Hello BE and Haiku world!

Hello BE and Haiku world! My name is Jayson Leys. I am a n00b to BE (I can't install it natively and VMWARE is great and all, but it's just not the same) I have an amd64 (s939) you see...so I'm pretty much stuck with Zeta.

Anywho, I am writing this post to show everyone something I wrote that may or may not be of interest to everybody. I'm just not sure where to put it, so I'll put it in haiku suggestion box discussion. If it is too Off topic, I'll move it to off topic.

I have only sent this to Neils Reedijk from the doc team. He hasn't responded (probably because he is very busy and, okay my email is very long winded!) but that's okay... I'll just post it here and those who want to read it can, and those that don't won't see it popping up everywhere. Yes, I have learned my lesson from "fedoraforum" yecch! Don't want to repeat that one! Anyway here is my ridoncliously long winded (yet very interesting) article. Hope you like it!

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Hello Neils and all the Haiku team memebers! My name is Jayson Leys, I am a student at SIAST Kelsey Campus in the Computer Systems Technology program in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I am exicited about ol BEOS and I am quite enthusiastic about Haiku. I have read some of the "getting started" pages (as well as some of the others). Some of these questions/comments may seem out of place, but please bear with me as there is a point or two to all of this (and as my colluges would say, I can be quite wordy!) However, I will try to be clear and concise and offer positive input. So again, please don't skim the letter and trash it... thanks! Good, well let's get started! :) yay!

*Note if this is too much, I'll join you guys on IRC if you want. I am not trying to "sell" you on something
**Note2: this is NOT a "feature demanding" letter, a wish list, or a pie in the sky. They are just some ideas I have, observences I have made, etc. So it is more of a "here is what I see, what do you think" sort of thing. (here is a somewhat relevent reference to homestar runner: http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/underlings#Easter_Eggs )
And YES I do bathe regularly! Hopefully this email is not too Awkward under the sun! =)

I also do not intend to "make rules that I won't follow"
I think people (including myself) need to follow rules that we make. Not that I am deciding Haiku Policy, again, you're the boss, I am simply a helper. Okay enough about me me me... away we go!

First off, what kinds of interfaces do you have planned for Haiku? Now I'm not talking necessairily GUI(and its affiliates!). Rather, I am talking about a number of things which are both generic and specific (um yeah, I confuse myself sometimes... but anyway...). Basically, I guess what I am trying to say is: "how Haiku is planning to be different than Linux, Windows, Mac, and even the Original BEOS?". What about having glove/vr-helmet style interfaces and doing a "Johnny Mnenomic" style interface? Not right away of course, but in the future...
Or how about combining that glove/helmet system with a more interactive style desktop (sort of like good ol Microsoft Bob, one of M$'s better products in my opinion! =P lol). What about a "universal installer" like "Puppy Linux" has where you can install it from a usb stick, cd rom, floppy boot and the copy to hard drive, zip disk, over the network, etc.? I am thinking 3dmix*in Johnny Mnenomic style! weeee!

"With all of my schedules set, INTO THE FUTURE I CHARGE....and then I had to rebooooooooot a hundred times.... through tangled threads and corporate crimes! You may never find love down a t1 line... "

Okay that was totally random...sorry...that's the way I am in my classes...my mind is like that when my instructors give their lectures.... yet I am still able to learn the concepts somehow...keep trying to draw sonic insurrections from what I am trying to say! lol :P

Or how about showing people what BE/Haiku can really do. Instead of doing like many Linux Distros and "compete" with windows by playing "catch up" or reinventing the wheel without actually making it better? How about expanding on what BE/Haiku is legendary for: multimedia, vectors, ease of use, power, and a darn good file system! I watched the "Haiku Google tech talk" and it was pretty cool. Many people wouldn't get it, but that's okay cause they aren't developers, you are and I am! (although I'm a bit of a noob, I am getting better! lol) I don't know how you and your project team sees Haiku/BEOS but I see alot of potential that is just waiting to rise up. I see a sleeping giant. I consider you guys from the BE/Haiku teams to be like the teams from the Avro arrow. In many ways, BE is kind of like the "Avro Arrow of operating systems". Many similarities in what happened to it in the end...may both rise again!

Or, how about the file system?! Faster than MAC, unreadable to most partition managers, better organized than most File Systems, tracks everything and can bring it up in seconds! Being able to control ANY application from almost anywhere in the system, running "sub applications" within applcations properly! Of course I may be exagerrating a bit, but I don't think I'm too far off!

Of course, I do NOT worship BE/Haiku or people...I am just really excited about what I see. Being Zealous is good, but it must be properly managed! After all, it's just 0's and 1's and someday the world will be hit by a comet or something like that....(sorry, there I go again...)
Anyway my point is aside from your creativity and excellent technology, what your greatest strengths are (or should be) is three things: loyalty, unity, and honor. To the original developers of BE, OpenBEOS, Benix, etc. you are loyal people! Keep it up!
Secondly, unity: everyone has SOME valid input no matter how n00bish they may sound at first, or how l33tish/h4x0r RTFMish they may sound, or how poor their spelling/grammar izsszeste (supposed to be "is")!

