Listen: about your new OS idea:<br>
<br>
so first, i don't think unix is not user friendly, the unix user interface is in face the _FRIENDLIEST_ user interface i even seen. on the contrary:<br>
Windows - has the WORST user interface i've seen. it's messy, and doing things there takes tons of time, and the design of windows' programs make the ui hard, by providing no commandline paramters and lack of named-pipes and more importantly : a scripting langauge.<br>
what is true that windows' user interface is QUICKER to grasp. someone who have never seen a computer can easially jump in and feel pretty much ok in a MS-windows env. saying that this is not the case with unix would be an understatement.<br>
unix takes time to grasp, but it's DEFENETLY worth it. i mean, look at an _experienced_ windows user vs. a notice user in windows, their skills as in interacting with the OS are about the same (expect for the case where one installs unix like packs on windows like cygnus-win32)<br>
anyways, i think the lack of MASS popularity in home unix systemsis due to lack of some home-use software that still exists. an OS isn't just the OS, it's the whole pack of things around it, from compilers, thru shells thru music application, thru games, to word processors.<br>
anyways - unix isn't hard to use once installed properly. i setup a linux box for my mom for graphics and web browsing, and she's doing alright with it, better off than what she had to go thru with a windows system, being unstable and hard to maintain and all that.<p>
about what you're saying, if u want to design a new OS, u don't need another C compiler for example, just use GCC. and linux's roots arn't so much in the 70's, the unix design is from the 70's but it's a pretty good design (to say the least) much better than many newer OSes, and linux isn't <br>
a "frozen" unix, it's keeping up to date. about BeOS for example, i dono't have any BeOS expirience, but i think that BeOS uses a unix-like kernel and C libs (posix 200?.?)<br>
and on top of that they have some kinda new graphic system instade of X, which is a good idea.<p>
anyways, what i'm trying to say, is that an OS's popularity isn't related to it's being unix or non-unix, that should consern programmers only, who want to have a nice interface to program to, and want their code to be easy to port.<br>
a popular "user-friendly" in the cheap sence of it could be constructed over a unix kernel (like in BeOS) and could be constructed over linux. that's not the problem.<p>
u might wanna check out the FreeDows project btw (www.freedows.org i think), they put the afforts were it matters, mini-kernel wrappers for binary from other OSes ( i think that's what they're doing) into a stable main kernel.<p>
if u wanna see modern OSes for current home use, check out the GNUstep project, which is implementing a NeXTSTePish API. and if you're into real modern OSes, check out Plan9.<p>
anyways, layering and modular design lets us part between the OS and ui, so that not the point. ms-windows can operate with bash or other un*x shells (well software arn't really designed that way, but oh well) and X for example can use a ms-windows/explorer-like user interface (but why?)<p>
anyways, (damn) i suggest u learn abit more about OS's and unix in particular, check out the various window-managers for X for example.<p>
try Window Maker (windowmaker.org) for example, it bashes the ms-windows look/feel by far.<p>
- oyd11
