that was used to make the software is not available to the user (contrary to the toaster) and the user is locked now, because they do not know how it was made, and when there is no more patent, there is no requirement for microsoft to release the code as open source, so the project is dead, and the user has to get a new version. the maker of the software can cripple the version, and make you buy upgrades, as opposed to the toaster where the breakfast guru could add on his own extention.


This is where I want to go with the whole free software thing:
Linux is not for the average joe, why?

three things

1. Nothing is super awsome (IMHO, absolutly no operating system has somthing like this)

2. Linux is called linux, I have seen people sit down at my computer (with my permission) and find there way to firefox, and even make a document, and never said HEY, THIS IS NOT WINDOWS!!!! I WILL NOT USE IT, but months ago, at best buy, a perspective netbook buyer and sales agent said, so dose this one have vista or XP, sales clerck: no this has linux, it is a little different, but you can still get to firefox to browse the web, but honestly, that is all you will do with this little thing, coustomer, how do I get one of these with XP, because that is what I use at work... The objection to somthing you do not know, this is rational, and reasonable, if you allways used a type of text editor, like vim, and went to a store, chances are you would say, can I get this emacs machine with vim?

3. three leters LIB once somone is on linux, that is going to be the first problem, I have a solution, that is my first concept in this "OS" that will come tommarrow,
first THE CONCEPT:

Reinvent linux, this is where I distinct linux from (drumroll....) gazelle (cool animal, fast, not a version of osx yet)

Gazelle components:
Backend: linux type, with not gnu tools, but zingou (gaZelle Is Not Gnu Or Unix)
UI - contains these things:
-Absollutly new office, called encorperate (later)
-A unique settings system(later)


And the big thing is: application directorys, these directorys have, I will be yelled at for this: every library, and dependency to use that app, all contained inside a "coagulated" directory (this structure means that a user can simply download firefox, then drag the entire "directory" to the apps folder (like a mac) and run it from there)

Why will this help? because people need a way to install propritory and open applications alike, so if everything is in this, it will be easy to install an application.

That is all for today, this is just the fundementals, I will get to the goary details, and use this as a blog, of what I think should be in this system, and you can make all the comments you want, and help me.

And as a last thought, this is not about the buisness modle, it is solutions to commen problems with software, and it is somthing I consider to at least persue one tiny element of this in my life.

MY goal is to have
open source software for everyone, linux for geeks and gazelle for those who want a computer that works simply, with (I hessitate to say) less functionality than full linux.

Blacklightbulb
July 19th, 2009, 12:38 AM
You see I don't know much about licensing and stuff but I know something.

Comparing the code to the toaster.

Problem: How to toast Bread?
Solution: Heat
Method: High electrical resistance wire + electricity.

Now one cannot rebuild toaster because it is patented but he can go around the problem by creating his source of heat.

So if I was a programmer and I tackled a mathematical promlem and written the source in Delphi, I don't won't another guy to read my source, find the solution and write his own source in Python.

windows-killer
July 19th, 2009, 01:21 AM
this thread is so boring... someone please close it.

Jackelope
July 19th, 2009, 01:36 AM
this thread is so boring... someone please close it.

Yes, lets close every thread that one person finds boring. No one is forcing you to read it, so try to appreciate the OP's thoughts or else ignore them. No one is forcing you to be bored.

balloooza
July 19th, 2009, 01:40 AM
sorry if it is boring, that was a bit long, my future posts will be much shorter.

Jimleko211
July 19th, 2009, 01:48 AM
It wasn't boring at all. In fact, I thought it was quite interesting. Maybe someone wants to make a distro like that?

balloooza
July 19th, 2009, 02:18 AM
Here is annother short part of the operating system:
it will take advantage of the whole open source thing, why re invent the wheel, that is what Opera browser dose, they cannot just browse through the source of IE, and see what inperfections are keeping it from being as good as it could. NO they build the browser from bottom up, on every platform (mac win lin) with my OS, things like gstreamer exist, so building a media player is quick, this os is not about reinventing the core of the system, not is about reinventing how the user interacts with the computer, now, linux is setup for power geeks, but it has sooo much more potential as a core system, also, I would like to expand on my vim to emacs senairo:

A programmer uses his/her favorite app, weather it is an ide, or a simple text editor, or a combination, I will add that you might use kde, and annother gnome, would you use somthing that is not what you are used to, NO, but why is this not a problem?

I use a normal cell phone, but I am sure that there are some of you (readers) that use a smartphone device, and "upgraded" to an iphone, why? in my opinion, the iphone is a huge thing for the whole cell phone industry, and it is big because it has some great advertising, but more importantly, the features, and things it dose blows people away, and it is nothing like they have ever seen herd of. gazelle (the operating system of mine) is just that, it is not for us (geeks, that like it to work) but it is for those who want somthing awsome, and like to have somthing new, gazelle is not just somthing new, it is somthing revolutionary, and it can do (insirt feature) it is not an issue of telling people what they will do differently, and how they can make the "switch" it is about giving them somthing that will blow minds, it is not recreating the way we do somthing (like check email) it is wow, Iguess I will have to manulay type in the contacts, so I can use this awsome new interface.

