The Decline and Fall of the OSx86 Empire

[thestevo]

Alright, not that this is new, because its certainly not. But yet I shall rant because I don't think anybody will read this anyway.

 

Why is the community no longer what it was? Growth. Demographic change has totally revamped the whole feel of the community. I don't care where you go. You can go to hackint0sh, osx86scene, check the big-wigs' blogs, its all the same. Its about the fact that there is only a small percentage of the general population that can provide the work that is needed to continue progress in this project. When the community started it was comprised mostly of people who had skillsets such that everybody could contribute to the community, and often they did. Some people wrote drivers, others edited plists, some hacked kernels, and some created sites and wikis for the information to be organized into. As the community population and its publicity grew, perception of work began to become more important than the work itself. Closed source/open source, who got it first, and who made what money where are all discussions that (in my opinion) boil down to who wants community God/Mother Theresa status. We need to get back to the basics of why we are here.

 

I see posts where people are almost livid that the community has failed to progress to the extent that they are fully meeting his or her compatibility needs. How flawed an attitude. The fact that we haven't obtained compatibility with some of the more simple chipsets is a testiment to work falling upon weary shoulders. We first experienced the influx of technological know-how when OS X on Intel was the dangerous edge, and now it is no longer. If we wish to continue to progress we must organize our efforts with discipline.

 

So what could you do? Perfect information management. I will give a few examples. Most of you have seen Rammjet around, as he used to be a quite active member. I'd bet that most of you have come across his compilations of useful files in different areas. Many a time I have found good information on his posts. He didn't create most of the stuff in the post, merely organized it. He has helped so many people to get going faster. He answered TONS of people's questions, most of the time he wasn't the discoverer of the prescribed information. If you want to learn about the status of the community and help out, research people's questions and see if you can find the answer they couldn't.

 

Another example, when I first started I just fiddled with what I downloaded and never modified anything. I can code, have even sold a few apps, but I don't make a living off of it and a professional coder should be all rights sneer at most of what I have done. I didn't want to write drivers or hack kernels, nor do I do so now. But I did make a wiki article for my motherboard. I put all the information I could find about it on there. I kept everything up-to-date so that people could have a 100% working system on it. Then when MartaMarco came up with a proceedure for editing the install disc for complete compatibility I made a PPF for it and put it out there. Now with Uphuck taking the mantle from JaS, I made a new PPF on my own. Saying all this not to brag, but to show how one is able to progress in perfecting information management. I didn't really invent anything, just made it simpler for people. In the beginning I followed a lot of guides, now I try to contribute by writing them.

 

To sum up, it isn't surprising that JaS, Semthex, Rammjet, Maxxuss, np_, Bofors, BikerDude880, Diabolik (saying he is on his last project), and others are no longer as active as they once were in the community. People get tired, they move onto other things. How long will Taruga continue to work his magic with audio? How long will Gotoh continue to perfect Natit (NVInject)? How long will Uphuck continue to produce these wonderful installation DVDs? And how long will Netkas create the kernels that are at the heart of our endeavor? Save we work with old kernels as before 10.4.8. Our only hope of progressing is to maintain organized information so as to promote growth of our members. This isn't just InsanelyMac, its the whole community. We are in the lull or backswing of the initial hit of interest from those who have the most developed computer hacking skills. This is the time where we will die, or endure to the point where this concept of OS X on a biege box penetrates the computer community to the extent that those with the ability will contribute. In the mean time, make it easy for people to get up to speed. Those who have the desire to learn must first have the tools to learn, and those with the knowledge must find where to apply it. Who knows, as you organize this information, eventually you might just find yourself being able to add some of your own too.

 

So, my nickel for the soap box is up. Hopefully somebody found something in it.

 

Stevo