[NTLK] [OT] New Intel Classmate PC

Fri Mar 5 13:37:25 EST 2010

Christian, 
I don't know much about the inner workings of NOS myself but I would guess that adapting its ideas to the desktop would be easy and hard at the same time. On one hand full computers have way more resources and fewer power limits then the newts but on the other their hardware is built around a different paradigm that isn't always on, instantly available and extremely safe (in terms of data storage). With the newts being an evolving device under deadlines and media fire it'd make sense that the development team sometimes programmed in ways to make it work that weren't always "right" besides the fact that some "quick and dirty" short cuts may have been needed to accommodate the hardware limits. I think the ideas are workable on anything but the real limiting factor is apple and the fact that if anyone produces anything based on Newton ideas apple may call copyright or patent infringement. I think that for a new OS to be clear of apple fire it would have to be so far from the Newton base ideas that you'd lose the positives of said ideas, It'd also have to be so far from any other desktop OS that just making it play nice with other computers would be an issue ( not that I'd be sorry to see some of the useless bloated standardised crap disappear from my desktop OS, although osx does a good job of hiding the layers of legacy/standardised rubbish it still takes up space I want back! ).

Joe Reilly
-----Original Message-----
From: Lord Groundhog <lordgroundhog at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:38:10 
To: newtontalk at newtontalk.net<newtontalk at newtontalk.net>
Subject: Re: [NTLK] [OT] New Intel Classmate PC

~~~ On 2010/03/05 13:37, M. Horvat at redjazz_slo at yahoo.com wrote ~~~

> In my opinion the Newton soup system and just the whole Newton way of doing
> things is the future, with NewtonScript, the Assistant, and everything...

I'll jump in and admit that in theory I completely agree with this.  I'd
love to be using a Newton-like *everything* on my Macs.  The pleasure that
would give me defies description.

But then I have to say that I've heard it said by people more Newt-savvy
than myself that the Newton OS was in need of a major overhaul even to make
it ready for the next generation of Newtons if they hadn't been cut off in
their prime.  So my question is, what would be necessary to make the Newton
OS workable on full-blown hardware in the light of all the things we expect
of our computers that we never asked of our Newtons?

For example, to really rip the lid off both the Newton and our desktops and
laptops, what would have been involved in making NOS happy with my 250GB HD
(and my network and backup arrays), burning CDs and DVDs, an IM client in
the background, producing print-ready documents that incorporate various
kinds of high-quality colour graphics, streaming web content, and all the
rest of the things we take for granted a computer can do?

I'm not asking rhetorical questions there; I honestly don't know.  But I've
heard people (whom I regard as more likely to know) mention these kinds of
things as potential obstacles.  I wasn't in a position to ask for
explanations at that time, but I am here so there are the questions.

And supposing those things aren't really obstacles after all, the obvious
question to ask next is, well then, what *are* the obstacles?  Or to put it
another way, why don't we have it already (apart from the copyright
cop-out)?  

Nothing would make me happier than to have my MacBook (or for the sake of
aesthetics, my Pismo) running "NOS 2010.1" with SilverWare's MoreInfo and
maybe "Opera for NOS" and MailV+++ or whatever they'd call it, and so on.

But what would it take to create the version of NOS that would make it
possible?  

Shalom. 
Christian 

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942

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