Up next: the interface, not what color, and screenshots yet, but what it will be like, and how some key things as we know them will not be at all the same, there is one problem with it still, but I need a little help. to be continued

Jimleko211
July 19th, 2009, 02:28 AM
Looking forward to the interface. Question about it all so far: Besides the interface, what makes it so different than Ubuntu?

balloooza
July 19th, 2009, 02:35 AM
this is annother distinction on the lower level, there are a huge ammount on the user interface level, but this is basicly the distinction on the low level:

And the big thing is: application directorys, these directorys have, I will be yelled at for this: every library, and dependency to use that app, all contained inside a "coagulated" directory (this structure means that a user can simply download firefox, then drag the entire "directory" to the apps folder (like a mac) and run it from there)

on the ui level, different from ubuntu = everything
keep in mind this is not linux anymore, it is compatible as far as applications, but there will be a new desktop environment (just finished a gimp, need to perfect) and all new interfaces to everything, and a unique merge between the folders in your home directory, and the applications that modify there contents (this is the place I have the problem, a problem in the concept, so I will think for an hour or overnight (yes I do have to much time) and come up with a new solution)

Grant A.
July 19th, 2009, 02:55 AM
Gazelle? Too bad for us that Apple has already released cheetah.


By the way: You didn't do the acronym right. You're supposed to use the first letters of each word

GNU

GNU's Not Unix

or

WINE

WINE Is Not an Emulator.


We already have an office suite called OpenOffice.org. Also, Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. Making replacements for all of the GNU stuff wrapped around the kernel would take ages. Not just that, but you'd run into the same problem. If the "average Joe" didn't want to use Linux because it was different, why would he want to use the new operating system? It would be different, as well. You should learn a programming language and contribute to Linux as it is, so that it gets better. Rewriting everything from scratch would be a pain, and would only harm development more.

Also, how old are you?

3rdalbum
July 19th, 2009, 03:10 AM
There are very good reasons why "application directories" are not made on Linux. We won't yell at you for suggesting them once again, but if you want them you'd have to write your own implementation and put them into your own distribution, and rebuild all applications to use them yourself.

balloooza
July 19th, 2009, 07:00 PM
Keep in mind this is not a distro, it is like Mac OSX to freeBSD. (but this is open source not like a mac) This is a new OS, and the whole idea of it is to rebuild applications, not just repackage all the linux ones in application folders.

This brings be to the interface:

application in this OS: (not distro, OS, based on linux at the core, but it would be a streach to run linux apps from source, not impossible, but like running apps in wine, only not that extreme, because it is the same binary compatibility)

the desktop will be built in a totaly different, the applications will be the folders that there content represents, here is what the dekstop will look like roughly, so I can tell you what different sections will do
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4056/gazelle.png (http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4056/gazelle.png)


So the lower area (panel) will have launchers on it, when the applications launch you will see the "window" with a side bar on the left, and view controlls on the top, and the content/list of files in the left, and also on the left, above the files (songs/documents/videos) you see the actions, such as play, present (slides), edit(image), and for music you might see somthing like voloume, and a time slider, and things like that for other apps.

These action controls will be the only thing that *really* changes from app to app (yes, in music you will see the oggs, and in email, you see the inbox items) but this is the "app" so accualy the rest of the window is the same exact thing, it just changes to the correct folder.

This might sound confusing, but to a user, it will be anything but, and there will still be a plain old file manager, where audio files and documents all show, this is simply the window *without* the actions inset in the content area.

Keep in mind, this is not for everyone, but the interface provides a good backend for the real features, and abilitys of the operating system, and because there are allready great linux apps with a stable backend (take open office for example, not the best interface, but has all the inner components to work right) gazelle will focus on taking advantage of being open source, and eliminating the reinventing the whell step to make an office suite, and just cut to the interface, the only thing that basic users care about.

Now I will reveal 3 wow features (this is not everything by far, this is just some great things that I am going to type right now):

Presentations, in the world of presenting, somtimes it is just esier to get out a large white board and create the presentation on the spot, presentation software is great for outlining a speech, but it needs to take a step up, here is somthing to expect from gazelle: Presentation document mode. this is where before hand you chose what documents, or in the case of a large spreadsheet just select the portions of the data, like the numbers from a certian part of time, select a playlist for music, select an album of photos, a collection of quotes, or whole pages from the web, then enter present mode, where the computer only uses that media, so the presentation is much more of an interaction, and not just for speaches anymore, to show data from document spread sheets (only the stuff you selected) there will be a palete of ways to represent it, and plus, before hand, you can perfect the way that displays (make sure the colums line up...) and also a signiture animation display, picuture the "numbers" as a roller coaster, looking at mountains with peaks representing your data, where the "downs" in the numbers drop off the track, and the animation takes a dive, untuil the numbers go back up, just an inginus way to keep people from sleeping.

2:
This feature is a view for your folders, it looks like a file cabinit, and your finger (touch screen, this is the future) will scroll through the file cabinit, and the current folder opens up, to reveal the contents inside

3.
constantly documents and emails relate, so emails, documents, and spreadsheets, can be assigned to a "project" so email conversations can be related with the office documents.

that is all for now, remember, this is a new OS, not a new distro.

The goal is open source everything, because to a hardware manufacture, having there driver included in the system would be worth it if enough people used it, rather than telling the coustomer, this one is plug and play, but this company has not released the driver open source yet, so you need to install it, and gazelle cannot provide support, because they do not know how it is made, OH, and it might be malicions, but there is no way to know.

.Maleficus.
July 19th, 2009, 07:55 PM
I'm so very confused by this thread. You keep saying how you don't want to "reinvent the wheel", but you're going to make an entirely new desktop environment and presentation app instead of using the existing ones?

And you can call it a new OS all you want, a new distribution of the Linux kernel will always be just that - a distribution (or distro for short).