whats needed in a new OS to make real big money

[recordingegr]

this is aimed at OS developers.
1. people are tired of big OS's.
2. whats needed is a small OS that fits on a usb key with very simple office apps , web browsing etc , but most importantly there is a big untapped market
of pro audio users that would like a multitrack audio application running
within the confines of a small OS with a gui. any developer who could do this at a very cheap price would be quite well off with a big market.
just something for OS developers to consider.
i think to pull this off a group of dedicated asm developers needs to come together and pool resources and effort. particularly given the need for sound card driver development. including the need for low latency audio.
this market need is i believe a huge untapped revenue possibility if done correctly.
now discuss.

[jmpnop]

what is a usb key?

[Moose]

A flash memory stick that connects to a USB port and acts like a HDD.
They are pretty much the storage mechanism behind MP3 players and digital cameras etc, commonly using FAT32 filesystem.

I have one at 64Mb but you can get as little as 4Mb upto 1Gb (that i've seen).

Never heard of one said to be a USB Key though. They are better known as a USB flash stick.

They are supposed to be replacing floppy disks/drives but personally i will never give up my a: drive for one.

Moose

[TheUbu]

Recordingegr,

Hey not that any of us want to burst you bubble.... but things such as this have been thought of over and over. On top of that os development to make commercial use isn't really done from the donated efforts of programmers as you can see linux took 10 years to get where it is and it still only has a small portion of the market.

There is also no reason to put an os on a USB stick I mean sure it sound sounds trendy but there is no practical purpose for it. I mean come on I can fit my os into a 2mbit bios chip but there is nothing practical about it.


And to put all this into perspective there are companies out there with massive amounts of resources such as money example being Microsoft which try to gain marketshare in all existing markets and ones they create.

Either way it is hard enough for just about all the OS projects that start out there to get past a boot loader... now to make it run for commercial use the chances of that happining are none to infinitely none..


-Christopher

[ASHLEY4]

I think the same, I'm not shore about the multitrack audio though.
This is my thought's on the subject,
1) This is getting easier to do because a lot of new pc have built in dvd and mp3 decoder's.
2)The sound is not that hard as most are based on a small number of chips(and the number is getting smaller) and i also see usb taking over,so the speakers will just plug in the usb.
3)Ethernet may be a problem, As there's so many of them.

USB sticks come in two type's ever HD emulation or floppy emulation.
My OS is 100% asm , Go's in to pmode eg set's A20, gdt, idt, reprog pic etc, Has a pmode floppy driver, Pmode cd/dvd driver, Vesa driver, Built in cd player, Bmp viewer, Veas fonts, Time/date, Hex converter,etc and is only 10k.
So it can bedone.

ASHLEY4.

[recordingegr]

ok so what your saying is why bother ?
if mankind had have taken that approach we would all still be in caves.
i think its definitely time for good alternatives. also the consumer is crying out for SIMPLE alternatives to bloated OS's.
it wouldnt take 10 years. just a concerted effort by about 20 asm veterans over
3 years. like everyone else i had hopes for linux, however i'm disturbed by both how big it is as well as the paucity of audio applications for pro audio work. certainly linux is there for run of the mill office applications, and now web browsing etc works. but i'm surprised at the few audio pro apps.

[recordingegr]

its nice to see someone make the effort. congratulations.
i would maintain that someone WILL do multitrack audio for pro recording studios using a slim OS. one point i would like to make is , at last count
under google i found about a thousand different new OS efforts.
i think its a pity that all these folks didnt come together under one focused approach to build an outstanding slim OS.
i talk to so many frustrated users month in month out fed up with current OS offerings that i believe there is a huge frustration base of users around the world. thus this could foster a huge market opportunity for someone who could pull it all together. just something to think about.
the reason for the usb stick drive is simple. to free up hard drive space for multitrack audio files which take up large amounts of space.
and also its nifty to be able to take a laptop plus a usb drive in ones pocket
ready to plug into the laptop and record a bands gig.
think remote recording truck !!

[TheUbu]

recordingegr,

Nah I'm not saying why bother... what I'm saying is if you are not willing to do a bulk of the work you're not going to get very far. It is not a simple task to build a team and keep people motivated enough to keep working on it.

I am just saying this from personal experience.... I know how much work is involved it took me quite a bit to get to the point in which my project is at now.

-Christopher

[Robert Lee]

So? You go thru all the effort of putting a 64MB OS on a USB stick when you could have just used 64 MB of disk space. 64 Megs isn't a lot and could easily fit on any modern HD along with any audio you want. That's only 1/1000th of a 64Gig drive. And larger drives than that have been available for years, even on laptops. I really fail to see the point. Especially since anyone who makes a USB stick OS is limited to systems who's BIOS will boot to a USB stick...which is next to none as of now.

And I don't know if you realize this, but pro audio is already quite a small niche market, even as niche markets go. At least with pro video you'd open yourself up to some home users. But console, dvr and web appliances are the next big PC markets. Hense the Window Xp Multimedia Center edition.

Anyways, Linux is modular. You want a multi-track audio mixer, make one.

-Robert

[Gnome]

I've always called them USB keys, but that's only because I first heard of them from a friend who called them that

Gnome.

[Gandalf]

hi ASHLEY,

I would like to see & test your OS. Give me your web-link and do you have a testable image ? Your OS sounds amazing (just 10K - but mine is well over 110K - but then I use c & c++).

regards
Gandalf

[ASHLEY4]

Hi Gandaif,
I have not a image as such (as i have know plans to release it just yet), But i will put a program that will put it on a floppy that will make a bootable image,so people can test it etc.
I will put it on my tester web site, In the next 5-7 days.
http://www.falconrybells.co.uk/
This will be just to test and will not include source code,One thing to note is it runs in ring0 and does not use paging.
The pong.zip on that site is a asm game i made a bit ago and is not the OS.

PS. I will put a note on this site when i have uploaded it to the test site.

ASHLEY4.

[recordingegr]

how much negativity is in the world these days.
there are very good reasons for small flash cards or usb or anything small.
ive yet to see a hard drive i could put in my pocket.
check out flonix.com . i'm not the only one who sees this as a neat idea.
all this negativity makes me realise why we are stuck with windows.
and the boring pc architecture. if you are right why even have developer forums.
everyone just give up ? not in mans nature. by the way pro audio is only a niche market right now because of pricing. a whole new generation of kids will grow up , and build studios to record in and want nice solutions.
i reckon the market is worth at least minimum a few beerrs and maximum in the hundreds of millions ! these kids will be the boomers kids.
millions of them around the world. do some market studies and you would be surprised at the niche market size.

[ASHLEY4]

And then the next stage after USB key, Could be credit cards size storage device's i have herd they are coming.
One psychiatrist said he could tell from a group of people, which are millionaires so he did some tests on them and got it right.
One of the test was to cornet 4 pegs put in the ground with string using only 3 lines,
97% of the people tyred to go from peg to peg, But this left one peg out, The millionaires did this,
*- -*-
|     /
*   *
|  /
|/
This shows the ones that think differently will be the one to succeed.
Do not be a poor sheep!

ASHLEY4.

[TheUbu]

There is nothing wrong with thinking different but you still have to remain practical.....


-Christopher