Regarding Future OS

[Raz]

Well, first off, I know this is going to the wrong people, this is  
more a suggestion for the Development Team rather than the webmaster,  
but I really didn't want to put this message on a public forum  
because...well.... I'm a little susceptible to public criticism on this.

I'll try to make this as brief as I can - The reason I'm writing is  
because I wanted to have the opportunity to bring up a handful of  
suggestions... I've spent a lot of time using several different  
operating systems as I was growing up - Starting using Windows when I  
was about 7 or 8, jumped into Linux/Mac in my late-teens, and as such  
I've gotten a lot of exposure to a lot of different methods of system  
management... And being the analytical bastard that I am, I spent a  
lot of time figuring out what was wrong with each system and figuring  
out methods of solve those issues.

I see a lot of flaws in Apple and Microsoft's general design... Not so  
much Apple's as Microsoft, but the point being that they both try to  
blur the line between the hardware and the software. (As any good OS  
should do.) Apple does this much better than Windows because Windows  
is...well...junk. But nonetheless, BOTH of these companies fail at  
another FAR more important level - Customer satisfaction.

Apple fails because they work too hard to get everything THEIR way -  
They rely on a lot of proprietary hardware, they tend to try and keep  
developers locked out of their little secrets, and they tend to charge  
an insane amount for systems, hardware, accessories, whatever... To  
their credit, I happen to think this hardware is at least SOMEWHAT  
worth their price (Apple DOES offer some impressive hardware, and  
their OS is quite nice), but should you REALLY need $1000 minimum just  
to get into this setup? And it's not like you can just install OSX on  
any PC. (Not easily, anyway.) Thus it's difficult to convince people  
to migrate - They get kind of "locked in" with Apple just as much as  
Microsoft tries to lock people in as well.

Microsoft is a whole other story, though - Microsoft not only tries to  
lock people in, they also try to charge people for the most redundant  
crap ever. (CAL licenses? Seriously, WTF... As if it costs more for  
their software to allow more than 2 connections... Ridiculous.) Add to  
that the fact that what they DO market is absolute over-priced crap,  
and you have yourself another lovely corporation built on greed.

Granted, I don't have to give you guys a history lesson here, just  
trying to give some background as to why I'm writing you.

I have a TON of ideas for a new type of Operating System, and I would  
love to pass some of these along to you guys. I am a HUGE fan of  
Fedora, I absolutely love your Operating System. But I do think it  
could use a lot of improvement. And what better place to bring these  
ideas than to an Open-Source OS - The operating system I envision  
would also be completely free... So why not try to work with you guys  
on achieving this?

Anyway... My ideas are pretty irrelevant at this stage in the game,  
though... I'm not writing to you right now to say what you should do  
with the OS. I'd love the opportunity to share these ideas with you in  
the future, but right now I think there's something else that should  
be done, and would be much better facilitated by YOU guys than myself.  
(Because, let's face it - In the, uh, scheme of things, I really am  
just a nobody from Seattle, and getting anything started in this  
current economy is SUCH a pain in the ass...)

I propose the foundation of a new Software/Hardware alliance, and I  
think YOU guys should start it. Much in the same sense that Google  
founded the Open Handset Alliance to try and bring together people  
towards a common goal of an open platform for handsets and ultra- 
portables, I think a similar thing needs to be done for computers in  
general. And I think this alliance should focus on a number of factors  
- The way these companies treat customers, for example. Then you guys  
should start focusing on building an Operating System that isn't only  
superior to Windows and OSX, but also easier to use and manage. I know  
exactly how you get people to migrate from OS X or Windows - It's all  
about the ease of transition. People are turned off by the unfamiliar,  
so you have to find a way to circumvent that. But you also have to  
focus on the development level - You have to make it easy for people  
to integrate with your OS. "Programs" and "Applications" are kind of a  
thing of the past - Nobody wants to open AIM to use AOL , Jabber, AND  
MSN, they'd rather have ONE program that does all three. Seamless  
integration is the new forefront of application development, so you  
also need to focus on how you can facilitate other software plugging  
in with yours, which I have a lot of awesome theories on.

Ultimately my ideas are pretty ambitious, I know... I even think a new  
Desktop Environment should be developed. (One which Gnome and KDE  
could both kind of become "Modules" to. but you could also create  
modules that SOMEWHAT emulate a Windows or OS X environment.) I think  
Linux suffers from a number of inherent flaws that make it difficult  
to convince people to use it. The filesystem organization is confusing  
(which Apple did a REALLY good job of re-organizing, a similar  
approach would be easy.) Software is kind of difficult to find, but if  
there were a real alliance towards this sort of open-source platform,  
that would change... Hell, if you could get Blizzard to join, you  
could even start getting the Gamer community to migrate... Can you  
imagine if they started developing these games to run on Linux instead  
of Windows? Gamers would be THRILLED by the idea of getting more FPS  
out of their system since they don't have to run the system-intensive  
Windows OS behind their games anymore.

...Ahem..... Well, I wasn't trying to turn this into an essay... Let's  
just say, I can design an OS superior to OS X or Windows, but none of  
it will mean anything if I can't get some bigger players involved...  
I'd love the chance to chat with someone over there about some of  
these ideas in more detail, should you actually be interested. Either  
way, though, I hope I get the chance to work with you guys in the  
future, I think you've got the best OS out there, so I'd love to see  
it go places, and I truly believe I can help.

Thanks for your time.

-Ryan Asbert