[Coco] Ownership of NitOS-9

Thu Nov 6 16:39:23 EST 2014

The first os9 user frustration comes from the inability to change the shell
background color and the fact that black over green is not a good choice
when most of the people use monochrome.

The second frustration is that everything you want to run needs a different
setup: sierra games needs vdg drivers, multivue needs win drivers, and you
end up without memory soon.

Luis Felipe Antoniosi

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 11:59 PM, <nickma2 at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> I agree with what you say. Everyone's machine is different. That's why
> OS-9 needs an easy to use way for each user to create a system that
> suits their hardware setup.
>
> Something anyone can use comfortably without needing to be a seasoned
> OS-9 veteran.
>
> Can you see what I'm saying?
>
> If a newbie struggles to even be able to setup his OS, what impression
> does that leave after hours of frustration?
>
> If that newbie could simply run OSCONFIG (or whatever) and be
> presented with some menu system where he picks his hardware components
> and it does all the work of fetching the drivers from a repository on
> another disk, leaving him with a finished OS at the end, wouldn't he
> walk away feeling impressed with the system? That's the true power of
> an OS, it being able to act intelligently on your behalf and allowing
> the user to "get on with the job".
>
> Because there is so much diversity in hardware, all the more reason
> for the need for this sort of "polish".
>
> Nick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Pierce" <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> "CoCoList for Color
> Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> To:<coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Cc:
> Sent:Wed, 5 Nov 2014 17:21:14 -0500
> Subject:Re: [Coco] Ownership of NitOS-9
>
>  Nick... what you have to realize and remember about Nitros9... is
> that my system is NOT like yours, and yours is NOT like Gene's and
> Gene's is NOT like Robert's....
>  I doubt any given system by any two people one this list are the
> same. There's different drivers for different hardware, and different
> hardware for different needs.
>  To say something is wrong with Nitros9 because you were trying to use
> the wrong access method is the very reason OS9 got a bad name in the
> beginning. In the past 30 years of working in OS9, I have found that
> 99.99% of the complaints I've seen/heard/solved were user's mistakes.
>  There is no way in a distribution of a product like Nitros9 that you
> can anticipate the user's hardware and build "one system" that will
> work for everybody... your SDC boot would crash badly on my Dw4 or B&B
> systems.
>  That has been the boon of OS9 from the beginning... not a lack of
> proper drivers.... but a lack of "standard" hardware. Nitros9 as it
> stands today, with someone with the knowledge to set their system up
> correctly, is the most stable build of OS9 i've ever run.... BAR NONE.
> Polish??? Personally, I think it's damned shiney already...
>  First... know your hardware... research the drivers for that
> harware... they're all in the repo... then set up a system using the
> proper drivers for YOUR system. That is really the hardest step in
> OS9... getting the boot right for your system.
>  The SDC (from what I understand) was meant to replace the floppy
> disk... and maybe even the hard drive. I've no real knowledge of how
> it works until I have one which will not be anytime soon as I cannot
> afford it. But again.... the word "Documentation" comes in. I've seen
> the SDC website, but I don't believe the product has any docs..... A
> product with this much power should have RSDOS and OS9 docs explaining
> exactly how to set it up and run it. I may be wrong and Darren may
> have provided documentation... if so, sorry for mentioning it. But
> it's common at this time for everyone creating all this great
> hardware/software and no Docs.... then the questions come... and the
> vague answers... and more questions.... Pretty soon, people just give
> up.
>  As I said before... I've been doing this 30 years and I still learn
> something new every day :-)
>
>  Bill Pierce
>  "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>
>  My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>  Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>  http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>  Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>  http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>  E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>
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