OFFICIAL POLL: *Your* priorities.

[Alex_Ionescu]

I'm not making this a forum poll because the survery is a bit complex for it to be handled that way, imho. This poll is for current users, testers, or people that are interested in ReactOS... ROS Developers please don't vote .

1. What is your biggest development mentality, out of this list:

A) Getting popular applications running, like Office, Firefox, IE, Windows Media Player, even if the underlying hardware or service support isn't there yet (ie, WMP runs, but can't play sound; Firefox works, but can't download from FTP, etc). ReactOS will run popular applications that 90% of users need without any major issues, and they will look, but perhaps not fully function, great. ReactOS will be easier to promote and pitch, because the eye-candy will be there and application support.

B) Getting the core services ready, as well as an incremental implementation of fixing current code that applications use. Large apps like Office might not work for another year, but when they will work, it will also mean that hundreds of smaller applications will work by then. Hardware/driver support will have caught up by then, and when WMP finally works,it will play DVDs and MP3s, not just load. Marketing ReactOS will be harder, but after a longer wait, the system will be much more stable and compatible.

2. Which of the following areas do you want to see prioritized at this stage, in kernel development

A) Networking
B) Sound
C) Generic hardware/driver support (PnP, driver compatibility)
D) Video
E) API Implementations
F) Stability and speed

3. Which of the following areas do you want to see prioritized at this stage, in usermode development

A) Application compatibility
B) Services and native semantics (CSRSS, Services, User-Mode PnP, NTDLL/KERNEL32->SMSS Subsystem Communication, Multi-Session/Logon Support, WinLogon, etc)
C) API Implementations
D) Speed and stability
E) Shell/eye-candy
F) Applets/Control Panels

4. Do you feel strongly about a certain application or driver that you really want to see running on ReactOS? If so, Which?

_______________

5. Are you willing to donate money or hardware in exchange for someone (or larger group) to work on your request in #4? If so, how much?

A) 50$ or less
B) 50-150$
C) 150-500$
D) 500$+
E) I'm not willing to pay for this feature/support ReactOS financially

6. What do you feel is the biggest priority in terms of our contact with users like you?

A) Finally get around to updating the website
B) Updating the blogs at blogs.reactos.com more often
C) Creating ROS Merchandise and Banners
D) Releasing more ReactOS releases (less inter-build time)
E) Creating higher quality ReactOS releases

Please respond in simplest form possible at first, and post any comments after .
(ie: "A, B, C, Foo, E, A"
"Btw, for #3, i think that blbablaba".
)

Thank you! Your responses are very important!

Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
Kernel Developer, ReactOS[/i]

[BrandonTurner]

Simple Answers:
B. C, B, nForce on board nic, C, B

Now some comments which i do have a few

1. You need to build from the ground up. Thats how all things works. I fear that following plan A will result in an endless amount of hacks. If you do something right the first time it doesnt need to be done again. A perfect example of this is the headers. you spent a lot of time working on those headers, getting them done correctly. and now it seems like some things have regressed because of hacks were put in place before.

2. The big thing i want to see work being put into is basic drivers mostly for nics. I like working on real hardware and knowing that ROS could standalone, seperate of any emulators.

3. nothing to say here really.

4. Though im just a college student and i dont have that much money in time i can donate small amounts. and when money is _needed_, ie trademark, i can always pitch something in.

5. I like reading the blogs. It shows that work is being done and that the people doing the work know what they are doing. I think that is very important because that might peak interest in new devs. I dont think time based releases are a good idea, even more so when there isnt much to show. Working and waiting for a release is fine by me. We cant swarm people with releases, they might lose interest and faith. If we get /. everytime and the release isnt quailty we will end up looking like a hobby OS and i hope one day that ROS is more then that.

Thats just my 2 cent, i dont speak out what i think very much because i havent been around long and i dont know how much weight is it worth. So take it as you will.

[Harteex]

A, E, E, DOS & 16bit, A, A

1. First one is hard. I thought a bit about it. I mostly feel it's better to make it right instead of hacks. But on the other hand, working on popular apps makes it easier to promote. In the end I choose to go with A. Promotion is important to not only attract users but also developers.

4. Ok, DOS & 16bit is not really an app or driver but it's something I'd really like to see support for in ROS.

5. I'm willing to donate a little, but I can't donate that much at the moment (I don't have a job).
On another note, I'm willing to donate some hardware.. like an Alpha computer. But it's so heavy, hard to send somewhere unfortunally.

6. Definetly A, it really needs to be updated.


Edit: Thought I'd throw in a comment for number 3 too...

3. As for eye candy I think ROS could use a few fixes here and there, I don't really think theme support is important now. I voted E here mostly because I think the shell could improve. Move files by dragging, ctrl+c ctrl+v etc.

[oiaohm]

1. A

so reactos is some what usable.

2 F C E A S B

Missing one from this list secuirty this is always the top of my list. No secuirty no advantage to run reactos instead of Windows Cost does not makeup for lack of security.

3. D A F C B E

Same problem where is security.

XP is eye-candy really did not help funciton.

