Re: SEUL: What's so hard about Linux...

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@aracnet.com>]

> All that most users are interested in are applications, not the OS.  The OS
> itself s/b transparent (maybe an anathema to many people here).  If some
> folks want to play around w/ the OS...fine.  But most people just want to
> run apps, and are not interested in the OS.

Exactly.  In reality SEUL happens to be using Linux as it's base platform, 
though it theoretically could use anything.  What we are creating is an OS 
for users who don't care what's under the hood.  Because we have something 
significantly more powerful than M$ does, we have an advantage, but we have 
to not kill that advantage by not having the appropriate user apps to back it 
up.


> What makes Win95 so popular, IMO, is both all of the apps that are written
> for it and (primarily) MS's hype.  And Linux apps tend to appeal to
> "techies" (for want of a better term).  Maybe the Linux mainstream apps need
> a lot more publicity?  [And Linux needs a "killer app" that'll make people
> use Linux so they can have the app.  Don't forget that Lotus 1-2-3,
> VisiCalc, and WordPerfect contributed mightily to the growth of the PC
> market.]

This is where we will need to be putting a lot of our effort.  Things don't 
go anywhere without a killer app.  We need to try to find that killer app.  
Whether it's the UI, some integration method, or a specific binary, we need 
to have it.  Without it we'll go the way of the NeXT.


> "Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."- Napoleon Bonaparte 

Quite apropos, actually...  If the underlying OS (Linux) and it's components 
can remain hidden from the user unless they specifically ask for it, we will 
succeed in eliminating that as a reason to not use Linux (assuming an 
appropriate application base, of course)


TTYAL,
     Omega
     SEUL Project infrastructure/system architecture

      Erik Walthinsen - SEUL Project infrastructure/system architecture
        __
       /  \           omega@sequent.com         Work: (503)578-5314
      |    | M E G A  omega@aracnet.com         Home: (503)281-4281
      _\  /_          psu12113@odin.cc.pdx.edu  Majoring in CS

       SEUL: Simple End-User Linux - creating a Linux distribution
     http://www.seul.org/            for the average home/office user