In another thread "01000101" showed us his target.
I will argument this here since I hope it is on-topic.
Anyways, I'm well aware of the budget required to do such a task. Your numbers are a little off for me as my OS has already had a lot of work done to it before I entertained the business idea. Also, I'm not fabricating an embedded device for this, I'm using existing (server) computers for this as I need the raw power. Fabrication of embedded devices is where a lot of your estimated funds would be going to.
First of all thank you for the clarification of your target as being the powerful server computers.
In this case I agree that you need less funds since you will not be fabrication a device and now it also makes perfect sense to add x64 and multi core to your OS design since that is the hardware on servers of today.
Mind you, I have both potential investors, and have had past investors to this project, so it's not like I'm just throwing out a pipe-dream.
I stand corrected, please excuse.
However let me state that I have started-up my own company 5-6 times by now. At times I had investors that left me in the middle of the project after 9 month of continuous funding and without any prior notice the money just stopped because the investor himself had other projects.
Having investors is hard enough and keeping them until the end / success is much harder but I agree that you have a good start.
I have posted screen-shots in the past and made a choice not to keep posting regular updates as my project progressed. I even deleted quite a few of my past announcement posts a few months ago.
Again you decision is king.
Please excuse if I thought screenshots would have helped to advertise your project. I do show periodic screenshots for my OS project and I consider that useful but that is just me.
I've heard the criticism before (more-so at the earlier stages where my concepts and goal were in question), but like this, I'm already set and have already accomplished a great deal to let this bother me.
Ok. It will be nice to see how you will compete this market part where Windows Server and Linux and sometimes Sun are kings.
You could have a lower price or more features that them and you will also have to convince Windows or Linux advocates to drop their dreams and to try yours. It will be fun watching.
However I wonder how can anybody get a price that is lower than Linux or how can anybody get more features than Windows Servers and also what is very important in this server area: security certifications, support and updates.
There will be a problem of TRUST.
Trusting their most precious and very costly servers and critical network infrastructure to your OS will be a huge challenge even if your OS has similar features as Windows/Linux.
And solving this will require a lot of marketing and advertisements that will eat a lot of money. Small little schools or university will either use Linux or have a deal with Microsoft that usually gives them very low prices in this cases. Normal homes will use an cheap embedded device.
If you have closed your eyes to the possibility of a hobby OS being a base for a successful business, then I feel sorry for you.
Well I also feel compassionate for you.
I have not close my eyes. In fact I have worked hard in my life in order to opens them as widely as possible and see the world as it is and NOT as my dreams paint is or as I want it to be.
I will give you a quote from an American named George Carlin:
That is why they name it the "American Dream": because you have to be sleeping (closed eyes) in order to believe it!
I consider that you desire to become rich and famous paints the reality in colors that favor your dream and stop you from observing the reality as it is.
You will compete with Microsoft here and they will retaliate harshly if you ever reach a final stage. They always did crash their small competitors and they have the means to do this.
Besides Linux is free and a lot of network admins prefer the open source and proven stability of Linux or Open BSD / Free BSD.
There's nothing I'd like to see more here than for more people here to create something practical and take it to the next step (but I also know that 90% of the developers here doing it out of sheer enjoyment, so that's a different story).
My OS will also be commercial.
Yes, joy is my primary reason and I do not intend to pollute the world further with my dreams or desires to become rich and famous. This brings competition and destruction into this world.
Joy and enthusiasm give a win solution if you dies before your project finishes or if it does not succeed against corporations. However I think most people will not exclude selling their hobby OS if that chance exists.
For me, the fact the I do it for joy primarily does not exclude the option to sell and gain money from my hard work. Hence it is the same story. Only the accent is placed on the good part and the bad (but unfortunately needed part) is left as a second chapter.
But let me state that under the circumstances you do have a fair (but minimal chance) to succeed in this competition with Windows and Linux on the critical servers market.
And your potential loss will be smaller since you only produce software.
The very hard part is not going to be making this OS. The hard part is going to be convincing the network admins to use your "DINS" OS instead or Windows or Linux on their precious powerful and costly servers.
This is going to require a LOT of money and it might be simply impossible.