4.
Some form of filesystem that support all features the required security that work. Note it also has to obey my personal rules.
Security, Stability, Scalablity, Speed and Common Sence.

5. Not at current time due to other presures on my budget. This could change.

[Jaix]

1 B, 2 C, 3 B, 4 Office environment software + Printing, 5 B, 6 B

1 B but we need to find new ways to promote ROS
2 C Of course NET is very important but I like to see a firm foundation.
3 B The foundation is a realy important issu, everything will work better then.
4 All the Software in a natrual Office Environmnet + Firefox, Thunderbird + Printing
5 Allready did A, but more is coming in the future so B is a good estimation.
6 B + splash regularly in a common language.
7 Is there somethin the ROS community could do better? -Yes, a really good description of who does what in the Wiki so requests and questions could be send to the correct person. And a description of the ROS organization in a nice Chartlike presentation.

[dnordenberg]

A C A MS Office A A

Not because I want MS Office, just because I know companies will be needing it if they want to switch to ros.

[Wulf]

1) A: Anyway in the long run A will automatically result in B.

2) F: I figure that if ROS is more efficient and faster than Windows/Linux
that will be more than a good enough reason to switch to it.

3) D: Same as above.

4) Support for the VIA MVP3 chipset. That way I'll have a dedicated box to
run ROS on

5) A: Don't have too much money. But when things get better I could donate
more. I'm willing to donate hardware as well.

6) B: I'm always anxious to hear some news about the project.

[Denzil]

1B 2C 3A 4ReiserFS/NTFS 5A 6A

1 - ReactOS should be promoted on actions like Google Summer of Code to get more developers.

[Elledan]

1. B
2. A
3. A/B/C
4. OpenOffice
5. E
6. A

1. As a programmer and user I can understand both mentalities, but I also realize that A is the short-term approach, with possibly negative shortcuts being made ('hacks'), whereas B is the long-term, sane approach.

2. Things do not have to be perfect, but there are a few core features which have to be 'good enough'. Sound, video and generic hardware support are nice, but not essential. API implementations are also important, but networking is still more important.

3. I'd say that application compatibility relies on API implementations, so they're basically the same option. In a sense services are also applications, so I've thrown in that one as well

4. OpenOffice is more or less a milestone against which progress can be measured.

5. I'm low on funds and hardware to donate, so it's no option for me at the moment.

6. In my experience the site of any big project is as at least as important as the quality of the releases. No, missing, hard to find or outdated information available means frustrated users and many lost opportunities.

[engincagatay]

answers: B, C, C, openoffice and firefox, A, B

[bavo]

1. B
2. A > C > E > B > D > F
3. B > C > D > A > F > E
4. //
5. E
6. A


Comments:
I think that what i'm going to write affects about all questions.
I strongly believe that it is more important to deliver a stable and compatible system than a system wich runs about everything but doesn't support anything fully.

If Reactos will have firefox and openoffice and some other big applications working, users will start to use it and thay wont understand that it is beta (even with thousands of warnings), they will noitice a lot of bad things and ReactOS will get loads of bad publication.

On the other hand if development of the core has a bigger priority everything should work smoothly. And i think that it will spread very fast when it is finished.

In order to attrack developpers i think that ReactOS should be represented at about every opensource conference there is.

[RomanH]

1. B
2. F
3. C, D
4. Nvidia drivers setup
5. E
6. D

[ScoTTie]

1) B
2) B
3) C & F
4) ....
5) Regardless, possibly A.
6) A

[Luemmel]

B, A, C, mozilla firefox, A, A

B) Getting the core services ready
i think everybody who just wants to see ms office, IE and some other famous applications running could also use linux with wine...

A) Networking
C would have also been a good choice here but i think networking and perhaps a basic browser and email client will make much more people playing around with reactos instead of booting the live cd once and then just forget about it
at a point where people can use reactos for online banking, buying things on ebay or receiving their daily newsletters it will be much more interesting
also i guess it's the smaller step because many things alread have been done

C) API Implementations
...so explorer features like drag 'n drop and screenshots on real hardware work

mozilla firefox
...see above

A) 50$ or less
i'm a student so i have not much to offer
but if you can _really_ convince me that a donation is necessary to push things foward then i'll think about that

A) Finally get around to updating the website
i don't know wether it's necessary to completely change design and content but screenshots for example should be updatet much more often
the facts that unreal tournament already works and that reactos even runs on the xbox (not only freeloader) are something that a new user should not have to find out by asking in the forum or joining the mailing list
blogs are nice but often to technical for normal users
in any case something has to be done so people don't get the impression that reactos died

[HUMA2000]

My answers:
1) I prefer the B option, is better have the core fully working and stable than have lots of apps running under one incomplete OS.

2) The kernel development priority must be (as i see):
A, C, E, F, D, B

3) At user mode, they priority is:
B, C, D, A, F, E

4) Mozilla (FF, TB and others) and Openoffice

5) Thinking on my current money disponibility I only can select the 50$ or less, but I think money is necesary to buy good hardware to developt as fast as posible

6) A, B, D are the firsts options, the quality of actual releases is too good for an alpha stage. C is also important, but is more easy to do