Re: suggestions, feedback, and support

[Ilya Ilembitov <ilembitov%ya.ru@localhost>]

Wow, I thought this list was dead long ago...

Actually, Desktop NetBSD must be a really interesting project, but I
could not really find any way to track its progress. I am by no means
any coder, but I could provide feedback.

As for now, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you.

1. Publicity

Like with many BSD projects, there is no proper source of information
about Desktop NetBSD project and its current state. An official blog
could be great, or at least a newsletter. The mailing list is dead, and
lurking through the changes log doesn't help here. I am sure that many
people outside of NetBSD actually think that the project is dead.

2. Do not use GNOME. Use E17!

It looks like Desktop NetBSD will need quite some time to reach a mature
train anyway. So, why go for GNOME when you can pick a better option? Go
for E17! It's BSD-licensed. It's really active (unlike XFCE) and it's
innovative (and there is no major BSD/Linux distro shipping E17 by
default). It's all C (no Vala, Python, Mono and AFAIK even no C++) - so
perhaps, one day one will be able to build it with PCC. Samsung supports
E17 and EFL at the moment, and so it's really active these days. It even
gets the initial versions of native apps ATM, like a Web-browser,
multimedia center, PDF-reader, a network manager, etc.

3. Get Xenocara (?)

OpenBSD's X.org build framework is believed to be an outstanding
product, so why not switch to it?

4. Native UTF-8 support everywhere

No, really. It's even more vital than a framebuffer or a bootsplash.
It's 2010 and you can't have a desktop OS without UTF-8.

5. Pick a narrow target audience

I would go for MIDs, netbooks and ultraportables, since NetBSD looks
like a great OS for that (especially with E17 which is being developed
with such devices in mind). Then I would expand to ARM gizmos as soon as
they enter the market. And then I would go further.