Lastly, honor: as I mentioned above, everyone has some valid input (and makes mistakes) sometimes. Of course you probably already knew this before, so I'll just move on. Many of you probably remember "Pirates of Silicon Valley" eh? Well, was that not pretty accurate? Jobs and Gates basically used fear as a motivator. Many motivational speakers use cheesy "sales pitches" and somewhat true yet mostly void "success stories" to further their agenda. You guys are not like that (I hope! :P lol) but I know you aren't. Otherwise, why are you developing BEOS? Although fear can be a powerful motivator, there is never justification for oppression and cruelty. Yes be agressive, competing, and conquering in business, but not at the expense of lives. Macs do some nice things and windows can "get things done" but cmon! Children in third world countries should not have to be crammed into sweatshops to make "macbook pros" or "sony vaios" or Nike shirts. Not to say that those companies are evil or that you should "never buy products from them again" but they DO need to rethink their foreign policy and I think that you guys (myself included) can be a part of it. How? Well, how about by simply making videos with some of the multimedia stuff you have in BE? I would like to do this someday... Also, it's the progression of constantly doing the right thing, not doing "Big things" that make a difference in the world. Isn't it kind of ironic? Most people haven't heard of people who are really making a difference (volunteer firemen, etc.) and most people have never even heard of BEOS/Haiku. Kinda of makes you think eh? Well I hope it does anyway....I can't *make* you do anything! Everyone is responsible for their own choices! Honor is a much more powerful motivator. When people see that what they are doing actually matters, they are nearly unstoppable! That can be both good and bad depending on who you ask. Remember the "tower of babel" story...anyway...
I think these three things combined really make a strong team. Much stronger than "cracking the whip" with hirelings. Of course we all have stressfull seasons and crunch times, but how we handle them shows where we are at as a team.

Obviously much of what I have said you have already heard, but hopefully at least some of it is interesting.
Aside from all of the fancy technology, I like the principle of Haiku:
"Easy enough that your mom can use it, but powerful enough that you want to!"
Creative yet humble...and extremely loyal

But hey, one thing at a time right? If you have actually read this far, congratulations! I am almost done!
One last thing (hopefully!). You are probably wondering? what does this all mean right now? welll....
Basically, I think it is important to package haiku in an iso image ASAP!
Why? well:
It makes it easier to develop with. Having to torrent BEOS Max R5 and then bchunck it (under a BE-like os!) is kind of hard when you don't have BE in the fist place! And the original R5 pro and personal don't work too well on AMD64 systems, 1gb+ systems, or under emulators. VMware is pretty slow unless you have a monster of a computer. VirtualPC, he he...was well, just not happy...
By having more developers, you can get some more support, publicity, and well just get people talking about Haiku. Videos of shell commands are great, but most people don't understand alot of that backend stuff. So, I guess the thing is, try to get the whole ISO thing working and if you have to, use some generic hardware stuff, (vesa, standard floppy boots, etc.). Who cares if it doesn't boot on EVERY system the first time through? Even if you can't get it in an ISO, how about a simple boot floppy where you can specify a

I actually wouldn't worry so much about "getting everything perfect", just try to get the basics...and I know you are! USB support is quite important! lol! As is the while "system request" thingy that was slower than in Linux from that googletech vid. Sorry, I am a n00b at low level hardware stuff, but I do understand the concepts and I can get better.

Well, as for what can I bring to the team...well I know some Java (Im just finished my first year today!, next year we do the C's (C#, C, C++) and they do harp on us using XP/AGILE alot. But I am not the greatest programmer, I'm more of a network/hardware/writer guy. I have excellent technical writing skills (actually, writing in general, from what people say...) I also do good presentations and I deliver an accurate view of what is done, what needs to be, etc. without overpromising or declaring DOOM! It's all about balance! I want to do the same for you. We all have to make a living, and money and having nice things is fine.

But money and ANY resources or technology should be used to build people's lives up, not tear them down. Too many people are trapped in a machine of trying to keep everybody happy...while intentionally or unintentionally building something that is not good...and end up at the end of their lives saying "My god what have I done?!" But that's not you guys, you guys are smart and are better than that.

Well, that's my longwinded email. I wish you the best and hope I can bring good things to the team.

Anyway
Haiku rocks!

May Jesus bless Haiku!

(okay, don't freak out, Im not a "religious nut", I'm just a "BE nut" who happens to be a Christian! I want to be the same person no matter where I am and who I am with. Of course, God is to come first in my life...anyway)

Be blessed and thank you very much for taking the time to read this!
-Jayson

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Well if your eyes have stopped bleeding, I would like to say thank you for reading this! You have been a wonderful audience!