2002-08-21 19:58:36 PDT
I understand the reason behind choosing a language and putting all of the safety features in it. However, I'm wondering what the goal of BRiX is. Is it merely a thesis? An experiment? Or a hopeful attempt at a new, better OS?
The flaw I see in this architecture is one of adoptance. As I've said elsewhere, by forcing a single language down developer's throats, the domain of potential contributors is severely limited. You also are entirely unable to take advantage of the existing source code base for common tools. BRiX will never be a GNU-ish OS; how would 'ls' look on an OODB filesystem?
Still, an OS is of interest to three main groups of people: people who want to use it to do some non-OS related work; developers who want to tinker; and the people only interested in working on the OS. BRiX is tied, more than most systems, to Crush. There are not going to be any people in group (1) for a long time, since not only does the OS have to evolve, but every single application must be written from scratch. group (2) is going to be limited, because huge numbers of people are simply not going to like Crush, no matter what you do. That leaves group (3) as your user base.
This is why I'm disappointed. I'd like to contribute to BRiX; if not work on the core libraries, than by contributing applications. However, I've already decided that I don't like Crush, so there's 0 reasons for me to play with BRiX.
I'm not trying to knock BRiX; I'm merely voicing a disappointment.
